May 31

How to Get Accepted Into a College After Being Denied Admission

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There’s nothing worse than receiving a rejection letter after working so hard on your college application. However, even if the school you wish to apply to rejects you because they feel you’re not their ideal candidate, you can still apply to the same college that rejected your application.

In general, you can apply to the same college following a rejection provided you do so the following year. If you got a rejection in the Early Decision, it’s unlikely you’ll get an admission in the Regular Decision. The most effective strategy for dealing with college rejection is to create a more balanced college list, retake the SAT or ACT, or take a gap year.

Before we go any further, we’d like to make it abundantly clear that college admission rejection is not a death sentence. Many students who previously failed to receive admission letters to their school of choice applied to other schools, got admissions, studied, and achieved success later in life.

In other words, even if you don’t get an admission to an institution of your choice, you still have an opportunity to reapply to the same school or send out your application to another institution altogether. The most effective strategy for dealing with college rejection is to create a more balanced college list, retake the SAT or ACT, or take a gap year.  

How to Get Accepted into a College After Being Denied

There are things you can do to get accepted into a college after being denied initially. You can:

  • Wait for regular decision results
  • Consider applying to a different college that offers the same course
  • Improve your college application
  • Retake the SAT or ACT to improve your scores 
  • Take a Gap Year
  • Transfer to your dream college after awhile

Let’s look at each of these options in-depth.

1. Wait for Regular Decision Results

Have you applied to your college of choice via Early Decision or Early Action?

You can:

  • Receive a letter of acceptance
  • Get a polite rejection letter
  • Have your application postponed

You can see a deferral as a second opportunity at admission. It means that the admissions officers of the college effectively communicating to you that your application is competitive, but not strong enough to deserve an early acceptance.

Your application will be placed in the Regular Decision pool, where it will be re-reviewed, which is beneficial because the Regular Decision pool is often less competitive than the Early Decision or Early Action pools.

2. Apply to a Different College

The window between the Early Decision or Action application deadline and the Regular Decision date is normally two to three months. So, you have enough time to reconsider your college list, especially if the reason for an early rejection or deferral is because the institution is not an ideal fit.

Your college list will be unbalanced if it does not include an appropriate balance of reach, match, and safety institutions.

It is OK to be ambitious and apply to prominent schools and universities even if your academic profile does not match what these institutions are looking for. What’s wrong is when you don’t apply to institutions where your odds of acceptance vary from probable to extremely likely.

3. Improve Your College Application

Are you planning to reapply to the same institution?

Do not resubmit the same application that you submitted in the past. Otherwise, you are likely get the same response as the first time.

In other words, you’ll need to improve your college application to increase your chances of getting an admission to the very same college or university that denied you an admission in the first place.

Writing an admission essay afresh is an excellent idea. If you received a denial or deferral during the Early Decision, you have plenty of time to write a fresh essay before other schools and institutions’ Regular Admissions deadlines.

You will have two to three weeks to complete an admissions essay, so you have enough time to refine the essay so that it’s an impressive and a captivating read, one that can easily grab the attention of anyone who reads it – particularly the admissions officers.

Additionally, ask a different group of professors to write your recommendation letters if you believe that your previous ones contributed to your application getting a rejection. This time, ensure that your professors are familiar with you and can attest to your potential as a college student.

4. Retake the SAT or ACT to Improve Your Scores 

Whether you want to apply Regular Decision following an Early Decision rejection or you want to take a gap year, it might help to retake SAT or ACT if you are dissatisfied with your previous standardized test result.

Aim to submit a high SAT or ACT score, even if the school’s admissions policy is test-optional.

To be clear, choosing not to submit your standardized test result does not put you at a disadvantage in the admissions process of a test-optional institution. However, allowing admissions personnel to see your SAT or ACT score might help increase your chances of acceptance the next time you apply.

5. Take a Gap Year

If you’re upset with a rejection letter to your college admission application, it may be a good idea to take a gap year.

A gap year is just a period between high school graduation and college enrollment. The gap can help you discover yourself, allowing you to reconsider your degree option and career you wish to pursue.

Occasionally referred to as a sabbatical year, a gap year is best spent pursuing useful activities, particularly those that will help you grow and improve your chances of admission the next time you begin applying schools where you wish to pursue a degree.

6. Transfer to Your Dream College Later

Simply because you received an admission rejection letter from the school you wished to join does not mean you should give up the opportunity to get a degree and a good profession.

If you think about it, at least 3,982 universities offer degree programs in the United States. If anything, there’s a high chance that at least one of them, excluding what you consider your ideal school, will accept your application and admit you.

What makes this this a clever approach is that you can utilize it to boost your chances of getting an admission to your institution of choice.

Admissions personnel thoroughly analyze the applications of prospective first-year students to determine their readiness for college. However, nothing can demonstrate that you are college-ready more than being a current college student. So if you can demonstrate to the school you’ve always wanted to join that you have previous college experience, they might accept your application.

Final Thoughts

It’s normal to receive a rejection letter from an admissions committee. So instead of abandoning your desire to earn a degree, it’s a lot better idea to visualize the rejection as an opportunity to develop a better application that will get you the best response the next time you apply for college. 

Keep in mind that the likelihood of ordinary candidates getting a rejected letter from their dream institutions is between 90% and 95%. So, there is no reason to feel humiliated about not being in your school of choice. After all, you can always reapply to the same school or consider another institution that has a higher acceptance rate. 


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