If you’re here, we’re guessing you got rejected from Bowdoin. First of all, we want to say we’re sorry, we know rejection sucks, and it’s probably suckier when it’s from a school you were so excited about. We hope you don’t get too down on yourself because this rejection is not a reflection of who you are as a person, and you will go to a great school and go on to do great things!

While you might have slightly elevated chances of getting into Bowdoin ED, it’s still a sub-20% acceptance rate. For almost all students, anything under 20% will be extremely challenging, and we tell you this so you know you’re not alone. A lot of other students are in the same boat as you right now. You (or they) might be tempted to freak out, but there are some actionable steps you can take to help ride through the next few weeks. Let’s talk about it.

Step One: Take a Little Break

“No! I will not take a break! I have so much to do!!” Okay, teens, listen to us. We have wisdom only time can give us. You need to rest. You have been burning the candle at both ends, or maybe even more if you invented a candle with three ends, and you just faced a really tough blow that may have seemingly destroyed your five-year plan, and you are almost certainly reeling. You need to take a few days to stop, feel the feelings you’re having, give your brain a break, and then you can jump into action.

We don’t want you burning out. Now, once you’ve taken your two or three days to veg out, we have some action items for you.

Step Two: Strategize

We don’t want you doing a whole total scramble re-do of everything you’ve already done. Start by taking a good look at your college list. If you have already been working on applications for 8 to 10 schools that fit nicely into your safety-target-reach categories, then you probably don’t need to edit that very much. You will probably want to think about ED2, and you may want to change a few schools on your list because of this decision, but you don’t want to panic and add ten more schools to your list. With our long-term clients, we help build college lists that act as contingency plans just in case ED doesn’t go our way, and we hope you did that, too. Now, if you put all of your eggs in the Bowdoin basket, it’s time to chat.

After ED Rejection, we see a lot of new clients who only applied to 3 to 4 schools, and now they’re panicking. This is when we recommend building out your college list a little bit more. We recommend having 8 to 12 schools on your list with a healthy mix of reaches, targets, and safeties. As you look to add schools to your list, think about what you liked about Bowdoin. The first factor you should always consider, and every school on your list should meet is academics. You are going to school, after all. But after that, you can consider things like size, location, culture, weather, etc. If you liked Bowdoin, you’re lucky because there are a lot of small liberal arts schools in the northeast, so you might look at other NESCAC schools like Bates or Colby. Maybe you don’t care so much about location, and instead just want a strong liberal arts education, so you might be drawn to the Claremont Colleges in California. Just remember that not every school on your list is going to hit every single metric you want. Think about what’s most important to you, and figure out what your deal breakers are. If you think you can muster through a super cold winter as long as your dad buys you a nice coat, then don’t cross all Chicago schools off your list. But if you don’t wanna be more than a two-hour flight away from home, don’t apply to that college 2,000 miles away.

Now, this part is for everybody. You want to make sure you choose an ED2 school. For most of you, one of the other schools in your top 3 to 5 will offer ED2, and we strongly recommend you apply. Regular decision rates are kind of a black box, we don’t always have a good picture of what that data is, but we do know that ED2 gives you a boosted chance, just like applying ED  does.

Step Three: Essays

Once your college list is squared away, whether that means you had to build a whole new one or you just made some small edits, you’ll want to work on your supplements. We have detailed guides on how to write most supplements on our blog, but in this section, we want to talk about something a little bit more important— the Common App essay.

If we had to guess, your Common App essay is probably pretty run-of-the-mill. We don’t say that to be mean, and in fact, we’re sure it’s probably very well written, but it might not help you stand out as much as you want it to. In the weeks after ED rejection, we see a lot of Common App essays that talk about cliché things like overcoming big hardships or your biggest accomplishments. Both of those things should live in other parts of your Common App, and the essay should be a place where you let your personality shine through.

We know that it is scary to write a whole new essay in two weeks, but we help students do it every single year, and we know it’s possible. We can help you, too!

The hardest part of the Common App essay is brainstorming a great topic, and in fact, it’s probably the most labor-intensive part of the process. Our biggest guideline for brainstorming is to think of a story, the smaller, the better. Once you have that framework of a story, you want to think about the parts of you that cannot be quantified in a college application. Do you have a unique hobby? Or, it could even be a not-unique hobby, but it’s one that you’re genuinely very passionate about or partake in with others and could write about vividly. An interesting quirk? You can ask your friends and family what words they would use to describe you if you get stuck, and then think about stories with those friends and family that bring those words to the surface.

Almost any story can be a great Common App essay, it just needs to be written like a story. Good stories have distinct beginnings, middles, and ends. They use vivid descriptive language, and they transport the reader into the moment the story takes place.

Step Four: Ask for Help

Look, we know getting rejected is really hard. We understand that you might feel really frozen about what to do in the next few weeks, and we have really good news. We offer a special package for students trying to regroup after ED rejection, the “It’s Going to Be Okay” package. This is an intensive two-week Boot Camp aimed at helping you regroup and strategize. We might help you rewrite your Common App essay, help with up to 10 schools worth of supplements, or help you polish all the other parts of the Common App. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need help.

Rejected and don’t know what to do? Reach out to us ASAP.