<p>What do colleges really look at ? I am really hurt and disappointed with Hamilton’s decision.</p>
<p>Posting Stats because I’m sure other Hamilton prospectives may find this useful in the future.
Accepted!
Gender: M
Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic
Location: Illinois
College Class Year: 2016
High School: Public
High School Type: rarely sends grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: No</p>
<p>Academics:</p>
<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.67
GPA - Weighted: N/A
Class Rank: N/A
Class Size: 150ish</p>
<p>Scores:</p>
<p>SAT I Math: 690
SAT I Critical Reading: 720
SAT I Writing: 670
SAT II Literature: 720</p>
<p>Essays: Really Good
Teacher Recs: Probably Really good did not see</p>
<p>Significant Extracurriculars:</p>
<p>Debate-4 years
Politics Club -2 Years (Current President)
College Club -1 year (President & Co-Founder)
JV Tennis - 4 years</p>
<p>Volunteer/Service Work: Soup Kitchen, Tutoring</p>
<p>Honors and Awards: 2012 National Qualifier for Debate, State Standardized Testing Awards</p>
<p>Other Schools:
Accepted: Colgate, Bates, UConn Honors, American U w/merit scholarship, Lafayette w/merit scholarship
Rejected: Wesleyan
Still waiting on: Cornell, Bowdoin, Georgetown, Colby, F&M</p>
<p>Anirudha1993-</p>
<p>Its hard to say exactly what they want- obviously they expect people to have competitive grades and test scores but so many applicants have those- maybe they need a left handed tuba player, maybe they don’t like my application because they just accepted someone else who sounds very similar to me. There are just not enough spots at competitive colleges and people who can do the work and are completely qualified are turned away. There is a random unpredictable element in play- as difficult as it is, its not fair to yourself to view their decisions as a judgement about your worth as an individual.</p>
<p>It’s also worth remembering that when you look at the really accomplished people (like Nobel laureates) a whole lot of them went to less than spectacular colleges- its really what you do with the education more than Hamilton or Harvard experience per se.</p>
<p>I’m incredibly surprised about the financial aid I received from Hamilton. I got almost the exact same (sizable) offer that I got from Wesleyan University, even though I’ve heard that Hamilton’s reputation for financial aid is not very good. Nevertheless, I’m just glad to have options!</p>
<p>And to everyone who is waiting to hear from more places in the next few weeks, good luck to you all! It’s sad that admissions for so many schools seem to be such a toss-up recently.</p>
<p>Anirudha1993 given your stats … Ham must have had a great pool apply or maybe some quirky element of your app did not fit their criteria… </p>
<p>Georgetown did the same thing to a friend of mine… seems not to be any rhyme or reason on admin decisions process from at least where we sit … </p>
<p>Best of Luck !</p>
<p>I needed almost 100% aid… The need aware policy for international students must have hurt my chances big time. :(</p>
<p>Just hoping after hope that the need blind colleges see something special in me… </p>
<p>Congratulations to all those who have been accepted and Good luck to others…</p>
<p>Waitlisted w/ credentials beyond their averages… Oh, well. Guess I wasn’t what they were looking for</p>
<p>@Savs802 - I know, right!? I got $54,500 from Hamilton and was shocked! My brother had reallllllly wanted to go to Hamilton but didn’t get enough aid. He’s at Brown now, so…no one can feel bad for him. However, he’s a bit resentful of the fact that it was his current standing in college which contributed to some of the aid I got…hehehe.</p>
<p>I plan to visit, so we’ll see what happens!</p>
<p>Congratulations to all accepted, and good luck to all waiting to hear from others!</p>
<p>I got rejected from Hamilton as a recruited athlete with test scores above their 75%, solid grades with hardest transcript, and i raised 170k$ to build 4 schools in Africa.
Its just the luck of the draw, everyone who got accepted deserved it, just apply to a lot of similar schools and youll get into some and rejected from others.</p>
<p>Decision: accepted</p>
<p>Objective:
SAT I: CR780 M790 W800
SAT II: US History 800, Literature 760
Weighted GPA: 4.0
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):3.8
Rank: unknown
AP: US History 5, Spanish 4, European History 4
Senior Year Course Load: AP Psych, AP Bio, AP English, Honors Calculus, Accelerated Macroeconomics, AP US Gov, Journalism
Major Awards: National Merit Finalist, AP Scholar, NHS</p>
<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars: student newspaper (3 years, increasing levels of responsibility/leadership), student service organizations w/leadership roles, Model UN
Job/Work Experience: summer camp counselor, server’s assistant at local restaurant
Volunteer/Community service:200+hrs at local hospital, significant other community service
Summer Activities: camp counselor
Essays: major strength
Teacher Recommendation: unknown, but these were classes I did well in with teachers who appeared to like me
Counselor Rec: very likely extremely strong</p>
<p>Other
State: OH
School Type: public
Ethnicity:white
Gender:female
Income Bracket: don’t qualify for need-based aid
Hooks: none</p>
<p>Reflection
Probable strengths: scores, probably essays, probably recommendations
Probable weaknesses: possibly grades, possibly extracurriculars as mine are all either journalism or community service, no athletics/music/art/theatre.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected (AKA evidence that this is a crap shoot):
Accepted Emory, Carleton, Colorado College, Hamilton, Kenyon, Dickinson, Centre, Allegheny, UofMichigan.
Waitlisted Middlebury, Wesleyan, Vassar, Davidson, WashU
Rejected Bowdoin, Pomona.</p>
<p>@girlie2012,</p>
<p>I am WL @ Hamilton, Colby & Kenyon, thats so un nerving :/</p>