Did I screw up?

Applying to College
1

I applied to eleven colleges. While I now realize that applying to that many schools was unnecessary, I do not think that the quantity of my applications affected their quality, as I spent nearly twelve months working on them and planning and revising my essays.I was really proud of my apps. I even had multiple teachers and counselors review each and every one of my essays and applications to make sure that everything was exceptional and ready to submit.

As college decisions finish arriving, I can’t help but feel that I did something wrong. I was admitted to two schools, two of my safeties, waitlisted at another safety, and waitlisted at a reach. I was rejected from one safety, all of my targets, and most of my reaches. I didn’t apply anywhere that I couldn’t see myself going and the colleges that I got into are still good schools, but I am surprised.

I have a 3.9/4.0 GPA, 33 ACT, 1430 SAT and robust extracurriculars, and I applied to schools with this in mind. I was well within, or above, the 25/75 range for almost every school. I don’t know if the fact that my college counselor quit during the middle of application season affected anything concerning my application or if any teacher wrote a spiteful recommendation letter (joking), but I was wondering if anyone else had a similar experience. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I hadn’t gotten into any of my reaches, but I can’t say that I’m not disappointed with the outcome. This is more of a rant/vent, but was it just the luck of the draw? Have upper-mid-tier college admissions gotten THAT competitive?

I don’t mean to sound entitled, paranoid or narcissistic (I am aware that almost every sentence starts with “I” in this post), but I cant get this off my mind. Thanks.

2

What major and which schools? Your definition of reach, match and safety?
CDS stats don’t help for certain schools with popular majors, engineering, CS, certain majors that are both more popular and inherently more rigorous. You sometimes have to dig deeper to find those stats
If you got into a school you are happy to go to, no, you didn’t screw up. .

3

Thanks for the last bit, I just feel silly for using so much of my time up. And I applied bio major and looked into the stats for that specifically. My school uses this website that conglomerates data from all member schools into graphs so you can see where you fall, and a safety was anything above 90%, a target was 40-89%, and a reach was below 40%.

4

Contrary to what you read on this site, most people are not experts, and kids your age certainly are not experts! Not to say you made any mistakes, but beating yourself up over this isn’t helpful for your future. Take the schools you were admitted to and do your best. Work on a transfer next year if that’s what you want. But going back and feeling bad isnt productive or a good use of your final months of high school! If you were my child that’s what I would say.

5

You did it right. You were admitted to two schools that you like and can see yourself attending. That is exactly twice as many as you need. You are ahead of the game compared to many others. There are kids with no acceptances and kids who hate their only choices. You spent the time, gathered the right information, found schools you liked and got yourself accepted. Thats awesome. Really. I am the parent of a kid at a school many would consider a “safety” and I can’t even begin to tell you how great it is and how much success she is having there.

Now, throw away the idea of a “safety” school. That term sometimes leads people to think the school isn’t very good or that their accomplishment in being accepted doesn’t mean much. Both of those things are very wrong. You are heading to college. You have a bright future in front of you. You got through admission season with two successes in your hand. You won! Now, forget the schools that didn’t take you and celebrate what you have. Congrats!

6

Thanks! Sorry if the tone of the first post made it seem like I was upset - I am very grateful and happy that I got into the schools that I did - I just cant shake this feeling of “huh?” Like it’s so weird for this to be over and I’ve been stressing out about decisions, even though I’ve known about these decisions for months.

7

<<<<<<<<<<My school uses this website that conglomerates data from all member schools into graphs so you can see where you fall, and a safety was anything above 90%, a target was 40-89%, and a reach was below 40%.<<<<<<<<

Like Navience? That was your sole source? I would say that there is no site that really can give you the sort of info that you think this gives, that is oversell from your school, but it is what it is.

8

Yes, naviance, but that was definitely not my only source, I looked at the stats given by the schools themselves and used those media (along with prep scholar, niche, parchment, usnews, other websites, and general knowledge of the schools) to determine which ones I had a good chance of getting into.

9

You did not do anything wrong. because you were successful in coming up with a list of schools where you would be happy. I think it’s perfectly understandable that you are a bit surprised and upset with the outcome. When one makes up a list with reaches, targets and safeties, there is that expectation that the safeties are just that–certainties, that there is at about a half a chance at the targets and a small chance at the reach schools. It would not be surprising to NOT get into a reach, but usually at least one target school acceptance is considered typical and not getting into a safety, belies the term.

However, a lot of other things come into the picture. If you are applying to engineering or as a premed or other programs that are oversubscribed, the overall acceptance statistics do not reflect the selectivity of that major. My friend’s son was turned down from Purdue at a time when his stats put him at a 90%+ chance of acceptance. But the program, he wanted was the Aerospace one which is one of the most selective at that school, and the chances were much much smaller with a lot of candidates with stronger applications. The same goes for CMU–the accept rate for their Music or Computer Sci programs are far, far lower than that for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the overall accept rate is not particularly relevant to those looking at those ultra selective schools. I knew a young lady who played the flute, and auditioned there–found out later they accepted ONE flautist that year out of a ridiculous of number of applicants. Her chances were in the low single digits, not CMU’s average. She did not know that when she applied. She learned through the process.

Also when you applied can make a difference. Engineering spots can fill up fast. If you live in an area that is over represented, your chances may not be so good. There are some schools that make it a priority to have a national presence and they have separate admissions pools for those who live in state and those who live out of state and give those who live in states that are underrepresented a leg up.

You can also fall onto the wrong side of the stats. Yes, it’s bad luck, but it is statistically possible to be denied at several 90% accept schools and be accepted to several >10% accept schools When you are dealing with less extremes in numbers, it becomes increasingly more of a coin flip, and yes you can get 11 heads in a row. It does happen. There are a whole set of stats that can give you the likelihood of getting accepted or denied at places with various accept rates that goes deeper into the analysis.

Yes, your counselor leaving mid year, and unremarkable recommendations could have made a difference. Most high schools have gone to giving narratives instead of checking the blocks on the rec sheets, but others have not, and at some colleges , not checking the “most rigorous” curriculum and other top blocks can make a difference. So would lackluster narratives. It’s unfair because some teachers and counselors simply do not, cannot write great recommendations. I always tell kids and parents to give the recommenders a “cheat sheet” with pretty much what you want covered in the recs, to make it easy for them. If they write the recs when tired, depressed, in a bad mood, stressed, in a hurry, too much to do, too many recs to get done, it’s easy to get writer’s block and just not be able to focus on the subject at hand. Yes, it’s their job, and it’s a serious responsibility, but sadly a lot of mediocre recs get written.

You did well with your school list; a lot better than most kids I’ve known. The application process is over, and it’s now time to focus on matriculating at the school of your choice. I’d focus on the two acceptances, after writing a note to the waitlist school if that is your preference, looking through the forum on how to approach a waitlist. Ask the new guidance counselor to put a written word in for you, and guarantee you’d take the spot if offered. Make a sample note that s/he can use to send to the school, personalizing why you are such a great fit for that college, that program, because doubtful the new GC is going to know you well enough to give you more than a generic note. Then just forget about that school and focus on the birds in hand, and prepare to go to the one you like best.

10

What schools did you apply to? I find many people think that being “in the range” - the 25-75% scores - means you’re in good shape at top schools. In reality, it means your are outside the <1% accept range.

MIT’s SAT Math 25-75 range is 780-800. But among students with 750+ scores, the accept rate is 9%. If you’re below that range, you are in the 1.2% accept range. So being in range improves your chance 8x. But it’s still only 9%.

11

How much aid did you need if any? It matters to need aware schools which many of the not tippy top privates can be. It’s unfortunate but can definitely be a factor.

12

“the colleges that I got into are still good schools”

This is the main thing. You had the good sense to include some very good safeties in the list of schools that you applied to. This is by far the most important thing to do for university admissions. I will assume that the schools that you got into are affordable for you (this was not mentioned in your original post, unless I missed it).

University admission in the US is very hard to predict. I don’t think that you did anything wrong.

Plan to work hard when you attend a good university next year. Expect to find many very strong professors and many students who are also strong students like you. Keep ahead in your work, pick a marketable major that you like, avoid excessive debt, and you will do well.

13

Unfortunately for you, so are most of the other applicants. So if a school accepted 20% of applicants, the fact that you are “in range” doesn’t really change your chances There still is only about a 1:5 chance of acceptance at that school.

I think the mistake most students make is confusing the idea of being eligible for serious consideration with overall likelihood of acceptance.

I’d add that a safety isn’t a safety unless it also admits a high percentage of applicants, unless they offer guaranteed admission based on stats or other criteria you met. So my guess is that you simply misjudged the level competition you faced.

14

Our natural tendencies in the admissions process is to think in terms of ourselves when we read the criteria and stats of all these schools. The problem with this is that we often fail to understand that there are thousands upon thousands of other applicants out there with similar stats applying to the same school and that school cannot admit all of them. Add in the effects of the common app and schools slashing application fees and those volumes only increase. And all of these applicants are doing amazing ECs as well. You didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just that the competition is fierce and vast.

15

You could be at the 50%, but were applying for engineering and the engineers are more up at the 90%.

But, NO, you didn’t screw up.

You thoughtfully selected “safeties” that you would be delighted to go to.
You have somewhere to go in the fall.
If you are truly “better” than that school, then you will be a superstar and shine.