Congratulations! You’ve been un-admitted

Tickbox with a blue cross on ACCEPTED an a golden ballpointer

Peter Mautsch, Germany

Tickbox with a blue cross on ACCEPTED an a golden ballpointer

Senior year is an exciting time in our lives because we get closer to making the transition from grade school to higher education. Throughout first semester, we work rigorously on college applications and write the best personal statements and resumes, all with the hopes of getting into the college of our dreams.

As second semester comes around, we start getting admission decisions and soon choose which college we are going to officially attend. After this stage, we tend to feel relieved and let senioritis take over. Senioritis, the laziness high school seniors develop once they get accepted, can actually have consequences on your college admission offers. This is especially true when your grades drop or you become careless altogether.

If you read past the initial congratulations on a college acceptance letter, you’ll most likely find a sentence or paragraph that states your offer of admission is contingent on maintaining the same academic record you had the past three years. This means you must maintain good grades in constructive classes to keep the validity of a college’s offer. If not, universities can rescind admissions and take them away from previously admitted students.

The main reason a college would rescind an admission offer is an obvious decline in a student’s grades. If a student received A’s and B’s with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 over the first three years of high school, a college wants to see that same overall academic performance maintained during senior year. If this student were to get a C or even an accidental D but still had a similar GPA, there most likely won’t be a problem. However, if this student received multiple D’s or failed a class, it is likely that a college will send a warning letter saying that this performance can take away their admission. Some colleges that are more selective will rescind admissions without an initial warning. This shows the importance of doing well senior year and making sure you do not allow senioritis to take its toll on your grades. A slight slip may be okay, but a plummet in your GPA is a red flag.

Universities also rescind admissions due to crimes and violations of the law. If a student is arrested, charged or jailed for any reason, there is a large chance that a college will rescind their offer of admission. On most applications, colleges ask about criminal offenses and conduct a background check before they release a decision. Getting in trouble with the law will highly jeopardize an admission offer. It is best to stay out of trouble for this reason.

Mr. Birtman, the college counselor at VHHS, stated, “It is very rare for someone to get an admission offer rescinded. I personally have never seen it happen to a student.” This ultimately shows how rare it is to get admissions rescinded. That being said, a student would have to greatly flunk their senior year or get into lots of legal trouble. He went on to say that, “at U of I, the office of undergraduate admissions only had to rescind 12 admitted students out of the thousands that got in.” On top of that, only around 50% of colleges said they take away admissions under certain conditions.

Overall, it is very rare to have an admission offer rescinded by a college, but the possibility is still there at all times. Senior year is an important time, and we must continue to study and end high school with great grades. That way we can all happily look forward to our entry into college.