Are Our Classmates Our Own "enemies?"

Applying to College
1

<p>i am currently a senior in high school and have recently received rejections from all the privates i applied to. I have above average grades (4.4 gpa, 2100 SAT) and great EC's. I applied to (cornell, JHU, dartmouth, yale, harvard, duke, columbia, princeton, upenn, stanford).</p>

<p>Although the application process is over, i would like some sort of "closure."</p>

<p>Unfortunately, i come from a high school where everyone, and i mean EVERYONE is brilliant/competitive, and the majority apply to top notch colleges and ivies. Also, a significant amount of them are immigrants. From what i've heard, the students that got in these schools like harvard, yale, UPenn were immigrants and have had significant "hardships" and "sob stories" as well as above average grades like me. I definietly admire their perseverance and congratulate their success. They truly deserve it!</p>

<p>My main question, though, is whether or not the admissions commitee first groups all the students from the same high school and then evaluates/chooses which students are accepted. </p>

<p>Of course, the ones who have undergone harships yet still have maintained good grades will be chosen, and i feel that it is a little unfair for other students like me, with out these "stories." In a sense, they will have already filled the "quota" for my high school, and qualified students like me will never get a chance of acceptance. </p>

<p>Does that mean I would have had a better shot at the ivies in a high school where there was less compeition and less immigrants (not to be racist)?</p>

<p>Also, does that mean it is possible for a more competitve and qualified student, who gets overshadowed by the intense competition at his/her school be rejected to lets say, Dartmouth, while a less qualified student who appears to be the "star pupil" at a lesser competitve college be accepted to Dartmouth?</p>

2

<p>Here's my take on the issue: While I've also heard that applicants from the same high school get evaluated with each other, here's the thing--I feel like people should apply to a wider variety of schools. It seems like a lot of people on CC apply to the same schools that everyone else does, and this may have been the case at your high school as well. If that is/was the case, then everyone's chance goes down at these top private colleges. That's why it's important to pick safety, match, and reach schools that you can imagine yourself attending and not hating yourself for going there.</p>

3

<p>If you are less well qualified academically, you need something else to make you stand out. My daughter's academic credentials are weaker in comparison to many at the reach schools she applied to, and she applied to (and was accepted by) some of the same schools as the much more impressive valedictorian from her class. But the point is, she distinguished herself in other ways, focusing on artistic pursuits and other experiences. </p>

<p>You really need to ask yourself at the beginning of the process what you have that is different or sets you apart from others. It could be a hobby, it could be a personal experience, it could be some aspect of family heritage -- or of course it could be a strong academic interest or a passion for a particular EC. But what you don't want is to have the same basic list of ECs and course work as people at your school who outdid you in those areas. If you have a 3.9 GPA and were a member of a lot of clubs, and someone else from your school took the same classes with a 4.2 GPA and was president of the same clubs -- you're in trouble. So your application needs to have stuff on it that isn't going to show up on the the activity sheet or the recs of your "competition". </p>

<p>I'm sorry because obviously you don't get a do-over, and its too late to go and rework your application -- I'm posting this mostly for the benefits of the ones who are beginning the process for next year. You've got to change the terms of the "competition" to win. </p>

<p>Polo, I hope for your sake that you also applied to some good public schools as matches and safeties (you said that you were rejected from the privates). Obviously is that it is extraordinarly difficult to get into an Ivy League college, and some people don't quite have what it takes to get into those schools -- but can get into and do very well at extremely well regarded schools that have only slightly more relaxed admission standards.</p>

4

<p>Actually your SAT is below average for most of your schools. I would think that was the primary reason for the rejections. Most non hooked candidates would be in the 2250 range.</p>

5

<p>2100 is extremely low</p>

6

<p>one other problem I see is that you applied to the entire ivy league (sans Brown), and of course Stanford. This is the hallmark of the unfocused applicant chasing "prestige"; at your interviews I wonder if you were able to convince the Dartmouth interviewer (and adcom with your essays) that somehow it was the perfect match for you, and then turn around and do the same with Columbia. Colleges are in the business of assembling classes of students that are a strong fit for their school, and the colleges may have figured out that perhaps you were more interested in the name they could put on your diploma than in what the school had to offer.</p>