How often does kid not get into any colleges?

Hi! Deeply concerned and seeking moral support. Not over yet but I have a high performing kid who took the most rigorous classes, busted her tail for four years and it appears may not get into any colleges. She applied to 15. Per Naviance and.counselor recommendation, she applied to 6 reaches, 2 matches and 7 match/safety schools. Thus far, she has been denied at 2 reaches and waitlisted at 3 safety schools. At the 3 safety schools, nobody with her stats has ever previously been denied. Per our counselor, her rigor is within top 5% of very large, high performing high school. 33 ACT, 4.85 GPA. Extensive extra-curricular and community service. Great recs (one teacher asked to write it and she is as an assistant teacher (selected by that teacher) for the other rec-AP class). We are being told the waitlisted schools did not think she’d attend. While the denied schools are just hard. She was waitlisted at the three “easiest”. The naviance stats for the other 4 safety and 2 match schools become more challenging. The reach schools are obviously a crap shoot (mostly Ivy). There is no discipline history or anything else in her apps we know of as problematic. Her counselor says her app is “beautiful” and chalks it up to bad luck.counselor saying she’s never had “this” happen before and is perplexed for a reason.

The pressure and stress of a talented and hard working kid potentially not getting into college next year is off the charts. Has anyone been in this position? Might she really not get into a college? Any advice? I know we have more to hear from but the reaches seem totally out of bounds at this point and the Match/safety no longer seem attainable either. She applied ED to the one Selective school she was denied from and EA to the safeties she was waitlisted at. Thank you in advance.

Did she apply to any of her instate public schools?

No. All private and one OOS public.

I don’t know the answer to your question. But I am sorry that you are in this stressful situation. Hopefully something will come through, or someone here can help you out.

Thank you. I appreciate your comment very much.

I am not sure what happened… I don’t know where you live or where your daughter applied. In the meantime… she has not received all of her decisions…? Your daughter can talk to the GC… he/she can call a WL school and explain that she will attend if taken off the list. I am not sure what your daughter’s safety schools are… ?

I am sorry for the stress this is causing.

Did she apply with the same intended major to all or most schools? Do her ECs and classes align with her major; show her intellectual interests?

15 applications is a large number to write. Admissions departments pay particular attention to the “Why do you want to attend our school” long essay prompts.

You may ask the guidance counselor to call one or two schools and have a conversation with the admissions department. With 10 decisions left to receive, luck will likely turn her way.

Thank you. I’m going to call the head counselor at our school this am. I had wanted to speak with him last week but our assigned counselor said there was no need. I should only work through her. She’s sweet and feels terrible. I asked her to call one of the waitlisted schools to ask why and what my daughter should do. I received a nice but concerning email back saying she couldn’t figure out who to call at the school, didn’t want to call the main admissions number and get “the run around” but she’d work on it. That was 2 days ago. I’ve heard nothing since. How does she not have a contact there? Our school sends dozens of kids to this college every year. Hoping the main counselor will take my call and offer insight. Thanks again.

She did apply with the same major. EC are fine arts related and community service so they do not align with major but do with minors (where offered). Putting that many apps out was exhausting. After the ED decision came and two EA deferrals (which are now waitlist), added a bunch to be safe. Didn’t exactly work out. I hope you’re right in that luck will turn her way. Thank you.

It is nerve wrecking. Take a deep breath. She still has 10 schools to go. My daughter was in the same boat a while back. She was WL at schools where they didn’t she would attend and was denied at most reach schools. She was accepted to 2 good schools and did get off those 2 WL schools.
I wouldn’t call those WL schools yet because she should get her results back from other schools before she tells those WL schools she will attend. The adcoms are also very busy right now taking angry phone calls from people. Wait until middle of April before contacting them.
Some public school GCs won’t contact the adcom, but it doesn’t stop your daughter or you from calling. Keeping my fingers crossed for your D. If you have to go to WL you can search for some of my posts on my D or PM me.

There is a thread here somewhere written by a high stats kid who was shut out of all of his schools. He took a gap year and had a successful second round and it all turned out well. Can someone link that?

OP, I’m very sorry that you guys are going through this. I can’t imagine the stress. Hoping that you get some good news in the next week.

sometimes safety schools catch on that the student will probably not go there so they deny as to offer up space to other students who will actually go there

just curious, what are her leadership positions like?

It sounds like you have quite a few more match/safeties to hear from, so don’t panic. Yield protection can be a real thing at some of the safeties and perhaps a reason for the wls. Have your D express interest directly in those WL schools. Have her send a note directly to the regional admissions contact at those schools.

Thank you all for your insight and kindness. I will look up your old posts oldfort. If anyone can find the link to the high stat kid with the gap year, I’d appreciate reading.

As for leadership, she was selected as an assistant teacher for a junior AP class. She was also selected as a PE leader (assistant teacher as well). She’s also the captain of her dance team and started a program to teach dance to inner city teens.

Could it be our financial aid app? We live in an affluent district where many kids can likely full pay. Maybe if they’re going to take from our school, they’d rather have a full pay? Although nearly all the schools said they were need blind. And we don’t need a lot of aid. The calculators showed $3K-$10K (except Princeton showed $30K) so we applied for aid as $3K-$10K would certainly help our family.

I really want to genuinely thank you all for your support and insight. It helps.

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Also thanks for the advice about waiting to call the waitlist schools. Makes a lot of sense

@3littlebirds I know this is stressful, but don’t borrow trouble from the future! Just wait a week before doing anything. Your daughter will likely get into one of her matches.

If you keep reading people’s responses and answering questions that are designed to make you wonder what you could/should have done differently, you’ll only feel worse, because this is no longer in your family’s control.

I strongly encourage you to disengage from this site until the end of the month, then report back on your daughter’s successes.

If you really want to do something proactive, you could start to investigate other options. If your state flagship is an acceptable back up and is still accepting applications, she could send a quick one in. Or perhaps investigate other public instate options if the flagship is too big, or too competitive, or you are past the deadline.

At this point…be patient…wait for the other admissions decisions. There was another recent thread where a parent was absolutely sure that her kid was not going to get accepted anywhere, and happily…he DID get accepted!

Also, it’s very hard to give you real solid advice without knowing the schools. For example, if the OOS public was UNC CH or U Michigan or UVA…those schools are as competitive for admissions as many elite private universities for out of state students.

Regardless…wait for now. I’ll be there are lots of us keeping our fingers crossed for your kiddo!!

Here it is - http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/2060945-not-accepted-anywhere-so-gap-year-p1.html