Being rejected from a college certainly can be a big disappointment, but that doesn’t have to be the end of the story. Most colleges
allow students to reapply, but not for the same term for which a rejection was issued.
But before applying for a second time, it’s important to be open to other options besides the first-choice school, especially since there are nearly 4,000 degree-granting colleges in the United States, says Samantha R. Wright, chief enrollment officer at St. John’s University in New York.
“I try to encourage students to not get discouraged through the admission process because what I find is that there is a school for every student, regardless of their background,” she says. “Every year, there are students who go to a school that may not have been their first choice and (they) go on to be very successful.”
Here are some tips that experts say students should consider before reapplying to colleges.
[Read: What to Do While Waiting for College Admissions Decisions]
Under What Circumstances Should You Reapply to a College?
Students rejected for insufficient academic preparedness should take a full year to improve their academic record before reapplying, Wright says.
“That way, they have a full year of, ideally, full-time enrollment (at another institution) where they can demonstrate that their potential to be successful has changed since the point when they originally applied,” she says.
Reapplying to a college makes sense when there’s new and meaningful evidence that can be included in the application, including a strong year of grades as a transfer student, a productive gap year or the resolution of a genuinely disruptive issue, says Pierre Huguet, CEO and founder of H&C Education, a college admissions consulting firm in Boston.
“What rarely works is reapplying the very next cycle with essentially the same profile. Without new evidence, the outcome usually doesn’t change,” he wrote in an email.
Since colleges typically don’t disclose why they rejected students in the first place, those seeking to reapply should look at the rejecting school’s website to see the average student profile and get a better sense of how they compare academically, Wright says.
Does a Rejection Hurt Your Chances When Applying Again?
A prior rejection typically doesn’t hurt a student’s chances when reapplying, since admissions committees evaluate each application on its own merits, Huguet says.
But committees can often see prior applications, so if the new one looks essentially identical, there’s no reason for a different outcome, he says.
“The ‘hurt’ comes from the absence of new evidence, not the rejection itself,” Huguet adds. “Transfer applications largely reset the picture through college-level performance.”
[READ: First-Year College Students: What You Need to Know to Succeed]
What Factors Should You Consider Before Reapplying?
Consider your goals and personal priorities, Wright says.
Think about “‘Why do I want to go to this particular institution? What am I going to get out of the degree at this institution if I ultimately get in and go there?’ And, candidly, the feasibility of gaining admission,” she says.
Students should strongly consider discussing their goals and priorities with high school guidance counselors or community college counselors to help with decision-making and goal-setting, Wright says.
What Should You Do to Prepare to Reapply?
Preparing to reapply to a college is a yearlong project, and those who do well in this endeavor fully commit to that, whether it’s at another college or during a gap year, Huguet says.
“The most important factor for transfer applicants is building a strong college transcript with rigorous courses, ideally a GPA well above the target school’s transfer admit average, while cultivating new recommenders among college professors who genuinely know their academic work,” he says.
Also, those seeking to reapply should know the school’s transfer requirements — including deadlines, prerequisites, GPA thresholds and essay requirements — early in the year, Huguet says.
“Tracking accomplishments as they happen, understanding the financial aid picture for transfers (which is often less generous), and keeping plan B genuinely alive are all essential, because the year needs to be worthwhile on its own terms regardless of how the reapplication turns out,” he says.
Should You Bother Appealing a Rejection?
It’s very rare for a college to overturn a rejection due to an appeal, according to the College Board, a New York-based nonprofit that also develops and administers the SAT.
[READ: What Parents Should Know About the College Admissions Timeline]
Most selective schools don’t have a formal appeals process, and among those that do, success rates are typically low — in the single digits, Huguet says.
“Successful appeals almost always require new, substantive information that wasn’t available at the time of the original decision, such as a major national-level award, a significant test score increase, a corrected transcript error, or a documented serious illness or crisis that affected the original application,” he says.
But what won’t work is appealing based on disappointment or arguing that the committee misjudged the application, Huguet says.
A better use of time is channeling energy into committing to another college, planning a strong first year in order to possibly transfer, or designing a productive gap year, he says.
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Can You Reapply to a College After Being Rejected? originally appeared on usnews.com