<p>My D's friends, twins, were both waitlisted. One applied for engineering, the other did not. The engineering applicant was accepted to MIT, Duke, UVa, Johns Hopkins, Penn, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon and was only rejected from Brown. The other twin was accepted to Duke, Hopkins, Cornell, Brandeis and BU, was waitlisted at GW (weird), UVa, and rejected from Penn. They both had amazing essays and have a unique talent. I just don't get it. I know TS (I won't even say it) supposedly doesn't exist anymore, but this sure makes you wonder.</p>
<p>It doesn’t necessarily reflect that person’s merit–each school has to sculpt out their incoming class. Yesterday, I was accepted at Tufts and rejected from Brown. One of my classmates, however, was rejected from Tufts and accepted at Brown. Brown needed her but Tufts didn’t. I personally don’t believe in TS; decisions sometimes just come out bizarre.</p>
<p>Each college is a separate institution with their own admissions process. They don’t get together and decide “well this student’s stats would put him somewhere between Tufts and Brown, so let’s admit him to Tufts and reject him from Brown”.</p>
<p>Be thankful that the college application process is at least somewhat predictable. One look at past highly qualified Med school applicants and it’ll look completely random!</p>
<p>That’s the point of my post. I don’t think it’s predictable at all.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m in the same boat here. My friend was accepted at JHU and waitlisted at Tufts, and me, vice versa. It was strange, especially based on our stats, but I guess I’d chalk it up to unpredictability. Ultimately, though, I’ve decided on Tufts. :)</p>
<p>Yes, college admissions do seem to turn out very odd. I was waitlisted at Tufts (so much for my triple legacy) and JHU and rejected form Northwestern and UMD(really strange but I applied late), but accepted to Brown, UVa, and UDel-Honors.</p>
<p>I wasn’t really hurt by any of my college decisions, maybe only a bit confused and befuddled. I am under the impression that if a college believes that I won’t fit into their class make up, then apparently I don’t and why would I want to go somewhere I don’t fit in and am not wanted. I think people need to step away from the belief that rejections and waitlists are personal attacks on your intellect and accomplishments. Maybe I believe too much in destiny, but I just am under the impression that people get into the places they do for a reason and there is no way to fight it or change it but just roll with the flow. I am very happy with where I was accepted and will be a proud member of Brown Class of 2013!</p>
<p>S was accepted at Tufts and rejected from JHU and Georgetown, but I honestly believe he is a better fit at a school like Tufts where there does seem to be more of an undergraduate focus. On Georgetown’s website it was hard to search and find info that was geared solely to UG’s, and while JHU was better, I think it’s reputation of really hyper competitive academics would have not been a great fit either. So in this regard, I think all three schools got it right for this one kid. This is not to say there isn’t some bit of randomness just in terms of when you land in the readers hands, but other than that, I think they do a pretty good job wih the whole holistic thing.</p>
<p>whats TS? dfdfdf</p>
<p>Quote: "That’s the point of my post. I don’t think it’s predictable at all. "</p>
<p>Uhm don’t want to sound mean but… No #@%!. The college process is for the most part COMPLETELY RANDOM. Eveyone, applicants, parents, guidance counselors, admissions officers admit it. There’s no formula, (well perhaps valedictorian 2400 national-award winning kid who saved the planet from an impending calamaty) for college admissions and every college does it differently. </p>
<p>Now that I’m off that tirade, though i do not believe in t.s.(if interested check out the t.s. thread, i’m on page four and i launch into a large arguement against it) i do believe tufts has a unique admissions system, which they themselves admit, embrace, and advertize extremely well. They said it during my visit there, that they looked past just smarts, and tended to pick kids who had good stories or who had percevered etc. etc. Not to say smarts doesn’t factor into it, but they admit they want kids with good stories. There was an article recently about it in the Boston Globe and gave several examples where smarter kids with no real passion were rejected and not as smart kids with lots of passion accepted.</p>
<p>This policy aside, I don’t see why Tufts receives the distinction of T.S. Certainly ivy league calibar kids are rejected from bc, notre dame, _____(fill in name of really good school though not ivy nor mit nor stanford nor caltech). </p>
<p>Congrats to your friends daughters, they were accepted at some fantastic schools whose admissions profile they fit, though not at tufts. Has nothing to due with them being too smart, but the admissions people probably thought they wouldn’t fit in for one reason or another. Anyway they have some great options and shouldn’t worry about one reject.</p>
<p>TS = “Tufts Syndrome” – the myth that Tufts won’t accept you if they’re sure you’ll get in and go someplace more selective. Tufts swears it’s not true. It’s now become a shorthand for any unexplicable result – like, accepted at Harvard and WL at Tulane: Must be “Tufts Syndrome.”</p>
<p>They couldn’t care less that they were waitlisted and they are indeed elated with their choices. I’ve always described the admissions process as a crapshoot and this proves that point. Having read their essays, I was truly surprised because both had extremely unique talents and had good stories. Now that I’ve seen other posts, this situation is hardly unique.</p>
<p>I graduated from Tufts 30+ years ago and never heard of Tufts syndrome until I found CC. When I mentioned that fact here, I was told that it was “common knowledge” and I should Google it. I did–and CC posts were what I got.</p>
<p>As an interviewer, I’ve seen a lot of Tufts admissions data and I can tell you that in general, the higher your grades and your test scores, the greater your chances of getting into Tufts. Same thing as other elite schools. BUT fortunately, that’s not the whole story. Tufts is pretty open about the other attributes they value. Other schools also look at more than GPA and SAT scores, and every school has somewhat different things they’re looking for. </p>
<p>I’d be more concerned if we could all predict who was getting in where just from reading their chance-me threads.</p>