Just confused and desperate. Was waitlisted at NYU, here are my stats:
I applied to the College of Arts and Science as a Computer Science major. I’m an international student (living in Singapore but holding a Filipino passport).
Unweighted GPA: 3.98 (all As and A+s throughout HS with 2 B+s)
Weighted GPA: 4.24 (every school weights differently for ex. mine doesn’t weigh honors courses)
SAT: 1530 (780 on math, 750 on English)
SAT Subject: 800 on Math Lvl 2, 790 on Chem
APs: APCS A (5), AP Chem (5), AP Psych (5), AP Calc AB (5), AP Lang (4)
Current APs: AP Macro, AP Micro, AP Calc BC – My school also has these courses equivalent to APs called “ATs” and I currently take 2, AT Computational Physics (equivalent to AP Physics 1) and AT Computer Science (course after AP Comp Sci A, partially based off the discontinued AP Comp Sci AB exam)
Recommendations: Besides the one from my college counselor (which I think was strong based off the fact I knew her very well as we went on a service trip and she was the sponsor), one was written by my AP Chem teacher and one by my AP Lang teacher (both of which I had a good relationship, especially with my English teacher as he was also my former sports coach and he taught me for 2 years)
ECs: I filled out all 10 slots, most prominent activities were my involvement in dance (I’m part of my school’s dance company and am an organizer/choreographer of my school’s middle school program), paid summer internship at a tech-startup, service volunteering in my school’s Elementary school, and event management for various service events and my school’s TEDxYouth@SAS event.
Essays: Obviously those are very subjective if anyone’s curios I’ll share haha
Just confused why I didn’t make it in. I don’t know.
For reference, other school’s I’ve gotten into are Carnegie Mellon University (School of Computer Science), UMich (College of Engineering, Early Action), UCSD, Northeastern (with scholarship), UBC (with scholarship)
You got into some great schools there. At these kind of admit rates these schools end up being a bit of a lottery, and even more so for internationals. Honestly - if I were you, I’d get excited about CMU or Mich, both fabulous admits for your field, and leave NYU behind.
International is anyone who is not a US citizen or green card holder. So even someone living and going to school in the US but doing so for example on a parent work visa is international; a US citizen living overseas is domestic. And yes even for private universities the admit rates are much lower. For NYU there is the added issue that while domestics are admitted need-blind, internationals are admitted need-aware.
@SJ2727 If I go to an American International school (where the majority of my peers are NOT considered international due to having US citizenship) even then would my international student status give me a disadvantage?
Yes. It’s not your school that matters, it’s your passport. As I said before, even if you live and school in the US you’d still be “international” without being a US citizen or green card holder. Where your school probably did give you an advantage, is understanding the US college system better than other schools there and so helping your application that way - as seen by your other excellent acceptances.
I know many people who would tell you that an admit to CMU or Mich is definitely better than NYU for your field - so again, I’d really suggest you stop beating yourself up with trying to figure out why you got waitlisted, and love the colleges that love you back.
I think it’s obvious why you got rejected. Nothing to do with anything on your actual application. NYU is need-aware for people like you. So if at any point you indicated on your finances that you could not afford NYU’s full cost or needed a big handout or scholarship, then that’s grounds to reject you.
I wouldn’t be mad at all. You got into CMU! That school is much better than NYU, especially for CS (rank 1 cs school baby!).
Hi @sushi48. You seem truly heartbroken about this waitlist, so I just wanted to chime in to validate your feelings of disappointment and offer you a friendly hug (or elbow bump, nowadays). I don’t think it’s worth trying to “post game” why you didn’t get in with your fabulous stats. The picture is “wholistic,” which is to say really subjective and variable. Given that, when the admit rate is as low as it is with NYU it can seem “random” who gets in and who doesn’t.
So please don’t beat yourself up or look for somewhere to place the blame. It won’t serve. You are on the waitlist. If it was meant to be, it will be. Meanwhile, you have some OUTSTANDING choices! Congratulations on CMU, Northeastern, and U Mich. They are all fabulous schools, all very difficult to get into, and each one could serve you very well in different ways.
I wish you the very best of luck with the decision ahead of you. Be well, stay safe, and I hope things turn out your way.
"However, there are a few things international applicants applying to our New York City campus need to know. If either of the following apply to you, please read the information on this page in detail. You are:
a non-U.S. citizen applying to our New York campus; or…
a U.S. citizen applying to our New York campus from high schools located outside of the United States. "
Does this mean I really just wasn’t good enough for NYU? Just feeling very confused right now about not just NYU but the whole process.
@sushi48, it’s not worth it to wonder if you were “not good enough.” Your stats and your profile are impressive. The process is subjective. This is not a judgement that says your hard work was not “enough” for NYU. Application readers weight things according to metrics that we can only guess at. It doesn’t serve you to take this one result personally. Someone had to make an incredibly difficult decision to say yes or no to someone like you, and yours was a “maybe” --which means they like you but for some reason decided to make you wait to see if there’s room. Who knows why.
I have friends who’s kids had amazing stats who got tons of rejections and friends whose kids are less “impressive” on paper who did remarkably well in the admissions process. You have both a solid profile AND you did remarkably well in the admissions process given your list of schools that have admitted you. This particular waitlist is the result of one school’s subjective process, it is not a reckoning of your worth - either to NYU or generally.
If it’s truly your dream school, then stay on the wait list. But you have fantastic choices and most likely you will find one of them turns out to be the perfect fit after all.
You’re confusing the page that deals with entrance requirements with what is considered an international for admissions purposes. That is what the “please read this page” is about. Elsewhere, Including further down that page, they clearly make the distinction between citizens and green card holders vs others.
NYU doesn’t do a good job of making the distinction on that page, but do a wider search and you’ll see it’s consistent, The simple test is this: if you need a visa to be studying in the US, you are international.
And yes, you do seem to confused about the process tbh, it’s not just about stats. Many really good applicants get rejected or waitlisted at colleges they are well in stats range for, simply because admit rates are so low and competition is high. Your stats are great (and clearly your application overall is as you got some great acceptances). Each college puts a class together based on various aspects of fit. If it was just a case of ticking boxes on grades and test scores (and at some publics it pretty much is), the process would be a lot simpler. It’s not, so admittances tend to be all over the place when you are looking at say top 50 or so.