Should Rejected Early Applicant Apply in the Regular-Decision Round?

[ucbalumnus]

@Sally_Rubenstone

I used to agree with this but no longer. Increasingly, I hear of Early round rejections that I wouldn’t have ever predicted. A growing number of students who seem easily strong enough to be accepted EA or ED (or at least strong enough to be deferred and reconsidered) are being denied outright in December instead.

However, it does not matter that people on the outside of the college’s admissions office think that the applicant is strong enough. The actual judgement of the people on the inside of the college’s admissions office is that the applicant is not strong enough to have any chance of admission in the regular decision round, as indicated by the early round rejection. And that is what matters when applying to the college.

@Sue22

Another option, but not one I’d recommend if the student has other acceptances, is to take a gap year and reapply.

Seems unlikely to result in any success with the colleges that previously rejected the applicant, unless the applicant’s credentials vastly improved somehow during the gap year, or the applicant changed to a less popular major at a college where the previously applied-to major was oversubscribed and therefore more competitive.