If you recently received a notice of rejection from Boston College in the Early Decision round, that is a major downer. It wasn’t the plan. You picked Boston College for Early Decision because it is a dream school that seemed feasible. You didn’t assume you would get in, but you also thought that you had a solid chance to at least be deferred. Unfortunately, this ED rejection tells us that Boston College didn’t assess your application as “.” In this post, we’re going to break down what this means, why it may have happened, and what you need to do next to get into a dream school.
Yes, a dream school. Getting into a selective, well-respected university or college is still possible. It’s not going to happen on its own, though. There are steps you must be taking to get yourself back on a trajectory towards success. Below, we break down these steps. First, though, some numbers.
The rate of admission for Early Decision applicants to BC is, , double the overall acceptance rate. While the total acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was , about 30% of Early Decision applicants were admitted. This isn’t because the bar was lower for ED applicants. The admissions officials had the same expectations, but the pool was smaller. Instead of competing against tens of thousands of applicants, there were just a few thousand. And BC wants to push their yield rate northward, so they are motivated to accept a large percentage of the incoming class in the committed ED rounds where they know that the students they accept will move onto campus in the fall.
Based on all of this, not getting into BC Early Decision — if you have the grades and scores (which we’ll break down below) — is sobering. The college is very competitive, but the ED round is more akin to a selective, not highly-selective, school. What does this tell us about you? More on that in a second.
We help driven students bounce back from Early Decision rejection. Learn how.
Getting into a great school is feasible after an ED rejection, but it isn’t a given. Simply applying to the list you had before the ED rejection with versions of the same essays you used for BC will not set you up for success, and will not get you a spot at a dream school. These steps will.
Step One: Take a Break
We’ve said that there is work to do, but the first step is to not do any. Seriously, we need you to slow down. An ED rejection is frustrating, upsetting, and can knock even the strongest student off course. Going straight from that unstable position into the Regular Decision applications is like trying to do a maze blindfolded and with your feet tied together — especially if you’ll be applying to a school Early Decision II. Instead, you need to reset. You need to recharge. You need to sleep and snack and vent to friends and cuddle with your cat or dog or baby sibling. This moment of rest, only two days or so, is a healing period. After it, you’ll be ready to do great work.
Step Two: Strategize
You were rejected ED from Boston College. That means that they did not assess your application as competitive enough to accept, or even to keep around through the deferral pool. Figuring out why BC was driven to reject you is critical to creating a successful RD strategy. We can’t tell you exactly why BC rejected you, of course. We haven’t seen your application. But we can break down the most likely reasons.
The first, and most likely reason, is quantitative. Perhaps, you simply don’t have the grades or scores for BC. to BC average an ACT of 34+ or an SAT of 1490+. Of course, there is wiggle room. However, it’s important to note that the lower end of accepted and enrolled first year ACT scores is still 33 (and 1450 on the SAT). An ACT or SAT much below the average would have been a problem, let alone the lower end thresholds.
BC does not report the GPA ranges for accepted and enrolled students, but they do share class rank of students from schools that share such data. of accepted and enrolled students submit transcripts that place them in the top 10% of their graduating class. So, the students getting into BC have serious academic chops, and a weaker transcript may, alone, have been a disqualifying factor for your application.
But what if you have the grades and scores? Then it’s a writing problem.
We’ll break down the writing portion next, but first you have to do something with your grade and score data. You need a new college list.
It’s likely that you have a list of schools that you thought might be good to apply to if you didn’t get in ED, but you probably didn’t think too hard about them. Now you need to think hard, re-building your college list to actually fit your academic reality.
We advise our students to build a college list with up to 10 schools. Yes, you can apply to more, but 10 is actually the perfect number as it offers a range of options without overloading you or spending time on schools that you wouldn’t attend even if it was your only option. Those 10 schools can’t all be reaches, though. You need 3-4 targets — schools for which you are a strong academic fit — 3-4 safety schools, and 2-3 reaches. Those reaches should not be completely out of reach. This isn’t the time to lob a hail mary. Pick reaches that are just barely within reach statistically. You should be within their expectations academically, even if just barely.
Step Three: Essays
Once you have your list, it’s time to write. When students reach out to us after an ED rejection, we have to break the bad news fast: they need to start over. Nearly always, the writing is a key problem in the rejected ED application. Telling compelling stories is your most powerful tool in this moment to convince admissions officials to offer you a spot. Starting over might be painful, but it’s necessary.
As you begin brainstorming your new essays and supplements, always keep in mind that each piece of writing needs to tell a unique story. Whether the supplement is under 50 words or over 500, there needs to be a central narrative, strong imagery, and focus on something that isn’t spotlighted in any other essay or supplement in your application to a particular school. Repeating yourself isn’t reinforcing, it’s a waste of precious space.
Step Four: Ask For Help
The last step is to know what you don’t know. You are an expert on you, but you aren’t an expert on college admissions. Your parents, friends, and siblings aren’t experts on college admissions either — probably, at least. Getting feedback that is specifically tuned to the world of getting into college is extremely important, so be open to review by your school college counselor and welcome, when possible, a trained eye.
Getting into college doesn’t need to be painful, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t bumps along the way. As you’ve experienced, the road is rarely perfectly smooth. It is possible to get through it, though, and you can still get into a great school.
An ED rejection is a bummer, but it’s not the end of your path to a top-tier school. Learn more.