Admissions Blog

Undergraduate Admissions Uncensored

  • admissions.blog

How to Recover from Early Decision or Early Action Rejection

Posted on December 3, 2019 by Craig Meister

Depending on when you are reading this, you may be just days away from learning whether or not you have earned early action or early decision admission to your top choice college or university. Or you may have just gotten the news you dreaded most.

If you get in, celebrate and congratulate yourself (and all those who have supported you) for such a terrific achievement.

If you don’t get in, don’t flip out! It is human nature to become quite sad when one does not get what one wants. We all handle disappointment differently, so some of you who are rejected may scream, cry, or stay in bed all day, while others may simply go for a run, workout at the gym, or eat a lot of ice cream.

While you can react in any of the above ways in the moments and hours immediately following bad news, I suggest that you reengage with the college admissions process quickly in order to increase your chances of getting acceptance letters from  colleges that you have applied to (or will apply to) regular decision.

Make sure to finish up your applications strong before your regular decision college application deadlines. Make sure to request on that your transcripts be sent to regular decision colleges if you have not already done so. And make sure to have CollegeBoard and/or ACT, Inc. send your test scores promptly to all colleges still pending on your list.

Watch below for some more tips on how to recover from ED/EA rejection.

About Craig Meister

Craig Meister is a college admissions expert who, for nineteen years, has had the great fortune of providing personalized post-secondary guidance to students and families from around the world.

Filed Under: Advice & Analysis, Applications, College List, Early Action, Early Decision

Related posts:

How to Respond to an Early Decision or Early Action Deferral Tulane Shares Class of 2024 Early Decision and Early Action Stats You CAN apply Restrictive Early Action and Early Action under the right conditions All About Early Decision

Subscribe to our mailing list

Trending Posts

ACT making Science section optional in 2025

The 5 Most Ridiculously Underrated Colleges in America

The Best and Worst 2025-2026 Common App Essay Prompts

Many high school counselors mean well but…

Now Open: Application for New UC Berkeley 4-Year Haas Business Program

University of Maryland’s 650-character leap into lawlessness or a legal loophole?

UMass Amherst receives record 30,000+ Early Action applications

Dear 9th Grader: Don’t get rejected from the Ivy League so soon!

Wake Forest Introduces Exclusive Early Action (EEA)

ACT Mastery Begins with a Schedule: The Importance of Structured Studying

How to Deal with Anxiety During College Admissions (Especially Now)

Brown’s Regular Decision Acceptance Rate Now 3.8%

Dear 11th Grader: Don’t Screw Up Your Ivy League Chances Now

Top 20 Undergraduate Business Programs at Mid-Sized Colleges in the U.S. South

Another Reason Why Your Common Application Essay is So Bad

Caltech to require SAT or ACT scores again

Yale Receives 1,000 Fewer Early Action Applications

New Dartmouth Essay Prompts Feature Football and Wild Chimpanzees

Princeton wants to learn about applicants’ “lived experiences”

AP vs. IBDP. Which is best for you?

Making the most of the summer before senior year

30 Summer STEM Camps for High School Freshmen

You CAN apply Restrictive Early Action and Early Action under the right conditions

Oh, Canada! The Definitive List of Canadian University Application Deadlines

UNC and a tale of one – make that four – acceptance rates

Top 5 Ways Applying to US Colleges is Different than Applying to UK Universities

Rolling Admission vs. Regular Decision

Wesleyan University Ends Legacy Preferences in Admissions

The Perfect Gifts to Celebrate Getting Into College

Search Posts By Topic

  • 3 Year Degree (3)
  • Accommodations (2)
  • Admissions Policies (131)
  • Admissions Statistics (90)
  • Advice & Analysis (465)
  • Alabama (2)
  • Amherst (2)
  • AP (6)
  • Applications (93)
  • Applying from India (1)
  • Arizona (4)
  • Arts (1)
  • ASU (1)
  • Austin College (1)
  • Babson (1)
  • Baylor (1)
  • Berry College (1)
  • Boston College (2)
  • Boston University (6)
  • Bowdoin (2)
  • Brown (6)
  • Bryn Mawr (1)
  • Business (2)
  • BYU (1)
  • Caltech (6)
  • Canada (2)
  • Career and Technical Education (33)
  • Case Western (4)
  • China (1)
  • CMC (1)
  • Coalition (13)
  • Colby (3)
  • College Costs (1)
  • College Counselor (18)
  • College Fairs (5)
  • College Life (37)
  • College List (39)
  • College List Deathmatch (5)
  • College Visit (25)
  • Colorado College (1)
  • Colorado School of Mines (1)
  • Columbia (7)
  • Common App (42)
  • Community Colleges (4)
  • Cornell (5)
  • Counseling (3)
  • COVID-19 (8)
  • CSS PROFILE (3)
  • CSU (1)
  • CSULB (1)
  • CU Boulder (2)
  • Cybersecurity (1)
  • Dartmouth (7)
  • Davidson (1)
  • Demonstrated Interest (17)
  • DePaul (1)
  • Dickinson (1)
  • Direct Admissions (1)
  • Duke (3)
  • Early Action (44)
  • Early Childhood Education (1)
  • Early Decision (45)
  • Education (6)
  • Educational Consulting (1)
  • Elon (2)
  • Emergency Management (1)
  • Emory (1)
  • Engineering (3)
  • Enrichment (18)
  • Entrepreneurship (2)
  • Environmental Science (2)
  • Essays (58)
  • Europe (7)
  • Exercise Science (1)
  • Exeter (1)
  • Experiential Learning (1)
  • Extracurricular Activities (37)
  • FAFSA (6)
  • Feature (2)
  • Financial Aid (31)
  • First Person (12)
  • Fly-In (1)
  • France (1)
  • FSU (1)
  • Gap Programs (2)
  • GED (1)
  • Georgetown (5)
  • Germany (2)
  • Gifts (3)
  • Gonzaga (1)
  • GPA (7)
  • Graduate School (11)
  • Hamilton (1)
  • Harvard (7)
  • Healthcare (3)
  • High School (25)
  • Higher National Diplomas (1)
  • HiSET (1)
  • IB (4)
  • IEC (1)
  • IELTS (1)
  • Indiana (3)
  • Industrial Hygiene (1)
  • International (9)
  • Internships (8)
  • Interviews (10)
  • Iowa (2)
  • Italy (2)
  • Ivy League (20)
  • JHU (3)
  • Journalism (2)
  • Kettering University (1)
  • Lafayette (1)
  • Law (4)
  • LD (1)
  • Lists & Rankings (8)
  • Loans (1)
  • Majors (17)
  • Marketing (1)
  • Math (1)
  • Medicine (1)
  • Mental Health (3)
  • Middlebury (1)
  • MIT (7)
  • Montana State University (1)
  • Moving (1)
  • Naviance (2)
  • NCAA (3)
  • New Mexico State University (1)
  • News (126)
  • Northwestern (5)
  • Notification News (4)
  • Notre Dame (3)
  • Nursing (13)
  • NYU (3)
  • Of Note (16)
  • Ohio State (2)
  • Oklahoma (1)
  • Online Learning (15)
  • Open Admission (2)
  • Parents (7)
  • Penn (8)
  • Pharmacy (1)
  • Pitt (2)
  • Popular Posts (10)
  • Princeton (5)
  • Priority (2)
  • Professor of the Month (1)
  • PSU (3)
  • Psychology (3)
  • Public Universities (8)
  • Purdue (3)
  • Rankings (11)
  • Reader Questions (11)
  • Recommendations (10)
  • Regular (26)
  • Research (4)
  • Resume (20)
  • Rice (4)
  • Robotics (1)
  • Rochester (1)
  • ROI (4)
  • Rolling (5)
  • Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (1)
  • Santa Clara University (2)
  • Scholarships (2)
  • SEL (1)
  • Sewanee (1)
  • Skiing & Snowboarding (1)
  • SMU (1)
  • Social Work (7)
  • Soft Skills (1)
  • South America (2)
  • Southwestern (TX) (1)
  • Spotlight Series (1)
  • SRAR/SSAR (1)
  • St. Edward's University (1)
  • St. John's College (1)
  • Standardized Tests (43)
  • Stanford (4)
  • STEM (2)
  • Stevens Institute of Technology (1)
  • Student Trips (1)
  • Summer (24)
  • Swarthmore (1)
  • Syracuse (1)
  • TASC (1)
  • Teacher Recommendations (8)
  • Temple (1)
  • Texas (4)
  • Texas A&M (1)
  • Ticker (26)
  • Trending Posts (45)
  • Trinity University (TX) (1)
  • Tufts (5)
  • Tuition (3)
  • Tulane (8)
  • UBC (1)
  • UC Berkeley (8)
  • UC Davis (2)
  • UC Santa Barbara (2)
  • UCAS (5)
  • UCF (1)
  • UCI (1)
  • UCLA (8)
  • UCSD (1)
  • UDub (1)
  • UF (4)
  • UGA (3)
  • UIUC (3)
  • UMass (3)
  • UMD (5)
  • UNC (2)
  • United Kingdom (8)
  • Universal College Application (1)
  • University of Chicago (3)
  • University of Dallas (1)
  • University of New Mexico (1)
  • University of Rochester (1)
  • University of Vermont (1)
  • USC (4)
  • USNA (1)
  • UT Austin (4)
  • Utah (2)
  • UVA (7)
  • Vanderbilt (2)
  • Video Game Design (1)
  • Villanova (3)
  • Virtual Information Session (1)
  • Virtual Visit (2)
  • Wake Forest (1)
  • Wash U (7)
  • Wesleyan (2)
  • Williams (3)
  • Wisconsin (3)
  • Work Study (1)
  • Yale (14)
  • ZeeMee (1)

News Tips | Write for Us | Sponsored Posts
All content © 2025 | Admissions.Blog
Terms of Service | +1 410-526-2558

Copyright © 2026 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in