At Least 8 Possible College Application Outcomes

Last week, I wrote about the anticipation of receiving a college admission decision.

Once your applications (college, scholarship, financial aid) are submitted, you are now waiting for the college to make its decision.

With over 4,000 college options, there are about eight possible admissions outcomes.

👉🏻Here are the first six possible college application outcomes.

These are specifically from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech is in Atlanta, Georgia) based on their email to students. The terms are universal among universities.

🍂Fall Admit: Admitted first-years for fall have until May to choose whether or not to attend Tech. Last year, 21 percent of students were accepted through Early Admission.

🏖Summer Admit: Each year a limited number of students are admitted to the summer term. Students admitted to the fall class may opt-in to the summer term if they choose. About 20 percent choose this route.

✋🏽Defer: Students who apply for Early Action may have their application deferred to our Regular Decision round. Now you have to wait until March for a decision!

📃Waitlist: A limited number of students will be offered a place on Tech's waitlist. If waitlisted, look on the college website for data that explains your chances. For example, 3,800 students were offered a place on the GT waitlist and 2,623 accepted their place on the waitlist.

🚫Deny: First-year applicants who receive this decision are denied admission to Georgia Tech. If a student is denied in Early Action, they may not reapply in Regular Decision.

🔁Transfer Pathway: Some students will be offered a transfer pathway, which provides an opportunity to transfer to Tech after a year in college elsewhere.

👉🏻Another possible college application outcome could include being admitted to the university but not your intended major.

💉Impacted majors (like nursing) at the California State University system schools mean they accept more eligible applicants that the major can handle. By design.

Applying to an impacted major means local students receive priority, you could be referred to an alternate campus, or, if accepted to the university, you’ll have to compete even harder to get one of the coveted seats after your freshman year. If you don’t get accepted to that major, you have to switch majors or switch colleges.

👉🏻Another possible college application outcome could include a condition to attend a community college before being admitted to the university.

👍🏻Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas) teamed up with Blinn College (a 19,000 student community college) to admit hundreds of additional qualified students into the Texas A&M freshman class than would have otherwise been possible due to enrollment limitations.

It is a two-year program that allows students to take academic courses on the TAMU campus while completing basic courses with an admission guarantee as a junior.

No matter how the college notifies you or what the college decides, there is a seat for you in college.

During the application process, you need to learn how to remain hopeful, wait patiently, and be flexible.

Georgia Tech (Alex Ip, Unsplash)