Curious how your identical twin did with his college choices and what his academic resume looked like.
It’s not that you aren’t following orders. You submitted an application that wasn’t accepted, and you shotgunned it to a ton of schools that admit very few applicants. If you wrote an essay whose tone even resembles the same level of self-awareness shown in your post no school would prioritize the associated admission. Especially for someone interested in a polisci major, the quality of the rhetoric above would point to a no. At least 5 of those schools would be absolute reaches based on your academics (Claremont, Kenyon, WUSTL, Wesleyan, Grinnell, probably no better than a 15% chance to start with) that you would have to really talk your way into. That’s a lot of reaches to apply to and a lot of supplemental application essays to submit and a lot of rejections to receive. Sorry bout that.
You are one data point. The external observer would note that there are many other data points out there, and looking at your one data point it would be a false narrative to attempt to divine a trend or conclusion that applies to all other members of the set.
Now channel your energy into creativity and to learning rhetoric and excelling at college. Be your best.
This is a problem for selective schools. Why would your GC describe a weighted GPA of 89 as a “rock star” student? Your GPA combined with your “Time person of the year” you may have given colleges the impression that you don’t take academics seriously.
I don’t understand this. It sounds like you’re a white student from a wealthy family. If that’s true, you’re not a URM.
Are you suggesting your classmates aren’t intelligent? That’s a pretty harsh attitude.
You seem to think that you were somehow owed a spot at one of these campuses. I don’t understand why you think your rejection means they chose “obedient idiots,” but your jump to that conclusion says a lot about your critical thinking skills. You have some great acceptances and parents who earn nearly $300k/year. The SUNYs cost less than 1/10th of that so you should have options. Find something to love about the school’s that accepted you. And, for your own benefit, please don’t pass your theory around to your friends. It won’t go over well.
I won’t pile on here. You’re upset. Rejections hurt. I respect the fact that you work even though your parents make good money. You took some moon shots… I’m sure you’re smart enough to know your odds were not that good and that prestige is overrated. A motivated kid with a 34 ACT heading into Bing or Alabama will have all the tools and the platform to go anywhere. You have the profile of a risk taker. It wouldn’t surprise me if you end up doing very well in life.
Colleges want kids who will diversify the student body, will contribute to society, and will donate to the colleges after graduation.
Never said that they were. I am saying that intelligence should be valued over the Calvinist/Protestant work ethic, which is basically slaving away for a CEO’s third yacht.
If I had gotten accepted, it would probably have been because colleges accepted my explanation for my low grades, which was severe ADHD and medical issues. Certainly not because they thought the grades I already had were satisfactory.
I’m a prestige junkie lolol
Possibly. I may take a gap year.
Bankers can donate.
Decent. Got into Bentley, Fordham, VT, FSU, Rutgers, and U of SC. Waitlisted at BInghamton and Stevens. Denied at Lehigh, Babson, and deferred/denied at UGA EA (that was WEIRD). He had a 91.5 GPA with 6 Honors classes, the rest regular and DE senior year (3.1 first semester - C- in English but good everywhere else). 1390 SAT with 700/690. He’s probably staying at CC though, since he’s highly money-conscious and really likes their program as well.
I’m just as confused as you are - for whatever reason my guidance counselor seems to think I’m pretty smart.
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Are you suggesting your classmates aren’t intelligent? That’s a pretty harsh attitude.
What? I’m just explaining the context of my school.
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Weighted GPA: 89.46
This is a problem for selective schools. Why would your GC describe a weighted GPA of 89 as a “rock star” student? Your GPA combined with your “Time person of the year” you may have given colleges the impression that you don’t take academics seriously.
True.
The denial from UGA is not surprising based on the kids who get accepted there just as an fyi.
1390 is below the average for admitted students at UGA this year. Average GPA is 4.07.
That’s insane. UGA looks more like Georgia Tech this year.
You should see what its like to get into GT. Both schools are getting progressively harder to get into. Seven years ago it was far easier.
Well, I don’t think your overall GPA is as bad as everyone else seems to, although I’m not very familiar with percent grades – I think it’s your 2.1 community college GPA that’s the problem. Colleges who see those grades will conclude that you can’t handle college-level work, as there are few elite schools that will consider “gentleman’s Cs” as satisfactory academic progress these days. Those CC credits may likely be part of your college GPA, fyi.
I don’t think the GPA is the problem, more that you could have improved your ECs. You don’t have any volunteer work, which could raise a red flag as a political science major. You also said that you didn’t really try on some of your supplemental essays, although to your credit I can see why you wouldn’t, as you applied to many LACs that I assume have many required essays.
I agree that colleges don’t want just the most intelligent students, and yes, those who play the game do better than those who don’t, but they also look for creativity and those who can think outside the box. Students with less-than-perfect grades can get accepted to great schools, but they need to have considerable achievements outside the classroom, like art, music, activism, or athletics. Not just bitter B students who don’t believe in having a good work ethic.
You also mention that you’re “a prestige junkie lolol.” That sounds pretty “obedient” to me. I can see that it would be hard to get rejected from selective schools when most of your HS class goes to top colleges. Try to put it in perspective – in most parts of the country, 99% of students haven’t even heard of Lehigh or the like and call Colgate the toothpaste school. You’ll be fine at a different college and a change in environment might benefit you. Stop worrying about what your peers are doing.
I would suggest that you take a few steps back, mourn your rejections for a few weeks, and try to gain a little more perspective by getting a part-time job this summer or volunteering (serving food to the homeless or reading to kids in a low-income area might make you a little less entitled and a little more grateful for the quality education that has and will be provided to you). Take a class on study skills if your CC offers one.
Here the input of a high school teacher.
You’re obviously smart. But your GPA is… ehhh.
So that says to me that you didn’t choose to use those smarts to their best advantage in high school. It sounds to me as though you coasted on the fact that you’re smart, and chose not to put in the work to get the GPA that just a little bit of effort would have gotten you.
And that’s not the type of students that many colleges are looking for. Face it: it’s a seller’s market. You don’t choose them; they choose you. And they don’t want kids who will coast. They want kids who will maximize their potential at their schools.
Where on earth did you get the idea that " SAT/ACT exams measure intelligence"??? Your correlations are just that- correlations. That’s a world away from causation. Google “false correlations” and you can find http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations. I can find far better correlation coefficients to imply that “Per Capita Cheese Consumption” correlates with “Number of people who died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets”-- that has a 0.96 correlation. “Per capita consumption of mozzerella cheese” and “civil enginering doctorates awarded” have a correlation coefficient of 0.96. Correlation does NOT equal causation.
SAT/ACT scores measure your ability to take that sort of test. Period. If it didn’t, the big test companies wouldn’t have the results they have-- and would have gone out of business long ago. So great. You did well on the SAT/ACT. That’s light years away from having a transcript that shows you attended classes, were an active participant in those classes, or mastered the material that was taught.
All that aside: you have some acceptances to some wonderful schools. If this is really about education, and not sour grapes, then it’s time for a paradigm shift. Spend the next 2 weeks before May 1 deciding which school you’ll attend, and decide to make the best of your time there. Otherwise, in 4 years we can look forward to a similar post, describing how the top companies also have their priorities wrong when they look at GPA. And, far worse, you will have wasted another opportunity.
I hate the argument that the SAT is “4 hours of a Saturday” but GPA is “4 years of consistent effort”. I’ve seen the graph describing the spurious correlation between Nicolas Cage movies vs. people drowning in a swimming pool. Still doesn’t take away from Angela Duckworth’s research that self-discipline and “grit” (translation: following orders and doing pointless busy work) are better predictors of GPA than intelligence. It is also known that socioeconomic status and motivation are highly important in predicting GPA. Again, this is all common knowledge, but the fact that being rich, sucking up to a teacher, and caring about school does more for your grades than literally being smart is pathetic. American anti-intellectualism and dogmatic institutions win again. Cambridge and Oxford do not look at GPA. Just SAT/ACT, AP Exams, and subject tests. China has the gaokao. Is it any wonder that countries with some of the most intelligent populaces in the world happen to use test scores and deemphasize grades in university admissions?
This is not about just me. If I had gotten into these top schools my opinions would still be the same. The priorities and values of American institutions are deeply flawed, and the way we excuse “bad test takers” while slipping behind dozens of other countries in educational perfomance and IQ scores is simply despicable to me.
Studies referenced:
https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3211063
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01641.x
It was a major error not to submit SAT IIs. Those were decent scores for the schools you were applying to. Since you were showing mediocre grades, it is more important to show more than SAT / ACTs.
Wait until you’re in the workforce…