<p>Does anyone have experience in appealing? Is it harder to appeal a top college than a mid-tier one?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Well, yes, of course it’s harder to appeal a rejection at a more selective college. Not only do they get thousands more applications than they can take to begin with, they also typically get a higher yield from their admitted students. And, many top schools built bigger waitlists this year, so it is likely that they’d turn to their wait list before taking someone they’ve rejected out right. </p>
<p>However, the chances of appealing an outright rejection at ANY school - highly selective or not - are pretty dim. Usually, the only chance for a successful appeal of an outright rejection is if there was something major left out of the application package. For instance, a student caught up in the College Board’s foul up of the October test scores who actually had a score 150 or 200 points higher than what the college board reported to the school <em>might</em> have a chance at an appeal. A student who is just saying “reconsider, please” out of desperation with nothing substantially new in his application probably will have little or no chance.</p>
<p>Realistically, it’s probably better to take a deep sigh, gather your britches, and move on to other options than it is to keep beating a dead horse.</p>
<p>Let me be blunt. There are these things called waiting lists. At most top colleges there are literally hundreds of people on them. If you’ve been rejected, there’s just no way the college is going to change that decision and let you leap frog over the hundreds of kids on the waiting list.</p>