Do great students sometimes get shut out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

It happened because the kid didn't apply to several true safeties. Also, every spring a number of colleges publicly advertise that they still have open slots -- they are happy to accept anyone with halfway decent stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, but students do get rejected from safeties who rejected 90%+.

If a school rejects 90%, they aren't a safety for anyone.

Typo! I meant accepted, obviously.

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.

Sure. I guess I'm thinking more of falling through the cracks.

Admissions offices look at all the applications. They're going to notice a 4+ GPA. If they reject, it's because they're yield protecting (and schools with that reputation should not be considered a safety).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

If the student applies to several TRUE safeties (versus what they think should be safeties), then no, they won't get shut out.

sure, but who the hell knows what a safety is when Tennessee just had a 27% acceptance rate? I know sooo many kids who were rejected and deferred EA to UT when that ABSOLUTELY should have been a safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

If the student applies to several TRUE safeties (versus what they think should be safeties), then no, they won't get shut out.

sure, but who the hell knows what a safety is when Tennessee just had a 27% acceptance rate? I know sooo many kids who were rejected and deferred EA to UT when that ABSOLUTELY should have been a safety.

This right here.

[Anonymous]

I knew someone who was only accepted to their in-state engineering school, and one waitlist. So, no, not a shut out, but they aimed way to high and only targeted top schools with the most generous aid. In retrospect, there probably would have been a competitive offer from schools in a lower tier, because grades and scores were near perfect. But truth is he continued to be the top scorer in college, but not a star. Wasn't selected for the coop program, and didn't get internships along the way. Has no work experience but is now doing a masters at UCLA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I knew someone who was only accepted to their in-state engineering school, and one waitlist. So, no, not a shut out, but they aimed way to high and only targeted top schools with the most generous aid. In retrospect, there probably would have been a competitive offer from schools in a lower tier, because grades and scores were near perfect. But truth is he continued to be the top scorer in college, but not a star. Wasn't selected for the coop program, and didn't get internships along the way. Has no work experience but is now doing a masters at UCLA.

I mean...things could be worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

If the student applies to several TRUE safeties (versus what they think should be safeties), then no, they won't get shut out.

sure, but who the hell knows what a safety is when Tennessee just had a 27% acceptance rate? I know sooo many kids who were rejected and deferred EA to UT when that ABSOLUTELY should have been a safety.

This right here.

The UTK example is specific to OOS publics that have a cap on OOS students and are experiencing a surge in applicants. There are PLENTY of schools that are not in that category that can be considered a true safety if they have a high acceptance rate and the applicant's stats are above the 75th percentile for the school. .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

If the student applies to several TRUE safeties (versus what they think should be safeties), then no, they won't get shut out.

sure, but who the hell knows what a safety is when Tennessee just had a 27% acceptance rate? I know sooo many kids who were rejected and deferred EA to UT when that ABSOLUTELY should have been a safety.

Why would someone think UT was "supposed to be" a safety? If it's because the kid did not research, then that's on them. UT wasn't a safety last year.

[Anonymous]

I had one DC who was anxious about college applications, so we found an auto-admit rolling admissions school that they would be willing to attend. No, not their first choice, but it would have been perfectly fine. There are several schools where, if you apply early in the fall, you can hear back quickly. Arizona, Kansas, Iowa, etc. They applied on a Saturday and had an acceptance by Monday afternoon.

But I do think there are always kids/parents who overestimate their chances and don't have any true safeties on the list. They can either get completely shut out, or have one admission that they only applied to because a counselor made them, and they don't really want to go there. Those kids can likely find an admit from the list in May or a rolling public, but many of them won't want to choose one of those schools.

So it does happen, but shouldn't if the list has a few TRUE safeties on there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

This only happens when parents go over board

It’s extremely rare

Usually parents have no clue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

This is a good option and sometimes can be a breath of fresh air and a time to grow for a year before transferring but unlikely if you apply wisely.

[Anonymous]

Gap year, or community college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

This is my fear for my DD who has 4 unweighted, 33 ACT, good EC's and didn't get in the ED decision.

I hear you and admit to having some kneejerk panic when my kid’s ED rejection came through. Less a week later, and the kid has EA acceptances to a safety and a target, both with really good merit. If you have a good, balanced list, your kid will not only get in somewhere but likely have options. Don’t succumb to the dark thoughts.

[Anonymous]

We are focusing on what schools seem to be true safety schools (based on kids school Naviance ) that my kid would actually want to attend. Locking those down first. Yes will apply to one that is rolling in August. Easy to add in the others.

[Anonymous]

This doesn't apply, because there is no way a good student who has made some effort to write personalized statements will get rejected by all targets or any safety. Yield protection only filters for students who clearly didn't put any effort whatsoever in their essays for that college.

So no. Doesn't happen.