Depressed over Ivy League Rejection that has yet to come

Applying to College
1

<p>I am currently a junior in high school. I take an insane courseload. Unfortunately, I am an A/B student as I got Bs on certain courses this year. </p>

<p>I'm applying to Penn, Princenton, Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. </p>

<p>My top is Penn. </p>

<p>But here it is:</p>

<p>When I think about it, sometimes, it just... seems like I am not going to get in. Why? Geez because I never won science state champion, never joined a math league, never did research in a fancy hospital, nope. Not an exchange student, didn't volunteer building homes for the poor. None of that. </p>

<p>I didn't go to summer programs in expensive universities. I don't speak five languages. I am not international. I never did MUN and won a thousand awards of "best delegate".</p>

<p>So when I add all of those up, I think, compared to the other kids that apply, I won't get in. </p>

<p>But at the same time, I should get in. I deserve to get in. It would be their stupid mistake if they didn't accept me. </p>

<p>I am a brilliant girl. I am brilliant. I am not trying to bragg or anything- I know there is so many people out there that are better at math, or science or whatever. But that doesn't mean I am not intelligent by comparison. I am bright. (At this point, many of you are thinking: "Yeah. Just like 99.99% of the rest of the applicant pool).</p>

<p>I've always loved to learn. I can sit in a library and stay there forever. I love to learn. About everything. I'd hate to end up somewhere where kids just go to get their degrees and get out. Somewhere where people don't have the same passion for learning as I do. </p>

<p>So the Ivy League is a dream. Plus the other Ivy League equivalents: A place where people- everyone- has had a passion for learning since they can recall. A place packed with intellectuals. With people so incredibly bright. </p>

<p>But then you see all these kids that get rejected. All these things they ask for. I look at my transcript and I'm not a straight As student. I take a ridiculously insane courseload (11 courses a year: 6 APs, 1 foreign lang. 1 IB, I honors, the rest dual enrollment in college). I don't have that many ECs. As a matter of fact, I only have one main one- been president of my graduating class. It's not a huge list of "President of this, VP of the other..."</p>

<p>But it means so much to me. And I've accomplished so much in the position. So much. My administration so far has raised the most money in my entire school out of any club, any class. We've organized the most activities, held the most events. I am so proud of what I've accomplished with this. </p>

<p>But again, it's just one EC. </p>

<p>Not the "Show 2 or 3 activities you're really passionate about" most people in CC recommend. I am super passionate about politics and the stock market but they are not "official" clubs, just activities I do on my own all the time. Because they are not "official" clubs, I can't hold any title.</p>

<p>My scores don't need work. The SAT wasn't a problem, neither were the 2 SAT Subject Tests I took Sophomore year or the 4 I'll take in a few months. Neither the ACT. </p>

<p>But again, "just like 99% of the applicant pool of those schools".</p>

<p>=(</p>

<p>I'm depressed. </p>

<p>But I am good. I am really good. And I am not your typical Asian or WASP. And I don't mean that in a bad way either. I mean stereotypically, the Asians kids in CC are just so... overboard that it's already common. </p>

<p>I am poor. Very poor. I am a poor Latina girl who grew up in the ghettos of Miami and who works so hard to get out of this. </p>

<p>My parents aren't wealthy lawyers who can afford to send me to an expensive summer program. My parents are hardworking people who wash cars for a living to give me a roof to sleep under. </p>

<p>So I think I should get in. I deserve to get in. </p>

<p>But at the same time, when you look at everyone else- the other 20,000 kids who apply- there's a huge chance I won't. </p>

<p>And it's not fair. It's stupid. I don't want to go somewhere where people are not overly intellectual. Where people don't share my passion for learning. Where people are just not overachievers. </p>

<p>Not because there's anything wrong with those people. But people I feel I will grow so much as a person if I dealt with students who are so much more competent than me, or so much brighter. I'd grow. </p>

<p>So I guess this is a rant. Perhaps some of you have felt the same?</p>

2

<p>So in short, post here if you feel like you've wasted $50-$500 applying to ivy league schools. With that money, you could have bought a beat-up car and participated in destruction derby.</p>

3

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I feel you're pain. Still applying, still running after it, still studying for some last minute SAT IIs just so I can apply, my brain tells me I am an automatic reject, but in my heart, something is whispering to try... Harvard, welcome to it,</p>

4

<p>For those who didn't feel like reading the post, I'll sum it up:</p>

<p>"I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Me, Me, Me, Me, Poor."</p>

<p>If you have devoted your entire educational life to gain admittance into an Ivy league school, I feel very very sorry for you. In spite of your supposed-painful academic accomplishments, you clearly have no idea what the Ivy league actually is. </p>

<p>Anyways, I suggest expanding your vocabulary for terms defining 'intellectually apt'. "Bright" is so cliche. </p>

<p>this is by far my favorite statement made by OP. Enjoy:</p>

<p>**
[quote]
I don't want to go somewhere where people are not overly intellectual.

[/quote]
**</p>

<p>I've been laughing for 5 minutes straight. </p>

<p>XD
Good luck in all your endeavors!</p>

5

<p>Now that you've gotten that minor tirade off your chest, I suggest never letting this side of you come to the public light again. It's bad for PR.</p>

6

<p>Wow, every time I read your post I can't help but wonder why America ranks so low in education among industrialized nations.</p>

<p>Eh, shocking.</p>

7

<p>You are very much like me in the over-riding idea of this post. I could have written this. Okay, I'm not Latina -- I'm white, and my family has money, and I go to a good school in suburbia. But it's the kind of place where it's easy to get overlooked, and ignored, and slapped into a mold.</p>

<p>Now I am marketing myself as what you just typed like never before. I probably will be rejected from my high-reach schools, but I'll live because I know that if I take my intellectualism with me to another school (which may not be an Ivy, but it will be a good school), I will succeed if I work at it and use my environment and peers to enhance my opportunities. Ivy isn't everything. Take advantage of wherever you end up and dont stereotype.</p>

<p>So, good luck.</p>

<p>edited: forgot half my post</p>

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<p>Geez, didn't know cc had so many self-declared intellectuals. You know how 90% of all mensa members are dirt poor? </p>

<p>Yeah.</p>

9

<p>OP, you do need to find some safeties for your list. There are many, many colleges out there besides the "Ivy's" where you will be challenged intellectually.
"I'd hate to end up somewhere where kids just go to get their degrees and get out. Somewhere where people don't have the same passion for learning as I do. "
The U of Chicago sounds like a potential perfect match for you, and believe me, it is in every way the intellectual equal to any of the Ivy's, and is unmatched for students who truly love learning above all else. Do some research on the Chicago forum, ask questions of unalove, a frequent poster there, search their website and relax.</p>

10

<p>HSisOverrated:
No, I have not dedicated all my educational career to get in a top school. But it has been a permanent dream. Just stuck there in the back of my mind. </p>

<p>And regardless of whether you feel that I know or not know what type of students get into those schools, the simple fact is this: the students that will surround you in a community college are by no means anywhere near the students that will surround you say, in MIT. Which is what I meant by the sentence which you cleverly quoted. I don't want to end up somewhere where kids just go to get a degree and enter the workforce. And duh, I know most colleges are not like that anyway. But the fact remains that in a college where the avg. student is admitted with a 2.5 gpa and a sprinkle of honors courses here and there, is not going to give you the same experience as a college where the standards for admission are much higher. </p>

<p>EngrSci:
Your post is pointless. Just like mine. </p>

<p>Theprez:
Thank you for one of two nonsarcastic comments. At least someone got the main idea of the OP which was the over-looked theme. I really hope you get in to your high-reach schools but like you mentioned, if you don't then you pretty much have to make the best of it.</p>

<p>Of course you can succeed anywhere besides the Ivy. I never said you couldn't. However, top schools do have a wider range of opportunities comprised of professors/students/benefactors/networking.</p>

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<p>Yea UChicago ftw. </p>

<p>Ivy league is far from intellectual sister. IMO Penn and Cornell are pretty much the hardest (academically speaking) schools among the peppered bunch - but your pursuit of Yale is amusing. Once you get into these schools, you have a .05% of dropping out. Gentleman's Bs ring a bell?</p>

<p>My entire family goes to the overrated league and they are all complete dolts. If you associate intellectual capacity with prestige you're in for a surprise. Although I'm sure you'd fit well among the ego-flexing "bright" student populous. </p>

<p>If you want to punish yourself, google is a great search engine. You'll find at least a dozen schools far more intellectually consuming than all of the yuppie schools combined. </p>

<p>Try Swarthmore.</p>

12

<p>"My parents aren't wealthy lawyers who can afford to send me to an expensive summer program. My parents are hardworking people who wash cars for a living to give me a roof to sleep under. So I think I should get in. I deserve to get in."</p>

<p>You don't "deserve" anything. I am not sure how your parents being car washers has anything to do with you getting accepted. Also, stop acting like kids with attorneys, doctors, and other occupations of those sort don't suffer in different ways. Be grateful that you get to spend a lot of time with your parents, instead of trying to use them as leverage for an admission.</p>

<p>"But at the same time, I should get in. I deserve to get in. It would be their stupid mistake if they didn't accept me. I am a brilliant girl. I am brilliant."</p>

<p>Do you actually read what you write, or maybe have you just sat and listened to yourself? Im sorry, but you sound more insecure than brilliant. The most brilliant people are the ones that know they don't need to say it. They let their actions, background, and intellect in situations speak for them. I am not a selfless individual. Actually, I am far from it, but your thread post was of the most self-absorbed and selfish posts I have ever read. For lack of a better way to put it, you sound like a spoiled brat. I hope that you grow up and realize that there are many people with problems just as bad as yours and the world doesn't owe you anything.</p>

13

<p>It's pretty much part of the sacrifice you make for having this dream. Really, I'm pretty sure that most of the people, myself included, have felt depressed over the astronomical odds of getting into the Ivy League. But in the end, you just gotta do everything you can, because everything else is out of your control. Life isn't fair and you just have to deal with that... just do what you gotta do.</p>

14

<p>"the students that will surround you in a community college are by no means anywhere near the students that will surround you say, in MIT."</p>

<p>yeah, many of those CC people probably couldn't afford to go to a "top college"/college of their choice...</p>

<p>"My entire family goes to the overrated league and they are all complete dolts." <-- lol :)</p>

15

<p>
[quote]
No, I have not dedicated all my educational career to get in a top school.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Fair enough. But your association of "top school" is where my beef lies. You seem so bent on believing the Ivy league is the ultimate academic experience, when it is NOT.<br>

[quote]

But it has been a permanent dream. Just stuck there in the back of my mind.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Well then you have deluded yourself. </p>

<p>
[quote]

And regardless of whether you feel that I know or not know what type of students get into those schools, the simple fact is this: the students that will surround you in a community college are by no means anywhere near the students that will surround you say, in MIT.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Uhh...wow, thanks for the observation. Contrasting community college students with MITers is such a persuasive notion. </p>

<p>You think surrounding yourself with students belonging to prestigious institutions will somehow redeem you from your blatant intellectual ineptitude? </p>

<p>Yeah, that was pretty mean - but we're all thinking it. Every consider how some community college students prefer not to pay 45k for freshman general reqs?</p>

<p>Not everyone can be such a bright, expansive, genius like yourself. Some of us ignorants are left to enroll in retard school, where classes are not taught by the tenured elite but by the poor volunteer-professors.</p>

<p>(I don't go to cc btw).

[quote]

Which is what I meant by the sentence which you cleverly quoted. I don't want to end up somewhere where kids just go to get a degree and enter the workforce.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Uhh..that's what people do when they do to college. You think it's different in the Ivy League? Almost a quarter of all Ivy students are legacy. Do you associate cronyism with intellect also? </p>

<p>
[quote]

And duh, I know most colleges are not like that anyway. But the fact remains that in a college where the avg. student is admitted with a 2.5 gpa and a sprinkle of honors courses here and there, is not going to give you the same experience as a college where the standards for admission are much higher.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You think standards of admissions translate into educational quality? Test scores do not represent intellect. Bloated GPAs do not represent intellect. Sweating and bleeding over final exams do not represent intellect. </p>

<p>They may represent dedication, maybe even regurgitation, but scoring well on exams does not make you a genius. </p>

<p>Back to college: There are ~40ish America universities with academics that are equal and better than those offered by the Ivy League. </p>

<p>You obviously suffer from a serious case of deficiency-in-growing-up.</p>

<p>edit: I'm a HS sophomore btw so consider everything in my post as garbage. That's what I do. XD</p>

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<p>I got B's in my junior year classes. Heck, first semester junior year I got more B's than A's. My gpa/class rank (3.76uw4.64w/11 out of 273), while decent and competitive for the top schools, would not get me into any top schools on their own, and neither would my ACT score (33). I don't have nearly as rigorous a courseload as you do (mine, by CC standards, is merely average: 9 APs+all other classes are honors). Although my stats make me competitive at ivy league schools and their peers, and an academic superstar within my high school (I should move into the top ten students in my class after this semester)...my stats by no means make me an academic superstar at any of my match/reach schools.</p>

<p>What I did do was meet with my guidance counselor over my junior year to lay out a plan for my senior year. I wrote many of my essays over the summer and I even met with my guidance counselor over the summer so she could proofread my essays (she was a former admissions officer at Wake Forest). I chose a topic that the admissions officers would remember, and I told these admissions officers why I am unique (just like everyone else lol), even though I'm an asian male who is going premed and whose major extracurricular is music, I found something that I think sets me apart from the average asian (even though I am deaf in my right ear, I have had a passion for music since a young age and have become quite accomplished at the district and state levels). This essay wasn't just a rough draft I wrote in 30 minutes. I bet it underwent over 20, probably closer to 30 revisions from myself, my guidance counselor, a few people on CC, and my english teacher. I worked my butt off making sure that every detail on my applications was perfect, and I especially worked to make sure that my application essay was the best essay I had ever written. After applying to the University of Notre Dame early action, I was completely convinced I would either be deferred or rejected as the early action field is much tougher than the regular decision field (the overall acceptance rate at ND, according to CB, is 27% and while Notre Dame admittedly is not as hard to get in as any of the ivies, the acceptance rate shows that it's still pretty damn tough to get into...just as hard as many of the 'ivy-peers' such as Duke, Emory, Northwestern etc.). Although I knew my application itself was stellar, I doubted whether my stats were strong enough to get in. You should go look at some of my posts in the Notre Dame Forum during the first part of December.</p>

<p>Last week, I found out that I was accepted early action to the University of Notre Dame, and I credit it to my application and to my essay.</p>

<p>My advice for you: You said that you were a latina. This already puts you at an advantage if you are a competitive applicant, as top schools are looking for diverse classes, and you're considered one of the races to be labeled a URM. Maybe you want to highlight why you'd bring diversity to your college of choice. As far as extracurriculars, you said you have a passion for politics, but since there is no club, you cannot be an officer. Well, found a club at your school! That's what my friends and I did last year when we found out there was no debate organization at our school.</p>

<p>Work hard on your college applications, write a kickass essay, and I'm sure you'll get into a place where you can be happy!!</p>

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<p>Menloparkmom:
<<<there are="" many,="" many="" colleges="" out="" there="" besides="" the="" "ivy's"="" where="" you="" will="" be="" challenged="" intellectually.="">>> That's the phrase I needed: "challenged intellectually".
Thanks for the advice. My safety so far is University of Texas. I haven't looked at University of Chicago for regional preferences. Although their Business program is great so I might change my mind. </there></p>

<p>Jec7483:
Wow. I did not mean it in that way at all. When you strung the two paragraphs together it added a whole new diff. unintended meaning.
I said I deserve to get in because in my opinion, my stats fit. Not because I am poor. I am the farthest thing from an idealist who believes in "economic justice" or affirmative action, etc. </p>

<p>But see, I mentioned my financial situation because I felt it was needed to complete my profile. If you saw me as "a spoiled brat" (although I don't see how), imagine what imagine I would have given if I didn't mention it. Then I would have been a "probably rich, spoiled brat." </p>

<p>It doesn't surprise me that I sound insecure, I mean look at the title of the thread: I am depressed over a probability that I won't get in when I am applying a year from now. </p>

<p>But anyway. Wow. Of all the replies your was the most surprising. I mean, my whole post is about how I'm so scared everything I have accomplished might not be enough even though I feel they are. Again, I really don't see how I sound spoiled (i sound scared), but that's your opinion. </p>

<p>I<3Pi:
Thanks for understanding what I meant. </p>

<p>Arachnophobia12:
True. However, there is an equal number- even higher- of kids who just couldn't go anywhere else as many kids that are very competent but can't afford to go anywhere else. I go to the local community college partime. And most students are not bad. But to be honest, alot of the classes are the equivalent of High School Honors courses. They are just not challenging. Not all of course. But alot of it seems like an extension of high school.</p>

18

<p>Well don't fret too much.</p>

<p>I got into a "top-15" (for what it's worth) liberal arts college with a 3.2 uw/3.4 w GPA and barely top 50% class rank. No hooks, no legacy, nothing. But I showed passion for what I loved doing (mock trial), and it worked.</p>

<p>Write some damn good essays, express your passion for politics through them. All I can say, I suppose.</p>

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<p>Your grasp of English proves otherwise Metdeth. I recommend signing up for additional cc courses..</p>

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<p>HSisOverrated, your posts = awesome. Didn't expect all that from a sophomore. haha</p>