<p>For matches AND reaches...ha.</p>
<p>And it's not like I had NO chance anywhere, with my scores well within range and sometimes as high as the 75th percentile, and very meaningful extracurriculars, unique essays, national/regional awards, etc. </p>
<p>But I'm actually mostly over it already. :P</p>
<p>Hell, I’m not even in the game, but I’m going to get slaughtered.</p>
<p>Meh, I think I overestimated myself a bit. I got waitlisted at what I thought were matches. Good thing I applied to three safeties, though, and I actually like them quite a bit. Got accepted to two and the other one (and this annoys me soooo much) basically said, “If you can pay 30k a year, we’ll accept you.” Bah!</p>
<p>Nothing but bad news all day. My school got screwed. Might be the worst year for acceptance rate in PA history, and the worst part is that this is the smartest and most competitive class in the school’s history. It’s like the colleges thought: “Oh geez, we have 150 applicants from Andover, let’s just make this easy and reject them all.”</p>
<p>If it makes you feel any better, I feel the exact same way…last year there weren’t even as many people thinking about applying to selective schools as there were people getting accepted this year.</p>
<p>And my counselor messed up my midyears by sending em in way past deadline even though I requested them super early. Yeah, I probably should have followed up…but still…my counselor also was annoyingly uninformed about basically every selective colleges, saying things that I knew for sure were completely untrue, and making it sound like she could help me with getting into places much more than she actually could. </p>
<p>I also hate how even though my school OFFERS a lot of AP classes, we were bogged down with a billion prerequisites before we could actually take those classes. Meaning I had a very unimpressive courseload relative to people with similar scores. </p>
<p>But…my safety isnt awful. I’m just irritated that I didn’t get nearly as much merit aid as many less qualified people. So whatever. I’ll live. </p>
<p>A girl from my school who got rejected from all reaches/matches ended up at a safety she originally hated, but she made the best of it by getting sophomore standing her first year with AP credit, and she’s studying abroad this next year! So I can follow in her footsteps.</p>
<p>CBatch, the parents of PA students who are paying 40k tuition must be really stoked. :D</p>
<p>Judging from what I’ve seen on the forums so far, it seems like a ridiculously high number of extremely qualified applicants (think 3.9+ UW GPAs and 2300+ SATs, plus great ECs) got either outright denied or waitlisted at many Ivies. So you’re definitely not alone. I personally had a 3.8 cumulative unweighted GPA, 2350 on the SAT I and 5 strong SAT IIs, what I thought were decent and fairly unique ECs, and strong essays (I can vouch for this because my Common App essay won a Silver Key in the Scholastic Writing Awards), but I did not get into a single Ivy (waitlisted at Columbia though). But I got into UC Berkeley, and since I’ve seen people who have similar stats and are unfortunately worse off than I am in terms of admissions, I consider myself privileged to be going to Cal in the fall.</p>
<p>I didn’t really get slaughtered. I got into most of my schools, but they were all likely in’s anyways.
I got rejected from Cornell and Dartmouth, but really no suprise there.
My top college was ND, i was right in the average accepted there and assumed I’d get in. Of course my top school was my only toss up and thus the only one that really hurt when I got rejected.</p>
<p>Absolutely killed. One still in the mail, but rejected at three and waitlisted at five, only one acceptance. Devastated.</p>
<p>One acceptance, which was my back-up so I can’t really say I care about that one. Then, four flat-out rejections in a row, two of them Ivies. 4.0 GPA, 1990 SAT score, taking all AP courses available at my school.</p>
<p>Still waiting for two letters in the mail. I guess there’s some hope, but I’m feeling pretty dejected now.</p>
<p>
I’m afraid you cannot vouch for that. </p>
<p>The essay component of your file is not a writing contest. A great application essay paints a picture of you that is noteworthy and engaging to the reader. The noteworthiness can stem from humor, poignency, likeability, sympathy, or something else, but at its core it must stand out to the reader to the point the reader would seek you out to meet you when you arrive on campus in the Fall. </p>
<p>You’ve apparently misunderstood the purpose of the essay. In a sea of top 0.5% applicants (2300+/3.9+s), of which there are about 50,000 each year (There are over 20,000 high schools in the US alone, with est. 3.2M graduates this year), the essay is what separates the “we must have this kid” teeny, tiny pile, from the “great kid, could do well here, but doesn’t move me” mountain that fills the adcom office.</p>
<p>Well, I actually entered the essay into the “Personal Essay/Memoir” category, which I thought had similar criteria to what adcoms often say they look for in a college essay. I’ve also had my guidance counselor critique it, and she said it was one of the best college essays she’d ever read. Considering that she has a reputation for being very harsh, I think that’s a real compliment. :)</p>
<p>Cal’s fantastic. It is it’s own thing. You’ll get a great education and be around a completely different set of kids. You’ll love it.</p>
<p>setting a bookmark.</p>
<p>I did alright in terms of admissions, but I was waitlisted at two safeties. I was very lucky to get into a reach school I never dreamed of, but being waitlisted at schools I considered sure bets? Yikes.</p>
<p>I know that my class is one of the best theat has come through my high school in years (most national merit scholars, most perfect GPAs, most ivy acceptances, etc.) and from what I’ve heard from others, it seems like a lot of the senior classes this year have been particularly competitive. I don’t know what it is, but it sounds like '11 is really something special. Between that and the fact that applicant pools seem to have grown at nearly EVERY major university, this year has been a brutal one in college admissions.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be that bitter if it were not the fact that I didn’t even give decent merit aid (beyond the guaranteed amount) from my safety when much less qualified people got way more.</p>
<p>And if many of the people who did get into reaches in my grade were better…or even equal…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There’s no way you know this. You really have no idea of the qualifications of other students, even if you “think” you know. </p>
<p>It’s fine to be angry/bitter/sad for a bit, and then you’ll have to move on and get on with the business of living. It was a tough year in admissions, for everyone. Just keep in mind that even Buffet was rejected from the Ivies. It happens, and it does not determine your future or define your true worth. Good luck to you. You’ll be suprised how things have a way of working out over the long haul.</p>
<p>Yes, I was absolutely slaughtered, but life goes on, I suppose. Don’t worry too much! This was a tough, tough admissions cycle, and we’ve all got great futures ahead of us, I’m sure! :]</p>
<p>I got into my safety, two of my three matches, and one of my four reaches. I’m actually very happy with the results.</p>