If you received a rejection from Amherst’s Early Decision round, you are probably feeling pretty frustrated. You did all the right things. You took advanced courses, pursued leadership roles, and worked to craft a strong application. And yet, it didn’t work. For first-year students entering in the fall of 2024, the Early Decision acceptance rate was just under 30%.  

If you recently received a rejection letter from Columbia College or the Fu School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) in the Early Decision round, you are in your right to be quite upset. You worked hard, you did the ‘right’ things, and you took a big swing — and it didn’t pay off. An ED rejection can be deeply upsetting because it also used up your most powerful tool in the college admissions process. Early Decision offered your best chance of getting into a top school, and you can’t get that back. In this post, we’re going to dig into what may have gone awry with your Columbia application and what you can do now to improve your chances of getting into a dream school. First, let’s break down what may have happened with Columbia. 

If you’re reading this, you probably received disappointing news from Wake Forest in the Early Decision round, or you’re planning ahead in case that’s how things work out. Wake Forest offers both Early Decision I and Early Action application options, but we’re focusing on EDI here because you will most likely receive a response with time (albeit rushed) to make big changes to your college application strategy in the Regular Decision and Early Decision II round. The EA decisions for Wake Forest come out after most Regular Decision and EDII deadlines, so it’ll be too late to implement our advice in this post (an incentive to plan ahead!).

Receiving a rejection in the Early Decision round always hurts. You probably had this vision for your college application experience where you’d do your work early, you’d get in early, and you would be done early. But now Vassar said “no” early decision and you’re facing a pile of applications and looming deadlines, and possibly no strong sense of what needs fixing. Well, that’s why we are here to help. First, though, let’s break down what went wrong with Vassar so we can rebuild on firmer footing. 

We know getting rejected is tough, and an early decision rejection from your dream school can hit especially hard. Pomona’s acceptance rates are no joke—7% overall and 13% for ED. But keep in mind, that doesn’t mean you were “twice as likely” to get in during ED, and approx. 1,400 other students also got similar news. You’re far from alone in this, and we want to remind you: not getting into Pomona doesn’t define your future. You’re still headed for a fantastic school where you’ll thrive.

Hey there, we know you just got rejected ED from Johns Hopkins, and we’re sure you feel pretty blah right now. You might be angry, sad, disappointed, or some secret fourth thing. We get it – and the wisdom we’ve gleaned from living a little longer than you and working in this industry tells us that you will absolutely still go to college, a great college, and that this rejection is not a reflection of you as a person.

UVA, or the University of Virginia, is one of the most popular state schools in the country. This comes with an equally high level of competition, which you’ve been on the disappointing end of. A rejection from UVA Early Decision is frustrating, but it’s also not the end of the world nor the end of your journey. In this post, we’ll break down what to do next. We’re focusing on Early Decision only here because it is a time of opportunity. The Early Action decisions come out after Regular Decision deadlines, but the Early Decision notification date gives you enough time to make adjustments to (or completely overhaul) your strategy. First, let’s talk nuts and bolts.