I'm a faculty member in the Department of ------ at --------, and I'm also the Admissions Director this year. Our admissions committee met recently, and we were quite impressed with your file. Unfortunately, we have only a limited number of slots for our PhD program, and so we were compelled to add you to our waitlist. Although I can make no guarantees, based on our historical experience, it's quite possible that you'll ultimately be admitted, and if you are, we would be very happy to welcome you to our intellectual community.
In the meantime, I’m sure you’ll be fielding many attractive offers from other institutions. You should certainly explore them, but I hope you will remain open to our call later in the spring. Please let me know if you wish to be removed from the waitlist, and please do keep me apprised of your opportunities.
Our interest in you is very sincere. We had a large applicant pool, and only a very select few have been added to our waitlist. If you've any questions, please feel free to email me at -------