Why You Were Denied

(I have edited for length and clarity from the original by Jon Boeckenstedt, a longtime respected university admissions professional.)

As Early Decision admission decisions roll in, the understandable confusion from parents, counselors, and students rolls in behind them. Few are questioning acceptances; it’s the denials (imprecisely called “rejections” by students and families) that cause the stress.

We’re talking about the colleges everyone talks about. Those of us who sit on stage at high school events where stressed parents (and by osmosis, their stressed children) ask, “What do colleges want?” or “Why is it so hard to get into <insert college not listed above>?”

At the colleges not listed above, your ability to control things is less than you think.

• Who reads your file: The admissions office may have dozens (or more) first readers. That person is subject to all the biases and random events that affect attitude on any day. The day your file pops up, they could have gotten an acknowledgment from a boss, or their dog might have died. They might like your sarcastic and ironic tone, or it might cause them to stop reading your file before finishing your essay.

• When your file gets read: Your file might pop up after the application of a brilliant researcher or the one who submitted the worst essay of the year. It might get read at 10 am on a Tuesday, or 4pm on a Friday, with dozens more to read before the reader can knock off for the weekend.

• What other people say about you: Your letter of recommendation might not be glowing, even though the teacher who submitted it loved you. When I worked at Grinnell, an Iowan student’s teacher wrote “she’s not afraid to ask questions if she doesn’t understand the content.” Any Iowan would recognize that as a compliment, but if you’re not from Iowa, let me translate: “Although her academic record shows that this student is the best our high school has produced in years, she is nonetheless still blessed with that humbleness we expect. She doesn’t think she’s better than her classmates.” One faculty member (a native of Brooklyn, New York read this and said, “Clearly, this student is slow on the uptake.”

• Whether your grandparents’ have their name on a campus building: If your name is Barney Rubble VI, and the library is named “The Betty and Barney Rubble IV Memorial Library,” your file will get more attention, even before the Advancement Office signs the deal on the Pebbles and Bam-Bam Rubble Recreation Center. (Yes, Bam-Bam was actually named Barney Rubble V, and he and Pebbles did marry after the series ended.)

• The college’s preferences: At some colleges, standardized tests are still important, even if the college reluctantly went test-optional during the pandemic. At some of those institutions, submitting tests can hurt you; at others, not submitting tests can hurt you. You have no way of knowing this or predicting which college is which (unless they come out and say it, like MIT and Purdue have done recently by re-instating testing requirements for Fall 2024 admission).

• How a college views a choice you made in your senior schedule: At a New England prep school, a student said she would graduate with seven AP courses, but worried that if she took a pottery course she really wanted to take, she couldn’t take an eighth. She asked how her “top choice” might react to that, and what she should do. I thought for a moment and suggested that she consider: “If your top choice doesn’t value your decision, why do you think it should be your top choice?” She was not satisfied.

The lesson here is that you will never know why you were not admitted; it’s almost never one factor. And you won’t know if you missed it by a hair or a mile. It is perhaps a cruel but poignant lesson that will be repeated many times in your life. Sometimes things don’t go your way. And even when they don’t, they usually turn out just fine.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DIGITAL SAT

There is a lot of buzz about the digital SAT, but it won't impact US students before the class of 2025. Read below:

Class of 2024: The digital SAT won’t be here until March of your senior year, well after your testing process is complete. Prepare for years of complaining about how you were in the last HS class to take a 3+ hour SAT using pencil and paper. You can even say you had to walk uphill both ways to get to the test.

Class of 2025: You’re the most affected by the switch. In the fall of Junior year, you will be part of the first class to take the digital version of the PSAT. In the spring of 2024, you’ll have the opportunity to take the digital SAT. Importantly, if you perform well on the current version of the SAT, it will still be offered in the fall and winter of your junior year.

This means you’ll be able to pick and choose between the current SAT, the digital SAT, and the ACT. If the current SAT speaks to you, it might be worthwhile to push your testing plan earlier into the junior year so that you can take the paper version of the test. If you don’t perform as well as you hope to, there’s nothing stopping you from also taking the digital test in the spring of junior year or fall of senior year.

Class of 2026 and beyond: Read, study, and focus on your grades. You will surely be taking the digital SAT!

Submitting Scores? Excerpts from Jeff Selingo’s "Next"

“In the spring, Hannah Wolff, a former college counselor at Langley High School, a top-ranked high school in the wealthy suburbs of Washington, D.C., heard from admissions counselors at several public universities that a few Langley seniors who were rejected might have been admitted if they had not submitted their SAT scores, which were in the 1350 range. While a 1350 would have been considered a good score in the past at those schools, now, when the only applicants submitting scores are mostly those well above the average, the expectations of admissions officers have risen with the scores — especially for applicants from wealthy academic powerhouses like Langley.”

As a result, there is no good advice—even from counselors and admissions deans. “Two years in, counselors have no idea: What is a good score? Do I submit a score or not? And if so, should all colleges on my list get my score?"

—As Jeff Makris, director of college counseling at Stuyvesant High School in New York, told me, "'the more we tell [students] what to do, the more we become scapegoats when they don’t get in.’”

I (Pamela) work with Stuyvesant students and understand why this is a Catch-22 for Makris. They generally apply to Ivies and Ivy overlaps. About the same number of his students are admitted to Ivy League colleges now as six years ago, though many more apply.

What might surprise students and parents from a few years ago, however, is the next set of colleges Makris mentioned: Northeastern, Case Western, and Boston University. In 2016, 298 students applied to Northeastern, and 91 were admitted; last year, applications jumped to 422, but only 49 were admitted. In 2017 and last year, 129 Stuy students applied to Case Western, but admits were almost cut in half to 36. In 2016, the BU acceptance rate for Stuy’s students was 43 percent; last year, it was 14 percent."

Who wins? Highly rated public universities like SUNY Binghamton. Only 50-75 Stuyvesant students typically enroll, but 124 enrolled for fall 2022.