Worth a shot

Admissions denial appeal letter from high school senior Jaclyn Kurtela to the University of San Diego in ‘06.

My friend Jaclyn Kurtela is a sales manager at Oracle in San Francisco. I’ve known her for almost 15 years, and we met because she was roommates with my sister at the University of San Diego (USD).

But we almost never became friends. Because she almost didn’t go to USD with my sister.

When she applied to USD in high school, she got denied.

Not waitlisted. Denied.

Twice.

After the first denial, she wrote a letter asking the admissions office to reconsider their decision.

They rejected her again.

Then she emailed and asked for an in-person meeting. The admissions officer said, “okay.”

By the time she left the in-person meeting, the admissions officer had agreed to let her attend a pre-college summer program. And grant her conditional admission if she performed well enough.

Which she did.

She graduated from USD in June of ‘10.

Today, Jaclyn coaches girls high school soccer in her free time. She tells this story to her players when they get college rejection letters of their own. And some of them write a “Coach Kurtela letter.”

So far, two of her players have graduated from colleges that denied (not waitlisted) their initial application.

True story.

All they had to do was swallow some pride and ask again.

Worth a shot.