<p>So my friend was rejected from Brandeis, accepted at Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Tufts, Johns Hopkins, and U Chicago. I’m not one to call foul at every little thing I see, but I was more than a little shocked at this result. Also, I have comparable stats, am of the same race and economic background, and received 100,000 in merit aid from Brandeis. Interestingly enough, I was rejected by Princeton, Cornell, and Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>SAT II:
Chemistry: 770
Math II: 800
Literature: 780</p>
<p>APs:
English Language and Composition: 5
US History: 5
Chemistry: 5
AB Calc: 5
French:
Biology:
Government and Politics:
English Literature and Composition:
Physics:</p>
<p>ECs:
Nationally ranked equestrian
not sure of her other ECs but they were good enough to get her into the aforementioned schools</p>
<p>It’s not necessarily discrimination. It might be that your friend’s why essay was
offensive, terrible interview, stuff like that.</p>
<p>So many over-qualified asians get rejected by MIT/Harvard while they are so much more qualified and stellar than some of the white kids or URM students stats-wise. Might not be the same with your friend’s case, but college do somehow “judge” your race, gender, nationality…</p>
<p>I don’t think it is - universities always want to admit students thinking they will attend to get a higher yield, for someone of her standards (high GPAs, high SATs, i’m assuming a very bright student), i guess brandeis pretty much knew even if they rejected her, she would get into other “elite” schools compared to brandeis. I guess brandeis was too much of a safety for her that they knew there was very minimal chance of attending. I had a friend who had a similar experience but he didn’t care much as he ended up getting upenn, brown, uchicago, johns hopkins, northwestern, georgetown, etc.</p>
<p>I’m surprised Brandeis rejected her, but maybe she wrote really bad essays or something?
It’s definitely way more likely that she was rejected because they thought she wouldn’t go there than because of her religion, but I don’t think either is the case.</p>
<p>FWIW, an article in the Globe states that the Brandeis student body (as of 2006) is 10% Muslim.</p>
<p>That is really weird, but it could have happened for any number of reasons, though discrimination is possible I guess, doesn’t seem that likely though.</p>
<p>Would she really have wanted to go to Brandeis over those other schools?</p>
<p>Have you thought about whether this could be some equivalent of ‘Tufts syndrome’? Perhaps your friend did not do enough to justify her application to Brandeis and it might’ve come across as an overachiever using the school as a convenient safety. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t level a charge of discrimination just on the basis that she mentioned her Islamic faith on an application that was eventually turned down. Last year, a senior at my school was accepted at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley, Cornell and Cambridge but was turned down at UCLA. And I seriously doubt it had much to do with anything except the likelihood of her enrollment there.</p>
<p>No it isn’t discrimination. She was probably too qualified and just didn’t come across as really interested in the university. They would’ve thought she was just using them as a safety, and hence the rejection.</p>
<p>And on another note, I really wonder why the hell she’s complaining…did she really want to go to Brandeis over Princeton?</p>
<p>There are probably many reasons why your friend was rejected. But I can guarantee you that being Muslim was not one of them.</p>
<p>My guess is that lack of likelihood of enrolling was probably the real reason. Based on her stats and the other schools to which she applied, I’m guessing that Brandeis felt the chances that she would attend if accepted were probably close to zero.</p>
<p>Did she show interest (e.g. interview, visits, etc.)?</p>
<p>Oh, and why the link to the Wikipedia page?</p>
<p>I’m with soze. There are many, many kids each year with exactly comparable stats who do/don’t make it into these schools. The reasons are myriad and have to do with the issues soze mentioned.
The schools mentioned, and many others go out of their way to build “diversity,” and many people would tell you that, to the extent that there’s any discrimination, it’s going the other way.</p>
<p>Being a Muslim will actually help applicants to Brandeis. The admissions committee judged (accurately) that Brandeis was a safety school for your friend, and thus did not admit her. Even though you say your stats are similar, the fact that she was admitted at schools to which you were not, shows that while you were a strong applicant too, she was much stronger and thus likely to not attend Brandeis. Don’t forget that recommendations and other things are factors. For example, maybe Brandeis thought that a nationally ranked equestrienne would prefer a school like Stanford that has an equestrienne team.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why you are posting this question in the forum of every school you listed above. What does this have to do with U of Chicago, Cornell and all those other schools where you have posted the same question? It appears you have your own agenda that goes beyond your friend’s admission results.</p>