So You're Wondering About the Greystone Wait List

If you have been thinking about enrolling your daughter at Greystone, or if you are a current camp family talking to another family who is interested in enrolling, the Greystone Wait List always comes up. If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times: “You’ll be on the Greystone Wait List forever!” But is that true? Today, we’re demystifying the Wait List, hoping to give you some clarity on how it works.

The Short Answer: If you’re looking for the quick answer, most campers only have to wait a year before a spot opens up at camp (with some getting in right away!) if enrolling in a shorter session. We always have spots that open in our Junior and August sessions, and it won’t take long (at most, typically a year) until a spot opens for you.

Want more detais, read on…

Rolling Wait List

At Greystone, we run our Wait List a little different than most other camps. At most camps, you register for a particular year (for example, hoping to register for 2021), and then if a spot doesn’t open for the 2021 season, the camp will refund your money, letting you know when registration will open for 2022. You will then register again for the 2022 season, hoping to enroll for that summer.

We do things differently. Our Wait List is ongoing and perpetual. What does that mean? We never shut down the Wait List, and instead, we roll everyone over year after year. Once you are on the Wait List at Greystone, you stay on the Wait List in that exact same spot (or order) until we have an open spot for your daughter. Why do we do this? Read on…

Registration Order

Most camps open registration in the early fall to everyone for the following summer. There is usually a priority registration order (i.e. returning campers get first dibs into camp), and a short timeframe in which registration is open for everyone. The camp will then let you know if they have a spot for your child, and if not, you’ll be added to their Wait List.

At Greystone on the other hand, we open registration to our returning campers first, meaning you can only enroll in the following summer if you were enrolled in the previous summer. Why do we do this? Once you’re a Greystone camper, we consider you our family, and we want to take care of you the very best way we know how. To do that, we give our returning campers the opportunity to register for camp first and to choose whichever session they would like.

Switching Sessions and Changing Plans

The very best thing about our registration process is that our current campers are guaranteed spots the following year, if they register during our registration period. There are no exceptions, no limitations…if you want to come, you can. Because we do it this way, almost all of our campers re-enroll.

If you’ve gotten this far, this may sound like very bad news for you (a possible new family). But, that’s not exactly true…we welcome about 500 new campers to camp each summer. How does that work?

First, many campers change sessions when they re-enroll. Most new campers start at our one-week Junior Camp or two-week August Camp. After experiencing a summer at camp, a huge group of those campers switch to longer sessions, leaving many open spots in our Junior and August sessions for the following summer. We can then accept many girls off the Wait List into these sessions!

Second, families change plans. We have a full refund policy, meaning that you will put down a deposit to hold your spot for the upcoming summer, but your family has until November 1 to cancel with no penalty (not even a registration fee penalty…we give all of the money back to you if your plans change!). Because of this, most of our campers will re-enroll; however, some will then realize that they can no longer attend, so they need to cancel. This opens up many spots as well, and allows us to accept girls off the Wait List.

So How Long Will I Be on the Wait List?

That’s a good question. If you are wanting to attend one of our shorter sessions (our one-week Junior Camp or two-week August Camp), we are able to accept most girls into camp within one year. For example, if you apply to Junior Camp today, we will have a spot for you in 2022.

Our June and Main Camp sessions are a little trickier. Why is this? As I mentioned above, many girls who attend our shorter sessions switch to our longer sessions the following year. Because of this, when we end our re-enrollment period at the end of the summer, we can often be over enrolled (or over “full”) in those two sessions (remember, we allow girls to register for any session they would like…no limitations!). So as we near the November 1 date (when many girls cancel), and girls realize their plans need to change, they will cancel out of the June and Main sessions, just like our other sessions. But often, this allows us to settle into our normal enrollment numbers for that session instead of opening spots off the Wait List. This is why the June and Main Camp Wait Lists are slower to move.

So what should I do if I want (or think I want) my daughter to attend Greystone?

Apply! Even if you aren’t sure if your daughter will be ready, or even if you don’t know if the following summer will work into your plans, if you’re considering Greystone, you should apply so that your name is added to the Wait List. If applying today and you wanted to attend our Junior or August sessions, it is almost guaranteed that we will have a spot for you in 2022. The earlier you apply, the higher your name will be on our Wait List, the faster you will be enrolled in camp. Make sense?

[One caveat, we always have plenty of spots available at our Junior Camp session when we open registration for the following summer, which happens in June of each year (that is when we start rolling girls into the session and accepting girls off the the Wait List). So, you really have two options with Junior Camp: apply today, and as soon as we open that session, we will let you know that your daughter is accepted and we will automatically enroll her, OR, you can wait until we open the Junior Camp session and apply then (between June - August of the summer BEFORE you want to enroll….so June 2021 for summer 2022) and you’ll automatically be enrolled. The reason for waiting until June? You can hold on to your registration fee until June instead of paying it now and having it tied up. Up to you, but if you are going to wait until the summer to enroll in Junior of the following year, put a note on your calendar and don’t forget!]

Applying and getting your name on the Wait List is a no-brainer. As I mentioned above, our registration fee is FULLY refundable; we don’t keep any of that fee if you decide camp isn’t going to work for you (not even a processing fee!), so getting your daughter’s name on the list makes the most sense if you are even considering Greystone. When we have a spot available, we contact you and let you know. You can accept the spot (hooray!), roll it over one year (if your plans are up in the air), or decide you’re no longer interested (in which we’ll refund your entire deposit).

Do you need to enroll your daughter for camp at birth? No! As we’ve mentioned, it only takes about a year for a spot to open, so just wait until she’s a year or two out from camp and then apply; you’ll be all set!

Throughout the Wait List process, we’ll keep you in the loop. You can check the status of our Wait Lists online, and we email you with updates throughout the year. You can also contact us at any point to find out more about where you are on the list or how things are moving; we’re always happy to help and answer questions!

So are you telling me there is no hope for June or Main Camp?

Not exactly, but those are tougher sessions to get into as a new camper. If you’ve ever heard anyone say, “the Greystone Wait List is so long and never moves,” that person was probably talking about our June and Main sessions. As I mentioned above, many campers start at shorter sessions and then re-enroll into longer sessions, quickly over filling the spots. As girls cancel in November, we don’t have “open” spots, but instead are just settling into a normal enrollment number. So it is rare that we can accept many girls off the Wait List.

If you want your daughter to attend our June or Main sessions, the very best thing you can do is attend our Junior or August sessions first. Enjoy a summer at a shorter session (which will allow you to attend Greystone within about a year) and then after that shorter session summer, you can enroll into any session, any length…which is the perfect time to switch to June or Main.

We hope this has given you some insight into how the Wait List works here at camp, but if you still have any questions, just let us know. You can call our office or email us ( is our Wait List guru), and we will help answer any questions you may still have. We hope to see your daughter at Greystone very soon!