eiffel13

How could a student with those stats get rejected by Maryland and Delaware?? This freaks me out. I would have even thought the Honors
programs at those colleges would have tried to attract her. This college
roulette is really getting ridiculous. Back to OP - agree with going the
rolling admissions route and either staying there or transferring. Why did
you only apply to one school?

Infinite_Truth

^ I agree. The less good schools are now obsessed with some sickening admission-rate hype - they don't want people who are too good for them, and so they reject the top 1% of the applicant pool just to pretend to be selective. It's disgusting.

Roger_Dooley

The OP is CC's Sally Rubenstone, Senior Counselor, not the person who raised the question.

We probably won't know why the student in question applied to just one school, but usually when these situations come up it's because of wildly bad advice, like, "With your stats, you'll get in everywhere you apply - don't worry!"

Unfortunately, every year we see a few of these. Regular CC readers know about the unpredictability of admissions and the need for at least one solid safety school, but there are still plenty of places that do competitive school admissions so rarely they just don't know.

littlegreenmom

And some "safety" schools have too many other students also applying, without ever actually thinking about going there. Two Cal State schools, CSU Long Beach and San Diego State University had 60,000 students apply, with only space for 4000-7000 students.

Many safeties just aren't safeties, anymore.

House of London

Theres a program here in New York called City year where you work in an elementary or middle school for a year or two maximum. Compensation is $275.00 (before taxes-yeah, bummer) per week plus a free T-Mobile phone with paid bills & free unlimited metro cards for that year or two you decided to work. After you graduate from City Year, you are then eligible for a $5,000-$10,000 scholarship geared towards your undergrad study. Theres more to it but just visit the website. Just a little advice for your son. Sorry about his situation

City Year. Give a Year. Change the World.

DramActress

There are several colleges with rolling admissions if you go to this website.

http://www.princetonreview.com/colle...ollingcoll.asp - 56k

Also, Community College isn't a bad choice...he could go there two years...build up his gpa and even get a job...it is not the end of the world...you guys will definitely surpass this.

lje62

Having joined CC less than six months ago, I can honestly say that I have learned much about admissions from the various posts I have followed.
When I have talked about my own daughters acceptances with friends and relatives, they have told me that I should not be surprised with results.

I see it a little differently when I have seen the amazing stats of so many students that have applied to the same schools as she did..
so much of the application process seems like a crapshoot, particularly with the level of competition of so many students.

Muffy333

A friend of mine from HS didn't get into any colleges; worked a year, reapplied, dropped out, worked some more...by the time his hs classmates were graduating college he finally figured out what he wanted to do, went to a very prestigious college and a really prestigious graduate school...some people just need a few years of life experience to really focus on academia.

Godsend

I don't have a story for you. I only have advice.

If you're thinking about the community college approach, I recommend that he do his best there. Start out in the summer. THE SUMMMER! YES! BLOW HIS POST SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL SUMMER AWAY SO HE CAN GET SOME CLASSES OUT OF THE WAY AND SHOW THE SCHOOLS THAT HE DIDN'T JUST GO TO THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE CAUSE MOMMY AND DADDY WANTED HIM TO.

Have him join some clubs. A part time job will help as well. A lot of state schools have options for transfers at the state CC.

Also, if he was dead set on attending REJECTED COLLEGE, he should get in contact with them and ask them how he should work it in regards to transferring later on. Unless it's Harvard. rofl.

GeekNerd

I'm an international, so everywhere I apply is a bit harder.
I'm also on a gap year.

Last year I applied to 3 schools in the US - MPH - and was rejected by all. I did not apply locally but I was accepted by 6 schools in the UK within days of applying. The point here is that I started (and finished) my application IN MAY. I couldn't afford it - in fact, I couldn't afford to study anywhere without a strong scholarship - so I deferred one admission and resolved to spend 2007-2008 in

1. Reading [free] e-books. You'll be surprised by what you can learn.
2. Teaching. Yes - GET A JOB. I was lucky because there was a vacancy at my own school and I was qualified by 2 years of practice.
3. Private Tutoring - don't expect to be paid respectably by your day job.
4. Math Research. I still have an inkling of spare time.
5. Sucking Up. To Companies. To Ministries [Ministry of Education, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Public Information]. To Powerful People. To Educated People.
6. Looking for funding. It worked.
7. Training for the Math Olympiad. This ties it all together - I want to redeem myself on an international stage.
8. Socializing. NOT Casually. I was quite antisocial. Thus I learned how to talk to people sensitively, how to get things done, how to write letters that work, how to get meetings, how to write a resume, how to interview, how to seem humble and how to win an argument and how to use charisma.
9. Choir practice. My former school choir is fairly high-profiel around here, and can always use help for musicals, fund-raisers, competitions and concerts.

With nothing to lose, I applied again to [more] US universities, and made sure to include an assessment of my professional contributions and academic constructions. Now that I'm actually training other people for olympiads, I think it's fair to say that my more elite 2012 positive decisions were partly motivated by the proof that I have not lost my edge. There's just one more thing, though it may not make sense to anyone from another country.

10. I registered to repeat my final exams. Here, a perfect score means something.

Whatever you do, be sure to do something that you can back with a self-contained, positive argument. Phrase yourself so that rather than focusing on avoiding wasting time, or focusing on making the best of a year you'd rather not have, you focus on the great things you can do outside school, and although you might have preferred to be in Uni by now, you see a golden opportunity that might well be unique. I would like to add that today I was at a professional event from 0830 to almost 1800 [!!] because of the adult contacts I have established.

In my case, bear in mind that most of the above are very situational. This sort of strengthens the argument for motivation, so look clearly at your own specifics.

GeekNerd

A point to emphasize that you should not fail to grasp whatsoever:

Be zealous, and work for free.

ivyboy711

I know that there are some colleges which participate in a program that allows people "late admissions." I forget the website but every year some colleges always end up not filling their freshmen classes up, and they then allows late admissions...of course they won't know until like May or even June, but if you search late decision you shold be able to find the website. Good Luck!!!

jennifer376

You should try UC Riverside or UC Merced, I'm sure it's still open for applications

carolyn

The first thing I would recommend is talking to your son's school counselor to come up with a plan. Ask the counselor to call various schools of interest to see if they would take a late application from your son. You need a school counselor to do this - an independent counselor can call and put together a list, but the school counselor likely knows which colleges have the strongest working relationship with your particular high school. Even if you felt the school counselor wasn't the best at giving advice, you need their help. Insist on it.

There are actually quite a few colleges and universities which are still accepting applications. For instance, Drew University in New Jersey is still actively soliciting applications, but there are many more who are as well (I have a list of about 10 schools in California alone) After May 1, the National Association for College Admissions Counseling also will post a list of colleges that still have spots in their freshman classes they're actively trying to fill. You can find the list at NACAC - Home page Last year, there were 220+ colleges on that list alone.

pmax57

I do not know your sons stats however have you considered a gap year volunteering overseas. Many programs. Learn a language. Experience a different culture. I mentioned my son's senior year (HS) in China to an admissions person who was a customer. She told me to send my son her way she would grab in a moment. She did not know his stats but explained when colleges see this they realized that it takes maturity and independence to do this, My son's stats were good, but he was able to gain admits into colleges were other students with much higher stats were turned down. Retention is a very big problem with colleges. When a young person can pull this off they realize the student is mature and liklihood of being able to handle college. If he is into the idea help him to see the amazingnous ( not a word I know) of his global possibilities. Contact me if you are interested. I did tons of research .