I’m trying to show my little brother that there is a quite a bit of randomness and sometimes luck in the college admissions process which is why I’m trying to convince him to apply to more colleges. Basically, I’m trying to tell him to throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. For example I’ve seen a couple threads where one student has listed where they list the six schools they got rejected from, the four they got into, and the one they got wait listed at. I’m hoping I can show him instances where someone got into Dartmouth but got rejected from Tulane or got into Berkely but rejected from UC San Diego. I’m trying to find a collection of these. Anyone know where?
any more recent ones?
If you go to individual college forums (go to the “discuss & interact” dropdown menu at the top and click the orange “university forums a-z” button), many of the forums have results threads. Most of the forums that have result threads are for the more selective schools. However, do keep in mind that at least imo the threads are skewed towards acceptances since people are more likely to make a post if they got in.
yeah i’m familiar with those, but I’m more looking for lists of overall acceptances and rejections as opposed to just at an individual school
The message you are trying to give him isn’t really the correct one. It isn’t mostly randomness and luck, it is mostly preparation and research. Teach your little brother to review the Common Data Set and what the different components mean. Explain the concept of applying to reach, match, and safety schools. Show him how to run the net price calculators for each school to assess the possible costs.
I know what you are talking about but a lot of the times it just happens naturally within the individual school forums . Like there was one where someone was rejected by all UC’s but accepted into Irvine.
@intparent nah
“Nah” meaning that you think it is random? Then leave him alone, you are only going to hurt his college search process, not help him.
I think your premise is wrong. I don’t disagree with the need to apply to a range of colleges and adding additional schools to a list that’s top heavy or too full of safeties isn’t a bad thing. But college acceptance isn’t random or based on luck. For most people, it involves research and the ability to tailor an app to a particular school, but you have to have the credentials to qualify or the rest of the app won’t matter. The people who are getting into the more selective colleges on their list and rejected from some of the less selective ones were competitive applicants at all of those schools. Maybe the less selective college didn’t need another CS major from the Midwest but that’s exactly what the more selective school wanted. Your brother is correct. Just tossing out applications and hoping he’ll get an acceptance isn’t a useful strategy. If you want to help him, why not find some schools that fit his interests, where his stats make him a competitive applicant, and that are still accepting applications?
I’m assuming he has an affordable option that he’s happy with and you’re just trying to add reaches. Make sure he has a safety lined up before you pursue other schools.
Spaghetti has to be first, well prepared, before it has a chance of sticking.
all of you have entirely misunderstood and exaggerated my intentions/beliefs, I assure you I am also teaching him about safeties and obviously I’m not saying it’s all randomness, I’m not saying not to focus on building a strong application.
I’m simply saying to cast a wide net in order to get a gem.
You are still better off teaching him to look at the Common Data Set instead of randomly patrolling the accepted student threads out here. He will get a much better statistical idea of his chances from a reliable source of data. Do you even know what the Common Data Set is? Lots of people don’t… Google " Common Data Set" and look through the most recent one that comes up. It is far more informative than the anecdotes you will see out here.
As long as you understand a wide net isn’t Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc. with Rice and Vanderbilt as his safeties.
@greeninohio Yes I understand
@intparent yes i am familiar with the common data set, no i dont think those anecdotes relay a statistical idea, it’s just one interesting thing to see