<p>I am glad you checked the GC recommendation. Now, I have no idea what happened. However, I suggest that you do not bite the hand that may feed you. Your daughter is wait listed at UVA, and you have now drawn UVA’s attention to this situation. I would not be surprised if UVA admissions has already re-reviewed your daughter’s application and talked to the specific people who made the decision to put her on the waiting list. </p>
<p>UVA holds no grudge against your daughter, and it sounds like almost half of the students at her school who applied were accepted (not 0/850 as stated earlier). There is nothing productive you can do now except send in additional information that will help strengthen her application. </p>
<p>I understand and sympathize with the anger and frustration, but you have to decide whether you want to channel your anger and frustration into doing something productive like supplementing the application or by continuing to joust with Dean J (who has been a very good resource on this board, and I think has exercised some restraint in her responses to you). You do not want to force UVA into a situation where they at least contemplate basing your daughter’s wait list decision on something other than the merits, such as the concern with setting a precedent that lobbying/threatening admissions is the way to go to get a student off the wait list (something I can guarantee, they do not want). I do not think (and hope) that you have reached this point with them yet, but with very new email that you send you likely come closer to the tipping point. </p>
<p>UVA makes thousands of decisions, and this year they did a new EA program that I suspect has left them with lots of uncertainties. For example, at my son’s school, at least 11 kids were admitted EA, but not a single one has accepted yet. Trust UVA to review the decision on the merits and wait for a final outcome before firing all of your guns at them.</p>
<p>Cladbury, here is the problem with your example. Only about 1,000 kids in Virginia are scoring 2200 or better. Then you subtract the students who fail to make the top 5%, and you subtract the students who don’t want to go to Virginia anyway.</p>
<p>Maybe you have 500 students left…maximum.</p>
<p>UVA offers over 8,000 students admission. Still plenty of spots for everyone.</p>
<p>VADAD, Here’s the thing: UVA is a TERRIFIC SCHOOL and it is extremely hard to get in OOS. However, it is much easier to get in in-state. I’ve heard many schools reject and wait list applicants who are over-qualified because they feel as if that candidate will not even go to that school anyway if admitted. They probably wait-listed your daughter so that if Duke did not accept her, she could still go to UVA and they would take her off the wait list. They probably felt as if she would get into duke anyway and then reject UVA because there is no way that 40% of the apps had better stats/essays/etc. I bet the reason why they did not even flat out reject her is because she only applied to one other extremely prestigious school so theres that possibility that she won’t get in. </p>
<p>There is such thing as colleges not taking candidates for being over-qualified.</p>
<p>^^^^How would UVA admissions know where else she applied? Even if they somehow knew, I seriously doubt that they would play those kind of games.</p>
<p>goblue2016 is wrong. That is poor advice and hope to be giving someone who is clearly upset. My best friend is a valedictorian at his high school, scored a 2330 on the SAT, and has the most ridiculous ECs I’ve ever seen. He applied to several ivies, WashU, and Duke. He was accepted to UVA as an Echols scholar, and he’s already been admitted to WashU. I don’t think UVA denies applicants for being too qualified. It’s a top college, and I don’t think anyone is “too good” to attend. Some of the brightest students in my school have chosen UVA over ivies and top 20 private universities.</p>
<p>Goblue, I appreciate that complimentary post, but I don’t think that’s it. I do think Universities do that, I just don’t think UVA did that to my daughter.</p>
<p>My daughter had a bit of a weak Sophomore year for a UVA applicant and she had no leadership in extracurricular activities. </p>
<p>I have a feeling that when they looked at my daughter’s app, they just didn’t find her “interesting”.</p>
<p>I’m just of the belief that a certain number of spots in a state institution should be granted based on quantifiable standards. Interesting is not quantifiable.</p>
<p>@Fermat, was that person in-state? Because OOS students are a different case. and @robert, they do know where else students apply because they have access to the common application and can tell where else each applicant applied. But what VADAD is saying now might be true, and good luck to her and I really hope she gets off the waiting list!</p>
Totally incorrect. It is impossible for an admission officer to see the other schools are on an applicant’s “My Colleges” list via the Common App. I have the highest permission level possible for an admission officer in the Common App system.</p>
<p>I agree with Fermat’s last comment and bringing up a previous point about Duke and legacies, I don’t think they place much emphasis on it RD.</p>
<p>I was admitted at WashU and UVa (among others), but as a double legacy at Duke I was waitlisted. This may have been because of a risky essay that I wrote, but who knows. So in answer to VADAD1’s question about Duke and legacies, I do not believe they put much emphasis on them RD. Duke does accept 40% of their class ED where they do emphasize legacy status a little more.</p>
<p>Regardless, I hope everything works out for you and your daughter. I am sincerely sorry that this situation arose and hope everything works out.</p>
<p>10isWarrior and GoBlue, thank you for the kind words. My daughter has obviously been stung by the fact that she has been wait listed at school after school, and I believe for different reasons at each school, but she is going to bounce back. I have no doubt about that.</p>
<p>Hi guys. I was the original poster of this thread, and I just wanted to thank everyone for their support and say how honored and humbled I am to have been accepted into UVA.</p>
<p>VADAD1, I’m so sorry for what you and your daughter are going through, I can’t imagine what that’s like and know that your daughter will do great anywhere she goes. It’s really not where you go, it’s what you do when you get there. </p>
<p>Dean J - I think your comments have been very helpful, and I want to thank you for taking all the extra time to answer forum posts. Out of curiosity, are you the one that runs “Notes From Peabody”?</p>
<p>Too bad your daughter did not apply to Vanderbilt because it seems all they focused on this year were SAT scores (1470-1590 = 25/75%), which when all of the admission decisions are in will likely be higher than Stanford, Harvard, UVA (OOS), and Chicago. While those other schools could fill their classes up with 800/800’s (including UVA OOS) they choose to look at other things as well as SATs. Vanderbilt in its quest to rise up the rankings has decided to try and get the highest SAT scores possible. </p>
<p>Since your daughter has also applied to Duke, I think you should know that Duke the last few years has done basically the same thing RD as Vanderbilt did this year – focus on SAT scores. So, I would not be surprised at all if your daughter gets admitted into Duke in two days. Duke gives out lots of money too and so you may forget all about the prior admissions decisions very shortly. </p>
<p>I am a Duke alum, as is my wife. You will be happy to know that Duke does not give much legacy credit RD (they do for ED). My son has applied there too, but with Duke’s focus on SATs your daughter has a much better chance of getting in because she beat his SAT score by 200 points (son is plenty happy with UVA and W&M (today - yea!). </p>
<p>All of this underscores that different colleges are looking for different things. Whay is right for Duke may not be right for UVA.</p>
<p>Thanks for those encouraging words about Duke. I hope you are right, and I hope Duke does love the SAT score, but I am finding there are lots of other schools out there that have rolling admissions, so we will have some options.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong…she is going to Duke if she gets in, that school is awesome. It’s just hard for us to be optimistic right now.</p>
<p>The thing with young people is…they tell themselves they can only be happy at a few select places. That is why it is so difficult when something like this happens.</p>
<p>But, even if she doesn’t get into Duke, I think a year from now my daughter will be somewhere having a blast and getting a good college education, and this terrible two weeks will be something we laugh about.</p>
<p>That’s what I am hoping for. It’s hard to get her to laugh at anything right now.</p>
<p>Aww! I’m sure that wherever your daughter ends up, she will be happy. In time she will realize that and Duke is awesome if you haven’t visited by the way.</p>
<p>I have visited Duke and it is awesome. The most beautiful campus I’ve seen, even better than Wellesley, although Wellesley is very awesome too.</p>
<p>Duke has been my first choice for her all along (her first being Wellesley). If she catches a miracle and gets in, the last two frustrating weeks will be immediately forgotten.</p>