WTBSAlumni

With so many excellent schools out there I really think that parents need to encourage their child to be open-minded and not fixate on one particular school. Especially with the peak size of the class of 2008, allowing your child to choose one school exclusively only sets them up for disappointment if they are not accepted. About the only time an appeal might be justified is if there were issues with delays in materials (teacher recs, transcripts, SAT scores) that were out of the student's control.

Roger_Dooley

>>the appeals process is not an opportunity for one to talk about how much one loves a school.

Well, that's not a good reason for an appeal... But if you ARE appealing a rejection for a substantive reason, I think it would be helpful to let the admissions people know that the school IS your first choice and that you WILL attend if accepted. That ensures that if they do admit you, they'll help their stats a bit (rather like taking someone from the waitlist) and that they aren't wasting their time by looking into the facts of your case.

Colleges really do like enthusiastic applicants. Overcoming a denial, though, is no small feat.

honied_dreams

The college admissions process can be devastating to many, however, there is a point when a student needs to learn to accept rejection and move on. This year, last year, and the next few will be the toughest yet for admissions to undergraduate programs, and most schools are grappling with the difficulty of choosing between numerous over-qualified applicants. It may seem unfair, but the admissions office made its decision for a reason, and whatever this reason is, you need to accept it. This is not a perfect world, and not everyone ends up at their dream school (not everyone ends up in college, period), but you can find another place that is right for you (I know I did). If you have your heart that set on a specific school, consider taking a year off and applying next year, or apply as a transfer. An appeal may be possible, but it is very unlikely that it will turn out in your favor, considering most schools do not have the space.

Anonagron

Darkage1: Congratulations on that NROTC scholarship!!

Although I cannot really comment on the appeals process simply because I have no experience with this, it would seem to me that getting the NROTC scholarship would be reason for a school to re-evaluate a student's admission application. I know our son was being offered full 4-yr Army ROTC scholarships to schools that he had not yet even applied to. He had to accept one and only one schol. offer, but was having to accept without even knowing what schools would be accepting him, and at the same time he was waiting also on an answer from a service academy.

Air Force ROTC is somewhat different, where scholarship recipients are chosen and then they are allowed to use the scholarship at the school of their choice that offers AFROTC. Navy was the one branch he did not apply to, but I know their selection is every bit as competitive. ROTC instructors are trying to fill their classes with top quality cadets, esp. those who have the qualifications that fit a full scholarship. Have you been in touch with the NROTC officer on that campus that works with admissions? I'd be sure to contact them if you haven't already...they should have a working relationship with admissions and could probably pull some weight. I know the AROTC instructors at school "x" that our son initially accepted the schol for were watching in the admissions office for his application to come through.

Best of luck and let us know how things turn out!

Northwestern2012

The only problem I have is that people say appeals don't work and you have to accept rejection and all that stuff, but if it's your DREAM SCHOOl then I say what the heck to the world and go for it. Really, what do you have to loose? And some appeals ARE successful because last year, my brother did an appeal for UIUC and he was accepted.

kahtap

so... what if your dream school is an ivy league, like say... harvard? is it still worth it/ is there any chance? This is actually the case for me, but I submitted the wrong version of the commonapp to them, so they received the wrong essays... is that a legitimate excuse/reason for re-evaluation?

Ilovesoftball44

You should have notified them earlier.

rocketman08

A lot of people on these forums seem to want their rejection appealed because they (the applicant) think they should have been admitted. Well, unfortunately that's not really a valid case for appealing a rejection nor does it stand much of any chance of resulting in a successful appeal. There really needs to be some evidence that the application materials were mishandled or some other extreme circumstances to justify a rejection appeal. If the review committee felt you were borderline and warranted a future re-review of credentials then they would have waitlisted you.

Submitting the wrong application isn't really a valid reason either and if anything is going to weigh against your application... not to be blunt but given the competitive nature of most schools why should they bother with someone who couldn't even complete the application correctly? If you made a mistake you should have corrected it right away... not wait till rejected and then raise a fuss about it.

Darkage1

Yes well the NROTC application is pretty strenuous in itself...I'm sure Anonagron could vouch for that because their son has been accepted recently as well :P. Also I have a Letter of Recommendation I sent in to apply for the NROTC which praises my leadership/ drive / working well under many activites at once. So I think that could only help. Then again everyone hopes to be the selective few with an overturned appeal, I just wonder my chances =x

christinawang

how about appeal to a school need-aware to internationals ( only take a few internationals with FA per year) by changing from needing a full ride to not applying FA at all?

honied_dreams

I agree with rocketman. And do you have any idea how many people didn't get into their "dream school"? If everyone appealed, it would be a nightmare. You need to have a legitimate reason; if you just continue to reiterate that you want to go there and deserve to, it won't make a difference; after all, you were already rejected once. Also, if you do happen to try transferring/reapplying, an appeal could weigh against you in the process (it can show that you are not mature enough to handle rejection).

Christina--That may actually may be a legitimate reason to appeal, because I know financial aid weighs greatly on the decision to accept international applicants.

Nick017

If your in somewhere else, don't appeal, just be thankful for what you got, and move on. There's no need to spend your time further congesting the applications mess, unless there was an error. I mean... A very, very low percentage of people who appeal get admitted, and those people are those with compelling, real cases, like my school sent the wrong scores, or I just took another 5 ap exams and got selected for the usamo. If you feel it was an upset, then sure, try your luck, but no one who got rejected by Stanford was an upset, unless it was a technical error.

Princess'Dad

I am on a medical school admissions committee. If a parent appeals, it goes into the trash. If a Dean calls and says "hey I think you missed something special about Bob" we will listen. If the student writes, we will think about it, but rarely change our minds. About the only time we do is if the Dean or Principle or Counselor (whom we know) calls,

zoosermom

Does an appeal often lead to reconsideration if there is a documentable error? I overheard a conversation today at D2's school in which two students with almost identical names in the same grade had documents mixed up in connection with something else. Now, I know these boys and they're very, very different but you'd have to look very closely to see the tiny difference in their names. If portions of one applicant's application is mixed up with portions of another's would that be grounds for an appeal that might lead to reconsideration? I'm just asking for nosy reasons because when I heard about the prior mix-up it made my blood run cold!

smpcollege33

Hey, should I try to appeal? I got into American, Northeastern, Boston University, Vassar College, Georgetown University, and Amherst College. However, I was rejected by Brown University. Before today I wasn't going to do anything but then found out that one of my peers who has never taken no ap classes, has a low eighty average, poor S.A.T. scores, but a lot more community service hours than me got into Brown. I'm wondering if my school made some kind of mistake sending my information. I do know they sent the valedictorian's application to Howard and not Harvard and didn't even send my friend's transcript to Cornell. What Should I Do?