<p>I know that there are tons of ccers in similar or identical positions, and I kind of just wanted to commiserate--are you confused? Mourning? Not sure what to do? Any opinions/advice/whines are welcome, on a thread for any and all fellow bewildered partial-acceptees.</p>
<p>either way, u'll have a real good school to attend</p>
<p>ha this kind of thing happen all the time!</p>
<p>If you really prefer Columbia, just fax them your Harvard letter and be like "What up! I got into Harvard but I'd prefer Columbia." </p>
<p>Columbia would love to take a kid away from Harvard.</p>
<p>college admission is a crapshoot. who really understands how it all works.</p>
<p>i'll do you guys one better, a student at my school got into harvard but waitlisted at cornell, and rejected at penn... she is an outstanding student, so it boggles my mind</p>
<p>Franklin, that actually seems like the greatest or the absolutely dumbest idea ever. Too bad I don't have a HYPS acceptance letter. Only this stupid UNC one.</p>
<p>I got into Columbia, Brown PLME, Princeton, and Dartmouth, but I got rejected from Harvard. . . stuff happens I guess.</p>
<p>I'm going to Northwestern though. If I had gotten into Harvard, I probably would have gone because this guy I like would be going to MIT or Harvard. . .so it was better for me not to have gotten in even though it was a blow to the ego. It's always a bad idea to go to a school just because you like someone. . .ahh stupid girls.</p>
<p>If every school admitted all the people accepted by more highly ranked schools, and about the same number of students applied to each, the admissions percentages would be much different among the top 10 schools. The more students that turn down one school in favor of another, the more students that school would have to accept, making the acceptance rates of the top schools much lower than those of those schools to which students chose not go. However, we all know that Columbia is within 2 percentage of Harvard and Yale, so obviously these schools must be accepting different people and trying to prevent overlap as much as possible.</p>
<p>I hope you all could follow my logic, I'm barely keeping track of myself.</p>
<p>You have to understand that Columbia and Harvard, despite being ivies, are DIFFERENT SCHOOLS. Columbia has only a slightly higher acceptance rate than Harvard, if you're looking at it by that. Both schools, and all great schools, actually, are looking for the same things in an applicant, but Columbia and Harvard still have their differences in what they're looking for. I was waitlisted at Cornell (supposedly the easiest ivy to get into, but I think they saw through that.. that I just applied because I figured it should, statistically, be easier for me to get into).. and I got into Columbia and Penn (Wharton). Heck, I was waitlisted at Tufts. </p>
<p>Plus, there's so many applicants. Consider yourself accepted if you're waitlisted.. but they don't have enough space for you.</p>
<p>And both schools also look to see that you really know the school. Perhaps you showed Harvard you know/belong there more than you did for Columbia. Anyway, a lot of it is a "crapshoot"</p>
<p>In any case, good luck. They're both amazing schools, and you'll be great at either one =) Congrats</p>
<p>Lunknot, why Northwestern? I'm facing the same sort of decision right now, so I'd love to hear your reasoning.</p>
<p>thank you guys so much; I definitely appreciate the fact that harvard is nothing to 'shake a stick at,' or my fist, or anything else -- and actually I think it's being waitlisted at upenn AND columbia AND princeton that really rankles me :). but I'm trying not to make this an issue of the ego, and just be grateful for what I have</p>
<p>not to mention that I have this theory that, technically, the waitlist spots are more selective than the actual acceptances (500 kids compared to like 1500) so really I'm doing pretty well! haha</p>
<p>where do/did you really want to go?</p>
<p>Columbia is no safety school to HYP. Why is it such a shock to be waitlisted? There are lots of components to admissions weighed differently by each school - sometimes geography even plays a role. If you were a borderline admit to Harvard, I'd hardly be shocked that you were rejected/waitlisted from a few marginally less selective schools (keep in mind that Columbia RD is HIGHLY competitive as they take a large portion of their class ED).</p>
<p>franklinbrown, I decided on Northwestern because i've liked the university since middle school. Actually going there for the HPME interviews was a dream come true, and I liked it even more in "person." What really made me choose NU over all the others is being accepted into the HPME program - 3 yrs undergrad automatically accepted to their medical school (no MCAT or anything....it's just a sweet deal at an awesome school.). I got into PLME at Brown, but i'm more familiar with NU...so i guess i'm sort of afraid to go out of my comfort zone a bit. I just felt at home at NU.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for the instillment of confidence, pebbles; I'd like to think that I was well-qualified enough to be competitive at all four schools (although I certainly realize, especially now, that nothing is a guarantee in the process). And keep in mind that, even accounting for the fact that Harvard's early plan is non-binding, its percentage of students accepted early is heftier even than Columbia's64% to 46%.</p>
<p>Darmani, I honestly wasn't sure about which school was my favorite, even before acceptances came in; but now Harvard's looking pretty good I guess. :) I'm visiting next week, but as far as committing myself to trying to get off a waitlist goes, I think I'll probably devote my energies to Columbia.</p>
<p>Rachkix, Harvard has some of the greatest students on the planet. My two all time favorite people in the world are sophomores there, and their friends amaze me, too. My friend's suite was comprised of Germany's premier linguist (based on some competition and the fact that he's fluent in 11 languages), a director, a kid on the US physics team, and himself. On the floor above them was Ms. Korea.
People debate if the school itself deserves its prestige, but the name is undeniable, and a consequence of that is the students it attracts. If you don't get into Columbia don't you dare sulk. You got into Harvard! :)</p>
<p>(I hope you get off the wait-list anyway. Columbia rocks.)</p>
<p>I was merely responding to your seemingly utter confusion at your - not too uncommon - admissions results. If you knew the answer (that the top 10 or so schools in the country rather arbitrarily pick their admits), why so "confused"?</p>
<p>It was certainly not my intention to shoot you down or anything - congrats on the Harvard acceptance, I just hope you weren't looking for an ego boost. Best of luck with Columbia if it is your top choice.</p>