Let’s face it- applying to and getting accepted into college can be a stressful situations. After all, there are several things that can happen in addition to getting accepted. In order to be prepared for one of these other situations it is a good idea to know how they could apply for you. The fact of the matter is that unless you are super qualified for the college that you are applying for you may not get in right away. If this happens to you there may still be a chance that you get accepted after all- just make sure you know what the circumstances are.
The most unfortunate things that can happen is that you are denied admission into the school that you really wanted to get into. Simply put, if you are denied admission you need to begin to look elsewhere- hopefully you have a backup plan. When you do get denied you will get a letter in the mail thanking you for your interest but stating that your application was denied. In most cases the letter will not give you a reason for your denial. If you are confused about your rejection, or just want more information, do not hesitate to call the office of admissions. They will be able to give you the reasons why you were denied admission. If your application gets deferred this means that you still have a chance of being accepted. Your application is most likely borderline and will be evaluated again a month or two down the road. When your application gets deferred you will get a letter in the mail stating so. However, if you have applied to a smaller campus you may get a phone call from the admissions office as well stating that you have been deferred. When you do, however, learn that your application has been deferred the first thing that you need to do is figure out ways to strengthen it. For example, you may want to take your college board exams again in an effort to get better scores or you may want to have additional letters of recommendation sent to the school. When the admissions committee reviews your application for the second time it will be stronger than it was before. A final circumstance that can pop up is that you get put on the waitlist. Once again, being on the waitlist does not mean that you are out of the race yet. Most schools decide early in the year how many freshman they need to enroll for the following year. For example, a college may say that they want to enroll 1,000 new freshman. What this means is that they will accept maybe 2,000 freshman in hopes that half of them will decide to come to the school. Any other qualified applicants over the 2,000 already accepted will be placed on the waitlist. If after an allotted period of time the goal of 1,000 is not met then students on the waitlist will be accepted and given the option to enroll.
