<p>Yet another article on this year's applicants, this one from the Sacramento Bee. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/854261.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/854261.html</a></p>
<p>"The big surprise, Hesser (a school counselor) said, was how many rejections UC sent."</p>
<p>Applicant Stephanie Yu had taken 9 AP classes and applied with a 4.2 GPA to UCLA, Berkeley, San Diego, Davis and Cal Poly SLO. One would have thought that Davis or SLO would have come through for her. </p>
<p>Something to factor in for next year's application season. More people will check off more boxes on the UC application next year, after what happened this year--which will exacerbate things next year.</p>
<p>""I told my mom, no boy can ever break my heart the way the rejection letter did," said Stephanie Yu, a senior at Franklin High School in Elk Grove."</p>
<p>A bit melodramatic, but let's hope the young lady will start the fall at some college with a lighter heart.</p>
<p>my dad told me about that article, i went to elk grove high and its my first year at ucsd...college app season i think was one of the hardest times for kids in high school, because everyone seemed to rank the importance of their existance based on what colleges they got into, and what colleges their friends got into, when most of the time it seemed, to me, random who got into what college</p>
<p>of course theres obvious reasons why some people get into certain schools, but theres always those who 'deserve' to get into that one college and never do..i guess its just the nature of the beast</p>
<p>it always works out though, however, because its not the end of the world..theres so many different ways to still get into that one college if thats what their hearts are set on, or other options might end up being the best</p>
<p>college app seasons for hs kids is just hard...and for parents who have to help their kids deal with rejection, when often theres not much anyone can do but let time pass, and find other avenues for their education</p>
<p>"Sofia Cortopassi is a senior at Davis High School navigating these uneasy waters. She has a 4.6 grade-point average, strong test scores and numerous extracurricular activities ranging from opera singing to an internship in the state Legislature.</p>
<p>She applied to 18 colleges with strong music and political science programs. Ten said yes. Four turned her down. And four – including her first choice, Wellesley College in Massachusetts – put her on a wait list.</p>
<p>When the word from Wellesley came, it was such a letdown that Cortopassi waited two days before telling anyone.</p>
<p>She has since chosen a path both practical and philosophical. Next week she will visit two colleges that sent acceptances and that she finds appealing: Wesleyan University in Connecticut and George Washington University in the nation's capital."</p>
<p>Why, why, why apply to 18 schools? Such a waste of time and energy.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, there are a thousand four-year colleges - many with excellent facilities and faculty - who would beg to have her, and would even fill out her application for her.</p>
<p>There is a college place for EVERYONE (provided you can pay for it), with plenty of space left over.</p>
<p>(and since when does Wellesley have a strong music program? They have exactly - count 'em - three tenured academic faculty, two assistants, and a couple of visitors. :rolleyes:)</p>
<p>
[quote]
"I told my mom, no boy can ever break my heart the way the rejection letter did," said Stephanie Yu, a senior at Franklin High School in Elk Grove.
[/quote]
haha that is scary!</p>
<p>Yes, but she was a great student who applied to five schools and was rejected at all of them! That would break your heart.</p>
<p>From the article:
Stephanie Yu: " And this weekend, Yu and her parents will visit UC Riverside, which has turned up as a new option because UC guarantees all eligible California graduates a spot somewhere in the system. This week, UC mailed invitations to students such as Yu to attend Riverside or UC Merced, which are less crowded."</p>
<p>Sofia Cortopassi: " She applied to 18 colleges with strong music and political science programs. Ten said yes." </p>
<hr>
<p>Where does this sense of first-choice entitlement come from? This is a story with 2 happy endings (as well as the numerous happy endings from all the students not interviewed, who did get into their top choices - like the one kid they mentioned who "was accepted at four top schools, including Stanford"). Yu has been invited to attend a UC campus where there is room for her; Sofia Cortopassi has ten colleges to choose from. </p>
<p>OK, so they didn't get into their top choices. I wonder how many kids are upset about being waitlisted or rejected from the 9 colleges that Sofia got into but won't end up attending? (In Sofia's defense, her statement re Wellesley, "I figure, if they didn't accept me right off the bat, maybe it's not a good fit" reflects a great attitude - and the sense that this is another case of a journalist trying to milk a story out of facts that don't support it.)</p>
<p>It's a competitive process. If Princeton turns down 9 out of 10 applicants, then you can bet that there are 9 disappointed kids. I suppose for a slow news day you can go look up those 9 and ask how they feel. It's just a little bit hard to feel all that sorry when the kids profiled clearly will have a place in the fall at academically equivalent colleges.</p>
<p>CalMom -- I agree re Sofia, but I do have sympathy for Stephanie. She went 0-5, and she probably doesn't view UC Riverside or Merced in the same category as her top choices in the UC system (UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and UC Davis).</p>
<p>That is why kids apply to 18 schools.</p>
<p>It's also supports the argument that every applicant needs a "true" safety that they would be happy with. Basically, Stephanie's only choices now are being made by the UC system (Riverside or Merced or wait and apply again next year). If she had selected a true safety that she liked, she would feel more like the decision was in her own hands.</p>
<p>/\ Something must be wrong in her application because D was admitted to UCSD and UCSB as an OOS with slightly lower stats, and absolutely no socio-economic points or particular "leadership crap", which seems so highly valued by the second tier of UCs.</p>
<p>Nothing official yet, but kids from around here seem to be achieving about the same admit rates as usual. Plenty admitted to Ivys (including HPY), Duke, Chicago, Rice, Stanford, MIT, top LACs, etc. Few athletes and few national awards among them, just regular, fairly hard working, kids with about 6 APs and local ECs. I know some fairly well, and none were obsessed with college, or had an absolute dream school, and all had safeties.</p>
<p>Newspapers have to focus on the "sensational" to sell papers. </p>
<p>How deep is this manufactured crisis? One mitigating perspective is found in this little line buried in the article: "Overall, freshman applications to UC rose 9.2 percent this year, from 87,213 to 95,201." </p>
<p>Indeed, there are fewer than 100,000 applications for the entire UC system. Divide that number by the number of available spots at close to a dozen schools, and another story is told. The result of making an application to multiple schools as easy as marking a little box is that 55,000 applicants at UCLA and 50,000+ applicants at Berkeley believe that the application could not be complete without marking the top schools listed. </p>
<p>With a few administrative changes, the UC could make its application 100% universal and report 95,201 applications at each one of its schools. </p>
<p>The real story of California needs to cover the entire K-16 and the integration of the CSU and community colleges into the equation.</p>
<p>Interesting comment from Cortopassi in the blog response following the article. </p>
<p>She points out that her 4.6 came in the first semester of senior year (it was 4.1 or 4.2 before that which is what UCs consider) and that her SAT score was 1920. Given that, I'm impressed that she was admitted to Wesleyan. She must have had a strong application on the personal accomplishment side.</p>