<p>Thanks for your post it was truly what I needed to hear</p>
<p>I got deferred from Yale and now I go to Harvard</p>
<p>tgweeg, BALLIN'!!</p>
<p>Anyway, does anyone know how much the essays matter? I can't really find a definitive answer.</p>
<p>I've felt kind of the same way, that I will get rejected. But for me it doesn't seem to matter since my parents make too much for FA but don't want to dish out the $45,000+ per year for me to go to a top-notch school. It looks like UF or Rollins for me.</p>
<p>Don't give up! You wouldn't believe how many admitted students would never dream that they would get in. And when you ask students who did get in EA about their grades or SAT scores, they're not nearly as intimidating as you'd think.</p>
<p>I totally agree that the most difficult thing to swallow during the application process is the unpredictability of the admissions. I know students that have been accepted to Yale and Harvard with really less than stellar academic credentials while being compared to the rest of the applicant pool. No wonder they call it "crapshoot"!. If a "mosaic" is what these schools are trying to build, then their excellence for academics is really overrated. To be perfectly honest, most of my interviewers (all ivies) have been really mediocre people or people that could really be considered underachievers! ( my Harvard interviewer even told me she did not even like the school)</p>
<p>I am really begining to think.... what is the big deal with these schools other thatn the name and their long standing reputations that in a certain way we keep eternally perpetuating in these forum as the " best places ever" ?</p>
<p>Yes they have beautiful campuses, etc..but lets look around and you will find plenty of schools where you will get a comparable education, if not better.</p>
<p>That's very true, and I've always known it. I don't consider HYPS to be the best schools ever for me or for anyone. I wouldn't be disappointed if I was rejected just because it meant I couldn't go there. In other words, if I get rejected, I will not be sad that I couldn't go to Yale; if rejected I would be sad that I wasn't deemed good enough to go to Yale.</p>
<p>I'm not picking on anyone in particular but I think it's the wrong idea to consider the college admissions process as a validation of one's "self-worth". College admissions isn't the light at the end of the tunnel nor is it the big reward that is supposed to correspond with 4 years of hardwork in high school for anybody. It is a matchmaking process to see where one would fit in well in the academic/social setting and have the best chance of having a fulfilling 4 years of college with all things considered; therefore, it should be treated as such. The question you should be asking is not "Gee, am I good enough to get in?" but "Why should I go here for the next 4 years of my life and why is this place the right one for me out of all the other fine institutions out there?".</p>
<p>If you approach college admissions with this mindset, you will be a far more relaxed/prepared applicant and you will have the right ingredients to present a compelling application to whatever colleges/universities you end up choosing.</p>
<p>^^^ I agree. I won't be crushed if I don't get into a top flight school. It would be cool to get in, but I'm sure I will learn a lot and have fun wherever I go. Blah blah blah, the whole thing about when one door closes another opens.</p>
<p>Yeah, Evil Asian is right. That is why I have lately gained so much respect for the selective ivies and lost a lot of it for big name schools. Yale, etc, they scrutinize each and every application for some real worth. At these other schools, they just input your scores into a freakin' computer and you are in or not. And it's not like there is a huge difference in the number of applicants, either.</p>
<p>collegebound5, can you please post a link to that page? I can't find it =X</p>