What do you do if you don't get accepted?

By Rob Taylor

The first thing you should do is make an appointment to talk to your guidance counsellor. He or she will be able to present you with options as to what to do next. There are some things you may want to talk over.

Read the response carefully and if you have any questions contact the person who signed the letter. They may have offered you an alternative course. Is this alternative something that you might want? Could you transfer later into your first choice?

The school may have put you on a waiting list. Find out how long it is. What are your chances of getting in? Can you accept an offer from another school and remain on the list?

Besides trying to find out if you can still get into the program or school of your choice, this might be a good opportunity to find out why you were rejected in the first place. Was it your grades? Perhaps your supplemental materials (reference letters, portfolio, etc.) were not as well organized or as complete as they needed to be. You can call the school to find out why you were not accepted into the program. You could even ask them what you could do to improve your chances in getting accepted next time around (if you choose to wait and reapply).

You might consider upgrading your grades. As we learned in our Upgrading your grades: pros and cons article, most schools and programs only look at your most recent attempt at a course or class (though there are some exceptions). Taking summer school to improve your marks or taking an extra year of secondary school might not be such a terrible thing. As an added bonus, you may be able to save up just a little more money for paying for school as well.

If you were applying to a program offered by many schools, you may consider applying to another college or university which still has room for students. Your guidance office will be able to point you in the right direction. For universities in Ontario, you can use the Admission Information Service starting on June 16. This service keeps track of what openings there are for universities in Ontario, and what the cut-off marks for admission are. For colleges in Ontario and colleges and universities in other provinces, it may be a matter of calling or contacting the schools and seeing if they still have spaces available. Some schools advertise program vacancies on their Web sites.

This might also be a good time to look inside yourself and make absolutely sure that you are applying for the program that you really want. I changed my major in my third year of school and then after I graduated I did another BA. You might find that what you thought you wanted to do in the fall has changed, and maybe not being accepted is not the worst thing in the world after all. Try the 3-Step Career Quiz on SchoolFinder.com and research some other programs and potential careers.

Consider enrolling part time. You may be able to take some of the courses in the program that you were rejected from. Usually if you demonstrate competence in some of these courses, you will be accepted at a later date.

Special thanks for help with this article to Rodger Harp.