What’s The Best Thing I Can Do Now That I’ve Missed My College Deadlines For Admission?
January 20, 2010 by Rob
Filed under College Admissions
I’ve missed all of them…can I call or do I have to wait till next enrollment?
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You have a few options:
If you have a good reason for missing the deadlines try contacting the college admissions department and see if they will waive the deadlines for you. However, if you don’t have a compelling reason for missing them I would stay away from this option.
Should you not be able to appeal to the college for a waiver you have a few options.
One, as mentioned in another answer, is to attend a local community college for a semester and take general education classes that are similar to the ones you would need to take at the college you would like to attend. While this won’t be the most exciting option, it’s going to be a way to start accumulating credits towards graduation. Let them know you are planning on transferring and they may be able to help you select the best classes that are most likely to transfer. You can also contact the college you would like to attend and see which classes they recommend.
Another, again as mentioned, is to work. You can try to find entry level work or an internship in the field you are interested in. This will look good on your application as well. You can get an unrelated job that pays better and put some money away, though this may not be as interesting of an option for you.
If you have the resources, try to get involved with a charity organization during this time. Again, this is a good resume builder for your admissions application.
Finally, learn when the next round of deadlines are so you do not miss them. While fall enrollment may be closed, spring may still be open and I’m sure the time from September to January will pass before you know it!
Best of luck!
A lot of schools this year didn’t make their anticipated enrollment numbers, so if you have a strong record, you could call them and ask if it would still be possible to be considered (I know that at my school this is the case – no one would object to a late application coming in!). However, there are a few things you should know. This won’t work at state universities or at highly selective private ones. They got more applications than usual and have already made their decisions for this semester. With them, you would have to wait until the next enrollment period. In addition, this will only work if you are able to start without financial aid. Most schools have already given out their aid for next year, and while they may still be willing to negotiate somewhat with those who applied on time, they won’t be giving out new aid packages for Fall now. You would have to be prepared to go as a full-pay student, at least for the Fall.
You can get a job, save your money, and apply for college during the next enrollment cycle — and act as though this was your plan all along. Or you could get a job overseas and experience another culture for awhile, do some traveling, and see a bit of the world. Or if your family has money, you could do a postgraduate year at a boarding school and then go through the application process next fall.
Look for colleges with rolling admissions — that is, those that take applications all year. State universities are more likely to have rolling admissions than private universities are. You could also do a semester at community college and apply for the spring semester instead of the fall semester.
Where are you? US,UK, Canada…
In the US you may find some state schools still accepting applications. See if any are on a rolling admittance. Call up admissions at any college you are interested in and ask.
And there is always community college. You wouldn’t be wasting a year, you can get some of your general ed classes out of the way
Call them and find out if they fill places from waiting lists throughout the summer.
What country and state/province do you live in? There might be a mechanism there to find out what programs are still admitting.
apply to a community college
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