I am a senior applying to college this year. I have been rejected/waitlisted to every single school I applied to besides my safety schools. I was rejected from MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, and waitlisted to CMU, UCLA, and now UMich. Also, I am asian.
My credentials in short are
2340 SAT: 800 M, 760 R, 780 W
SAT II: 800 M2, 800 Physics
GPA: 3.87 UW, 4.20 W in a very rigorous and highly ranked school
I know these schools are very difficult to get into, but I am shocked to be denied/waitlisted to every single one. Another thing that bothers me is that someone in my school with far lower stats and ECs than me got into MIT (he was black), and then someone else also got into MIT even after plagiarizing and receiving disciplinary action including being kicked out of classes and NHS. After that, someone in my school with not even a 2000 SAT and ~ a 3.5 weighted GPA got into CMU.
I think college admissions for asians are approaching a point where it is absolutely ridiculous. I worked hard in high school and am going to be rejected to every single hopeful school I applied to. I still have ivy day tomorrow, but I know I have little to no chances whatsoever after being waitlisted/rejected to even my target schools. All I can say is wow. Opinions?
MIT, Stanford, and Duke are considered reach for everyone, except perhaps relation of a big donor or some such. Without such a hook, you probably need top notch academic credentials and some high (state or national) level achievement or award in something to have a decent chance.
UCB, UCLA, CMU, and Michigan engineering divisions are more selective than the schools overall, probably approaching the super-selective level if not already there. Note that UCB and UCLA are very GPA-heavy and test-score-light, so your GPA was probably a weak part of your application there. Their subjectively graded criteria are also somewhat different from those of many other highly selective schools.
Assuming that you were admitted to a good quality lower cost safety school like Rutgers, there is no reason to be disappointed.
I think this is a humbling experience. Just because some applicants get in with lower stats doesn’t mean they weren’t as qualified academically as you. These schools have different needs they need to meet and it can sometimes be subjective. Sorry you’re disappointed, but would you like to attend a school where you aren’t wanted?
Perhaps your sense of entitlement is why you did not get accepted. Elite colleges also look at character. You are not entitled to get accepted into any school and surely no one is taking “your” spot. If they wanted you, they would’ve accepted you, but they didn’t. No need to mention someone’s race as a means of reducing the meaningfulness of their accomplishments. That’s bonafide hating. Just because you as an Asian didn’t get in doesn’t mean this process is somehow ridiculous and unfair.
The US population is less than 5% Asian but Asians represent 25% of the student body at MIT. So surely they are accepting Asian students, they just didn’t accept you.
You’re clearly very smart. You should be fine wherever you go to school. Looking back at some of your older posts, particularly the one about you essay, there seems to be some indication that you have given off negative vibes through your writing. Perhaps that was factored in.
Did you apply to any matches or safeties? Unless you were hooked, only UCLA appears to be close to a match for you. Applying to a whole bunch of reaches isn’t a good strategy. It isn’t random – it is poor planning. Hope you have some options you haven’t listed here.
OP’s other threads indicate a NJ resident applying to Rutgers, Purdue, and Northeastern as safeties. Also, the OP’s GPA seems to be on the low side for UCLA engineering.
Wow, that’s rough. Are you OOS? I feel like your stats and presumably your ECs are a lock for the UCs, even for an Asian, as long as you’re in California.
Schools like MIT, Stanford, Duke, and Ivies are indeed “random” in that stats alone cannot predict whether you will get in. But don’t lose hope; there may be great news tomorrow. It’s a good thing you didn’t have to start your Ivy applications today, otherwise you would be discouraged from even doing them! Stay hopeful. If it’s random as you can say, then it could turn out random the other way as well.
It is unfortunate to be on the short end of affirmative action, but realize that it’s necessary. If there were a black and white choice, then I would, without hesitation, choose to have affirmative action remain in place. However, I do believe it needs great fixing.
I know people who cheat/plagiarize who have gotten into top schools. It is frustrating to watch them still get into top schools, but believe me that your work habits and studying skills are much stronger than theirs because you actually did the work. Not everyone at top schools have top GPAs, and there are people who have Cs and Fails in college; those people are generally the people who cheated/plagiarized. So it will hit them eventually, don’t pay not much attention to them.
I get what you’re saying. I get extremely frustrated when I see the partying, binge-drinking potheads from my school getting into USC, UCLA, Berkeley, even Harvard. I’m doing well results-wise, but it doesn’t take away the sting that I worked at least 100 times harder than they did, and they get to coast through because they’re legacies and/or loaded. Hang in there. No matter where you go, you will be the one graduating college with better grades and internship experiences, and you will rise higher in whatever occupation you decide on because people will finally start recognizing your drive and hard work. Don’t give up. You got this.
OP is a NJ resident, and OP’s GPA is on the low side for UCB and UCLA engineering (even for non-engineering, OP’s GPA is probably marginal).
I apologize if I came off as acerbic. It may be my frustration in effect. I did not mean to belittle any of my applicants from my school, in fact I am good friends with the ones I have referred to. I hope I have not given off negatives vibes, as they are certainly not true. I do not mean to be arrogant, but I won prom and homecoming king of that serves to corroborate this. I am simply frustrated on the lack of correlation between my hard work and success in college admissions. I understand they are all VERY selective schools and I did not expect to get into any of them, but disregarding the affirmative action argument and just seeing the one who plagiarized be admitted into a top 5 school in the country is bewildering. once again, I do not mean to be belittle anyone and apologize if it came across that way.
@running1998 I am sorry it was a tough admission season for you. Honestly though, I think there are several things at work here:
- Yes, admissions were absolutely tougher this year. But for everyone, not just asians. And certainly for engineering.
- I wouldn't overly focus on results at your school (small sample size can make things appear more quixotic than they actually are. If you saw the broader list of who was admitted at those top schools, you would be amazed at a lot of the students.
- You had some B's earlier on. Not awful, doesn't make you a bad person, or mean you won't do wonderful things, but a hurdle when compared to the broad pool of stellar applicants.
- Sorry, but your essays may have missed the mark. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18750685/ apparently was a really rough start. I know you didn't use that, and maybe your essays did a utter 180 degree shift from there, but ugh. As @CaliCash mentions, if they got any whiff of entitlement etc it could deep six your application.
- Related to that, who knows how recommendations went? You may have rubbed a teacher the wrong way along the way without realizing it.
- You had a 740 on Chemistry SAT II, originally a lower Physics SAT II etc. Duke saw all that, as did the UCs. Again, not terrible, but there is some crazy competition for those top few schools.
- You had 4 AP tests, 2 4's 2 5's. That's fine and solid, but there are students with many many more tests and 5's.
I don’t mean to say all this to make you feel bad. Nor is everything in the world perfect, or even fair. Just, don’t blame others, think about what you can do to make yourself the best you can be.
You clearly have a ton of potential, if you keep up the effort. A school like UCSD might have been your safety, but they are one of the top engineering schools in the country. Seize that opportunity, and make the best of it. A little later on, this whole thing will just seem like a minor setback.
With the OP’s GPA, UCSD would not be a safety. Perhaps a match for the school, but probably a high match or low reach for engineering.
Anyway, if the OP got into Rutgers, the OP has a good low cost school to attend.
@ucbalumnus what I meant there was, he may have considered it his safety, not that I agree that it was. (He got into it.)
The tragedy is how much emphasis students continue to put on their “stats”. This despite repeated warning by the universities themselves that stats are just one aspect of an application. I had an admissions officer at Columbia say that what mattered is that the application “stand out” in some way. That when presented to the committee, everyone said, “yes, we want that person here”. A high SAT scores doesn’t make you stand out in a pool where thousands have them.
I also am shocked at how students apply to 10 or 12 top tier colleges. What is the sense of that? And do people even consider have vastly different Brown is from Columbia or Cornell? Or Amherst from Michigan?
I think a reality check is in order. I didn’t focus on any one college. I applied to a broad range of colleges. And I accepted what came. After all, it is just a college!
@klingon97 stats are the only way to get a perspective of someone who does not want to get too personal or reveal their identity. Of course I knew that my stats would not get me into these universities, and I spent countless hours on my essays trying to show who i truly am in terms of my life difficulties and my sense of humor. In fact, I am more disappointed that this did not get me any acceptances more than my scores.
@running1998 It’s a combination of your essays and what you have done. I also think that in cases such as yours, the school and teacher recommendations are key. My school guidance counsellor called my top choices. I got in to several top tier universities with less than spectacular stats. But reach schools are just that…reaches. Never count of them. As it is, you got into some great places.
Did your classroom presence make the class a better place for all, or were you worrying about how others were doing, and complaining if you didn’t get what you assumed that you deserved? This may have affected your LORs. Many teachers will write a LOR for any high-performing student, but those letters may be lukewarm for any student who clearly cared more for the grade that the class material. This is true for college too.
@running1998 Where did you get accepted?
High stats will not get you into a super-selective school, but low stats will keep you out (unless you have a super-hook).
Also, it appears that most posters on these forums overemphasize the importance of SAT/ACT scores relative to high school courses and grades.