I can’t say this to my kid’s face, of course, but...
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Anonymous
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Op - some good info here.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/mcy029/what_to_do_if_youre_waitlisteddenied_everywhere/ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hey seniors. Marcella/Novembrr here (former admissions reader for Berkeley and UChicago). I've had a few students reach out to me who have been waitlisted and/or denied everywhere. My heart breaks for these kids. I hope to be back next week with an update to my old post regarding how to get off the waitlist at your dream school. For now, I want to focus on students who have no options and are really scrambling. If you haven't been admitted anywhere, have no other decisions pending, and/or are only waiting on uber reaches, devise a backup plan. Apply now to more schools. To get the entire list of Common App schools still accepting applications, go to the 'College Search' tab on Common App, click on 'More Filters', set 'Deadline On or After' to some date in the future, and click 'Show ### Colleges'. Here are just a few: *Knox College*, a small liberal arts college in Illinois, is guaranteeing they'll return a decision on your application within 7 days of your submission. Their deadline is April 1, they have no supplemental essays, the application fee is $0, and they still have financial aid (if you submit the FAFSA) and merit aid available. A **ton** of state schools are still accepting applications, including but not limited to: *Arizona State* (no supplements), *Clemson* (no supplements), *Georgia State* (no supplements), *Iowa State* (no supplements), *University of Iowa* (no supplements), *Michigan State* (no supplements), *University of Mississippi* (no supplements), *Oregon State* (no supplements), *Penn State* (has one optional essay), *University of Arizona* (has one optional statement), *University of Utah* (has one essay if you're applying to the Business Scholars program). *Fordham*'s deadline has passed, but they are still accepting applications! Want to live by the water? *College of Charleston* is still accepting applications. In a city? *Depaul University* is still accepting applications. Love STEM? Consider *Illinois Institute of Technology* (they just received a grant to develop new electric aviation technologies) or *Milwaukee School of Engineering*. Want to leave the US? *University of St. Andrews* is still accepting applications. In early May, The National Association for College Admission Counseling will post an update of the hundreds of colleges still accepting applications, and there are bound to be some surprises there of universities which under-enrolled and are now reopening for applications. Watch their website carefully! 2) Take a gap year to improve your application and apply next year to a wider range of schools. I helped one of my Waitlist Strategy Students last year to be admitted off the waitlist at an awesome LAC but, for personal reasons, they decided to take a gap year. Working with them throughout the entire admissions process this time around, they reflected on their academic interests and values, threw themselves into some pretty incredible research and volunteer projects, and revamped their application. They are crushing it in the application process this cycle. A gap year not only helped them increase their chances of admission to their dream universities but hone their passions. They're a wonderful human being and, this year, colleges are especially taking notice. Don't be ashamed to take a gap year. After the stress of this past year, it might be exactly what you need to recharge your batteries and land next year at the perfect university for you. 3) Plan on attending community college, saving $$, and applying to transfer in the future. Check out the Transfer Admissions Guarantee pathway from a California community college to the UC system. And here are details on Florida's transfer agreement. You don't have to live at home if you go to community college, either. Here's a list of community colleges with on-campus housing. Santa Barbara City College students interact with UC Santa Barbara students, and benefit from that 4-year university's social life/school spirit. If anyone knows of other great community college options, please drop them below! 4) If you're waitlisted anywhere, don't give up. Last year, waitlists MOVED. Of the students with whom I worked on writing letters of continued interest (or essays for their portals), 2 were admitted to Stanford, 1 to Brown, 1 to Dartmouth, 3 to Barnard, 1 to Rice, 1 to Pomona, 1 to University of Michigan, 1 to Georgetown and 1 to Berkeley. Yes, last year saw unprecedented movement, but I'm hopeful that universities will go to their waitlists again this year. If you need some inspiration for writing your letter of continued interest, check out this post. Some universities don't accept LOCI, others will only allow you to submit a short statement on their portal, so your mileage will vary with my aforementioned waitlist advice. Also, some universities will take tons of students from their waitlist and some not at all (you can search "wait" on the Common Data Set for each university to see if they release this data). You'll want to look at last year's data AND a few years before that, just to make sure that last year wasn't an absolute outlier. Don't bank on getting off a waitlist (come up with an additional backup plan) but don't discount it, either. If you have any questions, please let me know! |
Anonymous
| Fwiw Op, my high stats big 3 kid in engineering got rejected at Tulane while also getting into WashU and Carnegie Mellon which were much bigger reaches for engineering. Agree with others to lean on college counselor to help and really target wait list schools hard. Otherwise try to keep open mind about school he did get into while keeping transfer option open. |
Anonymous
I think the bolded language was encouraging. But hey, it was directed at OP anyway, not you. So how it landed there is what matters. |
Anonymous
| Could be worse. Try explaining to your kid you can't afford Brown, even with the aid package. That's my world. |
Anonymous
I feel you OP. My DC has a 34 ACT, 3.9 GPA, founded the Young Democrats club at his school, led a voter registration drive that registered 500+ people, led a mask donation drive that donated 300 masks to a homeless organization, was a cross country runner, has a black belt, teaches the white belt/yellow belt class at his dojo, and has several other ECS. He's a solid applicant. He was rejected from Vanderbilt and Emory. Not even waitlisted. He really liked Vanderbilt, too. I'd apply to a couple of safeties with late deadlines, just so he has some choice. |
Anonymous
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The problem with high scores is two fold:
1. This year, they are not necessarily considering them, or at the very least, not considering the lack of one for a similar applicant who may have had a lower score if they'd taken the test. 2. When you get a crazy high score, you instantly get dreams of the Ivies, the top 20 schools etc. Your counselor buys into this too. Those are always crapshoots and should never be even considered matches. Its all about expectation setting and your counselor did you a disservice. My kids went to a public school and had very little advice from their counselors. like none really. No discussion fo what schools to look at and what would be a match. we moaned abut it at the time, but the fact is that my kids had to make their own lists, do their own research on sources like Naviance. Because of this, they found schools they were excited about, even if it would have been classified as a safety. |
Anonymous
Someone suggested that OP's son take some subject tests and send them in. They no longer exist in the US. In January, all future administrations were cancelled and fees refunded . |
Anonymous
That sucks. No way around it. I would try to get him to learn a life lesson from this---he is clearly a hardworking, good kid who will do well long term no matter where he goes. But I can sympathize and am sorry for him as that is so disappointing. |
Anonymous
Yes: call the school counselor. They owe it to him and you to work the waitlists for him. |
Anonymous
| OP, best wishes to your child! I would look to see which of these schools recommends "demonstrated interest." This could mean doing a Zoom interview, sending emails to the rep on a regular basis, opening every single email that comes from the college, etc. It could also mean sustained interest over a year or two vs. a flurry of interest one month before the deadline. When your son accomplishes something new, have him email the rep about it in a humble sort of way. My DD did this when she was chosen as the lead in her school play. 3 admissions officers wrote back very sweet congratulatory emails. The rest didn't write back, but at least my DD expressed interest. |
Anonymous
| PS- Google your kid and make sure that he doesn't have anything weird on social media. Hire someone to look over his essays if he reapplies next year. |
Anonymous
But you can still take them internationally through June 21. OP look at the lists of subject matter tests - are there two or three areas in which she is a superstar? If so, then call them and confirm that an American can take the international ones (I just scanned the info and saw no rule forbidding it but lots of rules about passports). I know someone with three 800s subject matter tests and got into Princeton. And your DC’s fall resubmit could be about flying to Singapore or Hong Kong to take the tests. That would demonstrate grit and desire to attend to me. |
Anonymous
| That would demonstrate more money than sense and attempting to game the system to me, and I work at a university. |
Anonymous
| OP - I totally feel for you. My kid who goes to a Big 3 has gotten numerous rejections and a couple of waitlists. He has gotten into one match school and while there is a part of him that's really relieved to be in that school, I think there is another part of him that feels it would be nice to have choices. We didn't visit any colleges this fall due to the pandemic so we were looking forward to making some visits this spring in anticipation of having a choice. I asked my kid if she/he wanted to visit the school they had gotten into and the response was "Why? I don't have any other options and I know I have to go there so I'm not sure I need to visit." I know people on this site will jump on this comment and say that this kid has a bad attitude but lets remember that these kids are 18 years old, had a really tough senior year and are now having a brutal admissions cycle. The wounds are fresh and while I have no doubt my kid will ultimately get excited about the available choice and visit the school, for now it's understandable to be bummed. We're not flawless adults and we don't have the perfect reaction ourselves when we're disappointed so let's not expect this from our kids who are coming out of a horrible year. |
Anonymous
Colleges we applied to have hosted more than a few zoom events. Register early. Attend, participate, etc. Show interest. |