Oh, No! I didn't get into my college of choice! Now what do I do?

Oh, No! I am a good student 

and I didn't get into my college of choice! 

Why? 

You achieved high GPA and good SAT or ACT scores. You applied to the colleges you most wanted to attend. Unfortunately, you then got the bad news that you were not admitted into your college of first choice, or perhaps you were not admitted into any of the colleges you selected. Now what do you do?

First, be aware of some general reasons why you may not have been admitted. While these reasons may not specifically apply to you or the colleges you want to attend, they may have had an impact on your admission: 

1. The pool of high school graduates is growing larger. According to the National Center for Education Statistics. in Fall 2013, a record 21.8 million students attended American colleges and universities which was an increase of about 6.5 million since Fall 2000.
2. Colleges are also becoming more selective. College and university officials tend to be pleased when their institution's ranking makes it appear to be more selective and therefore, more appealing, than ever. The trend for colleges to become increasingly selective appears to hold true whether or not the college received increasing numbers of applications or not. 
3. Students tend to be selected for admission if they seem more likely to actually enroll in classes after being admitted. 
4. The large numbers of applications requires rejections from admission; there simply aren't enough classroom seats to admit every good student who applies. 
5. Colleges are being  pressured to increase the numbers of students who remain in  and who graduate from college. Because student loan debt has become so large, nationwide, legislators are pressuring colleges to be accountable for student loan debt. In New Jersey,  a comprehensive package of bills was introduced to reduce the number of students who go into debt due to student loans, but who may not even complete their college degree. Colleges are being pushed to improve graduation rates and therefore, are being more careful in the admission of students who appear to be more likely to remain in college to graduation .