@crazy4info My D applied early action in Oct 2015. 4.3 GPA, 34 ACT, NMSF. She was deferred to RD in Jan 2016. She hadn’t completed the optional items in the application. After being deferred, she completed the optional items, and after making NMF in Feb 2016, she listed Baylor as her first choice. A week later, she was accepted. She received the Regents Gold scholarship, and is now finishing her freshman year there. My advice–complete the “optional” items.
So I got rejected with a 4.96 weighted GPA (3.98 unweighted), 33 ACT (35 superscored) and a decent amount of EC’s. Wat just happened. also got rejected from Tulane. Thought I would get into both colleges easily honestly. baylor was a safety for sure lol
TroubledSenior; Did you apply very late?
We found that showing interest (including essay writing) is crucial for most scholarship programs and most colleges that are not in the top 10. My dd was admitted to many more selective schools in the south/ southwest, including Vanderbilt, Rice, Emory, and Wash U. She visited each and received some merit aid but no need-based aid. Unfortunately, to pay tuition and fees in the 60K+ range per year, our family would have to take out sizeable loans or deplete college funds of our other children. Baylor was great with merit aid. For Baylor she applied early action, flew out to the scholarship interview, and completed all essays; she was was offered both the Regents Gold (Nat’l Merit Finalist) and a Faculty Scholarship a few weeks later, so I would think the “extras” are very important. She was able to put off her decision until receiving all offers, so there is no reason to wait for regular decision for those seeking scholarships. For comparison her stats are: SAT (new) 1580, GPA 4.0 unweighted (9 AP classes all A’s but school does not rank or emphasize weighted GPA), ECs: vocalist and GMA Dove Award nominee, active in volunteering in community. I think they are looking for a good “fit” and actual interest. She had not planned on going to Baylor but is thrilled to attend now that she has met others in the Honors College.
I applied Early Action, but forgot to complete something until late October. Got an email stating they had too many EA candidates, and were pushing a bunch of us to RD. When they kept pushing back their RD release date, releasing after Ivy Day, I wasn’t surprised that many of those with higher GPA’s were Waitlisted or Rejected. There was speculation that it was for stat reasons, which I now firmly believe to be the case…
On April 11th I got an email that my status had changed. I checked, and found that I had been Waitlisted. Wasn’t going to take the waitlist spot, since I had already decided to take one of the offers I had received at top 10 Nationally ranked schools. However, upon reading several posts, I decided to claim the “waitlist spot” and see if this therory was correct. Within five days I received a congratulatory email, with $80K in scholarship monies. I received the large packet a couple days ago, in the mail.
So yes, I do believe they Waitlisted several of their RD higher GPA folks for stat reasons.