I’m enrolled in a school, but I want to transfer. My senior year of high school, I applied to 12 schools, and was accepted to 2. I was rejected from safety schools, and the two I was accepted to were mid tier UCs. Every school out of state rejected me. My stats were good, I think my recommendations were great, and my essays were decent too. Could I have been blacklisted? There were some very basic safety schools I was rejected from. Should I bother applying to transfer? I’m kind of freaking out. I recently found out that I put one musical award (a level 9 piano certificate) on my application that I didn’t pass. I was supposed to take the test in March, but I never took it, therefore I’m still at level 6. I’ve heard that lying on your application can lead to blacklisting and I was wondering if that could be me? Thanks for the help!
-very stressed out college freshman
“Blacklisting” certainly indicates some sort of unfair conspiracy among colleges and universities. Can you offer any documentations, however slight, that this exists?
On the other hand, is it possible that your multiple denials may have resulted from your own deficiencies, which were apparent in the applications’ documentation? Furthermore, you indicate your “stats were good.” What were they (if they were mediocre (or worse), then your rejections would have a very obvious and reasonable explanation)?
With this said, knowing submission of misleading and/or inaccurate application data – and you’ve acknowledged that you did so – clearly is academic dishonesty. Whether the UC/CSU (and other) institutions share such information, I do not know. Were they to do so, however, it would not constitute “blacklisting,” because the basis would be both factual and appropriate.
I very much doubt there is anything like that going on. It is possible your essay was lousy, and no one edited/told you that. Or maybe you had a bad recommendation and didn’t know it. Or there were typos/problems with your application you didn’t catch. Or some of the schools took interest into account, and you didn’t show it. Or your GC somehow submarined you, possibly unintentionally (told schools they weren’t your first choice or something). I don’t think your piano listing is the problem, though.
So, you knowingly put an award that you hadn’t actually received (at the time of writing your application)? That’s like me writing “Olympic Gold Medalist” even though I didn’t actually go to or win anything at any Olympics… “yet”.
The thing is - if you wrote that you won some national/international/major award, they could easily verify if you’re lying or not. I’m assuming that this award that you lied about can’t be easily verified - so I’m assuming that you weren’t blacklisted? Not too sure. Hopefully someone else can give some input.
I’m not trying to imply the reason I was rejected from schools was because of an unfair conspiracy, my essay very well could have been worse than I had thought – I’ve just been told by a lot of people that they felt their schools/districts were black listed, and that colleges did the same with individuals. I’ve heard of blacklisting for people who applied for ED and also for RD, and for having false information. As for the recommendations, I’ve talked to my counselor and teachers afterwards, and they all seemed very enthusiastic.
I don’t think my basic transcript/SAT stats were bad enough to be the issue. 13 AP classes, 4 & 5s on all the tests (except for chemistry, I got a 3), 3.8 GPA, 2110 SAT. They weren’t extraordinary, but they weren’t that bad, in my opinion.
As for the certification, I took the test every year for 5 years, but I didn’t take it that year even though I was planning to. It wasn’t nearly as serious as saying I was a gold medalist, the only difference was the level, which I didn’t think was too serious, but of course, it was still a misconception that I shouldn’t have endorsed.
I have never heard of someone saying their essays or recommendation letters were bad, of course everyone thinks they are good, but what are you comparing yourself to? How do you know that you showed teh qualities they were looking for? Most people have no idea what a good essay is and thats why the college admissions consulting business is huge.
The “safeties” obviously were not. Perhaps “level of applicant’s interest” or applying to a popular major?
Blacklisting does seem like a conspiracy theory, so I would rule that out. It could have been your essay, your class rank, letters of recommendation…there are a lot of things they consider that people don’t think are a big deal.
You have been accepted to two UCs. What’s the problem? Pick the one you like best, and go there. Don’t worry about the other schools – you only need one. What’s past is past. Congratulations on your acceptances.