I recently received email from a panicked student who had been waitlisted at every single college to which he applied. The student's situation, unfortunately, isn't uncommon. Thousands of applicants are finding themselves with no acceptance letters. If you find yourself in this unenviable situation, what now?

First off, while you might be incredibly disappointed, there is no cause for panic. Your college dreams are not dead. Several options are still available to you:

• Consider a "gap year" -- a year off from school during which you do something interesting. Some students travel, volunteer, work, teach, or take classes. If you do something productive and interesting, your college application will be stronger next year. Some top schools such as Princeton like to see students take a gap year. Students arrive on campus with more experiences, more maturity, and a clearer sense of direction.
• Attend community college or a college that still has vacancies for a year or two, and then try to transfer to your top choice school. Transferring to competive colleges is not easy, but this route does give you another possible pathway to the college of your dreams.
• If you've been waitlisted, read these tips for getting off a college waitlist. The situation is largely out of your hands, but a little effort to demonstrate your continued interest and update your application can help.
• If you've been rejected, realize that a few rare situations can justify an appeal. To learn more, check out this article on appealing a college rejection.
• Be patient. On May 5th I'll post a link to NACAC's space availability survey -- it will have a long list of colleges and universities that still have spaces available for the fall. While you won't find Harvard on the list, many good schools will still be looking for a few good students
• Finally, while you should move ahead with other plans, don't give up on those waitlists. With the high number of applications many selective schools received this year, we're going to be seeing more waitlist activity than usual.

Best wishes to the thousands of students taking the ACT on April 9th. If you're worried about the exam, keep in mind that a strong academic record, glowing letters of recommendation, a winning essay, and interesting extracurricular activities can help make up for a sub-par score.

Also keep in mind that over 800 colleges are now test-optional. The test-optional schools include some excellent choices: Bowdoin, Holy Cross, DePaul, Pitzer, Wake Forest, and many others.

More ACT Articles:

• What's a Good ACT Score?
• ACT Scores for the Ivy League
• ACT Scores for Top Public Universities
• ACT Scores for Top Liberal Arts Colleges
• Converting ACT Scores to SAT Scores

Last year, 18,100 students applied to Georgetown and 3,490 were accepted. For the class of 2015, more students applied and fewer were accepted. For the current admissions cycle, Georgetown received 19,275 applications from which the prestigious Catholic university admitted 3,466. That brings their acceptance rate down to 17.98%. Read more about Georgetown's class of 2015 in the school's press release.

Many of the country's top universities saw record numbers of applicants for the class of 2015, and acceptance rates are dropping as a result. The yield on those applications is hard to predict, so we're likely to see a lot of waitlist activity this spring and summer.

Related Reading:

• Georgetown admissions profile
• Top universities
• Top Catholic universities
• How to get off a waitlist
• Rejected? Can you appeal?

They May 7th SAT is a popular choice for high school juniors. The scores get posted online on May 26th. If you aren't happy with your scores, you'll have plenty of time to study over the summer and retake the exam in the fall.

The regular registration deadline for the May exam is Friday, April 8th. For a $24 late fee, you can register up until April 22nd. Visit the College Board website to sign up for the exam.

More SAT Information

• What's a Good SAT Score?
• SAT Scores for Top Universities
• SAT Scores for Top Public Universities
• SAT Scores for Top Liberal Arts Colleges
• SAT Scores for Top Engineering Schools
• Does the SAT Writing Section Matter?
• Should I Use SAT Score Choice?

I recently reported on the record low acceptance rates for the Ivy League, and Duke's numbers for the class of 2015 follow a similar trend. Duke had a total of 29,689 applicants of which just 3,739 were offered admission. That comes to an admit rate of 12.6%. For the juniors out there strategizing for next year, Duke accepted 29% of students who applied through their binding early decision program, and 10.8% through the regular decision pool. If you know that Duke is your top choice school, applying early can certainly be to your benefit. Read more about the class of 2015 in Duke's The Chronicle

Related Reading:

Duke University Admission Profile

Top Universities in the U.S.

ACC, the Atlantic Coast Conference

SAT Scores for Top Universities

Following patterns that we're seeing for the majority of the country's most selective colleges, MIT's admit rate dropped to 9.6% for the class of 2015, down from last year's admit rate of 9.7%. The prestigious science and engineering school received 17,909 applicants from which 1,715 students were admitted. Accepted students come from all 50 states and 65 countries, and an impressive 49% are women (most engineering schools have far more men than women). For more information, read the article in MIT's student newspaper, The Tech.

We can expect these numbers to change a little as the admissions cycle plays out. High achieving students are applying to more colleges on average than in the past, and this trend makes it more difficult for colleges to predict their yield. As are result, we're likely to see another active year for college waitlists.

Stanford University set a new record this year, accepting 2,427 students from the 34,348 applications that they received. Those numbers include the 754 students who were accepted through the Early Action program in December. That brings the prestigious university's acceptance rate down to 7.1%, breaking the record of 7.2% set last year. For more information, read the article in The Stanford Daily.

These numbers aren't the end of the story. Like last year, the high number of applications colleges received this year makes it hard for them to predict how many applicants will accept offers of admission. We're likely to see an active year for college waitlists.

Ivy League acceptance rates for the class of 2015 are in. While the admissions process will continue to drag on into the summer as colleges manage their waitlists, most schools now have a pretty good picture of the acceptance numbers for the class of 2015. For the country's most selective colleges, the picture isn't pretty. Below are the acceptance rates for the eight Ivy League schools. For all of these elite schools, acceptance rates are lower this year than last. The lower acceptance rate isn't necessarily because there are more students going to college this year. Rather, a similar number of students are sending out more applications. The lower the acceptance rates go, the more students feel they need to apply to a lot of schools to improve their chances of getting in. This situation is going to make it more difficult for colleges to predict their yield, and as a result we're going to see a lot of students stuck in waitlist limbo.

The chart below shows what the Ivy League application numbers and acceptance rates look like for the class of 2015. To learn more about each school including typical SAT and ACT scores, click on the school's name in the table.

College	Number of Applications	Acceptance Rate	Source
Brown	30,948	8.7%	Brown News and Events
Columbia	~35,000	6.9%	Columbia Spectator
Cornell	36,392	18%	Cornell Daily Sun
Dartmouth	22,385	9.7%	Dartmouth Now
Harvard	34,950	6.2%	Harvard Gazette
Princeton	27,189	8.4%	News at Princeton
University of Pennsylvania	31,659	12.3%	Daily Pennsylvanian
Yale	27,282	7.4%	Yale News
Compare ACT scores for the Ivy League
Compare SAT scores for the Ivy League

For a college of just 1,200 students, Presbyterian College is quite remarkable. Located in Clinton, South Carolina, Presbyterian is one of the smallest NCAA Division I schools in the country, and it represents an excellent educational value.

As the name suggests, Presbyterian College is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Students come from 29 states and 7 countries. Students can expect a lot of personal attention -- Presbyterian has a 13 to 1 student / faculty ratio and an average class size of 14. Students can choose from 34 majors and 47 minors, and the most popular majors -- biology, business, English, and history -- reveal the college's academic breadth. The college is selective, but not unreasonable for any hard-working student. The four-year graduation rate of 61% is strong for a school with Presbyterian's student profile.

With over 50 clubs and organizations, student life is active at Presbyterian. On the athletic front, the Presbyterian College Blue Hose compete in the NCAA Division I Big South Conference. The college fields eight men's and eight women's Division I teams. Football is particularly popular.

With a price tag of over $40,000, Presbyterian College is not cheap, but the price tag has little to do with the actual cost. Financial aid is excellent and nearly all applicants can expect substantial grant aid.

To learn more about the school, check out the Presbyterian College admissions profile as well as the school's official website. If you have visited or attended Presbyterian, please share your impressions with prospective students below.

I regularly spotlight great colleges that might be off the radar of college applicants. If there's a college you'd like to see featured here, please post your recommendation in the College Admissions Forum.

If you're one of the thousands of students who took the SAT on March 12th, your scores will be available from the CollegeBoard website beginning on March 31st. Don't panic if your scores aren't what you had hoped for -- they are just one part of your college application. The admissions officers at selective colleges will also be looking for a winning essay, meaningful extracurricular activities and good letters of recommendation. Most important of all is a strong academic record.

If you are a high school junior, you have plenty of time to take practice exams, beef up your test-taking skills, and retake the exam this spring or fall.

To see how your scores measure up with matriculated students at various colleges, check out the SAT articles and comparison charts below:

• What's a Good SAT Score?
• SAT Subject Test Information
• SAT comparison charts for The Ivy League | Top Liberal Arts Colleges | Top Public Universities | Top Engineering Schools | Top Private Universities | Top Catholic Universities | University of California System | The Atlantic Coast Conference | The Southeastern Conference | The Big Ten | More Comparison Charts
• SAT scores for top colleges in: California | Florida | Georgia | Illinois | Indiana | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | New Jersey | New York | North Carolina | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Texas | Virginia | Washington
• Colleges that Don't Require Test Scores