A pretty dismal failure in college application process and probably why

Applying to College Admission Stories
1

March 26th, 2020, a date which will live in infamy.

Ok, well I guess I shouldn’t be dramatic, but yesterday and the preceding month was not a very good time. I’d like to share some of this mistakes I’ve made, but first an overview of what I did.

I’ve from a public school in Maine, my father was the first Vietnamese to go to Harvard, I have legacies from my siblings from Columbia and NYU. My mother went to St. Olaf and Boston College. So I thought I was pretty well off compared to most people.

I didn’t try too hard in high school, I mostly got by on my smarts and not hard work. I’ll put the stats below and the colleges I applied to. Needless to say, I find that a lot of kids of alums of Harvard or MIT are super smart because their parents forced them to do work or implanted some sort of seed. Not for me, I was basically left to my devices to learn what I wanted to. That goes two ways, though, as one of my brothers didn’t go to college at all.

So here are my stats:
3.85 GPA (Kind of low, but I took a few non honors classes and I got Bs in French because I am terrible at foreign language)
1540 on the SAT, took it twice, probably should have studied
800 on Math II, 770 on Physics, 720 on Biology subject tests (again, probably should have studied before entering the testing room)
5 on AP Biology, 5 on Calculus AB, 4 on Chemistry, 3 on Lit (we don’t talk about that one)

Senior year classes: APUSH, AP GoPo, AP Music Theory, Multivariable Calculus + BC, AP Physics, AP Lang, 4.0 unweighted GPA first semester

Extracurriculars: Co-captain of science bowl team (4th place in state comp), Quiz show team (again 4th place), Jazz Band lead saxophone, Math Team (2nd in region), Chess Team, Cross County, NHS

Things I do for fun: Astrophotography (I sent some of these pictures in), filmmaking, political activism, musician (play 3 instruments and records music)

Problem: I’ve pretty much never won anything except for local awards. I blame that on me, not for having bad science projects or films or whatever, but probably because I am terrible at presenting myself.

Things that happened after I submitted my applications: Got in to the regional JSHS paper presentation competition

Applied to: I applied for a major in Astrophysics, as I have done several research projects too which I presented in my applications. I picked this pool of colleges on a whim and out of name recognition only. That is problem #1.

Safety: UMaine, UMass Amherst
Target: Boston University
Reach: Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Stanford

Results: Into UMaine and Umass Amherst with scholarships, waitlisted at BU and Harvard, and rejected everywhere else

I’ll go through my mistakes in chronological order

  1. Did not apply early decision because I was too lazy. I might have had a better chance of not being on the waitlist (since that’s the first pool they see) or maybe being deferred and writing a better application on RD.

  2. Not caring about a lot of colleges. I picked too many Ivy’s that I didn’t give a hoot about and that probably showed in the application. In addition, I thought BU was going to be relatively easy, but again it probably showed that I didn’t care as much. A couple friends with lower stats go in probably because they were more enthusiastic (I also had a typo in my “Why BU” essay, whoops!).

  3. Not applying to more match schools. I threw together my list, again, on a whim and without consulting a lot of people. If it were to do it again, I would have at least added NYU and Boston College, and probably more.

  4. Writing a bland personal essay. It was as dry as mud.

  5. Thinking my legacy status would carry me to good places. In a sense it might have, as there is no way I would be on the Harvard waitlist without it. But I have mediocre stats for the top schools indeed.

In total, I spent 7 hours of time being interviewed for these places, and I feel bad that I wasted their time. I think my letters of recommendation were solid (presumably), and the teachers I asked definitely knew about all the things I did and my well-roundedness (but maybe that’s now what sells). If I was more clever, or heeded the advice of counselors and peers, I might have gotten into a college that more suited my needs, and perhaps was a bit cheaper. But now I have two options, one with a terrible astrophysics program, and one that cost 40,000 bucks a year. It would be sad if I had to change my major on account of being stupid, but you live and learn, and perhaps I will work harder in college. Thanks for your time.

2

Sorry about your results. As you acknowledge yourself, the main problem was your list - too many high reaches, not enough match schools.

3

“If it were to do it again, I would have at least added NYU and Boston College”

Which would be 2 more rejections based on what you said your application looks like.

Not spending more time on your essay and studying for subject tests should have been a big focus.

I agree with your list of factors. You should not have applied to all those reach schools (1-2 max) and really should have focused on REAL match schools that you would love to attend. Like Fordham, GW, Holy Cross, UCONN etc…

UMASS is a great school - so if that’s where you’re going, you should be happy anyway. Good luck to you.

4

OP: To which other schools do you wish you had applied ?

5

@Publisher
I am not particularly savvy on what schools are good for what, so I should have probably spent more than a couple hours finding that out and asking around.

6

As you mentioned “astrophysics”, I thought that you might have found some schools which have programs that matched your interests.

7

First, BC and NYU are not matches, they’re reaches. Second UMass Amherst is an excellent college.

Otherwise, I think that you have a pretty good handle on what went “wrong”. However, as i wrote, you have some excellent acceptances, and you will likely do well in one of them.

However, if you really do not want to attend any of your acceptances, take a gap year, do something amazing, and apply next year, using the lessons you learned this year.

8

I agree with others that U.Mass Amherst is a very good university as long as it is affordable. My suggestion is that you either go to U.Maine or U.Mass, and plan to work hard.

You will find that university classes get hard at some point, which might be right away. Also, in university you will have opportunities to “goof off”, and you will need to keep yourself focused if you want to do well. Alternately, you will also have opportunities to learn a lot, get to know strong professors, and most likely to participate in valuable research and/or internships.