Tips on How to Help Students Make Their Provisional Admissions Permanent

Here’s the situation: your client contacts you in a panic; they’ve received an acceptance letter from their choice college (hooray!), however, the letter clearly states that theirs is a “provisional acceptance.” What does that mean, and what can they do to make their provisional admission permanent? 

What Is a Provisional Admission?

To put it concisely, a provisional admission is offered to a prospective student who is not considered eligible for full admission—yet. More often than not, the student has not yet met all of the requirements needed to secure a permanent spot. Once they’ve met the specified requirements, they’ll be fully admitted to the school.

Thankfully, this is not a guessing game for students who receive provisional admissions; colleges explicate what is missing on their application, and what needs to be done/fulfilled in order to meet admission requirements.

Reasons for Provisional Admission

In this section, we’ll give you a general idea of what students need to do in order to receive permanent admission. If they follow these tips and fulfill their missing requirements, you clients will be smooth sailing into their fall term with a permanent admit status.

Provisional admission is typically due to one of the following issues:

• Course Prerequisites: The most common reason for provisional admission is missing prerequisites. Depending on the school, students can sometimes resolve this issue by enrolling for the missing course either during their first semester or sometime during freshman year. 

  However, other schools will not even allow students to enroll without the missing course completed with a satisfactory grade. In these cases, students should reach out to the college to see what their available options are. They may just be able to take that missing course at their local community college or summer school in order to slide into the fall semester with a permanent admission.

• Credit Hours: Similar to missing prerequisites, some schools may offer a provisional admission due to missing credit hours. Subject to the school’s requirements, credit hours may not be linked to a specific course, but rather the general number of high school course credits earned. The provisional admission letter should explain this clearly.; however, students should contact the college admissions office with any questions on what options they have at this point in earning high school credits prior to the fall semester—colleges may be willing to accept summer coursework to make up for those missing credit hours.   

• GPA: Most colleges have a set GPA requirement. Any GPA that falls below that number is deemed ineligible for full admission unless raised. Again, students should speak with the college to see how they can go about raising their GPA in time for fall admission. Some schools may allow students to enroll for fall with the understanding that the student will prove their ability to meet the required GPA during their first semester, while other schools may allow for summer school or community college coursework to prove their academic merit. Again, it all depends on the school, and if/how they’re willing to play ball.

  In this situation, students who are permitted to take summer courses for permanent admission need to buckle down with a solid study plan. Even if they’re able to enroll in courses they naturally excel in, there’s not a lot of room for error here. Work with your client to create a practical study plan (keeping in mind that it is summer) that best serves their short-term goals for permanent admission in the fall.

• Standardized Test Scores: For schools that require applicants to submit standardized test scores for admission, oftentimes schools allow a window of opportunity for provisional admits to resubmit higher scores. In these cases, students with lower-than-average scores should check with the college to find out the deadline for test score resubmission in order to obtain permanent admission for the fall term.

  In the event that students are given the green light on test score resubmission, they will first need to register for the upcoming summer ACT® or SAT® test dates—ASAP! We’re fast approaching July, so time is of the essence. Last call ACT® summer test date is July 16th, and SAT® summer test date is August 27th. If they miss those dates, they’ll have to register for the fall ACT® and SAT® test dates as soon as possible.

  No matter what, if your client is planning to take and resubmit a higher test score in hopes of attaining permanent admission, they’ll require a strong test-prep plan. The best place to start is with their last test score report. You’ll need to analyze their report to see in which subject areas they need the most support, and plan from there. With a solid test-prep plan and proper dedication, students can make the strides they need to achieve their goals even in a short window of time.

It is important that your business can help students understand the realities of provisional admissions scenarios as well as support them in making their admissions offers permanent. Contact us for information on how Clear Choice Prep and our 100% custom-branded test prep tools and materials can help your tutoring company become the go to solution for students looking to make the most of their college admissions opportunities.