<p>I am conflicted over whether to apply to Dartmouth ED or Columbia ED. I am reapplying to colleges this year after a gap year. I did not apply to Dartmouth last year, but I got extended waitlisted from Columbia. To be clear, I was not blocked out from colleges during the first application cycle, I simply did not feel ready for college and decided to take a break and take a second shot at college admissions. </p>
<p>On one hand, I know that Dartmouth is much less selective, and I would be very happy and satisfied going to Dartmouth. On the other hand, I feel as though the extended waitlist decision proves that Columbia is somewhat interested in me, and I would be (slightly) happier going to Columbia. To be clear, I would not regret it if I made it into Dartmouth ED. This isn't a question of preference but rather a question of strategy (choosing which college is more likely to accept me early).</p>
<p>What did you do during your gap year? Do you still have access, support and passionate advocacy from your high school counselor? Is your application , in terms of academics and extra curriculars, substantially stronger after the gap year than it was before?</p>
<p>Also, how was your credential improved (e.g. test scores, EC, etc) over the past year? The admission rate is getting lower and lower. If you don’t get accepted last year, the chance is not going to be better this year if nothing has been changed.</p>
<p>Getting waitlisted is not the same thing as just missing admission. There are all sorts of reasons for waitlisting, and a big one is the “courtesy waitlist”. Costs the schools nothing, but is more politically expedient than outright rejection. That waitlist is not targeted at you, but at your HS and your GC - it’s saying “just missed” (while not really meaning it), and send us more candidates next year. Someone pointed out that Duke waitlisted more than twice the number of slots they have available and took about 2% off the list. That’s political posturing.</p>
<p>If the waitlist were small, it might mean something for your chances the following year. If it’s huge, just move on. You’ve already been told no once, why not take a chance on a place that might say yes, or is at least a blank slate?</p>
<p>I still have “passionate advocacy” from both my high school counselor and my high school teacher recommendations. My extracurricular involvement has become substantially greater on top of my exceptional extracurricular involvement in high school (national debate champion, winner of an international science olympiad, NASA intern, etc). My test scores were already ideal when I applied as a high school student.</p>
<p>What really held me back was my high school grades. I received straight A’s except for my junior year, where my schoolwork suffered due to personal problems (which my guidance counselor wrote extensively about). However, I plan to take college courses this summer and fall (not enough to lose qualification as a freshman applicant) and prove to admissions that I can handle the academic rigor. I spent most of last year working/saving up money and traveling, which may not seem like a valuable use of time from an admissions perspective but something that I needed to do for myself.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 I understand the implications of “courtesy waitlisting”, but I felt differently due to the fact that Columbia kept me on their “extended” waitlist, which Columbia states is only for “extremely compelling applicants”. I know that it is usually almost impossible to reapply succesfully to a college that rejected you, but I thought that the extended waitlist status may have indicated otherwise.</p>
<p>Since you will have had a break of longer than a year, Columbia will consider you a non-traditional student and “suggest” that you apply to the School of General Studies. GS will not consider your application if you had previously applied to, and were not admitted, in the past 3 years.</p>
<p>@mikemac I don’t mean to be rude or insulting, but Dartmouth IS much less selective than Columbia especially when it comes to Early Decision (almost a 30% difference). I am not commenting on the quality of either of these schools, just that Dartmouth is easier to gain admission to by the numbers. I didn’t mean to come off as privileged or cocky, and I certainly don’t expect to gain admission into either institutions.</p>
<p>@skieurope I don’t think that a 2 year break would qualify me as a GS applicant. I was planning on applying to CC.</p>
<p>BerkeleyCS - I don’t think you can say that Dartmouth “is much less selective” in their ED acceptance rate. I am not sure what numbers you are looking at?? In 2017, they did accept almost 30% of their ED applicants compared to about 20% for Columbia for the average for the 3 years prior to now was about 9.5% compared to Columbia’s 7.5%. Neither of these differences is a 30% difference and the difference there is would need to be researched. For example, Dartmouth may have more varsity athletes being recruited? I don’t know. But to hedge your bets thinking that Dartmouth ED would be easier to get in to than Columbia may be a huge mistake for you. Honestly, Columbia and Dartmouth as about as opposite from each other that you can get – and I truly do not understand how you can be perfectly happy at Dartmouth as you would be at Columbia – one being a more rural setting, small town, 2 hours from a big city; the other being an urban setting smack dab in a huge city. Unless you simply want to go to any Ivy League you can. Research your potential majors, research the classes you might want to take, and pick the school that you would most want to go to.</p>
<p>I’m sorry for the mistake, I accidently compared Columbia’s regular decision with Dartmouth’s Early Decision. However, I still consider a 10% difference substantial. Dartmouth also has a substantially smaller pool, which means less competition (although the competition may be of the same caliber). You are correct in saying that there may be a variety of other factors that contribute to the pool, which is exactly why I created this thread (to find out more!)</p>
<p>As for the environment, I am honestly happy wherever I go in regards to city vs rural. I think a lot of people make a big deal about rural vs city campuses, but I don’t see the preference as a mutually exclusive one. For example, I have visited Columbia’s campus and love the city-scene and I feel as though I would really enjoy the “hustle-and-bustle” of New York. However, I also have stayed with a friend in Emory university for an extended period of time, and I loved their open, green campus. </p>
<p>I guarantee you that I am not just shooting for an ivy league school. Columbia and Dartmouth aren’t even my top choices for CS, but just happen to be really good colleges on my list that offer ED programs. My top colleges include CMU (ED II), MIT (EA), and Berkeley(regular only). As you can see, none of them are ivy leagues. If I got into either Dartmouth or Columbia, I would not be disappointed that I couldn’t go to CMU or MIT. I know that they all offer great educational opportunities regardless of CS ranking, but would prefer to go to a big CS school if I am given the option. As I said, I would really be happy with either Dartmouth or Columbia, and am just trying to gauge which one would be more likely to accept me based on my unique position.</p>
<p>MIT, CMU and Berkeley have the same, or even lower, rates of admission that some of the Ivy’s. You need a broader pool of schools that you would be happy with. With respect to the competitiveness between Dartmouth and Columbia, you are splitting hairs. </p>
<p>I would talk to your GC of your past high school then, to find out what relationship your school has with both, and also next year, how many students from your HS may be applying to either. Both of these factors are important. Two students I know from our community had high test scores (over 2200SAT/34ACT), both with unweighted 4.0s at a top high school, both 8-10 AP courses, both with excellent extracurriculars and leadership – both were legacies and both were deferred from Dartmouth ED.</p>
<p>@biprof no worries, I have a ton of safety schools that I wouldn’t mind going to like UIUC (5th in CS) GTech and UMich. They’re all around the 50% acceptance rate range and my scores/gpa are well above their median acceptance numbers. </p>
<p>@skieurope Thank you for clarifying Columbia’s admissions policies; I didn’t look much into GS and was not aware of their policies regarding gap year students. I am now seriously reconsidering applying to Columbia at all. </p>
<p>Thank you all for your help. I will most likely apply to Dartmouth ED this coming admissions cycle, but will look further into it. If anyone else has any more insight on the Early Decision situation, please don’t hesitate to post!</p>
<p>ED is only appropriate if the school is your first choice, and you do not need to compare financial aid offers. Since some other schools appear to be preferred choices for you over Dartmouth, then you should not apply ED to Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Do not assume you have the test scores/GPA for places like UIUC, GTech, or Michigan or that they have a 50% acceptance rate. Those are blended rates for in-state/OOS applicants and if you are an OOS applicant, the standards are much higher and the acceptance rate much lower. A comparable school is UNC-Chapel Hill, OOS to our HS, and we get very, very few applicants in there, despite many trying. I’d have to do the exact numbers to be sure, but a quick glance at Naviance indicates that we actually have better luck getting kids in at Ivies than we do at UNC-CH. We do get students in the other 3 on a regular basis, at a rate higher than the Ivies, but they are still a tough place to get in to, but UIUC is easier for us, since we’re in an adjacent state.</p>
<p>If you have a reasonable shot at Ivies, you should have a reasonable chance at those top publics, but they are not safeties by any means. And they are unlikely to offer anywhere near the financial aid that the Ivies do, unless you are in-state for any of them.</p>
<p>@BerkeleyCS - Since Michigan went to the Common Application, it has been attracting a lot more applications.</p>
<p>For the Fall of 2013 class, the acceptance rate was down to 33% (probably about 30% for out of state). It will probably be lower for the Fall of 2014 class and even lower for the Fall of 2015 class:</p>
<p>Many websites have out of date information. I fear that many applicants (particularly the out of state applicants) will look at outdated data, view Michigan as a safety, and then be in for a surprise.</p>