<p>The bitterness here is unbelievable. Look, there is some truth to the idea that college admissions are somewhat based on “luck” given that the process is (rightly) very subjective. But the idea that the wrong people are being admitted because objective academic measures such as their GPA and test scores (which are only ONE PART of the application) are lower than those who were rejected is asinine. Highly selective schools do not simply want students with good grades and test scores, and they repeatedly tell this to applicants. Don’t get me wrong, they’re an important part of the applicant’s “profile” but they are not the totality of that profile! </p>
<p>What upsets me more than anything else, though, is the denigration and marginalization of minority students. Anyone who is so racist, arrogant, and ignorant to cast aspersions on their minority classmates’ admittances (attributing it simply to “affirmative action”) clearly does not deserve to be admitted to a selective school. The idea that minority and low-income students have an unfair advantage is so ludicrous as to be almost unanswerable. I suppose the problem is that the myriad of advantages that white (upper-) middle class applicants have are harder to see because they are so deeply ingrained in society, while the (still less-than-adequate) corrective measures of race-based and income-based affirmative action are obvious and perceived as “unfair” since they challenge the status quo. The historical legacies of racism are real, and while it’s certainly true that race-based affirmative action may not be the best way to handle it, even rich minority students have experienced a very different life than rich white students. The most important thing to to contextualize achievement (subjectively): consider the advantages, societal or otherwise, that the applicant has received and then consider their achievements in light of that.</p>
<p>There is definitely passive-aggressive bitterness. But I feel like that’s a part of this whole process, and it’s inevitable… those of us who <em>were</em> fortunate enough to get in need to remember that we were VERY lucky and not be snobs about it.</p>
<p>There are a lot of people who I thought got in schools they don’t deserve. However, after thinking for a few minutes, I shook my head and just accepted the fact that they got in for a reason and I don’t know enough about their lives to judge.</p>
<p>I just don’t like it when people go whining to the rest of the world about their rejection.
They really aren’t that special, particularly those that applied to Ivies, thousands are in your position you know!
But because I believe I am a pretty sensitive person, I can empathize with the majority of the unfortunate ones that don’t directly say “I think it’s depressing how all those accepted students are brainwashed”, they try to relate to the world with their emotions.
Everything that disappoints them or makes them feel strongly they express it with art.
Because that’s what creators do :)</p>
<p>So people stop being petty about a rejection, someone (or in this case, a college) wants you.
Maybe you won’t choose that college, maybe you’ll arrive there as a complete skeptic and ruin your chance at having an amazing four years, or maybe you haven’t applied to the college… which would be disappointing.
Anyhow, hopefully you’ll attend and make the best of your time there.</p>
<p>I didn’t necessarily get any bitterness directly, but I’ve been hearing so much “omg she totally just got into penn because of affirmative action” and “how did he get into harvard?” from the many rejects/waitlisters. Hence, I assume it’s probably happened to me too. It’s actually really annoying.</p>
<p>I dont’ mind reading about the bitterness here, I assume its just venting which is much healthier to do here than at school.</p>
<p>If I synthesize people’s feelings its that they place too much emphasis on the quantative, my GPA of 3.80 is better than your 3.75 so therefore I must be better. No mention of essays, letters of recommendations. It seems that some overweight the hours of community service and don’t place an emphasis on whether you make a difference.</p>
<p>There wasn’t a whole lot of bitterness here except maybe against the athletes who did spectacularly well this year, probably more so than the more academic focused kids though they were also considered stronger than most years. (2 athletes were recruited to HYP, etc)</p>
<p>But honestly, everyone plays the game with what you’ve got.
This is such a crapshoot, you’ve got to let it go.</p>
<p>I’m a junior, but I have seniors in 2 of my classes and I have a decent amount of senior friends/acquaintances.</p>
<p>It’s natural for someone to be ****ed off if they got rejected but someone else got in, it happens; but I don’t think it’s ever gotten to a really jealous or harmful state.</p>
<p>I wore a Stanford T-Shirt to school today. A girl in my stats class walked past my desk and noticed my shirt and said “You better not be going there” and had this evil satanic look in her eye. Looks like someone got rejected! (I did too) </p>
<p>So, I know two people who both applied to Stanford.</p>
<p>The first is a white female. She received $15k/year from the Elks Scholarship and is obviously a leader, in youth councils, girl scouts, everything. She has a GPA of 3.6 and scored mediocre on her SAT’s… probably around 1800.</p>
<p>The second is a hispanic female. She has not received any scholarships or been recognized for leadership this year. She has a 3.0 GPA (yes, three point ZERO) and is in AVID, also scoring mediocre on her SAT’s.</p>
<p>guess who got in…</p>
<p>apparently 3.0 + no recognition > 3.6 + national recognition</p>
<p>I didn’t have any bitter experience when friends of my mine got into the colleges I was rejected from, because I thought the other way as well–my other friends have been rejected/wait listed from the college I got in. So, its Tit for Tat. haha…</p>
<p>@breezie93, 1800 is a pretty low score for Stanford where the majority of the applicants have scores that are 2250+. And a 3.6 GPA isn’t very high either, when 4.0 GPAs get rejected and all.
The other girl may have gotten accepted because colleges want diversity. But who knows, she may have a secret talent or a charm about her that is irresistable. I can’t judge :)</p>
<p>I got accepted into a couple of ivies and top schools, and it seems like half of the people that I know were really bitter! They all applied to ivies, but many wouldn’t admit it, saying something along the lines of “I always wanted to go to my state school. It’s the best university ever!”</p>
<p>And then there was one person who lied and said they got into all of HYPSM but decided to go to Washington in St. Louis because “they had a better pre-med program than all of HYPSM”!! I just pity them for trying to hide their rejection and depression from their peers. Hahaha, I feel so fortunate seeing so many poor souls at my school and at my old school.</p>
<p>There were a couple of girls at my school who were bitter about this girl who got accepted to NYU because apparently she hardly took any AP’s and had a poor SAT score (an ACT in the 30’s though)</p>
<p>Obviously they were worried about the supposed 8 remaining acceptances allotted to our school, but it’s nbd now. Girl is going to UCSB. </p>
<p>Other than that, nothing too big around here. One of the advantages of going to a school where athletics aren’t too hot. How unfortunate imo. This stuff would work like spice at our school.</p>
<p>There’s a math/sci public magnet in my state (a high school) that’s a boarding school . . . . I wanted to go so badly and I went to all kinds of events on campus and learned all that I could. I took two online courses (AP Calc and Physics) made/taught by the school and they were just crazy @_@ . . . don’t get me started.</p>
<p>I wasn’t doing well at all, but I still held out hope and tried to explain the situation while taking advantage of everything around me (none of my teachers could do any of the problems from the class). I wasn’t really upset with my rejection because I thought I knew why it had come.</p>
<p>Then I find out that an Asian girl I knew from middle school in my area was accepted with few EC’s, an SAT score 300 points lower than mine, and a C in Algebra II. I still haven’t figured that one out . . . but, I’ll be graduating with two years of college credit, and she’ll be lucky to get a semester out of APs.</p>
<p>i’m from a public school in upstate ny (like, the mountains…not like westchester) with about 330-350 kids per grade.
this year’s tally of “elite” schools</p>
<p>MIT 2
Cornell 2
Tufts 1 <a href=“maybe%202;%20$$%20issues”>ME!!</a>
Vassar 2
Middlebury 1
BU 1
BC 1</p>
<p>there are like a million people going to Syracuse, SUNY’s, and of course the local community college (which is now SUNY Adirondack). </p>
<p>I know that a few of my friends and i were bitter that our acceptances at ivies didn’t come through (except the cornell one); there were basically two boys (one attending cornell, one who thought he would get in to ivies attending northeastern) and two girls (one attending vassar who applied to yale & waited at brown, and me who was rejected from HY MIT columbia + brown) and we felt like our chances were diminished by this one kid in our grade who went 2+ years ahead in math and languages. he did his whole senior year at SUNY Albany. our school has sent 1-2 kids to harvard for like 6 years in a row and we were surprised that nobody is going this year (because we know who got in…that one kid, but he’s going to MIT). </p>
<p>i’m annoyed that MIT deferred him even though it was pretty obvious they could have just accepted him then and the world wouldn’t have ended–we were all like 100% sure he would get in from this hicksville town–and then he wouldn’t have sent apps to places to kill the rest of us and our chances. my guidence counselor said he was surprised, and i’m just annoyed that an outside comparison factor had that much of an impact. </p>
<p>the other thing is, i’m an indian female, and i don’t know any asian girls who are were accepted into their top choice ivies, other than one to cornell but that was not her favorite. i feel like asian admissions is getting very cutthroat on a world level.</p>
<p>A good friend of mine who graduated last year go into Princeton University. He was a very bright kid but never really applied himself in high school, he had a 3.7 GPA UW in challenging AP courses, 2300 + on the SAT, he was a legacy at Princeton, but he never/barely did homework. A lot of the top students thought he was dumb even though he was in most of their classes b.c he never did homework and did decent on tests. </p>
<p>One day the pompous valedictorian approached him and asked him where he “really” was going to college b.c he though Princeton was a joke.</p>
<p>Pompous Valedictorian: Hey, where are you going to college?</p>
<p>Friend of Mine: Princeton</p>
<p>Pompous Valedictorian: No, seriously where?</p>
<p>Friend of Mine: Princeton</p>
<p>Pompous Valedictorian: I cannot understand how you got in. I took more honors, more APs, better SAT, and my GPA is several digits higher.</p>
<p>Friend of Mine: You probably put in 5x more effort than I did in high school. I went to parties, you did not. I had a social life, you did not. At the end of the day I’m going to Princeton walking out of high school knowing I will have fond memories of this place. </p>
<p>I had a good laugh when my friend told me about it. I think the valedictorian ended up going to Dartmouth, still a great school but he was probably bitter about getting waitlisted/denied by HYP.</p>