<p>What happens if you get rejected from all colleges you apply to? Do you re-apply to a new set? Do you start college lait? Do you get worse FinAid? Any input will help.</p>
<p>Well, you could go to community college for a year, or see if you can apply for a 4 year college starting in the spring semester. Another option, is taking a gap year. (To travel, work, etc.)</p>
<p>don’t even joke about that on CC ;)</p>
<p>It happens. That’s why one of the CC commandments is “Love Thy Safety.” </p>
<p>Seriously. Pick a safety, apply early action or rolling admission. That way you’ll know in December that you have at least one place to go. It will give you a clear head for finishing the rest of your apps.</p>
<p>i actually think i read that happening to one girl on CC.</p>
<p>Well I believe you can attend a CC if you meet minimum requirements, so you may have to “resort” to that, but I’d say that someone who didn’t get accepted into any colleges probably just didn’t pick safeties that were safe enough.</p>
<p>Every year, in April, there will be posted a list of schools with open spots. There won’t be any top schools, but some schools will be there. You can not count on any finaid. It will likely cost more than if you had picked a safety or two.</p>
<p>If you get rejected from all universities you apply to I would suggest to immediately began looking for other universities.</p>
<p>The general idea is to have real safeties so that this doesn’t happen. should it happen, many go to community college, others look for schools still taking applications (and yes, it will be harder to get aid that isn’t Federal) while others take a year off and reapply.</p>
<p>And yes, this happens every single year. Dig back through the older threads and you will read many sad tales along the lines of “Didn’t get in anywhere at all!!!” and “Didn’t get in anywhere I can afford!”</p>
<p>Find a safety where you are guaranteed admission based on your stats (probably a local CC, or a public U), that you can afford without aid other than federal financial aid, and that offers your major(s) - what could be called a “True Safety”. Apply early so that you can get in line for any goodies they have to hand out. Then work on your list of Matches and Reaches.</p>
<p>So we parents of soon-to-be rising seniors are in the hall of my child’s private schools listening to the admissions counselor from an in-state private LAC talk about how the college admissions process has changed just over the last few years, with a 20% higher number of high school graduates increasingly pursuing a steady number of slots at the “most prestigious” institutions. She spoke from her experience as an admissions reviewer, lugging home 20 - 25 applications to read through in an evening, about how delightful it was to occasionally read a short personal essay with spark, how deadening it was to read yet another explanation of why Gandhi/King/Jesus/Buddha was a historically meaningful personage, and how in 15-20 minutes she needed to gain enough information to classify the applicant as one of the 80% who would be able to do the work and determine whether that applicant was worth advocating for in the next day’s admission session. </p>
<p>All good stuff: realize that the Ivies and such these days are more like lotteries, get a good financial safety school or two, realize that since many admissions decisions are made for institutional reasons (athletics, ability to fully pay, etc.) admissions is NOT a rational meritocratic process, your kid should craft his/her essay for the overworked admissions officer, and so on. Her main message was that we parents should relax because our kids could have successful college experiences in any number of schools, and that the most important determinant of college success was the attitude that our kids bring, not the specific school. </p>
<p>Then she began talking about the Spring anxiety season, where acceptances (yes!) and rejections start (oh no!) start rolling in. Her message: relax: it will all work out.</p>
<p>And she knew it would because “my daughter didn’t get a single acceptance.” </p>
<p>I blinked, shook my head, and wondered aloud to my wife if I’d heard right: this admissions expert’s daughter, whom the expert had advised, and who presumed now to advise us, got not one single acceptance? “What a joke,” I thought. How can she advise us if she cant; even get her daughter into a college?</p>
<p>She pulled out of the dive well: told us what she that her major mistake was not to listen to the school college counselor who advised safety schools the speaker, through magical thinking, determined were below her daughter’s rank.</p>
<p>Every year there are a few who get shut out by all their colleges. I think that it has been worse the last two years because of the blip in the graduating population size. Besides taking a year off and volunteering/working etc. there is another last ditch effort.</p>
<p>After the May acceptance deadline, colleges and universities go through and see if they’ve met their class size target. Some schools do fall short. It is my understanding that guidance counselors have access to a national report, (from the collegeboard?), that lists schools still looking for students. The list may not be huge and it isn’t likely to show openings at the elites, but there are some spots out there.</p>
<p>
Summary for those who don’t want to read this entire thing:
-Apply to a safety even it’s “below” you
-Crafting an orginal short essay with a spark is very beneficial to you
-Overworked admissions counselors => top school admittance is more like a lottery than a meritocracy</p>