<p>I received an "Ask the Dean" query yesterday from a transfer applicant to a prestigious public university who reported that he had gotten a rejection notice exactly a week after submitting his application. Not only was he disappointed by the bad news, but also he was miffed that his fate seemed to be determined so quickly despite the considerable effort he'd put into applying.</p>
<p>I'm still corresponding with him to try to hone in on the factors that might have prompted such a swift kick, but I'm also curious to know if other CC members have also been denied admission in such a short amount of time. Did anyone else (whether freshman or transfer applicant) get rejected in just a week? How about less? :eek:</p>
<p>Didn’t really happen to me. All of my rejections came a few weeks before my acceptances. </p>
<p>Maybe the school uses a formula and this student failed the formula? In that case they very well could choose to send the letter immediately without going to committee.</p>
<p>Many colleges separate applications into clear admits, clear rejections and then applications that go through an involved process to be decided upon. Most applications are in the middle and go through admissions committees, a couple persons reviewing, etc.</p>
<p>My guess is that this college had a policy of accepting very very transfers, and they were doing the person a favor by letting him know right away that he didn’t have a chance. Because the most selective colleges lose few students each year, they have fewer slots for transfers than colleges that high rates of student turnover.</p>
<p>Did the school have rolling admissions? If not, aren’t they supposed to stick to their stated notification deadlines? (I’m just a babe in the woods re this sort of thing, so I cannot offer any advice / insight…only additional questions.)</p>
<p>I doubt you’ll ever get a straight answer. Even though this is a public institution and the process should be completely transparent because it is funded with federal and state tax dollars, they’ll never reveal their formula. Just another abuse in a system that is begging for true reform.</p>
<p>Thankfully, I did not have to receive a rejection letter (especially since I only applied to two schools), but I did, however, receive an acceptance letter almost exactly one week after applying.</p>
<p>Even though I was on rush admissions, I was surprised at how quickly they let me know! </p>
<p>The first school I applied to took just 12 days to here back from as well.</p>
<p>I appreciated the quick notice, and would have if they had been rejections, too. But it did happen VERY quickly!</p>
<p>I had a lot of problems my first three years of high school and was informed by the guidance counselor that as of the end of my junior year in 1969 that I had a cumulative GPA of 1.6 including two Fs and two Ds and out of 64 students in my class I was ranked 64th. That summer between my junior and senior year I had a dream one night about my very bleak future life that scared me so much it turned me into a compulsive studier. Nevertheless, when I applied to the University of Dayton that October with my transcript just showing my grades as of the end of my junior year, not only did I get a rejection letter back in less than a week, someone in Admissions had hand written on the form letter “extremely poor high school record”.</p>
<p>I did get good grades my senior year as well as good SAT scores and finally in April I got an invitation to interview at the University of Hartford and a week after my interview I finally got an acceptance letter. I did very well in college, went on to medical school and am a practicing physician today.</p>
<p>At this time of year, it’s likely there are people in the admissions office who actually have the time to carefully review the application…even in a week. From my days…a number of years ago…in an HYPMS graduate school admissions office…many of the early applications were read fairly quickly (although admissions wasn’t rolling, so the clear rejects were just put aside.)</p>
<p>I think they did the applicant a favor by letting him/her know so quickly. Gives the applicant time to put things together for other schools…</p>
<p>There has been a lot of discussion in the news lately, about student who complete two years at “for-profit” colleges - the ones that aggressively advertise “promising careers”. After exhausting much of the fed loan options, and racking up dept, they discover those credits won’t transfer. </p>
<p>Could that be the issue, here?</p>
<p>The only other thing I can think of that would cause a swift decision is citizenship status. Public schools are now facing much more scrutiny. I agreed to teach a workshop and our state now requires me to have a notarized affidavit on file stating I’m a legal resident and use e-verify to prove my employees are also legal. So makes me wonder.</p>
<p>I think transfers to public colleges - in general - have a tougher standard to meet at than the general applicant pool regardless of the situation.</p>
<p>Sally,
I have seen this over and over again, I council athletes on our service which gets athletes noticed by college coaches. First thing I say to athletes is keep your options open, which means dont get tunnel vision on one school because if you get rejected it can be hard to put another application in and you get side tracked by the response.</p>
<p>Did the student qualify as to gpa/act/sat was there an essay required. I have seen athletes not get in colleges with 96 average with honors so you have to keep your options open. Have you tried private colleges.</p>
<p>Was the student ineligible based on coursework?</p>
<p>That was my first thought…or a “too low” GPA for the school. For the rejection to come back so soon, I would imagine that a disqualifying aspect was immediately apparent to the school.</p>
<p>I sent the student a list of questions but haven’t received a reply yet. For instance, I asked about intended major, test scores, GPA, current or recent college courses … the usual suspects. I also asked if he might be a first-semester freshman now (many colleges don’t admit frosh transfers without extenuating circumstances) and, similarly, if he’s a freshman who was rejected by this same school last spring (rarely will colleges admit Jan. transfers who were just denied a few months earlier). I asked if he might be an international student in need of financial aid … often a deal-breaker for otherwise qualified candidates.</p>
<p>So, perhaps when I get my answers, something will jump off the page that might help explain why he got bad news so fast.</p>
<p>Sounds like the same student who posted on the transfer board. Seems like he has more than 60 credits and he’d been accepted at Michigan as a transfer in 2008 but declined. Maybe just too many credits.</p>
<p>I’m still a little stumped as to why the time frame is so surprising. Many rolling admisissions schools…that are not 100% grade and test based…admit within a week. Why wouldn’t a school also be able to reject within a week? </p>
<p>If the application is complete…what additional insight would the admissions committee readers have in 4 weeks or 2 months…versus 1 week?</p>