Getting turned down by your dream college doesn’t always mean you’ve been categorically rejected. Some applicants who fail to get in as freshmen, for example, are invited back … as sophomores. They don’t even need to reapply. It’s one of many secrets admissions officers prefer to keep quiet.

Colleges don’t do this kind of thing out of the goodness of their hearts. They know a shamefully high number of freshmen – about one in four on average, will drop out. That’s a lot of seats they need to fill.

Colleges also know that the students they accept as sophomores won’t count in all-important college ranking calculations, which are based mainly on the characteristics of entering freshmen. This makes it a way to admit the children of alumni and donors who might not have made the first cut.

The Hechinger Report’s Jon Marcus and GBH’s Kirk Carapezza dive into how secret sophomore admissions works — and whether it might work for you.

“College Uncovered” is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

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Credits:

Hosts: Kirk Carapezza & Jon Marcus

Supervising Editor: Megan Woolhouse

Editor: Jeff Keating

Executive Producer: Ellen London 

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News and The Hechinger Report.