<p>Yea....I have heard about the CCer Andi's son and his story. Yet I have also heard about people who was accepted to MIT and Princeton after being rejected first time.</p>
<p>I was recently waitlisted/rejected from 5 ivies that I had applied.
I have decent GPA (4.5 W and 3.96 UW/ will have taken 14 APs + 2 college courses by the time I graduate), and ECs (publications, state science fair, music competition) but I think my low SAT score was what got me out (2250 with CR 680). I believed that the fact that I came from China five years ago could somewhat help to back up my low CR score, but I think adcoms no longer care about those( that I not an native English speaker) as so many students are in similar circumstances. My school is pretty competitive with SAT 2310 (got this info. from my school naviance) being the average score for students who got accepted to UPenn. </p>
<p>So If I could get 2400 on my sat and write stellar essays, would I have some chance???
Also do schools keep old rejected applicant files??</p>
<p>yes they keep the files for a number of years–that is why there is a question at the begining of applications asking if you had applied before-- it is a flag to get the old file.</p>
<p>The onus is on you to show why the original decision should be overturned (see it as a appellate decision in which you are asking a higher court to reverse the lower court based upon the merits of a case-- a high high burden …). If you have truly gown, if your work has taken a dramatic change, if you have accomplished something quite remarkable in the time between the first rejection and this year then the chance of reversal is possible.</p>
<p>But remember Harvard has 35,000 applications-- they said no once before–and so you are asking them to change their minds when it would be very easy for the AO to say–(keeping in the legal vein here) “asked, and answered, your honor”.</p>
<p>Good luck but it is a very long shot, I fear.</p>
<p>I am certain the fact that you came from China five years ago and that English is not your first language DID factor into the admissions discussions in a helpful way, and that people were impressed that you got at least a 770 on the writing portion of the SAT.</p>
<p>That’s why you should not reapply to the same colleges. Getting 2400 on the SATs won’t significantly improve your application. Maybe writing better essays would, but that isn’t going to happen by magic, and they would have to be really, really better essays to make any difference at all.</p>
<p>Basically, as etondad said, you would have to do something really sensational to overcome the inertia of the previous decision. Ivy admissions people have the difficult task of rejecting thousands and thousands of deserving applicants like you. They will be looking for anything that makes the decision to reject easier, and the fact that they already rejected you once is just that sort of thing. It may have merely been terrible luck that none of the top colleges to which you applied accepted you, but when you reapply to the colleges that rejected you, you won’t be trying your luck again. Luck won’t enter into it; you will be rejected unless there is something really new and different in your application.</p>
<p>What are your best options now? I would concentrate on making the most of those, not obsessing about Ivies. You can turn any college into Harvard for you if you approach it intelligently. THAT’s the way to get a better outcome, not retaking the SATs and reapplying.</p>
<p>I think that you have excellent stats, so I believe that raising your SAT score other stats will not help you. I got in with similar stats. When it comes down to it, it’s really about a match between you and the colleges that you’ve applied to. Make them go, “yeah, this kid belongs here.” I think the best choice right now is to attend a college that you’ve been accepted to. If you decide to take a gap year, I think that most of your time should not be spent on raising your SATs and such, and should be spent on the essays and maybe some activities that will either wow the adcoms or establish your character and highlight the qualities that you want the colleges to see.
Good luck.</p>