Maybe you should put them in a better context to begin with, rather than attacking others for making a perfectly reasonable interpretation of them.
@usualhopeful What I was trying to say was: OP was not only wrong to consider 10 supper reach schools, but taking only āoneā safety is also as unwise! There is always a chance that for one reason or another that single safety fails you too! That is why the common practice is to consider 2 or 3 safeties!
And in response to @mightbcrazy (though in addressing me, with reference to UCLA, his intention was less than honorable), yes the OP should have aplied to match schools such as UCLA! And yes my daughter with comparable stats (with SAT of 2370) is now happily and proudly in her match school UCLA, as a Regents scholar!
One safety is fine if the applicant is fine with going there if it is the only school that s/he gets admitted to. What tends to lead to disappointment is that students just throw in one or more safeties that they do not really like, rather than carefully selecting one or more safeties that they like when building their application lists.
Thanks, OP, for a fantastic thread (One of the best threads Iāve read on CC!)
OP, you are trying to make 2 points -
-
Choose your list more wisely (you know that now!) Folks - he knows it now, really!
-
There were a few things on your app that you could have accentuated more and a few things you could have left off, that [b[ MAY have ** produced better results at the schools you applied to. This is fair, and good advice. For those of you saying that the only thing he did wrong was #1 - I disagree. The results could have been the same, but the OP clearly laid out in his original post what the small things he thinks caused him not to be accepted to schools on his list. Of course, he doesnāt know for sure, but he probably has the right idea and the introspection was terrific.
Good luck!
What Iāve come away with:
- If you're brilliant, don't assume HYPSM care; build a good "middle" to your list and come up with an honest safety at which you'd be legitimately happy (neither is terribly difficult with a 4.0/2400)
- Take a stats class before debating admission probability analysis with the CC crew.
- Don't live your life for your college apps; it doesn't work and life's too short to be mediocre at piano when you could have been mediocre at electric guitar and achieved the same result.
- Whenever you are presented with a choice in life to be the captain or the vice captain, be the captain.
- People will always and forever justify their current platform and rationalize their outcomes.
- HYPSM have done an amazing job of marketing themselves over the years. I can think of few other institutions which inspire 100s of thousands, or millions, of people to define their entire existence, every single thing they do, for 18 or more years with the sole purpose of obtaining said institutions' stamp of approval.
- If you're going to do any research, you had better make sure it gets published or the entire endeavor will have been pointless and actually hurt your chances for HYPSM - see #6 on the list.
Not sure if this was meant to be funny or not but I disagree. This is OPās interpretation based on a conversation with someone who is not in undergrad admissions. I think any research is better than no research, it depends on the context you put it in and whether you get a letter of recommendation if there is no publication (or even if there is).
Considering there are Phd students who do not do this I have to wonder if OP is being realistic.
As I said before, there are plenty of students at HYPS who did not do this or anything similar and many more at other top 20 schools who did nothing close.
yes, it was meant to be sarcasm. I think we all know that you donāt need to publish in a scientific journal to be admitted to Harvard.
that the OP actually thinks this hurt him, and that you feel the need to straighten me out on it, speaks volumes. it also confirms something that I think is beyond dispute: the high octane academic crowd, and a lot their parents who post here, are very uptight.
Seriously? you make assumptions based on one post or one thread. from someone who has never communicated with you before.
It was not so obvious that you do not need to publish (OF COURSE YOU DO NOT) because if it was that obvious to OP he would not STILL be talking about being a FIRST AUTHOR. I want to make sure no one else lives under that delusion.
Plus since this thread, if people can get past the numerical nonsense, is meant to help others. Many people reading on here are internationals, they will not get your sarcasm, especially since some of your advice is reasonable and was not intended to be sarcastic such as item 1.
I agree.
- You do not need to be a published author to get into any of the colleges onnthe OP's list.
- You do not have to win national competitions to get into any of the colleges on the OPs list.
Sure, if you do, it will be nice on your applicationā¦but there are plenty of students at these schools who never did these things before they applied.
Only an issue because the OP feels he is a top applicant who was slighted with NO acceptances to the selective schools on his list.
There are TONS of great colleges between the elites, and the state Uā¦where this student would have been an excellent applicant. BUT they were not on his application list for some unknown reason.
It looked like an āelite school or bustā listā¦even though it did contain one state U on it.
The OP asked if I could post his last comments on the thread, which I thought was reasonable given the nature of this thread. The following are his words:
@SeekingPam True, I donāt need to. I also didnāt need to do research or work for a USAMO invitation. For future readers, you donāt need to do any single specific thing and I hope thatās not the takeaway. There are students at those schools who have published novels, competed at the Olympics, performed at Carnegie Hall, but just because they did doesnāt mean you have to. Iām sure there are students at Ark who have done all of those things as well - perhaps not the same proportion, but itās a much bigger school.
No one has to do any one of those things, but all of them had something distinctive. I was using publishing research as an illustration of something that would have made sense in the context of my application and my interests - I am passionate about research, have experience doing it, and want to go into that field. Iāve been talking to my research advisor about getting more involved as well and since Iām committed to Ark at this point, heās given me leadership on the project I started last summer and he made it clear (completely unsolicited) if everything goes well Iāll be first author once it comes to that in 6-12 months.
Iām actually a little disturbed by the attitude a few people have expressed that just because you donāt need to do something out of this world to get into college, means you shouldnāt try. Thatās the attitude again that you only do things to get into colleges. A major lesson that Iāve taken from this, that I want future students to take as well, is not to compare yourself to others. I made that mistake - I saw I was already ahead of the game with research, so I didnāt bother to push it as hard as I could and give it my all. Even though I went further than most of my peers, I didnāt go as far as I could go. I do regret that - not because I didnāt get into a certain college but because I almost passed up the opportunity to lead a long-term research project Iām committed to with a professor I have a relationship with. Iām incredibly grateful that how everything worked out gave me a second chance but Iāve also come to the realization that if I had ended up say at a different school and had to start over in a lab I might not have had another chance like this until years into grad school, if ever.
Just because other students who got into Ivy League schools did a certain thing, doesnāt mean you have to as well to get in. But on the other hand, Iāll bet every single person at those top schools, and a good number of people at any school, has done something amazing that no other student has done. So find something youāre passionate about and give it your all. For me it was research - for you it might be athletics, or piano, or writing, or debate. You might not go to the Olympics or publish the next great American novel, but you wonāt know unless you try, and more importantly, itās frighteningly easy to let the opportunities slip away.
@Posterity: Finally, if your takeaway from this is āIāll get into Harvard if I do what this random kid on the Internet saidā, then you havenāt learned anything. Iāve tried to give one perspective, from a very specific background, and it might help a very particular set of students.
But to everyone, apply to a range of schools. Do what you love, and do it as well as you can. Figure out a narrative, and present it as clearly as possible. But donāt delude yourself that you canāt possibly be in the 95%. And make peace with attending your safety - itās not as bad as it might seem. This was my story. Thanks for listening.
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