So today I got my decision from Yale, and I was rejected… I was fully expecting a deferral, because over 50% is deferred as far as I know. I’m wondering if I need to change my list now, I’m applying to Dartmouth (legacy), Brown (legacy), Wesleyan, Washington University, Carnegie Mellon, BU, Smith, and UMass Amherst.
SAT: 2200 (took it twice), subject tests 740 for math, 750 for english/reading comp
ACT: 34
I took 4 APs last year, taking 4 this year
APUSH: 4
Environmental: 5
Studio Art (drawing): 4
Language: 5
My GPA this year is about a 3.8 unweighted and a 4.68 weighted… My grades have been pretty consistent throughout my high school career, though I had a slight dip in sophomore year which included a C+ in Honors Algebra 2
I play JV volleyball, act in musicals, and do art extensively after school. I’ve worked at McDonald’s. I have a good amount of community service hours, too.
I’ve won art awards at my school and I got a National Scholastic Gold Medal in art last year.
Tell me the truth: was I stupid for applying to Yale? what are my chances at other schools?
You were not stupid for applying to Yale. All the Ivies are reach for everyone. You should have an excellent shot at Dartmouth as a legacy. Your list looks sensible to me. (FWIW, a few years back, D was rejected by Yale, accepted by Harvard & Dartmouth, and deferred to the spring semester at Berkeley. Try to make sense of those decisions. I forget who wrote the song, but “it goes to show you never can tell.”)
Dont feel that just because Yale rejected you, you cant get into your other choice. Dont lose hope! My advice is getting your peers and family to look back at your essays, and see what you can do to make them stronger.
I did include a portfolio as a supplemental piece, and I wrote my essay about art and its influence on my life. McDonald’s was just for pocket money and paying my phone bills and such.
I’ve been on this website and I’ve seen a lot of people that are super disappointed after not getting into some of the most selective schools in the country. I genuinely don’t understand this and I’m wondering why people feel this way. I mean, if I were applying to these colleges I would expect to be rejected (or deferred, which is pretty much the same thing). I’m only a junior in high school so perhaps I don’t understand the struggle of being a senior and getting this news but could someone please explain to me why this is so devastating? Not saying that you are wrong to feel that way or anything, because you can’t control that, just wondering why so many people seem to expect to get in and then become very depressed when they don’t.
If you are applying to Smith, how about Holyoke as well? As a Bryn Mawr grad myself, I was always very impressed with the intellectual community at Holyoke, very different than the school’s general reputation. Of course, there is Bryn Mawr as well, an intellectual community which brings with it the easy option of classes and major at Haverford,as well as doable, but more logistically complicated, option of taking class at Swathmore and U Penn.
Other LACs just below the top, where being a female is not as big a liability as at some others – Dickinson, I know has close to 50/50 female male split, so could be an option. Since I have a son, I haven’t paid close attention to the schools that are more equally weighted in gender distribution, some are quite skewed female, like Sarah Lawrence, so are more difficult for a female to get into. Maybe Gettysburg, Franklin & Marshall, though both have big Greek life presence (F&M trying to manage it).
Trying to see the commonality in your list - Wash U, Dartmouth, Carnegie Mellon and BU are not the quirky schools that Wesleyan, Brown and Smith can be. So which do you prefer? If you prefer the Wash U etc. vibe, perhaps George Washington, as it has gone test optional recently, they might love your test scores to push their reported scores up.
@dsi411
When you put so much time into your essays and applications, you expect that your hard work will pay off in the end.
We’ve been taught that since we were young: work hard and success will come. It just sucks that “success” comes in the form of a rejection letter.
I think it’s more of like, super, super happy if you get in, that your hard work was worth it, or super super sad that you didn’t as it seems like all your efforts were wasted.
Although I fully expect to be rejected at some of the schools I applied to, I still hope to get in, as I spent countless hours on revising essays, and going through multiple drafts to end up with a final product.
OP, I think your chances at the other schools are solid, but consider adding in another safety if you don’t like UMass that much. The other schools are also pretty selective (don’t know about Smith) and are not real guarantees.
Also, I agree with the above poster. Perhaps have some more people (family perhaps, as your parents are well-educated), school counselor, English teacher, as if your original Common App needed some fixing, you can still change it and send the revised version to your other schools.
The Yale Supplements as well. Perhaps something you did wrong there, and if you find out, you can prevent that mistake from spreading to your other supplements.
@“Erin’s Dad” it’s not so much that i’d be disappointed that I would have to go to UMass, more that it would be disappointing to get rejected by every other school on my list, you know?
@dsi411 idk for me I guess it’s just because I was expecting a deferral; ivy leagues defer a lot and my friends who had applied to other ivies (harvard, brown) got deferred… since only the bottom 25% of applicants is rejected, it just kinda makes me feel like shit that I’m that low down that they don’t even want to consider me for acceptance. I mean obviously it’s not the end of the world and I am making kind of a big deal about it but it’s just kind of making me feel hopeless about the whole process.
You weren’t dumb for applying! But just to qualify the lesson “when we work hard good things happen”, yes that is generally true, but a huge lesson to learn from college apps is that sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things won’t work perfectly. Life isn’t formulaic, nor are college admissions, I’m sure you’ll get into a fantastic school and attend!
Gonna be honest – for Yale, your app was pedestrian. Sorry, but the students get in there are generally more accomplished in most of the key areas. But the rest of your list looks more reasonable, especially given your legacy status. However, if you aren’t happy with your safety, you should add to your list, since there is really no telling whether you will get into the rest.
I agree with @intparent, you’ll probably get into BU and Smith, and perhaps CMU and Wesleyan as well. But even though your GPA and activities are low for Yale, you should still be a strong candidate for some other top schools.
Was it a mistake? That depends in my opinion on how much you liked Dartmouth and Brown, where you had legacy status. You had to know that your chances at those schools would be significantly better ED with legacy status than SCEA unhooked at Yale, and that your background, while competitive, was unlikely to stand out. As long as you were content to take that chance, there’s no sense worrying about it.
As for changing your list, that depends on what you are looking for. You have a decent range of schools and solid qualifications, with a decent legacy show at 2 Ivies. But if those don’t inspire you, then you might want to consider what does.
I was just reading a post on another thread by a student who was rejected SCEA from Yale, but then got into --and now attends – Princeton.
Forget about that whole hard-work-will-bring-success bs. Do you think that only the 5% of people who get into Yale are hard workers and the other 95% are slackers? College acceptance has nothing to do with being rewarded. Admissions officers are assembling a class, not giving out prizes.
My friend’s daughter goes to one of the top private schools in the country. Her basic stats are 3.96 and 2370. Her guidance told her yale was iffy, dartmouth ed very probable, dartmouth rd a maybe. In the end, she applied to u chicago ea and will apply to yale rd. Her reasoning was that yale was her top pick and she’d wonder all her life if she didn’t try.
makes sense to me and it seems to me you were in a similar situation. I do think it’s possible you get denied from all your reaches, so you might want to think carefully about your matches and safeties. A couple of her matches might work for you, mcgill and u mich.
Just being brutally honest here, that C+ definitely jumps out. I think that is a deal killer for schools of Yale’s calibre. I think a lot students are doomed by even a B+ for schools like HYPSM. But I am sure you have an excellent chance at some of the other schools on your list.