Hi everyone, I’m an international student, I applied last year to 10 colleges all of them reach schools as I was planning to take a gap year anyway unless I was going to a top school. I was rejected from Harvard, Stanford, Brown, Cornell, and Columbia but waitlisted at Yale, UPenn, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, and UMich. I am considering applying to Yale SCEA this cycle as its my dream school and I never even expected to be waitlisted, I haven’t done a lot in my gap year but my test scores did improve a bit, I added a few decent ECs, and I feel like the essays I applied with last time were horrible and that I can do much better. I’ve never heard of anyone reapplying to Yale and so I was wondering if I have any realistic chance.
Perhaps you should go a notch lower.
I wouldn’t expect applying to the same school a second time would change the result, especially when you say you’ve not done much with that year. In general, nothing will change.
To me, you’d be time wasting but there’s only one way to find out.
You’re obviously a strong student if you were WL at the college you mention…so perhaps adding a Brandeis, Rochester, Florida, Case Western level school or five would be smart and even one below so you are not shut out.
I’m not taking finances into account - but obviously you want to go to school. Where you go won’t matter if you have no where to go.
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The one thing that you need to understand about waitlists is that some of them may be huge. For example, UPenn, had a WL of 3,205 for an expected class size of 2,300.
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Fair point. Being on the Wait List is a rejection but a hedge for the school. It’s for their benefit. Few had any real movement this year. My daughter was on Emorys…they took none or just a few. And she declined William & Mary’s WL offer.
The OP definitely needs to go down a notch. No doubt a great candidate but not for the top 20. The OP may even be surprised by the selectivity of the top 50 and while that’s a good range, should ensure they have a definite so they end up somewhere. While I realize pedigree is important overseas, they can get a wonderful education from thousands of great colleges here.
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You applied to tippy top schools that have minuscule acceptance rates. For international students, especially if you needed FA, the acceptance is ludicrously small.
Applying again, in the absence of anything notable during your gap year, is likely going to end in the same result. The test score will make no difference, as it was clearly already within range.
Are you full pay? I’m guessing so, a you didn’t just apply to the colleges that meet full need for foreign students. Many fantastic colleges would love to have you. Why not apply to some top LACs, or aim just below the Ivy League?
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What’s your budget? It matters a lot in the process.
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Did you only apply to the same elite colleges that rejected you the first time…or did you add some others to your list?
I have to believe that colleges would see right through someone taking a year off only to try to get into their school a second time. I would also think that colleges will look more favorably on someone that graduated from high school on time and went right to college then an applicant that had the privilege of sitting out a year only to try to bolster their application in the eyes of the admissions office. The whole thing seems to work authenticity.
Seems to lack authenticity.