Rejected from all colleges

Applying to College
1

Hey. So my closest friend since the beginning of time was rejected/waitlisted by literally every school he applied to. His mother is livid at the moment, as he was rejected from all his safety schools as well.

Can I get some advice for him how to approach this? He was waitlisted at CWRU so that’s something. Are rolling schools (e.g. Penn State) still accepting applications??

I’m honestly so worried for him since he’s not the type of person that would fare well in a gap year.

His stats:
3.7 GPA
2180 SAT (don’t know breakdown)
SAT IIs- Bio: 800 Spanish: 760

Thanks!

2

There will be a list of schools coming out in May that have seats left. Watch on the board for that posting. SOme well known schools do make that list.

Does he not have any acceptances at all? Safety schools are supposed to ones that are sure things. They are not Safeties if that is not the case. Also, his counselor can let CWRU know the situation and maybe work out an admit off the WL if he will definitely go there. Also might want to look at his file and see if there is a reason for these results. Sometimes mistakes happen.

3

I am curious about your comment that you do not think that he would thrive in a gap year.

What is his high school’s college counselor saying about the results? Is there something like a suspension or a cheating incident that complicated his search for the right school?

4

@cptofthehouse‌ Thanks for the info, I’m glad to know that and I’ll keep watch in a month.

He has one guaranteed transfer from Boston University. Other than that, there’s nothing from him. His safeties were SUNY Binghamton, Trinity College (CT) and BU. I fully expected Binghamton to accept him, but it didn’t happen. Perhaps he should have applied to more?

@siliconvalleymom‌ He’s said that he wouldn’t know what to do in a gap year and he’d probably spend the whole year stressing over not being in a college.

I’m not sure what’s up with his counselor, as neither have made contact with each other. I’ll tell him to make an appointment. He’s never had either of those incidents, and is just an average student.

5

maybe he can take some credit courses in a community college during gap year i guess?

6

Just wonder what are his/her safeties. Perhaps they are not.

7

Neither SUNY Binghamton, Trinity College, nor BU are safeties. Not for anyone. That’s where the problem began for your friend. He should save money and go to a CC and then transfer to BU.

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Though BU and Binghamton are not safety schools the way i define them, I am surprised that the student was not accepted to either of them. If I were the parent in this case, I’d be visiting the GC and finding out what the issue is with the application. There could be some info in there that hurt his admissions chances, it could have been an error such as wrong info sent. It does happen. Then again, we don’t have the full story.

My friend’s DD was not accepted to schools that were good matches for her with stats similar to your friend. The problem was that she had a down ward trend in grades, and was not taking a heavy courseload as a senior. She also wrote her essays the very last minute and we suspect they were not so great. Also, I think the school, the teachers might have mentioned that she was not performing up to her abilities that last year.

She did get into a school that was a low match, and got straight As there, and has since transferred to a top 25 university. She is doing well. She learned the hard way that one can’t slack off. IT has made her tenser and more stressed and obsessed about grades which is not such a good thing. Hopefully she strikes a balance.

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@CaliCash‌ Bing seemed like a good safety at the time since they accept 82% of everybody who applies from our school.

He’s pretty reluctant to go to a CC, but that seems to be one of his only options.

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That’s really tough, maybe his application didn’t have enough specific details that made him stand out. Do any of the schools take appeals? A lot of kids are appealing these days because the competition is so high, and even though the chances are slim, it’s still a chance.

11

My friend was rejected when he first applied to a university as a freshman, but after a semester at a CC he reapplied and they accepted him, so it is entirely possible (it’s a fairly competitive school). I am not positive if all schools offer admissions for students in the spring semesters, but he should explore his options!

12

lol I just got rejected from every school that I applied to too. To be honest, It doesn’t feel great. I’ve always been incredibly unlucky and so its odd to say but I kinda expected this.

stats:

Full IB Diploma student
Took two sciences both junior and senior year
scored only 5’s on AP classes I took and 6-7s on the IB exams I took
native american
straight A’s (never have gotten a B in my life)
4.0/4.52 (unweighed/weighted)
35 ACT
Ton of extra-curriculars of course (I could post them all but I’m not really feeling like it sorry)
I have actually invented some software and have patented it
I have had three jobs and 2,000 hours spent between them all

I was turned down from Harvard, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, CalTech, Stanford, and Duke

People, you can seem to have everything and get turned down.

13

Tell CWRU that you would definitely attend if admitted off the waitlist (if that is the case).

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If he was rejected everywhere, it is because he didn’t have any real safeties. All he had on his list were some reasonably safe options. Unfortunately, all too often reasonably safe turns out to be not-safe-enough.

Your friend’s GPA and SAT scores flat-out guarantee admission and merit-based aid at a number of places, and admission at many more without any aid. Tell him to start with these two threads:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1562918-updated-list-of-schools-with-auto-admit-guaranteed-admission-criteria.html#latest
He can pick up the phone and call the places that look interesting to him from those lists, and see if they are still taking applicants for the fall.

If he wants merit-based aid, he shouldn’t take any classes during a gap year so that he can preserve his freshman applicant status.

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Purdue has rolling admissions.

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I’m not a fan of forced gap years due to misguided application strategy.

It’s not a disaster, there are always some good options. Community college is not the only option.

He can wait for that list in May of colleges still accepting applications, or he can be proactive and seek out good schools that are sometimes on that list. The key is to have a positive attitude that he IS going to college in the fall.

What does he want to study?

For any school, he should call and see if they are still accepting applications.

Clemson University’s actual deadline is May 1, so that may be an option
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/clemson-university

University of Arizona deadline May 1
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/university-of-arizona

Arizona State is rolling and doesn’t have a deadline
University of Maine doesn’t have a deadline

Truman State almost always has openings. It’s an honors college from the state of Missouri and it’s list price even for out of state is very inexpensive.

University of Minnesota Morris is a public liberal arts college with a lot of students with decent stats.

University of Edinburgh has a “Freshman Year Abroad Program” with a June deadline.

Some decent schools that have been on the “space available” list in the past (Off the top of my head) include

University of Maryland
University of Pittsburgh
Temple University
Drexel University
New Jersey Institute of Technology
University of New Mexico
University of Dayton
Beloit College
Lawrence University
Hendrix College
Knox College
College of Wooster

Every year there are a few surprises so be sure he checks.

There are some Canadian Universities with late deadlines
Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia and University of New Brunswick have a June 1 deadline

17

I was going to post something very similar to CRD above. Hendrix is still accepting applications as is New College of Florida. Knox just sent a brochure to my daughter, so they must be accepting applications. All three are excellent schools. The downside is he may not get the merit aid his scores warrant due to the late application.

18

Just wanted to stress this point by @happymomof1. The best financial aid goes to freshmen, not transfers.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a gap year and applying to a new list of colleges. I don’t think there’s a lot of grant aid left this late in the year so your friend may get a late acceptance, but he may not get any money to go with it. If finances are a concern, he should be prepared to try again next year if none of the colleges taking late apps work out.

19

Austinmshauri, you are not taking into account the cost of delaying your entry into the workforce by a year at a professional salary. Taking a gap year eliminates a year of professional salary which is hopefully a lot of money. For someone with financial need to ignore this seems foolish.

The list of schools I provided include schools like Truman or UMinn-Morris which in the scheme of things are pretty inexpensive and probably comparable to SUNY.

Taking a gap year should be a conscious choice, not a forced choice.

20

For now I would accept the BU guaranteed transfer and plan on going to CC for the first year. Maybe he will find a good fit school with some space available. He really had no true safety school but that can’t be changed now.