<p>haha i'm very flattered, greendayfan, but i applied to brandeis really last minute and wasn't able to visit or interview so perhaps that affected my decision! either way i'm sure they had a reason, but i really hope i still get in off the waitlist : )</p>
<p>did you get in?</p>
<p>p.s. i love greenday</p>
<p>oh im not a senior so no i didnt apply lol, im just lookin into brandeis. and yeah green day is pretty good but i dont listen to them much anymore.</p>
<p>I got waitlisted.</p>
<p>I got waitlisted too...I don't think I showed enough interest in the school. I signed up for an interview but they never contacted me back in 4 weeks like they said they would....and I was just so sick of interviewing by that time that I didn't care enough to call them.</p>
<p>oh well, I'm not crushed.</p>
<p>I'm with you, alwaysCocaCola13... almost exactly the same situation... I am going over my application now, trying to see where I screwed up</p>
<p>Okay I'm confused. o.o I don't know if mine came in with a ribbon or not because my mother opened my letter. -.-; Yeah it was the first college that send me the decision letter. I am not sure if I'm rejected or deferred. =/ Can someone tell me what does a rejection letter say or defer letter say at least? Thanks.</p>
<p>I don't think I'm gonna stay on the waitlist, so that's one less person to worry about, for those who really want to go. :)</p>
<p>there seems to be a lot of people on the waitlist.</p>
<p>I got waitlisted too! Well, if they do that to an unusually large amount of people, that's alot of BS.</p>
<p>They may be waitlisting a lot of people to pull a "Wash U"...IE, boost their selectivity for US News. I think their acceptance this year fell from 40% to 36%.</p>
<p>Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna stay on the waitlist...I'm a moderate, and the left, left, left, left, left-oriented Brandeis may not be the best fit for me...not to mention, the campus architecture resembles a rest stop on the Pennsylvania turnpike (I'm not trying to knock Brandeis or anything...it's a superb school...that was just my take. I'm a bit picky when it comes to a campus's "look and feel.")</p>
<p>There could be yet another reason behind the tighter selectivity this year. Check out this article, which appeared in last week's online edition of "The Justice", Brandeis' student newspaper: <a href="http://media.www.thejusticeonline.com/media/storage/paper573/news/2007/03/13/News/University.Plans.To.Decrease.FirstYear.Enrollment-2773330.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://media.www.thejusticeonline.com/media/storage/paper573/news/2007/03/13/News/University.Plans.To.Decrease.FirstYear.Enrollment-2773330.shtml</a></p>
<p>While the razing of Ridgewood(?) quad will not be a problem for <em>admitted</em> Freshmen, it seems to have impacted--at least indirectly--the chances of prospectve Freshmen.</p>
<p>brandeis's selectivity has been increasing in recent years -- here is link to their common data sets -- <a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/offices/IR/cds/CDS.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.brandeis.edu/offices/IR/cds/CDS.html</a> (you can also check there to see how many they tend to take off the wait list -- though i think that varies quite a bit by year, making predictions difficult). </p>
<p>one thing that you can see from looking back over the csd's -- applications have clearly jumped -- they'd been tending to run just under 6000 pretty consistently for a number of years, and then for the 05-06 csd report there were over 7000 (that was for the class entering fall 2005). for the class entering the fall of 06 class, there were over 7600 applications. <a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/president/letters/2006-01.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.brandeis.edu/president/letters/2006-01.pdf</a></p>
<p>i doubt they have released any information yet about the final numbers for the latest admissions round. </p>
<p>also re the article cited above -- if you read the article in its entirety, it specifically says that the admission director would not confirm the comments being made by resid life.</p>
<p>what i think one can probably conclude at this point without more data -- as with many other schools, brandeis is probably receiving more applications and becoming more selective -- making it harder to look at stats of prior year admits to conclude who will or won't be admitted (not that they ever give a clear picture!).</p>
<p>I am not sure it's a matter of greater selectivity as much a matter of securing greater yield. From the limited sample I'm seeing here and the even more limited sample I'm seeing at D's school, the wait listed candidates seem to be at the high end for Brandeis and may be using the school as a safety. The school isn't keen on accepting kids who don't visit, don't interview, show little interest, and who appear to be hoping for other choices. (Don't get me wrong, I think Brandeis is a wonderful school and I am hoping one of my kids will apply; this is simply my observation.) One kid from D's school was accepted, another waitlisted. The waitlisted kid's stats are high and the ECs are strong. The accepted kid doesn't have the same caliber of grades, SATs, or ECs. But the accepted kid visited, interviewed, and maintained an email correspondence with a faculty member. This kid really wanted to go to Brandeis and was thrilled to get in. The waitlisted kid did nothing and (I think) has made it clear he's not interested in attending.</p>
<p>I think it's a pretty smart way of handling these kids. It's as if Brandeis is extending an invitation to prove that the application wasn't frivolous. Many of those who have been waitlisted will not opt to join the waitlist. Ok. So that's easy. They were using Brandeis as a backup and don't need to do so any longer. Those who do join the waitlist and who show real interest in the school will now allow Brandeis to reevaluate them as "real" candidates. I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of them end up being admitted.</p>
<p>^That's a rather broad, as well as unfair, generalization. Given her stats, Brandeis certainly not a safety for my daughter. Furthermore, she not only visited the school, for the info session and tour, during her Junior year, she also made an additional trip this year for an on-campus interview, despite the fact that we happen to live several hundred miles away from the campus. </p>
<p>As for the kids who opt not to take a spot on the waitlist, it could also be a matter of realizing that, even if they were to be accepted off of the waitlist, they most likely would not receive any financial aid, either need-based or (certainly not) merit based. At that point, they wouldn't be able to afford to attend Brandeis, anyway, so it might make more sense to decline the waitlist and leave the spot for some other student who can afford to pay the full costs of attendance.</p>
<p>Wow average accepted GPA for 05-06 was 3.88? That seems very high.</p>
<p>Momonthehill, this wasn't intended to be a universal pronouncement, just an observation based on very limited data. Obviously there are going to be other situations that land kids on the waitlist and that take kids off the waitlist.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am not sure it's a matter of greater selectivity as much a matter of securing greater yield.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>i don't know that you can say that from the stats available thus far -- if you look at the cds data -- yield percentage went down for 05-06, the same year that applications jumped. that was the year they started using the blue ribbon -- so they may have ended up encouraging people to apply for whom brandeis simply wasn't at the top of their list. until more current info is available, i don't think you can really draw conclusions as to what is happening with yield vs. acceptance rates.</p>
<p>all the stories about one kid getting in versus another kid who seemed to be a stronger candidate really just underscore the fact this this is simply more than a numbers driven process. personally, i think that any one who thinks they can "figure out" what makes the difference is fooling themselves -- we simply don't have all the info that is before the adcom when they are evaluating applicants. it may be easy to see that the hi stats kid didn't interview, but it's much harder for you to know how their essay presented them or how their recommendations read. it is also hard to see what sparkle may have made what otherwise seems an average candidate stand out from the crowd. from the outside, all we can try to do is pick apart the facts we know to try to make things seem logical -- but we just aren't always privy to the logic of the adcom.</p>
<p>Accepted :-)</p>
<p>Decision: accepted</p>
<p>General:
Undergrad Major: Bio/Premed
Stats:
SAT/ACT: 1930
SAT IIs: 670 Math IIc - Math Ic
GPA: 3.8
Rank: no rank
Rigor of curriculum (IB diploma): Bio/Chem/Eng High level
Other stats: -
Subjective:
Essays: good
Teacher Recs: good
Counselor Rec: good
Extracurriculars: above average
Work Experience: sports instructor etc
Hook (if any): trilingual with identity
Location/Person:
State or Country: turkey
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: asian
Gender: Male
Why you think you were accepted/rejected/deferred: a good fit
Attending? gotta wait for other replies</p>
<p>Decision: Rejected :( I second whoever said SCREW BRANDEIS!</p>
<p>Undergrad Major: IR</p>
<p>Stats:
SAT/ACT: 2230
SAT IIs: 750 Math2 / 740 Math1 / 700 Lit
GPA: 4.22
Rank: 1/50</p>
<p>Rigor of curriculum: All AP/Honors except for required classes</p>
<p>Subjective:
Essays: strong, personal
Teacher Recs: excellent
Counselor Rec: very good
Extracurriculars: strong, with several effective leadership positions
Hook (if any): 1st generation college student, very strong ECs</p>
<p>Location/Person:
State or Country: Japan
School Type: Private/International
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female</p>
<p>Why you think you were accepted/rejected/deferred: extremely low-income maybe? I honestly don't know.</p>