what does it mean when a college says that they want to hold your application???

There is something there, but they want to see how the final semester goes.

You are on the bubble and it could go either way

It means that they aren't fully convinced that you are one of the best candidates they could get. Rather than accepting you right away, which they would do if they felt you were clearly going to be one of the better applications they would see, they want to wait and see what else they get. If the pool of applicants is very strong this year, and/or your semester grades aren't particularly strong, they will pass on you. If, however, this is a lean year for applications, and you do well, you might get in. One reason for this is that your application may have shown improvement over the past year or so, and they want to make sure you keep it up and didn't just work hard for the college application.

No it doesn't mean either of those bad things, hon, because they would just reject you outright. Honestly, what it means is they are waiting to count the number of acceptances they get from the "yeses" they sent out so they know how many openings they have. It is simple logistics at this point. If you do really really badly your first semester senior year, you might lose your place on hold, however. But it doesn't work the other way, unfortunately.

Still, out of five, you will have a chance of three ultimately accepting you if my past experience means anything. Good luck and keep the faith. You will go to college and the amazing thing is that wherever you go, it will be the right place for you.

You're not an afterthought: they like you too much to say "no," but they're not sure they want to go ahead and give you a spot in case they get more applicants with stronger academic records, so they're going to wait and think about it some more. Hopefully you've done well this semester so you can alleviate their concerns. If not (or even if you have and you're really set on going), call them up and ask if there's anything else you can provide that would strengthen your application.

It means you are just squeaking by as far as qualifying, and they want to see if you do what some seniors do - screw off and screw up - or keep on track.

There's good reason for that; college requires self-discipline. As an ex-professor, I can tell you more of my students flunked out for lack of applying themselves (aka too much partying without mom & dad watching them) than for lack of ability.

If five colleges said the same thing, you must be giving them a reason, perhaps an inconsistent past history. I suggest busting your tail the rest of your time in school, or learn how to smile when saying "Would you like fries with that?"

Meaning they are still looking at your application for further review. Its kinda like a maybe. They want to see if they get better applications in regular admission. They also want to see your grades for next semester meaning they are unsure about your current grades so I would work hard to impress them. You recieved this from all five colleges?

It may be because of your grades and SAT scores. Also it depends on the ranking of your high school. But do your best to make awesome Grades for the next semester

They probably want to see if you have pretty good grades for the last semester, your probably border line of if u can make it in the college or not.

It means that they want to see what your grades are going to look like. They don't want to get a slacker that once gets accepted just gives up because the path is cleared.

do you have good grades did you do a lot of service? are you in a lot of clubs or play sports?