Reapplying next year to University if rejected: Pros and Cons?

[TranquilMind]

My senior has a couple of highly selective colleges in mind, one in particular. She has the stats, but we all know that there are students with 4.00 GPA's,16 AP's with scores of "5", who are leaders of three clubs getting rejected at all the ivy league and other highly selective schools.

 

She is a year younger than typical graduation age.

 

Here's my question. If you are rejected from your top school, is there any detriment to taking a year off to travel or study or do volunteer work - the prototypical gap year - and then trying again fpr that school (and a few others) the following year? Or are you less likely to be admitted by a school if you have already been rejected once?

Does persistence work? Or just annoy them?

 

Not sure how all that works. But I would not be averse to a gap year anyway, because then this child would be another year older and even more mature (I hope).

 

Pros and Cons? Anyone done this?

[Lori D.]

Usually, a student applies, is accepted by a university, and then applies for a delayed entry due to a gap year. If the student has NOT been accepted by the before the gap year happens, the student may possibly no longer be eligible for some freshman scholarships. The student may instead be viewed as an adult returning to college after time away from academic endeavors.

 

One possible "pro" of a gap year would be that the student could go INTO applying to universities saying what the specific gap experience will entail -- travel, volunteering, creating a business, etc. -- and those experience that could make the student more competitive with those students with oodles of APs and activities.

 

And when applying, use DD's "stats", but especially what is unique about DD, to really stand out as someone the college would like to have.

 

 

Don't know how it works if the university rejects a student, and they reapply a year later after having had life experiences that would make them more "ready" for college... Hopefully Barbara H will jump in with some college counsel here! :)

 

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

[TranquilMind]

Usually, a student applies, is accepted by a university, and then applies for a delayed entry due to a gap year. If the student has NOT been accepted by the before the gap year happens, the student may possibly no longer be eligible for some freshman scholarships. The student may instead be viewed as an adult returning to college after time away from academic endeavors.

 

One possible "pro" of a gap year would be that the student could go INTO applying to universities saying what the specific gap experience will entail -- travel, volunteering, creating a business, etc. -- and those experience that could make the student more competitive with those students with oodles of APs and activities.

 

And when applying, use DD's "stats", but especially what is unique about DD, to really stand out as someone the college would like to have.

 

 

Don't know how it works if the university rejects a student, and they reapply a year later after having had life experiences that would make them more "ready" for college... Hopefully Barbara H will jump in with some college counsel here! :)

 

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

 

Thanks, Lori! This is the summer that she starts all this, and I'm just doing some basic legwork because she is on a plane halfway across the globe and won't be back for a bit.

 

It seems like passion and individuality are the watchwords.

[Beth in OH]

Rejections stink, and they shake your confidence. I would always encourage a student to apply to some schools to which she will likely be accepted so that there are some acceptances in the mix. For my dds, even if they were intellectually ok with the possibility of rejection from a highly competitive school, when it actually happened, they took it personally.

[Brenda in MA]

This might be the kind of question to ask over on college confidential. I think I've read that the upper tier schools do not look kindly upon kids who get rejected and then re-apply the next year -- but you should confirm that.

 

Since she's young, you might look at giving her that extra year to strengthen her applications so she'll have the best chance when she applies the first time. If she's exhausted the courses you can teach, she could look at local uni/CC courses, or perhaps do some kind of research and/or internship in her area of interest in the "extra" year.

 

Best wishes,

Brenda

[Candid]

I'd ask directly to the schools in question. They may have policies that will result in rejection automatically the second year.

 

I'd suggest adding a year to high school and using that year to make her overall application look better the first time she applies.

[Barbara H]

She's even less likely to get in the second go around.That's not to say that it absolutely never results in admissions the second year, but it is taking something that is already a statistical long shot and making it even more long odds. As you said most of the kids rejected are also very high stats kids who could be successful if they were admitted. When schools accept 5% to 10% of students those are just really tough statistics and that's why it makes sense to have a balanced college list.

 

My suggestion would be to encourage her to keep an open mind and broaden her idea of schools that will be a good fit.The book Eight First Choices might be helpful. http://www.amazon.com/First-Choices-Experts-Strategies-Getting/dp/1932662391

[TranquilMind]

I'd ask directly to the schools in question. They may have policies that will result in rejection automatically the second year.

 

I'd suggest adding a year to high school and using that year to make her overall application look better the first time she applies.

 

 

I can't do that, because she is actually in a school on a campus and will be graduated officially at the end of her time there. Unless she didn't go back.

[TranquilMind]

Rejections stink, and they shake your confidence. I would always encourage a student to apply to some schools to which she will likely be accepted so that there are some acceptances in the mix. For my dds, even if they were intellectually ok with the possibility of rejection from a highly competitive school, when it actually happened, they took it personally.

 

 

Yes, that's good advice. Chances are slim...like 5%. Yikes!

[JennW in SoCal]

Rejections stink, and they shake your confidence. I would always encourage a student to apply to some schools to which she will likely be accepted so that there are some acceptances in the mix. For my dds, even if they were intellectually ok with the possibility of rejection from a highly competitive school, when it actually happened, they took it personally.

 

 

:iagree: and

 

My suggestion would be to encourage her to keep an open mind and broaden her idea of schools that will be a good fit.The book Eight First Choices might be helpful. http://www.amazon.co...g/dp/1932662391

 

 

:iagree: with this too.

 

This is definitely the time to broaden the college horizons and look into some other choices. Admissions is a total crap shoot, and even knowing this, those rejections do sting. The idea that only one or two colleges are worth attending is such a recipe for disappointment. Even if she gets in she may find herself utterly miserable! Don't forget, too, that it is possible to transfer after a year or two, and many students do just that.

 

So start considering other schools, private and public, large and small, and be sure to have her apply to a mix of schools. The other titles I would recommend are two by Loren Pope, Colleges that Change Lives and Beyond the Ivies. Of course, I love these titles because my ds wanted a small intellectual school and is attending on of the Colleges That Change Lives!

[Catherine]

 

 

This is definitely the time to broaden the college horizons and look into some other choices. Admissions is a total crap shoot, and even knowing this, those rejections do sting. The idea that only one or two colleges are worth attending is such a recipe for disappointment. Even if she gets in she may find herself utterly miserable! Don't forget, too, that it is possible to transfer after a year or two, and many students do just that.

 

So start considering other schools, private and public, large and small, and be sure to have her apply to a mix of schools. The other titles I would recommend are two by Loren Pope, Colleges that Change Lives and Beyond the Ivies. Of course, I love these titles because my ds wanted a small intellectual school and is attending on of the Colleges That Change Lives!

 

Just chiming to to agree with Jen here, about the process being unpredictable, and that transferring may be possible. I know the word on the street is that very competitive schools don't accept transfers, but that is not true. They do not want to be flooded with applications from students trying again to get into their top choice. In my very small circle, IRL I know a kid, my son's friend, who transferred into an Ivy from a middle-tier school after three semesters. He was not a poor student, and he had been WL there in the first place, but none the less he was accepted. Everything I've heard and read for the past several years suggests this is impossible.