How do I appeal a college decision in my situation?
Without knowing much about admissions, I’d do four things: 1) contact coach 2) contact admissions 3) apply to community college 4) nearby state school in preparation for transfer. I’d wait a week to collect yourself before doing 1) and 2). You’ll need to compose a well-written letter, revised and reworked many times over to the admissions office. Maybe your high school counselor has advice on how to write this letter. You are seventeen. Take the advice of the counselors on these letters and follow it. Think of the counselor as a coach, if that helps. In the meantime, do 4). Apply to nearby state schools that have late admissions. Why nearby? Because if you’re certain you’ll transfer, you’ll save money on tuition and housing. As for 3) you’ve likely missed registration for the spring semester. If you have, prepare to take community college courses this summer. Three things bother me about what you’ve written. You refer to education anywhere else as a “half-assed experience.” That’s the
When I applied for college, I was in a somewhat similar situation. My academic record and GPA could be interpreted in a few ways because I had a mixture of courses from a traditional high school, a continuation school, and a community college. I applied to two private colleges and two public universities, and initially I was accepted to the private schools and rejected by the public ones. The school you’re trying to get into probably has a specific appeal policy; make sure to follow it perfectly. I had to write a 2-3 page double spaced essay, and get another letter of recommendation besides the 3 I’d already sent. It’s tough to write an appeal essay, but the post you have made here is a good start. Don’t complicate things by bringing the rowing coach into it, stick to the academics. What the coach said and what the admissions counselor told you is in no way binding, and bringing that up in your appeal will make you come across as acting entitled. If you can get another strong recommend
It’s easier to transfer into the school of your choice from a CC than it is from another state school. I don’t know what your state is, but California is specifically set up that way to have CC classes be equivalent to the basics at the UC’s. This is NOT the case for students transferring between CSU/UC’s, and it’ll waste less time/money for you to do that than to take courses that aren’t going to be equivalent to work at the school of choice. And for the record, my cousin applied to a certain UC and did not get in, went to a CSU school that she settled for and hated it, went to CC and had a much better experience, and now is in her UC of choice after transferring. It’s not a bad way to go if your appeal doesn’t work (which didn’t originally work for my cousin either).
Yikes. My brother was denied and he appealed to the dean of the school he was applying to (e.g. Engineering, Agriculture, etc.) citing special circumstances and did a personal interview. That’s how he got in (and the engineering school he applied to is one of the top in the nation & his academics weren’t even that great). It’s kind of like doing your college app essay in person. Other options would be to go to community college, knock your gen eds out of the way and apply next year. It’s cheaper and they’re gen eds, you know? Less important than your major classes. Plenty of people do it – just make sure your credits will transfer to your school of choice. Not quite sure about how athletics figures into all this but I think you have more pull taking the academic appeal route than the sports route. Good luck mate, it’s gonna be allllright.
