There’s a lot that goes into deciding which colleges to apply for, and your search will need to expand beyond figuring out which schools offer your preferred major. You’ll also need to consider the cost of attending different schools (including your potential return-on-investment), and how much financial aid you’ll ultimately receive.
And how about extracurricular activities? Accreditation? Geographical location? These are all factors you’ll want to explore as you narrow down your list of schools.
A blank college application form with pen resting across it.
5 Reasons Your College Application May Be Rejected
Also note that you’ll probably apply to several different colleges in the end, and there’s nothing wrong with this strategy. After all, some schools can provide more institutional aid than others, and you might as well have a backup plan if you don’t get accepted to your first choice, right?
Still, experts say there’s a big problem in the college admissions world — and it’s one that’s rarely talked about. Small or careless mistakes on an application can impact your admissions goals in a big way, including barring your acceptance from the school you want.
According to Yale graduate and college admissions expert Colette Coleman of Zinc Learning Labs, this is especially true in 2019 as competition continues to heat up.
“There are many more international applicants than there used to be, but the same number of spots,” she says.
If you want one of those spots to be yours, you must make sure you’re academically up to par and avoid the most common college application mistakes.
Here are some of the biggest reasons your college application may be denied if you’re not careful:
1. Your College Application Is Too Generic
Coleman says many students want to "play it safe" when it comes to college admissions, so they mostly try to check off all the boxes. They might play a sport, volunteer, and spend their junior summer in Costa Rica, and that’s all good and well.
“The problem with this profile is that it doesn't stand out,” she said. ‘It's everyone's plan.”
Worse, it doesn't show where a student excels or what gets them excited.
That’s why Colemans says that, to get an application noticed and accepted, it would be better to approach college admissions with honesty.
“An application that shows a student with the grit to pursue an interest deeply is much more impressive than a cookie cutter one,” she says.
2. You’re Exaggerating
Jennifer Winward, Ph.D. runs a college prep company called Winward Academy and says some students don’t play it safe to the point where they include outright lies in their application. This usually takes place when they include so many extracurricular activities and hours that it looks fishy to the naked eye.
“Students need to be careful to accurately represent their weekly time commitments to leadership activities, athletics, work, and extracurriculars,” she says. “I've seen students who exaggerate their hourly commitment and when they total it up, they're representing weekly commitments that are simply not possible.”
3. Leaving Questions Unanswered
Some college applications take more time than others, and you will likely need to answer a few questions in essay form. But you’ll also need to make sure anything unusual on your application has some sort of explanation. For example, if you have a particularly low grade in a class or a long period of your life without any activities, you may want to elaborate on that part of your schoolwork or your life.
For the most part, Winward says students need to make sure there is nothing in an application that leaves someone in admissions wondering “what happened here?”
4. Typos Galore
Jeremy Rovinsky, who serves at Dean & General Counsel at National Paralegal College, says a lot of students have their applications rejected due to basic misspellings, typos, and major grammar mistakes.
This should go without saying, but if you are applying for admission to an institution of higher education, don't make careless mistakes on your application! Rovinsky says the student has the burden of proving to the institution that he or she will be able to thrive in an academic environment, and this means paying attention to spelling and grammar at a bare minimum.
And don’t forget that grammar and spelling aren’t the only errors someone can make. Winward says she’s seen many scenarios where a college student will write one college essay then copy and paste that essay into all their applications.
“Neither essay will be specific enough to compel admissions counselors,” she says. “And even worse, sometimes students even forget to change the college name, and they end up applying to USC writing why they want to go to Michigan.”
5. Generic Essays
Speaking of essays, Winward says many colleges ask for an essay on why a student wants to attend. Unfortunately, many have a tendency to offer the same boilerplate answers — pretty campus, school spirit, and good location. Because that description applies broadly, colleges won't be impressed, she says.
If you’re going to bother applying, your “why” essay should be specific, thoughtful, and compelling. This is where students really have the opportunity to sell why they belong at a specific school due to their specific programs, areas of study, research, professors, courses, and other factors.
Bottom Line
Finally, don’t forget that sometimes a denial isn’t your fault. Deena Maerowitz, who is the principal of educational consulting firm The Bertram Group, says there are often institutional priorities at play, such as a college looking for students from a certain geographic area, demographic group, or with a different area of major interest.
Very often, colleges also have relationships with high schools where they have accepted students who have then decided not to attend a particular college. Maerowitz says if that happens time and time again, the college may be less likely to accept students from that particular school, understanding that many students from that school may choose a different college instead.
That’s not your fault and there’s nothing you can do about it, but the other pitfalls on this list can and should be avoided at all costs.
