College Rejection: How to Handle It
Level 2: Admissions 101
Welcome back! Around this time, students begin to receive admissions decisions on whether they have been accepted, waitlisted, or rejected from college.
The hope for all of you is that you have several acceptance letters, and the choice is yours. But that will not always be the case.
In the ideal world, you have planned accordingly by selecting the right colleges ahead of time in your college prep process, but that’s not always possible. This article focuses on rejection\.
When you think about college rejection, there are basically three camps:
You were rejected from your top choice(s)
You were rejected from most schools and left with suboptimal choices
You were rejected from all colleges
Option 1: You were rejected from your top choice(s)
If you find yourself rejected from a top choice college or university, there a few things you should consider.
First, most people will be in this situation. Overwhelmingly, students are applying to more colleges and universities than ever before, with greater selectivity breeding additional rejections. It is incredibly uncommon for an applicant to be accepted to every college or university they apply to if they apply to a relatively large number of colleges and universities.
In this situation, you have other options. The best thing to do is to prioritize the colleges that you were accepted to and use the full set of information available to you. If you have not already done that, prioritize based on the following:
The college’s ability to help you attain the next step (e.g., a job, grad school)
The college’s financial aid package
The college that is the best social fit for you
The college that has the strongest alumni network
The college that has the most diverse course offerings
The college that meets the most other preferences for the applicant (e.g., close to home, in a specific geographic location)
If a college checks off the first 3, this should now be your top choice. 4-6 are more so tiebreakers available if you have multiple offers that are equally strong in 1-3.
Once you have your top choice, go with it. Do not debate it or try to justify a different choice. The long-term goal is the reason you are choosing this college.
Option 2: You were rejected from most schools and left with suboptimal choices
Unfortunately, this does happen to applicants. This usually occurs because someone applied to a college that they had no intention of going to but simply did due to a non-goal oriented reason (e.g., it is a parent’s alma mater, it was a free application on the Common app, etc.).
The first step is defining what suboptimal is and is NOT.
Suboptimal colleges are:
Colleges that allow you to study your interests, but may not be well known in that area
Colleges that may not be offering the financial aid that you had hoped for and will be more expensive than planned
Colleges that you apply to and then visit and realize are not as great on the social level as you believed they would be
That’s it. If a college does not meet your requirements, it’s a NO. Do not go. Do not waste time and money going to a college “just to go.”
When you have a choice between suboptimal choices, the immediate thought is that you can always go and simply transfer to another college. That can work, but our recommendation is as follows:
If a college can meet your interest requirements, and meets either the cost OR the social fit, this is probably your top choice.
If you cannot find a college that meets your interests and either cost constraints or social fit, choose the college that is the most cost effective and fits you socially with the plan to transfer.
This is a very unique situation. If College A has your major but College B does not, but College B is affordable and a social fit, you need to go and take entry level courses that will transfer to any college, but specifically a target school. This is only recommended if College B does not have your specific major, but has something similar enough to it (e.g., does not have a finance major but does have a business major)
If you can only find colleges that have one of the above, pick the one that meets your interests if you are sure on what you want to study. If you have multiple interests, pick the college with the best cost.
Option 3: You were rejected from all colleges
This is often viewed as the worst outcome - what do you do if every college has told you no?
This is when you re-evaluate and assess your application. Some admissions departments will actually give you the comments made on your application specifically so you know exactly why they did or did not accept you.
But the most important thing you can do is diagnose the issue:
Did you apply to enough colleges?
Did you apply to colleges that were too selective?
Were specific parts of your application not competitive?
Did you submit everything on time?
There are certain aspects that you can improve (e.g., the SAT) and certain aspects you cannot change (e.g., GPA).
If you can improve it, take the time and make a plan to enhance your application. And if you cannot, then assess other options:
Community college
Less competitive colleges or universities
Online colleges and universities
Each of these options does not have to be a forever option. You simply need to show that you can handle the next level of education and plan an exit based off of it.
Conclusion:
College rejection does not have to be the end. Everyone deals with rejection, and the best way to handle it often is to understand that the rejection of an application is not the rejection of you as a person.