<p>I was wondering if anyone out there knows what the success rate is of appealing admission decisions. My son was rejected from 2 of his top choices, one of which took a couple of students from his school with lower grades and test scores. He does have writing samples (he applied to writing programs) that weren't asked for and even had a play produced at his high school second semester after the applications were in. Any ideas???</p>
<p>I’ve only heard of two cases ever that an appeal was successful. In one case it turned out there had been a typo on a transcript leading the college to believe there was a D on the transcript which had in fact been an A. In another case, I can’t remember the exact story, but the kid somehow persuaded someone in the admissions office to meet him in person. He was a kid with LDs who really had a passions for learning that didn’t always translate into top grades. </p>
<p>That said, my advice would be too move on. There are probably hundreds of kids on the waiting list that the college liked better than your child.</p>
<p>Many, many admissions officers have tales of parents who are sure their baby was rejected “by mistake.” Please don’t agonize over this. Every year there are far more applicants than many schools can ever hope to accept. Sometimes it boils down to the fact that the music director really, really needed more trumpet players so your writer lost out to the chap or chap-ess with a great set of chops. </p>
<p>Your job now is to mutter “those idiots don’t know what they are missing!” and to say to offspring “OK, now is the time to show your resilience and character. You have these paths open to you. By God, let’s see you make some lemonade!” </p>
<p>Please also know that emotions are raw right now but all this blows over pretty quick. By September all the drama is over and the kid is on the next phase of his education. </p>
<p>If he is totally miserable, one possibility is to take a gap year and then to apply to those schools again next fall/winter. That occasionally works. But for that to work, he really needs a plan to make the gap year a meaningful one. Does he really want to put his education on hold for a year? </p>
<p>Abraham Lincoln lost two races before being elected. He also had a business go toes up. Please talk to your son about his choices: 1) showing resilience and character by making a solid go of an alternative choice or 2) having Mommy beg the admissions office to let him in. There’s also: 3) Son contacts admissions with a request to be reconsidered (a long shot but better than #2) and 4) taking a gap year and applying again. </p>
<p>It sounds like he didn’t make a wait list – there should be numbers from the previous year’s classes that tell you how many were taken off recent wait lists.</p>
<p>My daughter was not accepted by her first choice which happened to be where my son was going to college. She had higher SAT scores and a 0.5 higher GPA than he did. She thought she was a shoe in and was very upset when she got the thin letter.</p>
<p>She ended up going to her second choice and totally loves it (with a possible exception for the nasty winter weather the northeast suffered thru this year; her first choice was in a much warmer climate). Now, I kind of wish my son had also gone to the same college my daughter is in, it might have been a better fit for him too.</p>
<p>Another thing; making it in to your dream school may actually be a bit of a stretch. As such, your grades will be lower. A higher college GPA helps for internships, grad schools and job offers. Sometimes that stretch school that you got into has the better bumper sticker for Mom and Dad’s car but isn’t the best choice for the long term.</p>
<p>There are some public schools where admission is guaranteed based on numerical factors – test scores, GPA, class rank. If that is the type of school your son was turned away from, and if you think there was some sort of mistake in the record (like a test score that wasn’t recorded properly) – then an appeal might be in order.</p>
<p>For all other colleges… it is not appropriate. The fact that students with lower grades and test scores got in is irrelevant - they don’t pick the student son the basis of grades and test scores alone. Maybe the admissions committee liked the essays those other kids wrote better, maybe those kids had stronger letters of recommendation, maybe they were better athletes or had more interesting EC’s, maybe they plan to major in something that the colleges need more of and your son plans to major in a field where they already have too many students. It could also be that those kids have lower GPA’s, but more challenging courses or that that the ad coms felt that the pattern of the grades supported the admissions – such as a kid with a rising trend who has stellar grades the last two years of high school, or a kid who seems to be very strong in math & science but gets B’s in English class. You just don’t know. </p>
<p>When the colleges rejected your son, they made their decision. If they weren’t sure, they might have offered him a spot on the waitlist – but they didn’t. You wrote that your son was rejected by 2 “of” his top choices … that suggests that there is at least one other “top choice” that didn’t reject him – and in any case it sounds like he has other options. So now is the time to make a choice among those colleges that accepted him.</p>
<p>As you say your son has applied to writing program, I think that is an area where his application essays were probably very important, and perhaps the schools had other students who were more impressive writers applying for limited spots in the program. If the other kids at his high school were accepted to the same writing program that turned him down – well, maybe the schools just liked their writing better. If those kids were accepted to different programs at the same school - well then you would be comparing apples to oranges – they were evaluated based on whatever standards are most appropriate to the program or division they were applying for.</p>
<p>For hs juniors and their parents reading this thread, there is a message here - you CAN continue to submit information to a college after the application deadline. If, for instance, after the deadline passes you find out your play is being produced, write a note about this and send it to the college: “Hey, I’m really interested in your college and just wanted to let you know this additional information about me. Thanks for your consideration.”</p>
<p>Step one - get a copy of his transcript from his hs and make sure it is correct. You’d be surprised how many times it isn’t. <strong>This is another important point for hs juniors to keep in mind for the future. At the beginning of senior year, ask for a copy of your transcript and check it to be sure it is correct.</strong> (My son withdrew from a 1 credit music class in 10th grade, and the teacher had inadvertently entered the W as an F. We had been assured it had been fixed, but when we checked the transcript at the beginning of 12th grade the F was still there.)</p>
<p>That said, if the transcript is correct I don’t think appealing is appropriate unless it’s a purely “numbers” oriented admissions college (think large state school, or super-large private). As others have said, if there were any doubts he’d have been offered a wait-list spot. Also, you said this happened at 2 top choices - which says to me it probably wasn’t a fluke. And if his top choices accept 30% or fewer of their applicants you have no way of knowing why the decision was made. Over-enrolled programs that he is interested in are merely one possibility.</p>
<p>Also, why would he appeal at 2 colleges? He can’t attend 2 colleges. If he were going to appeal - which is likely to be fruitless and take time and attention away from the colleges that DID accept him, one of which he will probably end up attending - the most he could appeal to would be one, because he would have to say, “If you let me in here, I will attend” or there’s no point in appealing. </p>
<p>I suggest he start at one of his remaining choices - he had to have liked them or at least something about them or would not have applied there, correct?</p>
<p>I know it’s hard and painful to be rejected - and possibly even worse for a parent to have some anonymous committee reject their child. But I am assuming he still has options, and that’s where you and he need to focus your attention.</p>
<p>Love the one you’re with.</p>
<p>Just give it up and move on. If he didn’t get in, he didn’t get in.</p>
<p>If these were rejections and not waitlists I think the best thing is to move on. If you’ve checked the transcript from the school and there are no errors then the application is the student’s chance at an accept. If he’s a sturdy person with a I’ve got nothing to lose attitude then let him write an appeal understanding that it is a very long shot and do not lift a finger to help, it’s on him. He wants to be a writer you say. But if you have any inkling that he can’t engage at one of his acceptances then I think you have to be the one to also let go and help him get happy with one of his acceptances. Also do check the college website as some colleges do put in writing that they will not accept appeals.</p>
<p>If the college he was rejected by had an admit rate of 20% or even less, then you and your son need to realize that the vast majority of qualified students applying there are rejected. At many reach schools there simply isn’t room for every “qualified” applicant.</p>
<p>I think that most selective colleges could fill two or three freshman classes with students with grades and test scores at or above the schools typical range, students with great extracurricular activities.</p>
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<p>I think you’re working under a fundamental delusion, that a student with higher grades / test scores is “more qualified” and “more deserving” than a student with lower grades / test scores (provided that all of them are within the general band that the school looks for). You cannot even pretend to claim that one of those kids had a spot that deserved or belonged to your son. It doesn’t work that way in holistic admissions. Unless you have reason to believe there is a real mistake (e.g., an incorrect transcript), appeals are absolutely pointless. Do you even realize how much time top schools could spend if they bothered listening to “appeals” of kids who really really really wanna go there? Time to move on.</p>
<p>I’m sorry your son had disappointing news, and I hope he’s enthusiastic about his remaining options. Your attitude can help - I like Olymom’s advice above!</p>
<p>It’s best to decide to fall in love with the schools that admit you. I wouldn’t mention the possibility of a transfer unless he’s truly unable to move past the rejections. However, some students do transfer to schools that rejected them the previous year. He’ll need a great freshman GPA, letters of recommendation from someone at the current school, and probably some evidence of involvement there, as well. </p>
<p>Unless admissions are strictly by the numbers (and they aren’t at the most selective schools), you can’t say that students with “lower grades and test scores” are less deserving of admission. Sometimes the school is just looking for something you, or your child, is not.</p>
<p>A girl at my kids’ school is appealing a decision at an Ivy where she is a legacy (father attended, brother currently attended). It just makes me want to roll my eyes. They don’t care how badly she wants to attend. There are 25,000 other kids who wanted to attend there. They just don’t, and it’s silly to claim that there is any basis for an appeal there.</p>