When a College Says No

 

From College Admission Expert Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

The real madness of March has nothing to do with basketball—it begins when colleges announce their admissions decisions, starting around March 20. As a pre-game warmup, let’s review what we already know:

• Most selective colleges report an increase in applicants every year;
• Since these schools don’t admit more students than they did last year, that means they end up saying no to more students…
• …and wait-listing more students. This increase means fewer students are likely to be admitted from the waitlist come May—and if they are admitted, financial aid will be scarce.

To ease your concern, I have one word of advice. Actually, it’s a number:

850

To begin with, calm down. This is not the highest score you can earn on some mystery version of the SAT. Eight hundred fifty is the number of valedictorians recently rejected from one of America’s most prestigious colleges. These students represented the best their high schools had to offer; they did everything they were “supposed” to do, yet they weren’t even offered a place on the waitlist.

At this point you’re probably thinking one of two things:

1. “Wow, they put in all that work for nothing.”
2. “Geez, if they can’t get in, I don’t stand a chance.”

First things first. It had to be hard to be turned down by a school they loved—but did all that preparation really lead to nothing? Given everything these students had learned, the ways they had grown, and how they overcame adversity and embraced creativity in creating College Plans, B, C, and Q, did they really get nothing out of it?

If so, they have every right to be unhappy, but not with the college. They should be unhappy watching the sun rise and set 1307 times since the first day of ninth grade to the day the college said no, never once appreciating all each of those days had to offer in and of themselves.

They should hang their heads a little to realize, just now, the difference they’ve made to their classmates, their teammates, and the people in the soup kitchen.

And if they look back with regret on the many times they blew off a compliment from a teacher or parent because the goal of college wasn’t realized, that’s more than OK. They now know that the goal of fully living each day was conquered with a flourish—and that understanding will make each day all the richer at the wonderful college that had the good sense (and room) to take them.

What about the colleges you applied to? They’re looking for great students who have done wonderful things with their lives, and will work nicely with the other admitted students. That blend goes beyond test score and class rank—it goes to who you are, what you care about, and how you see the world. Problem is, they run out of room before they run out of qualified applicants.

The thing to focus on then is not who told you no, but who told you yes. If a college wants you but runs out of room, that’s their fault; if they don’t see you for who you really are, well, maybe that’s not the place for you after all. Either way, your contributions will be greatly admired, and badly needed, by the college that had the good sense to tell you yes—which means any no, from any college, simply cannot touch you.

Colleges—About Those Rejection Letters

by Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D.

I offered my condolences to the father of a student turned down by their dream school. The father seemed to be taking the news in a calm, but disappointed, manner.

 

But his goodwill had its limits, which was clear when he talked about the letter his child had received. “The second half of this letter is absolute nonsense” he said. “It says, ‘You have a great deal to offer as a student, and we know your future will be bright.’ What is that all about? If he has so much to offer, then why didn’t they take him?”

 

Rejection letters are tricky things, to be sure, and it’s wise for colleges to offer as much support as possible when communicating a no. At the same time, these letters need to consider the cognitive domain of the reader as well as the affective domain. If all you have to offer is a hug after just saying no, that’s not going to confuse everyone—it’s going to anger them, which is what the colleges wanted to avoid in the first place.

 

What would have helped this rejection letter? Well:

 

Data Once a student is told they weren’t admitted, it’s pretty reasonable they’d like to know why. This is where a few basic numbers can be a college’s best friend. “We saw an increase of 14% in our applicant pool over last year, which meant we had to turn down many students who would have otherwise been admitted.” “The average high school GPA of our admitted students this year was a 3.7, a significant increase over past years.” Anything along these lines gives the student some idea as to where they stood, and why they landed where they did.

 

Institutional priorities Every college has its own quirks in the admissions decisions each year, and they aren’t always the same. A lack of engineering applicants increases the chances that students who wanted engineering are more likely to be admitted, while an increase in History majors means a smaller percentage of them are going to get a Yes. Some of these priorities are established at the start of the year, while others are shaped by the applicant pool. Either way, it’s not unreasonable to share them with applicants whose hopes have been dashed, since it provides context.

 

Encouragement to apply again This year’s applicant pool may be record setting, but that may not be the case next year. Following up a little bit of data with the suggestion they consider applying again, either as an incoming freshman or a transfer student, drives home the idea that the college really did think the student had possibilities. And with a big drop in high school seniors coming up, it’s not a bad idea to build next year’s applicant pool now.

 

That said, there is one thing that should never go into a rejection letter. Suggesting that the student wasn’t admitted because the college sensed the student didn’t align with the college’s mission or values statement is nothing short of insulting. Sure, oboe majors shouldn’t apply to engineering school. On the other hand, saying a student isn’t admissible because of some philosophical divergence is pretty cheeky. Would this student really not have been accepted if the applicant pool had dropped by 20 percent?

 

It’s commendable that colleges want to support students when they hear bad news, but support suggests a framework that lifts them up, not one that leaves them with more questions, or hurt feelings. Keeping it real is the key to an effective No letter, and the best way to respect a student’s intelligence.

 

Common Reasons College Applications Get Rejected

 By US News and Reports

As the volume of college applications continues to increase, admissions officers have tough decisions to make when it comes to filling limited seats.

In a competitive admissions environment, students may be rejected from schools where they could thrive, says Eddie Pickett III, senior associate dean and director of recruitment at Pomona College in California.

"For selective colleges, most students who apply can complete the work on campus, but there is only so much space in housing and classrooms," he says. "Each school sets their own evaluation system and applies that while reading student applications."

Applicants can increase their chances of getting accepted by understanding what college admissions officers most like to see on applications. Here are seven common reasons why college applications get rejected, according to some experts:

• Failure to meet high GPA or test score standards.
• Insufficient academic rigor.
• Lack of demonstrated interest.
• Application essay errors.
• Poor fit.
• Academic integrity concerns.
• Competition.

Failure to Meet High GPA or Test Score Standards

In its latest admissions survey, published in 2019, the National Association for College Admission Counseling asked four-year colleges how important they deemed a number of admission decision factors for prospective first-year students. Course grades were deemed to be of "considerable importance" to 74.5% of the 447 schools that responded, the highest percentage reported for any factor.

Though more colleges have gone test-optional in recent years, almost half of respondents said admission test scores, specifically the ACT and SAT, were considerably important.

Applicants should understand how important grades and test scores are in the eyes of admissions officers, particularly at more selective schools, some experts say.

[ 

READ: 

How Colleges Choose Which Students to Admit. ]

"The term 'holistic review' is one of the best marketing terms created in college admissions," Nat Smitobol, a college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. "It gives students the sense that anyone has a chance, which is not true - especially at the most selective institutions. GPA and test scores are the most common reasons why someone would be eliminated quickly without a comprehensive review."

Insufficient Academic Rigor

Colleges want students who challenge themselves academically. Admissions officers are less inclined to admit students who breezed through standard-level courses, experts say.

"Obviously schools will look at your GPA, but what they're really looking at is your transcript, not just the average of your grades," Brian Galvin, chief academic officer at Varsity Tutors, wrote in an email. "If your school offers a wide array of AP and Honors courses and you didn’t take many of them, you can have a perfect GPA but you won’t get the credit for academic excellence you might expect."

Most colleges require entrants to have taken a set number of core courses in high school. For example, the University of Iowa generally requires first-year students to have had four years of English, three years of mathematics, three years of social studies, two years of the same world language and three years of science to be considered for admission. Admissions officers look at transcripts to ensure that applicants fulfill their admission criteria.

Lack of Demonstrated Interest

For admissions teams, finding qualified students is only half of the battle. They also need to ensure that enough of those admitted actually enroll. As a result, colleges may give favorable judgement to applicants who they think are more likely to attend, Galvin says.

[ 

READ: 

50 Questions to Ask on a College Visit. ]

"Admitting great students who don’t enroll means that other great students on the waitlist start making other plans, and the fall’s entering class misses out on that quality it could have had," he says. "So schools really do look at how often you’ve visited campus or attended virtual tours and events; they want to see specifics in your essays about why you want to attend that school."

Application Essay Errors

While students can make mistakes on any application material, experts find that blunders are most prevalent on essays.

"The most common errors we find are in a student's essay," Mark Steinlage Jr., director of the office of admissions at Saint Louis University in Missouri, wrote in an email. "They either rush through it and/or don't proofread, which results in many spelling errors, unintentional auto-corrects, or saying they'll be a great fit at a competitor school when they meant to change it to SLU."

Frequent grammatical hiccups can demonstrate inattentiveness or even carelessness. But according to DJ Menifee, vice president for enrollment at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, they may also raise another concern: that a student does not have the writing capabilities needed to succeed at a particular institution.

Poor Fit

Fit is a two-way street. Just as students look for schools that fit their interests, schools look for students who fit theirs.

Colleges seek students who can help them meet their institutional objectives, Pickett says.

"The mission of a public institution is to educate the people in their state first and foremost," he says. "For private universities, their mission and value statements should guide their priorities. The main goal on a residential college campus is to admit a student body who wants to contribute to the academic and social culture in your community."

[ 

READ: 

Tips for Starting the College Search ]

Some admissions teams target applicants with specific qualities that may indicate their ability to contribute to a school's culture. For example, the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, a Jesuit institution, likes to see service experience on applicant resumes, according to Cornell LeSane, vice president for enrollment management .

Academic Integrity Concerns

Admissions teams want to be assured that a transcript accurately reflects the capabilities of the student who submitted it. LeSane says records of cheating or plagiarism can lead to rejection.

In some instances, students with a record of such mistakes may be forgiven. LeSane notes that context matters when it comes to questioning an applicant's academic integrity record.

"Something that might happen in ninth grade is very different from 11th or 12th grade, or something that happened once is very different from something that happened multiple times," he says.

Competition

Exceptional grades and test scores sometimes are not enough to ensure acceptance. At particularly selective institutions, students often need "standout factors," Galvin says.

Galvin says leadership positions and college-level research experience on a resume can grab the attention of admissions officers looking beyond transcripts.

"Competitive schools will almost always have lots of 'lookalike' students – pools of students with essentially the same transcripts from the same state or region looking to pursue the same major or field of study," he says. "And with more of those students than they can accept, they’re looking for differentiators to prioritize admitting some over others."

When Your Kid is Rejected -- Blog Post from a College Admissions Director

This week we welcome Regional Director of Admission for the Mid Atlantic, Kathleen Voss, to the blog. Welcome, Kathleen!

Rick Clark, I actively AVOIDED your previous two blogs about messages for parents of students applying to college.  This was very hard for me to do, as I am huge fan of your blog and a huge fan of you.  This morning, I grabbed a cup of coffee and, even with 200 applications sitting in my queue, braced myself and sat down to read all about the mistakes I have made.

You see, recently this whole “parent with a child in the college search” thing has become a real drag... and I want to send it and your blog to a place where the sun doesn’t shine!  I say this with the greatest admiration, respect, and love for you Rick, but on Friday my daughter received her first “deny” from a college.  Now I find myself in uncharted waters. The gate was closed on the gatekeeper’s kid…. and it stinks!

Becoming “That Parent”

As much as I hate to admit it, in that instant I became THAT parent.  I am 100% more disappointed than she is. Before you ask, of course I did not let her see my disappointment. I checked my emotions, took a breath, and said, “It’s their loss.”

While we both anticipated this result (my enrollment manager brain crunched the numbers weeks ago), I could not get it out of my head that this college was a great fit for her. The proximity to home was perfect. She could realistically start on day one as an Admission Office tour guide because she knows so much about the history of the institution.  We have a close relative who is recent graduate and has so much in common with my daughter. I LOVED THAT SCHOOL!

We are in the last lap of this search. DANG IT! Remember your PRONOUNS!!!!  My DAUGHTER is in the last lap of the college search process. SHE is waiting to hear from a few more schools. She seems to be dealing with everything well…. even the deny. She is calm and reasonable. After living with a college admission counselor for 18 years, she seems to have absorbed my trade craft.  She recognizes what she can and cannot control in the process. She feels confident that she put forth the best applications that she could. She spent time on her essays and only asked me to look over her final draft.  She has and continues to work hard in high school, though senioritis is starting to creep in. Sounds like a dream, right?

So why do I feel like I have been hit by a Mack truck?

I’ve had hundreds of conversations with students and parents about the reasons behind Tech’s admission decisions.  I have comforted, counseled, and moved on. I get it…  at least, I should get it. “It’s not you, it’s me.” Rick’s blogs make perfect, reasonable sense. This feels personal-- but it’s not.

I hurt for my daughter and this first taste of rejection. And selfishly, it stings for me and my ego.  No, I am not planning to follow anyone into a parking lot to ask "why?" and I won’t be calling our Governor (he clearly has his hands full right now).

But there is value in seeing both sides of the same coin.

Another Challenging Year 

It has been an incredibly challenging year for our admission staff.  A fair number of us in the office have kids who are juniors and seniors in high school.  We all read applications from students who remind us of our own: a shared birthday or hobby, similar family dynamics, the same senior schedule, a common class that was especially difficult. When we open these files, we can’t help but think, “I sure hope the admission counselor at XYZ University is REALLY looking at all of my child’s amazing qualities.  I hope they aren’t too tired, and they really READ her essay, recommendations, and activities.”

While we face every year with professionalism and rapt attention, this year, we senior parents have been laser focused on ALL those holistic points, searching for answers, double checking our work, and willing our colleagues at other schools to do the same for our kids.

Add to this seeing so many young people being put through the absolute wringer during Covid.  I have read more essays about trauma, grief, depression, and anxiety in the past four months than I have in my entire 29-year career.  It has been heart breaking. The respect I have always had for my colleagues in school and college counseling offices across the nation has increased 1,000-fold. If we are seeing this volume of stress in applications, I can only imagine how it must impact their daily lives.  Then we add having to deny applicants during an already really challenging time.

But we do it. We must. We have over 50,000 applications. We will deny more than half of them. Andy by the way, that half is amazing, like my daughter, which makes it all the harder. Supply and demand. Mission driving admission. All valid and logical, but this year especially, it is a part of the job that just sucks.

It WILL Be Okay

If you know me, you know I am a positive person, and there is no way that I can write a blog that starts with me being insubordinate to my incredible boss and ends with me almost swearing. So, let me end on a high note: to the parents readying this, it will be okay.  Whether your child was denied at YOUR first-choice college, or THEIR first choice, it will be okay.  It has been a joyful, emotional, and eye-opening ride and I have newfound perspective and patience.

As the end of this amazing college search is in sight for my family, I’d like to recognize and give gratitude to the following.

West Virginia University, you were the first school to admit my daughter.  I can still see the excitement on her face when she opened that email. We sang “Country Roads” at the top of our lungs. I am so impressed by your communications. They are warm, welcoming, and positive!  You seem to intuitively know the questions that we have at any given time.

Providence College, you hosted a FANTASTIC open house. I know how much work went into that event and you did it with grace and style…. and SNACKS!  You made my daughter feel welcomed and comfortable from the start.

Barry at Pitt, in the middle of a record-breaking season, you took the time to reach out to me and answer my questions. I am grateful to you and can’t wait to sit on a panel together IN PERSON once again.

University of Rhode Island, thank you for recognizing my child’s talent and success.  I whole heartedly agree with your assessment of her!

Eli Clarke I am grateful to you for your wisdom, friendship, and support and for your amazing Tik Tok @mr.c_collegecounselor, which offered my daughter and so many others exceptional advice throughout the process.

WHS Counseling Staff, I don’t know how you do it. This has been such a wild and intense year for you. Somehow you have managed to balance crisis management, mask wars, and 1,000 other things you do in a day and still make yourselves available to help students with their college search questions. I SEE YOU!

Rick Clark, for your great insight, which, even in the throes of disappointment, is calming and rational and brings us back to earth.  Maybe we could just forget that I wanted to stick your blog in a sunless place?

Kathleen Voss has worked in college admission for over 25 years. She joined the Georgia Tech Office of Undergraduate Admission in 2013 as the Institute's first Regional Director of Admission. Prior to Tech, Kathleen worked regionally for Manhattan College and as the Associate Director of Admission for Regis College in Massachusetts. She is a member of PCACAC and serves on the Admission Practices Committee. She enjoys spending time with her husband and two daughters and volunteering in her community.