Decades ago, when the applicant pool was much smaller and the notification date for private colleges’ RD was mid April (versus the March 31/April 1 date we currently have), selective colleges would send out a “Likely to Accept” notice to a select few students. This occurs today for targeted admissions for athletic recruits and other top applicants through the “Likely Letter” vehicle.
What is unknown to most is that the colleges would also send a “Likely to Reject” post card to a group who, upon initial read, were destined to the reject pile. The idea would be to temper expectations at an earlier date.
Since many visitors to this site are interested in selective school admissions policies, would this be something you would welcome?
This only came up in a discussion I had with fellow alumnus volunteer interviewer – I’m not signaling any “insider knowledge” or predictions. However, it does intrigue me and I will bring it up with my alma mater’s admissions office.
It would be a good idea if done early in the process. It would push some students to apply to less selective schools in order not to be shut out on 3/31 or having to settle for a safety that they hate.
In the past, this was after the RD deadline – and the notification came out in the Feb-Mar timeframe. The school options available to students would be those with pretty low selectivity.
It would just save so much time and needless worrying. Get it over fast.
For the application fee it could explained it’s like buying a lottery ticket, with your actual real time chances of being admitted highlighted. " if you pay the $75 app fee now you have a 1 in 40,000 chance of being accepted. Do you accept these risks? If so, hit the submit now and find out immediately if you see a Red X or Green thumbs up!"
My school has naviance and it gives you the acceptance history and stats for applicants from your school in the past. It’s pretty helpful, it’s helps you to be realistic.
The schools probably wouldn’t want to deal with the onslaught of appeal letters, supplementary material, etc. sent by “likely reject” students trying to change their fates. Unless they stated that they would reject anyone who sent anything.
No, I don’t think likely reject would be particularly helpful and yes there would be an onslaught of whining. I would love if they could start notifying the clear admits and the clear rejects on March1 with firm decisions. Surely by then, they do have some clear decisions each way. This would give kids a lot more time to think about options and do some last minute visits.
My kid did get a likely letter from one school, one of her top choices, and it really made her so much happier as she waited for the rest of the decisions. It was also helpful in beginning to plan for last minute visits. And she could start thinking, which of these other schools do I prefer to X, and which do I not? It’s nice to have extra time to mull this over with concrete information.
As a parent of two kids who went through the Ivy day, I find it cruel and unusual punishment that Ivies and many other selective schools trash many kids’ hopes and dreams on a single day or within a span of 2-3 days.
There is absolutely no reason for schools to not start rejecting those eliminated in the early rounds to start notifying them so they can start thinking about their other choices. It is unnecessary to reject 25-35,000 kids all on a single day by several schools.
A college could do something along these lines with a past admission rate calculator.
I.e. someone puts in grades, test scores, and (if relevant to the college) other easily defined characteristics like intended major, and it spits out past admission rates for the ranges that the characteristics fall into. Obviously, there are no guarantees for highly selective colleges which also include lots of subjective criteria in admissions, but perhaps it may let potential applicants whose stats fall in the “<1% admission rate last year” zones get a reality check before applying.
@texaspg – that’s exactly why I think revisiting this has merit. The process is nerve-wracking enough. @mathyone – In my experience, beyond the EA/ED admits, athletic recruits and early Likely Letter recipients, I think a bulk of decisions for the “accepts” are still not settled by Mar 1. I agree that probably up to 70% or so of RD applications no longer consideration could be notified however. @ucbalumnus Some would argue that the Common Data Set is supposed to serve this purpose. But it’s the rare and self-aware and disciplined person who can logically accept the magnitude of a 6% admit rate.
@T26E4 I heard Wellesley still issues them? There was a kid who mentioned he was transitioning or planning to and applied to Wellesley who turned him down this way.
I don’t know the details of their process but there must be many decisions that are final before the last minute, and it would be a very welcome courtesy to let the students know when a final decision has been reached.
Well, at least there’s a current example. I suppose all it’d take is the will power for a school to re-start this. I’m sure the mechanisms would be very simple: if any folder ends up in the early reject pile within a certain window of time, and the student has requested an early courtesy alert if available, then an auto alert goes to the student’s ID Portal and the “Likely to reject” letter gets uploaded. Doesn’t seem too complex.
