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You've Been Put on the Wait List for College. Now What? |
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Written by Zach Miners
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Monday, April 12, 2010 7:05:17 pm MST |
Nobody likes being strung along. But if you're one of the roughly 10 percent of college applicants today who find themselves on a waiting list—the basic equivalent of purgatory when it comes to admissions—that's pretty much what it feels like. "Students on the waiting list anguish over whether or not they have a chance at being admitted," says Cheryl Brown, director of undergraduate admissions at Binghamton University in New York.
If you're being wait-listed by a college or university high on your list, the uncertainty is even worse. But the situation is not entirely out of your hands. Two years ago, we took a look at what strategies savvy students could use to turn that confounding "maybe" into a solid "yes."
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At College Admission Time, Lessons in Thin Envelopes |
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Written by Sue Shellenbarger
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Monday, March 29, 2010 3:47:58 pm MST |
Few events arouse more teenage angst than the springtime arrival of college rejection letters. With next fall’s college freshman class expected to approach a record 2.9 million students, hundreds of thousands of applicants will soon be receiving the dreaded letters.
Teenagers who face rejection will be joining good company, including Nobel laureates, billionaire philanthropists, university presidents, constitutional scholars, best-selling authors and other leaders of business, media and the arts who once received college or graduate-school rejection letters of their own.
Both Warren Buffett and “Today” show host Meredith Vieira say that while being rejected by the school of their dreams was devastating, it launched them on a path to meeting life-changing mentors. Harold Varmus, winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, says getting rejected twice by Harvard Medical School, where a dean advised him to enlist in the military, was soon forgotten as he plunged into his studies at Columbia University’s med school. For other college rejects, from Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy and entrepreneur Ted Turner to broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw, the turndowns were minor footnotes, just ones they still remember and will talk about.
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Why students get rejected from college |
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Written by Jerome A. Lucido
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Monday, March 29, 2010 3:49:55 pm MST |
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March Madness is more than a basketball tournament. It also represents life in the admission office as final decisions about the incoming class are made, and it equally applies to life at home for applicants and their families as they eagerly and anxiously await the decisions.
By April 1, applicants across the nation will know the news. With acceptance rates at selective schools, by definition, at 50 % or less, 25% at my own University of Southern California, and with a rare few hovering near 10%, it’s small wonder why students tremble with fear and parents hold candlelight vigils while they await the admission decision.
Step into my office for a brief counseling session on dealing with college rejection. Frankly, it’s like the tried and true break-up line: “It’s not you; it’s me.” Only this time, the line is true. The truth is that there is always a reason that colleges accept a student, but very often there is not a reason that they don’t. It’s truly nothing you did--or even didn’t do.
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10 Things College-Prep Advisors Won't Tell You |
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Written by AnnaMaria Andriotis
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Monday, March 22, 2010 3:02:33 pm MST |
1. “Your high school counselor can do this job for free.”
Each year, it seems the competition to gain admittance to a top college intensifies. In addition to achieving a high grade point average, being in advanced placement classes and excelling in the SATs (not to mention the SAT subject tests), high school students are also expected to actively involve themselves in extracurricular activities, community volunteer work and to take on leadership positions.
It’s no wonder that every year hopeful parents employ private college counselors in the hopes of setting their kid on the path that will get them into the right school. On average, these counselors charge $95 to $375 an hour, according to the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA), a national association for independent college counselors. (Prices are based on a recent survey of IECA members.) But, in many cases, paying for advice might be unnecessary, since the counselor at your teenager’s high school probably provides similar counsel--free of charge.
The exception would be if your child’s high school has significantly more than 50 or 60 students per guidance counselor—say, 400. In that case, you’d probably want to consider getting a college counselor, says David Burke, director of college counseling at Pembroke Hill School in Kansas City, Mo., and a former admissions officer at Dartmouth.
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