Evidence That Ivy/Elite Admissions Is A Complete Crapshoot

Applying to College
1

<p>Once a student is qualified, admissions at the toughest schools has become a complete crapshoot, but some people still have trouble believing this.</p>

<p>I'd just like to use this thread for people to provide anecdotal evidence of actual cases they know of in the last few years.</p>

<p>Try to use normal students...not ones that got into certain schools for "special reasons" and such. No need to list schools that don't have much of an impact on the "crapshoot point" (ie safeties that kids were admitted to)</p>

<p>Case #1
Admitted: Stanford, Columbia, Harvard, Wharton
Rejected: Princeton, Cornell, BC</p>

<p>Case #2
Admitted: Princeton, UPenn, Dartmouth
Waitlisted: Harvard
Rejected: Hopkins, Columbia, Yale</p>

<p>Case #3:
Admitted: Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth
Rejected: Tufts, Princeton, Columbia</p>

<p>Case #4:
Admitted: Dartmouth, Duke
Waitlisted: Tufts
Rejected: Emory, Vanderbilt</p>

<p>Case #5:
Admitted: Harvard
Rejected: All Other Ivies, Stanford</p>

<p>Case #6:
Admitted: MIT
Rejected: Penn Engineering, Columbia Engineering, Cornell Engineering, Caltech</p>

2

<p>It depends on what essays they wrote for each school, too. We all know it's unpredictable, but anything is unpredictable when the numbers are so small.</p>

3

<p>It also depends on what each school was looking for that year. For example, if one school didn't have a lot of people interested in science applying that one year, and the student expressed an interest in science, the student would have a much better chance of getting in. But another school might have lots of people interested in science applying that same year, so the student might not get in. Colleges may not be very interested in well-rounded students, but they do want well-rounded classes.</p>

4

<p>Many schools reject students that they are reasonably sure will be admitted to a higher ranked school. Ever hear of "Tuft's syndrome"?</p>

5

<p>yeah dude, totally random!</p>

6

<p>LOL! I think BC could smell that case #1 would no way in hell matriculate at its school, so why waste the postage stamp.</p>

7

<p>BC is getting smart like BU and Tufts. Obviously they had no interest whatsoever.</p>

8

<p>lol is it bad if you apply to ... ALL the ivies, being that it is a crapshoot? dunno why i keep hearing that..</p>

9

<p>^it's not bad .. but if you can, why not spend 65$ x 4 instead of 65$ x 8?</p>

10

<p>because getting in is worth more in the long run than $65 x 8, lol</p>

11

<p>Because in the scope of life $300 is meaningless.</p>

12

<p>I remember the BC guy. He got rejected b/c he didn't pay his application fee. </p>

<p>BTW, my expereince isn't exactly as crapshoot as this flamebait thread.</p>

<p>Accepted: Columbia (eng), UChicago, Cornell (eng)
Waitlisted: Stanford, Princeton, Williams
Rjected: MIT</p>

13

<p>Someone at my school got this</p>

<p>Accepted: Yale, Stanford
Rejected: All other Ivies</p>

<p>Weird...</p>