Can I appeal an admissions decision?
In the annual cycle of college admissions, we’re now at the stage where most high school seniors considering college have submitted some or all of their college applications. Those who applied Early Decision or Early Action, and even some who applied Regular Decision, have begun hearing back from schools about whether they’ve been accepted, rejected, or waitlisted.
Most students who apply to at least one “reach” school experience at least one rejection. As nearly all adults can attest, rejection is unpleasant. Applicants who get rejected—especially when it happens at their “dream” school where they thought they had a good shot at admission—may feel frustrated, angry, sad, misunderstood, and/or unappreciated. These feelings are to be expected, and are a natural part of the learning and maturation process.
Once an applicant navigates these feelings and is in a position to begin planning next steps, it may be natural to wonder: Is there anything I can do? Can I appeal an admissions decision?
The short answer to this question, in most cases, is yes. Most colleges do have a process by which your application can be reviewed a second time. You can contact the admissions office to find out why your application was rejected, and you can ask what their appeals process is. Normally the process involves writing a letter to the admissions committee, and including a letter of support from the college counselor at your high school that corroborates your reasons for appeal.
Before you get too excited, though, let me offer a few words of caution. First, most appeals do not result in a reversal of the college’s original decision. Second, if you were rejected in the first place, you may find that the school is not a great fit for you—which was likely the reason your application was denied in the first place. You may struggle academically and/or socially, and you may end up not graduating from that school. Third, do you really want to set yourself up for the pain of another round of rejection?
That said, there could be good cause for appeal. Let’s say you re-took the SAT in the fall and raised your score by 80 points, and now your score is above the average score of admitted freshmen. That could be enough to nudge your application from “borderline” to “admitted.” The same could be true if you significantly raised your GPA during fall semester of your senior year, or if you led your cross-country team to a state championship. That is to say, there is new information that wasn’t in your original application that has a strong possibility of swaying the admissions committee.
In my role as college admissions counselor, rather than pushing applicants to appeal admissions decisions, I gently encourage them to move their #2 choice into the #1 slot if they can see their way to doing it. Students are more likely to receive a competitive merit scholarship from a “target” or “match” school than from a “reach” school. And they are more likely to feel a sense of inclusion and belonging at a school that wanted them in the first place. College admissions isn’t about getting accepted at the most competitive school possible—it’s about setting you up for success both academically and socially, at the college level and beyond.
