What if your child does not get into college?

[Anonymous]

Stop with the CC suggestions. We all know CC exist

[Anonymous]

There was something called, The Space Available Survey which was available to school counselors in May of each year, and listed colleges with availability. Some good schools were on it. I haven't been able to find the link. That doesn't mean it doesn't still exist, I'm sure it does.

[Anonymous]

It does. Last year UMD and UMBC was on it

[Anonymous]

Good to know, but I think reapplying is the better idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess it just depends where you are. This situation usually affects the high achievers. I know a kid with like a 3.9 average and 1550 SAT who did not get into safeties because they all thought she would go to a higher-ranked school. The yield game is challenging unless you apply to a school that accepts everyone.

When this happens, call the safeties and ask. If they have had lower than expected acceptances, they will probably let you in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:George Mason?

You must be joking. We know several kids who did not get into Mason last year.

[Anonymous]

Not anymore. I know 2 relatively high-achieving students who didn't get into any colleges last year because neither applied to a true safety school (one in Virginia who was using W&M/UVA as safeties and one in California who used UCSD/UCLA as safeties). One kid is now going to a school which was still accepting applications in April and the other is taking a gap year.

Anyone who uses UCSD and UCLA as their safety schools doesn't deserve to go to college.

[Anonymous]

I’d just ship my kid off to one of my family’s farms and they could work for a year and go to the local junior college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has nothing to do with being “unlucky”- just poor planning. That’s why you apply to schools with a range of admissions stats.

Some kids don’t want to go to a ‘safety school’ apparently so they take the gap year and apply around again. One kid my DD knows was offered admission to her selected college ‘probably ’ the next year. So, she waited, applied again and got in the second time. Doesn’t sound fun but it’s how some kids do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:George Mason?

You must be joking. We know several kids who did not get into Mason last year.

Those kids probably don’t belong in College then...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:George Mason?

You must be joking. We know several kids who did not get into Mason last year.

Those kids probably don’t belong in College then...

You're nasty. -NP

[Anonymous]

This almost happened to me. I had a weak guidance counselor and thought I was okay only applying to four schools. Class valedictorian. Top-tier SAT scores. Got rejected by 3 and waitlisted by 1. It was pretty devastating at the time, especially as everyone was sharing acceptance. I had all of these expectations on me as a star student and I was the only one without an offer in-hand.

My plan was to go live abroad with some family friends and do language classes for a year. I ended up getting into my "safety" off of the waitlist and then transferred to a better school I hadn't initially considered after finishing my freshman year.

[Anonymous]

Mary Washington, Longwood, and others have been on the Space Availability Survey for the last several years. There's a four year spot for everyone who wants one in Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It could have easily happened to me. I was rejected from my safe school. For whatever reason, though, my reach school accepted me. I was rejected from VT, ODU (safety), and George Mason. I was accepted into RPI. Go figure. This was in 1982.

I thought admissions was much more predictable back then......interesting.

PP. apparently not. I had a really bad sophomore year -- bad concussion before the realized the severity of concussions, and was in a haze for the second half of the year and finished with really crappy grades. I also did not retain anything from Feb on. I ended up with 2 D's 3C's and a B (phys-ed).

As I came out of the fog in the junior year, I started doing better: 3A's, 1B, 1C and a D (Chem teacher was a certified a-hole). But, SAT's were 1200 (which was good in 1982 -- harder test) with subscores of 800 Math, 400 verbal. Senior year was much better: 4A's and 1B, but is was too late.

I also did some projects on writing instructional software for the school on teaching physics.

The net result was some numbers looked really bad, (GPA was 2.4 when I applied), SAT's mixed. The schools that just looked at numbers rejected me (ODU, VT).

RPI wanted an essay and cared more about recommendations. I wrote about writing the software for physics. My recommendations came from the physics teacher and CS teachers who both talked about what I did.

(My sister was also a student at RPI).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It does. Last year UMD and UMBC was on it

So for these schools on this survey, can students just quickly apply to them once they see them on this list? How does it work? I assume no FA is available to these students since it has already been given out to accepted students, right?