Early Decision Denial? Here are Your Next Steps

If you were denied admission by your early round target school, you are not alone. Schools such as UVA (up 4.4% for Early Decision 1) are reporting increasing numbers of early round applications. This in turn means record-low early decision (ED) acceptance rates. It was once customary for schools to defer most ED applicants who were not successful in the first round for a second chance at consideration in regular decision (RD). However, with the ever-increasing number of applications, more schools are making definitive solutions in the early rounds, as they simply don’t have time to consider each application twice. This makes early round outright denials more common. For example, in a new policy UVA noted this year that “applicants will receive a decision of admit, waitlist or deny for all application rounds (Early Decision, Early Action, and Regular Decision). We are no longer deferring students from our early rounds to regular decision.” Similarly, UNC no longer defers students but offers one of four outcomes: Admitted, Carolina Global Launch, Waitlisted, or Denied.

EARLY DECISION DENIAL: WAKE UP CALL

A denial in ED is understandably disheartening: not only did you not get into your top-choice school, but now you must also work on applications elsewhere in the hope of a better outcome in an even more competitive round. If you wrote about your grit or resiliency in your essays, now is the time to dig in and showcase those attributes. Take one day to mourn, but then use this negative outcome as inspiration to upgrade your application in ways that will lead to more successful news from the other schools on your list.

College admissions can seem like a lottery, but as a former Ivy admissions officer, I can attest that ED applications get far more and closer consideration than applications in later rounds, and nothing about these ED admit/defer/deny outcomes is random. Your denial is a wake-up call that includes the tough but useful message that there are specific reasons for your negative outcome.

In frank terms, your denial means you either:

1) applied to a reach school beyond the range of your qualifications, or

2) made substantial miscalculations of strategy and presentation in preparing your admissions materials, or

3) both

Deferral/Denial and Waitlist Analysis & Guidance

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APPLICATION ADJUSTMENTS

The good news is that any such weaknesses can be fixed before you submit your regular decision applications. Revisit the list of schools you plan to apply to in the next admissions rounds. An ED denial gives you a new reference point about where you stand in the overall admissions pool. For example, if you were denied ED by Dartmouth (19% ED acceptance last year), applying in the regular round to Harvard (<3.4% RD) or Yale (<4.3% RD) would not be a wise use of your application time…depending on how much you can upgrade your application. While denial from one top school does not automatically preclude later acceptance elsewhere if you change your materials to strategically showcase your excellence, you likely need to both reconsider your school choices and cast a wider net to include more “target” and “likely” schools.

Most importantly, step back and earnestly re-assess how you are presenting yourself via all aspects of your application materials. Given your ED denial, something in your application materials is likely holding you back. In holistic admissions at highly competitive schools, all of the individual application components matter and a series of small application miscalculations can compound to lead admissions officers to deny applicants who have great academic credentials otherwise.

Reworking your materials strategically after an ED denial can have a profound effect. For example, two years ago I reviewed the application of a strong academic student “Sophie” who had just been denied by Yale. After revamping her application with our consulting during the last weeks of December, she gained acceptance to Harvard in the regular round. Read Sophie’s full case study:

Sophie’s Story:
After being denied by Yale in Single Choice Early Action, Sophie took advantage of the Top Tier Admissions Application Deferral/Denial Analysis Program to transform her application package and celebrate Regular Decision acceptances from Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and Williams. Sophie was an A/A+ student from the greater Philadelphia area with 6 APs – all 4s and 5s, 760/790 SAT, and advanced coursework in math and science. Her extracurricular accomplishments were significant, including published scientific research and high-level art and music. However, her original application materials had not highlighted these strengths in the ways that would resonate with admissions officers. The TTA program provided her with a frank and constructive assessment of her original application, along with a detailed list of many specific improvements that she could act on quickly before the Regular Decision deadlines.

EARLY DECISION DENIAL: CATALYST FOR SUCCESS

This successful outcome is not unusual: applicants who use their ED denial as inspiration to revamp their applications can achieve acceptance at other schools that are high on their lists. Yet, there are three inherent challenges that can get in the way.

It is critical to internalize that an ED rejection is of your application, not you as a person; all that the admissions reviewers knew of you were the materials included in your Common App, which is a tiny fraction of who you are overall, and which you have the ability to revise.
There is very little time to make this application pivot, given that most ED results come out in mid-December and many RD applications are due in the first days of January. You simply don’t have the luxury of time to lament your ED denial. You must launch immediately into productive and strategic work on your other applications.
It is hard to achieve a useful perspective on your materials when you are close to them as an applicant; for this reason, it is useful to consult with an admissions expert, someone who can give you advice about your application and, critically, how it is likely to be interpreted and assessed by someone reading thousands of applications so that you can highlight your most compelling qualities and accomplishments.

EXPERT GUIDANCE

At Top Tier Admissions we use our years of expertise to analyze what went amiss and how best to fix all strategy and application issues. Students who take action with our Denial Analysis & Guidance Program are able to completely rework their applications and revise their essays strategically. We devote ourselves to working with only a few select students during this critical time. Students who complete this program are able to completely transform their admissions prospects, including (last year):

a student denied from Yale in the Single Choice Early Action round who was accepted to Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia in Regular.
a student who was denied from Brown in Early Decision who was accepted to the University of Chicago in the second Early Decision round.
a student who was denied from Stanford in the Single Choice Early Action round and had several Ivy+ acceptances in Regular.

While a denial is a definite setback, it can also be a catalyst for ultimate success in the college application process if you take strategic action.

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Heidi Lovette

Senior Private Counselor at Top Tier Admissions

As Assistant Director of Admissions, Heidi evaluated and made executive decisions on 7,000+ undergraduate applications to Cornell University’s College of Arts & Sciences. With additional experience in the admissions offices of Dartmouth College and Temple University, she brings deep insight into the review process at highly selective institutions. Heidi’s admissions experience is complemented by a 15-year career in communications and publishing. As Medical Editor at Cambridge University Press and Science Editor at Cornell University Press, Heidi collaborated with STEM faculty and physician authors to bring dozens of books to successful publication. Heidi now enjoys using both her firsthand admissions experience and editorial skills to advise students on how to distinguish themselves in the admissions process.

After attending Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California, Heidi graduated cum laude with an Honors thesis from Dartmouth College as a double major in Classical Archaeology and Comparative Literature. At the University of Pennsylvania, Heidi was a Williams Fellow in the graduate program of Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. She has conducted archaeological field work in Sardinia, Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey.