This post is half out of curiosity and half to rant. I was recently waitlisted at 4/7 of my reaches and rejected from the other 3. I was only accepted to UVA and W&M, both regular decision. I was a finalist for the W&M 1693 Scholars Program but dropped out after receiving the UVA UAA full-tuition scholarship, which made UVA somewhat affordable for me. To be honest, I was crushed, as I’ve always been the kid who was seen as a genius and I wanted that chance to just get away and do my own thing at a far-away school. Though it’ll be fun going to the same school as all my high school friends, deep down it still hurts a lot.
My deepest grievance comes from not receiving the Echols Scholar distinction. All of my friends applied to UVA Early Action, while I applied Regular because I falsely believed that my Restrictive Early Application barred me from applying to any other schools early, One of my friends who applied early got Echols, so he was sure I’d get it too and that we would room together in the dorm, but when I got in Regular I did not get Echols. We were both shocked and disappointed. After not getting into any reaches, this was the last straw that crushed my spirit.
For context, my stats that I was so sure would get me Echols:
4.0UW/4.6W
Rank 2/360
SAT 1570 (800E, 770M)
SAT II Math II 790, Literature 790
National Merit Commended (1460 PSAT)
National AP Scholar Award (8 APs, 4 4s and 4 5s)
My friend who got it Early Action:
3.92UW/4.54W
Rank 4/360
Sat 1310
No SAT IIs
He was a pretty bad test taker so never got above a 3 on an AP exam, no AP award.
We did every extracurricular together. Our resumes were nearly identical, but even then I had an edge. I was nominated to Boy’s State over him and was a Supreme Court Justice there, which I was really proud of. My essay was also really, or so I was told: I worked super hard on it and my counselors and English teachers said it was phenomenal. He said they made a bunch of corrections on his, but his also probably turned out p good so idk. I’d say I’m the better writer tho, I got a 5 on AP English and he got a 2.
I don’t want to seem bitter; me and him are super close and we’ve talked about this stuff. I just don’t see what happened. If it matters, he is first-gen and black; I’m middle eastern and not first-gen. Circumstantially though, he is very wealthy and has both parents, while I’m poor and single-parent. I’d hoped this would work in my favor, since I did face some hardship growing up as a result of it, but I guess not. I’ve also heard the Echols program doesn’t practice affirmative action, so that’s likely not the case. If that is what differentiated us, I’d just like confirmation; I’d be perfectly fine with AA being the reason he got it and I didn’t; I understand the societal implications and necessity of affirmative action.
My ultimate question: did his applying early give him an advantage in earning Echols over me? Since they already accepted him early, were they hesitant to offer the distinction to another applicant from the same high school? I know several people who got Echols (from other parts of VA) and all of them applied Early Action. I know nobody who got Echols RD. I just need some answers 