<p>I am going into my freshman year of college. I am attending a good public university and while I don't think I'll be unhappy there, I'm not particularly excited to be going to what was a safety I applied to "just in case." There are a few schools I absolutely loved which I was rejected at that I may try to transfer to. Penn and Georgetown are the schools I would most likely try to apply to again.</p>
<p>I remember my high school counselor mentioning casually mentioning something to the effect that in several cases in the past, either a student or the counselor has contacted the admissions counselor that was responsible for the student's application to try to get some information about what could have been improved or in essence what about the application was most responsible for the rejection. At the time I was kind of surprised that someone would contact the admissions office looking for that information, but now that I'm thinking about the possibility of transferring, I'm curious about it.</p>
<p>Is it ever OK for a student to email or call the adcom that was assigned to their region with a question such as "I was an unsuccessful applicant last year; I am still very much interested in your school, do you have any advice on how I could improve my application for a sophomore or junior transfer?"</p>
<p>You or your hs counselor can contact the college admissions office for feedback as to why your application was not accepted. There is no guarantee that college staff will respond though, but there is a saying that "nothing beats a failure like a try."</p>
<p>Admissions staff may respond that:</p>
<ul>
<li>essays were weak (they will phrase it differently)</li>
<li>not enough community service demonstrated</li>
<li>not enough leadership experience</li>
<li><p>GPA/SAT scores were not competitive enough</p></li>
<li><p>even though you made up a course in summer school with an "A" grade, having a "D" or "F" on your hs transcript demonstrates a weakness that other candidates didn't have.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I know one adcom at UC Davis who was specific about personal essays being poorly written with too many spelling and grammar errors.</p>
<p>I also know a teacher (rec letter writer) who knew the Dean of Admissions and successfully lobbied to get a rejection overturned.</p>
<p>I called the places where i was rejected, answer i got from all:
sry we received a great number of applications and while yours were excellent, we did have a very strong applicant pool and therefore we couldn't offer you a place at our school.
Basically, they don't care, you were an inferior being! and they don't remember your stats and appl :(</p>