<p>I am curious if colleges typically give a reason for rejecting an applicant. The rejection S1 received last year cited the reason as his class rank and that they had received an overwhelming # of apps which were more qualified. On a different thread someone wrote that they were rejected from Princeton and the reason given was class rank.</p>
<p>I have never heard of a top school notifying applicants about the reasons for rejection. There is almost never one thing that directly leads to rejection; it is more often the lack of a sufficiently compelling application overall.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of schools giving reasons for rejection. Typically, rejected students receive a letter that says something vague like, “due to the large numbers of outstanding applicants, we lacked the space for all of the students we would have liked to have admitted.”</p>
<p>Perhaps if guidance counselors call to ask why students were rejected, the admissions officers give a more specific answer, however.</p>
<p>People are rejected because they fail at life.</p>
<p>They won’t get into much detail in those rejection letters, because they don’t want someone to come back and fight their decision or sue them. Vague is best.</p>
<p>Most colleges won’t even elaborate on why you were accepted, or what made the difference, although a very small number of LACs do that.</p>
<p>^ I’m in complete agreement with silverturtle. A statement of ‘feel good’, what a good candidate you were. A vague statement statement that there were just so many very qualified candidates they couldn’t offer admissions to all. Closing with an equally feel good statement of their very best wishes of your success as you pursue your academic career.</p>
<p>Nothing specific that can be argued with directly, and invites anything more than the most aggressive of candidates to call for further clarification. Your GC can certainly call and may receive more specific information (for example, your SAT math just didn’t meet the engineering requirements for that year), however admissions is ultimately subjective so they really don’t ‘have’ to justify their decision to you to your satisfaction.</p>