For high school seniors, the winter and spring bring life changing decisions made by people they might not ever meet. This is when admission decisions from colleges and universities are released. Unfortunately, many students will not receive the decision they were hoping for, but colleges don’t always slam doors in students’ faces. Indeed, sometimes when they close a door, they open a window.
Let’s call these “windows” alternative pathways. These can come in a number of forms and individual schools have their names, often some clever acronym, for them. At their heart, alternative pathways are a way for a student to prove themselves on the college’s designated proving ground (as opposed to a high school the college has a loose acquaintance with) before they receive a full-fledged admission. For students who receive such an offer, it’s essentially the college’s way of saying, “We see potential in you, but there are things that give us pause about you too. We don’t want to tell you a flat ‘no’, but we would like to see a little more from you via our program that is designed to ease a student into college rather than just drop you right in.”
For some colleges, this simply means an offer to alternative term like summer. You hoped to start in the fall (in August), they said you come starting in June or July. Summer terms are more laid back on college campuses. Students typically take less classes, there’s fewer students around including less party-hardy freshman who are away from their parents for the first time, there’s no crazy football weekends--it’s just a more relaxed environment. Students can assimilate to college life at a little slower pace before the hustle and bustle of fall kicks in.
Other ways colleges might offer alternative pathways is essentially through remote locations. This can include partner community colleges, satellite campuses, or online. Again, this can be ways for a student to prove they are capable of college level work without facing the distractions that life on a college campus can bring. When students receive offers such as these there is usually a time frame attached, i.e. “spend your first year here and if you meet a standard of success, then you may begin attending classes on the main campus.”
These types of offers can initially be disappointing to a student, but it’s important to remember something--you got in! Offers for alternative pathways are better than flat denials. You might have been very very close to getting a flat denial, be thankful. The college didn’t make a mistake and you won’t do yourself any favors calling them to explain how they screwed up your admission and you didn’t want to spend a year online. Sometimes, you can ask if there is anything to improve your admissions decision, they might tell you to try and improve your test score or something like that. However, I believe such inquiries should come with a significant amount of grace rather than indignation.
