Any suggestions on how to get off of a waitlist?

[user2442]

Hi! I am currently on the waitlist for my top program (Dartmouth Comp Lit MA), and I was wondering if anyone had any tips/suggestions of what to do to get off of the waitlist. I am able to send an LOCI and an additional recommendation letter but I do not want to overwhelm the committee. 

Any and all suggestions are super welcome!! 

[AverageEccentric]

Isn't the nature of a wait list that a decision has already been made?  For example:  They had 10 slots for candidates, chose 10 people to offer those to, and have already allocated each person on the wait list a specific place in line.  All the tons of people already did all their reading and had all their internal arguments and debates to make those selections, based on the materials submitted by the application deadline.  So 1) You've been assigned a spot in line that cannot be changed by 2) a committee that will not have further meetings at all, much less to deliberate changing those assignments, because they *already made fixed decisions* based on 3) a set of data which applicants aren't permitted to change after the application deadline.  

I could be wrong, but consider the chaos and unfairness if it really were the case that candidates could keep submitting more application materials to change peoples' minds after the deadline.  

I know it's really really hard and I'm sure a lot of us are also thinking "is there ANYTHING I CAN DO" to either get a different answer or get people to answer more quickly, but the one place we can invest energy at the moment is in just being that person we see in the future regardless of whether it's through the pathway we hoped for.