I applied to 16 schools, but I’m SO worried that I won’t get in anywhere. I did apply to three safety schools, but I really don’t think I would be happy attending any of them. I applied to a lot of competitive small LACs, and would love to get into one. However, I’m really worried because I got deferred EA from Northeastern, which is supposed to be much less competitive. Many people have tried to assure me that NEU deferred me because they thought I was “overqualified” and unlikely to actually attend, but I saw a lot of people with 36 ACTs or 1570 SATs who were accepted (for the record, my SAT is a 1520 and rank is 1/538) and I am pretty certain that I was deferred because I did not meet the standard they were looking for. The thing is, my EC’s/community service/other stuff like that are very average, and I have limited leadership and have not been involved in many clubs. My main “thing” is a year-round sport that I do, which is where most of my “outside of school” time is spent. And this is why I’m worried–I know at the schools I’m applying to (Amherst, Williams, Midd, Tufts, Vassar, etc) most of the applicants will have similar academic profiles to mine, but will have much stronger EC’s/interesting things about them that I am clearly lacking.
Do you have several matches on the list as well? Any schools that you don’t want to attend are not safety.
The wait from now until the end of the month can be very stressful, but all you can do now is wait and hope. Do not panic, because you do not know yet what will happen. Hang in there!
You wrote,
Don’t be. It was a brutal year for Northeastern admissions. Judging by my sons’ friends and my colleagues’ children, it seems many top students got deferred from Northeastern this year. All you can do is wait until the end of the month and see what happens. Maybe you will get in RD.
You mentioned you have some safeties. It is time to start trying to get excited about attending them, in case that’s what happens. My son got into his safety early action one week before he got into his top choice early decision. During that week, he read everything he could about the safety and started imagining himself there. He got pretty excited about it. So if he had not been accepted to his ED school, of course he would have been disappointed, but he would have felt that he was still able to go to another terrific college. I suggest a similar strategy for you.
Odds are, you will get into more colleges than just your safeties. But if not, you said you have three safeties, so hopefully you will have the luxury of choosing among them and will get excited about one of them. With your stats, odds are that your safeties are a reach or top choice for other waiting high school students; remind yourself of that, and appreciate the accomplishment if you get in. People can have a great four years at their safety school and a successful and happy life afterwards! Go in with a positive attitude and you will, too.
Hang in there. There are only 3-4 more weeks to wait to find out!
Can you tell us your safeties? I bet people here could tell you good things about those schools. Also, there are probably schools on your list that want someone with your stats and dedication to a year round sport. Good luck.
If you don’t like your safeties, apply to a few others - what are they?
If you like LACs, you can still apply to Hendrix and St Michael’s, so check them out and run the NPCs; in May there’ll be a list of colleges that miscalculated yield and still have a few spots left (you have to be ready immediately since they are snapped quickly).
You rank first in a class of 1/538, have an SAT score of 1520, and are heavily engaged in a year round sport, but are worried because you got deferred from a publicity hungry, US News data manipulating school that can use students like you to generate publicity.
Would love to know your safeties. Also, would like to know your entire list of 16 schools to which you applied & your results.
With these stats, you could still apply to a few universities with rolling admissions.
For another safety, you may apply to college of liberal arts/Penn State, for instance (it’s too late for Honors admissions, but they have a pathway for honors where you take honors classes your first year and transfer to the honors college if you have a specific GPA.)
Indiana, Alabama, Michigan State are still accepting admissions but AFAIK honors applications are closed and they don’t have a special pathway that allows you to take honors classes in your first year.
You wouldn’t get financial aid though.
Apply to Auburn. Enroll in the Summer Term & earn a qualifying GPA for their honors college for the Fall.
@citymama9 @MYOS1634 @Publisher thanks. My “safeties” are St. Lawrence, Conn College, and University of Rochester (I definitely don’t consider U of R a safety anymore, and a kid at my school got waitlisted at Conn with a 1590 last year…). Besides the more competitive schools I mentioned before (Amherst, Williams, Midd, Tufts, Vassar), I applied to Colgate, Colby, and Wesleyan, and I threw in a few Ivies cause why not. I guess I’m just really concerned because NEU is probably (what I think/thought) is the easiest school to get into on my list besides my safeties, and I was deferred. I’m really regretting not applying to more “match” schools…I worked with a counselor who told me that some match schools for me were Colgate, Colby, Vassar and NEU but I’m really doubting this now. I guess I just assumed that since I applied to so many schools, I would get into one I like. And a lot of kids get into Ivies and good schools from my HS each year (about 6 are accepted to Cornell every year, and we had people go to all of the other Ivies last year). However, for some reason, this year, the number of people applying to competitive schools from my school increased significantly (25 to Brown this year vs. 9 last year, and the others follow that trend). So I feel as if it’s going to be even harder to get accepted somewhere this year 
. I would really love to go to a small LAC, and would be sooooo happy to get into Amherst/Williams/Midd/Vassar/Wes but I’m just not seeing it happening.
U Rochester is harder to get into than NEU and not a safety for anyone, at best it’s a match. Connecticut college is not a safety either, a match especially if you’re a girl from New England, low match probably - your odds are high but definitely not 90-100%. And St Lawrence is only a safety if you’ve demonstrated interest for the past six months at least (filling out the request info form, clicking on the mails they send, visiting/interviewing).
A safety, with your stats, would have 40% acceptance rate + you demonstrated interest or it’s a large university that isn’t all that holistic. A match would be in the 25-40% acceptance rate + demonstrated interest. Everything else would be a reach although you have a serious shot at all the LACs you listed, yes Vassar/Wes etc… But nothing on your list is truly safe and guaranteed.
I recommend you send that application to Penn State, indicating in the essay that you want to be a paterno fellow aspirant in liberal arts/political science. It’s a true safety for you, you’d still have access to the honors college, and if you only have that or St Lawrence you’d have a true choice. (Also, they use coalition app so if you used that foe one of your current universities, you don’t have anything special to do.) Or if you want another small LAC, Hendrix is still accepting applications. Perhaps Goucher? An issue is that LACs factor ‘interest’ into their offer. And of course there’s the may list of colleges that miscalculated yield so you’d have choices in May if you are shut out. Note that you could very well get into six colleges or even more!
But having URochester, St Lawrence, and Conn college as your safeties explains why you’re so nervous.
I have heard nothing but good things about the schools you consider to be safeties. I don’t think Rochester is as hard to get into as Northeastern simply for the fact that more kids want to be in Boston than in Rochester. I seriously think you have a great shot at your 3 safeties. Colgate might be a good match. Based on our school’s naviance they tend to like high stats students. Colby might also accept you. Not sure about the others. I guess it will depend on your essays and recs. Good luck.
Also, did you mention what state you live in. Sometimes it helps be from an underrepresented state. Another thing that can help is if you are full pay. This would be meaningful at schools that are need aware.
Colgate grad here. I would not read too much into the Northeastern deferral. For whatever reason they seemed overly cautious with their EA admissions this year. I believe they over enrolled last year, and likely wanted to avoid a similar outcome this year. My daughter who is a legacy at Northeastern was deferred there but accepted at several great colleges including Michigan, UVA and Boston College. I am confident that you have several matches on your list, (Colgate!) and can’t wait to hear that you can’t decide between all of your great choices.
If this were last October, I’d note you seem to have about six high reaches, four reaches, four matches, and two low matches. And I’d suggest dropping four of the ten most selective ones (to focus more) and adding two actual safeties, like a state school and a LAC with an acceptance rate of at least 50%.
It’s a little late for that! The positive news is that your ten less selective schools (low match, match, regular reach) are all really good, and it would be very, very surprising if you didn’t get into 1, 2, or 5 of them. So even if you had applied a little differently, the end result, which I think will be very positive, will probably be about the same. It’s just hard to wait for it, I’m sure.
I agree with Wilson98. Unless you have some real smudges on your application that we don’t know about, I think you will get into multiple schools. Relax.
@Wilson98 are the “high reaches” the Ivies and Amherst and Williams? I guess I was thinking that if I really loaded up on more selective schools, I’d have a chance to get into one. I guess maybe I was feeling more confident than I should have…about 12 people from my schools have already been accepted to Ivies/Stanford/Duke etc, so I thought I might have had a shot, especially since my rank is higher, but I totally understand that class rank is just one small factor.
Those would be mainly EA/ED and athletic recruits with Likely Letters, I imagine, since RD decisions aren’t out yet.
There’s nothing you can do about it at this point. You’ll get into some and rejected by others. Just keep an open mind and love the school that loves you back.
I suspect you will be fine.
Have any of your safeties notified yet, or are you just unhappy with the thought of going to school there?