Do great students sometimes get shut out?
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Anonymous
| DS has an EA acceptance to his top choice in hand, so this is pretty much anxiety and idle curiosity speaking. Since admissions can be holistic and somewhat capricious, what happens when a solid student (say, 4+ GPA and 1400+ SAT with great EC's) is shut out from everywhere they applied, even targets and safeties? I'm guessing this happens with a lot of safeties that have more of an 80% admit rate than higher. Do you know anyone this has happened to? |
Anonymous
This is my fear for my DD who has 4 unweighted, 33 ACT, good EC's and didn't get in the ED decision. |
Anonymous
If the student applies to several TRUE safeties (versus what they think should be safeties), then no, they won't get shut out. |
Anonymous
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I think that there are absolutely people who misjudge what is a safety for them, and confuse likely with safety. Then they are surprised when they don't get in.
If they pick true safeties, which can either be a school that have automatic admissions for your stats, or a school that notifies early enough that you are making your RD decisions with an acceptance in hand, then no it doesn't happen. |
Anonymous
| Ok, but students do get rejected from safeties who rejected 90%+. |
Anonymous
| It can happen. But unlikely if they choose carefully. |
Anonymous
If a school rejects 90%, they aren't a safety for anyone. |
Anonymous
Typo! I meant accepted, obviously. |
Anonymous
A university with a 90% acceptance rate is not going to reject someone with higher than average stats - those schools have zero reason to yield protect. |
Anonymous
Sure. I guess I'm thinking more of falling through the cracks. |
Anonymous
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If they apply to say ten, 3 reach, 3 safeties, one rolling, 3 middle/oos. They should land a place.
I've never heard anyone being rejected 100%, either they've already decided to take a gap year, community and transfer route or working. College is a choice. |
Anonymous
| It absolutely happens. One of my son’s friends was shut out. He attended JC for a year and is now a sophomore at USC in CA. It’s often a lot easier to transfer in. |
Anonymous
| I’ve never known a single person who wanted to go to college not go somewhere in September. I’m 50. Never heard of it happening. Maybe a couple of raised eyebrows when you hear someone going to a school much lower than I figured they’d land, but I typically attribute that to finances. |
Anonymous
| They take a year off or go to community college or have college counselor make phone calls in May to try and gain a spot somewhere else (if they’re full pay). I think there’s a list of colleges with open seats put out every year for college counselors. Don’t panic. |
Anonymous
| it just means you didn't select the target and safeties carefully. probability wise, getting shutout from all targets/safeties and incredibly small. almost impossible for kids with decent stats |