The Boston Globe has an article today on the unusual admissions year. I am sure there are other articles in other media. After reading many of them, I think you have reasons to be grateful for the 3 you got into. Also, waiting lists don’t offer as much hope this year. Decide on one of your three and move on!
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Respectfully to the OP, I think a lot of the OP’s rankings and opinions are driven by the father. It’s understandable that 1st gen immigrants might focus overly much on the name-brand institutions they can readily read about in every college ranking magazine/book. Non-immigrant families do it and we don’t have the excuse of being in a new society.
But, I think that because the father so strongly praises the usual top names and so strongly disregards those names unfamiliar to him, the OP has, as many children do, fallen in line with his parents’ opinions.
@daacquan2 , I suggest you get ahold of a few books like the Fiske Guide, Princeton Review (website also), and others.
Though it shouldn’t be taken as a standalone resource, even a site like N1che can help alleviate some misconceptions about non-T40 universities. For instance, I’ve found that almost every school ranked “A” or better is a great option for nearly all students. The way the site polls students about a range of topics results in some sometimes insightful rankings. And the reviews of colleges by students can reveal how the group as a whole view their university.
The more you can expose your parents (and yourself) to the wealth of information about the large amount of fantastic universities in America, the likelier he and you will realize your good options are not limited to the few schools he originally selected.
I think you have a great HS academic record, and that you are well situated to do exceedingly well in college.
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I appreciate the advice, I just wanted to say that I myself picked these list of schools and my mentality was that if I got into only 1 of the top 13 (rejected list) I would be set/happy with the outcome but it didn’t turn out that way in the end.
I made a spreadsheet with all the colleges I applied to and ranked them according to preference, Rutgers, PSU and GWU were quite literally the bottom 3 and Boston College was 4th last.
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Listen, don’t kick yourself, this was a really rough year for admissions. if you go to GWU, go be that big fish in a big pond, you can even reapply for their honors college during your first year. If you go to Rutgers, you’ll still be a big fish in a small pond and you can always bust ass your first year and transfer out to a T20, although you’ll have to play the statistics game again. Good luck OP
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Don’t be too hard on yourself. This was a very hard year for admissions. Many schools had class of 2024 students that took a gap year leaving fewer positions for the class of 2025. There are many other students reading this post that are in the same boat. Thank you for putting yourself out there for others to follow. Go to GW, kick butt, and take advantage of all that DC offers in terms of internships, etc. I bet you will be admitted to a great law school in 4 years if that is your plan. Thank your guidance counselor for making sure you had some safeties on your list. Some years I see posts from students that have no acceptances and are really scrambling to find someplace to enroll.
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Did you have advice at all when you crafted your college application list? Frankly, it doesn’t look like it. What did your school counselors say?
You have three acceptances. Your family needs to decide if any are affordable. Choose a college.
And I agree with others…if you want to work in government or politics, DC is where you want to be if that is affordable.
And please go with the attitude that the college you choose is going to work out well. If you do, it will.
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Agree with your post - nitpicking here, but I don’t think there was much of any risk of losing an offer from Penn State with a 4.x GPA. Their middle 50% SAT score is 1000-1250. The school is an A+ ranked school because it offers a huge campus, great facilities, food, social scene, etc.
I’m sure it’s a bit harder to get into Penn State if you are a Penn resident (as it is much harder to get into UCONN here as a CT resident), but a 4.x and 1500 SAT is sort of a 99% for PSU acceptance in my opinion, provided there is nothing strange in the essay or ECs or on his FB pages (perhaps very strong political stances).
@HankCT I’m not sure where you got your information, but middle 50% SAT scores for Penn State main campus are 1240-1410.
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To the people saying that OP should be thankful they got into GWU when so many people are desperate to get in, that argument has no merit. One person’s dream school is another’s target or safety, and it is clear from the OP’s replies that GWU is far from their dream school which is why they seem super hesitant and upset about having to choose it. You can give the OP advice without indirectly telling them they are a bad applicant who reached too high and should be thankful they got in anywhere at all. OP (and all future college applicants), follow your heart, if your heart says apply to all the ivys, then do it!, if it says to transfer, then do it!. Don’t let the people here saying you are delusional for your college list change how you think of yourself and make you feel you are at fault for this. You were a really competitive applicant, you have a good progressing gpa, good sat and fairly cool ECs and you mightve just missed the mark for the Ivys, if you really want to go to an ivy, bust ass wherever you go, get a high gpa (3.7-4.0) and make the transfer, it’s possible OP! Good luck!
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First of all, I am very sorry you are hurting. The college admissions process often feels like a giant game of musical chairs that does leave some of us out on the aisle. I can understand how disappointing it is to give something your very best effort and to come up short. I get why you are sad.
Having said all that, all is far from lost. Your safeties are actually great options. Beyond that, school truly does not define you for life. There is a wonderful book called “Where You Go is Not Who You Will Be” that I recommend you reading. It will put your current situation in appropriate context. My sense is what you are most missing right now is the social validation that you would be getting had you attained a different class of schools. I get that; it is genuine social currency. However, it is not the sole source of social currency nor it is permanent.
While it is true that graduating from a top school can open doors and give you credibility, that same credibility can be attained in different ways. For example, you can go to one of your safeties, kick butt academically and go to graduate school. Similarly, you can climb up in your field and eventually people don’t ask where you went to school. The key for you will be to not let societal expectations define YOUR paths for success. Think independently and know your own worth no matter where you go to school. Yeah, for real. THAT will be the biggest gift you carry from this era. The question you should be asking is not “how could I have better marketed myself” but rather, “where do I go from here and how do I grow as a human?”
In my experience, the shift happening in colleges right now is a good one. There is going to be increasingly a bigger emphasis on the creativity, initiative and ingenuity of applicants. How original can you be? What have you created? How do you contribute? Believe it or not, those are the skills that will carry you in life—that and the ability to work well with others.
So, my dear young person, dust yourself off and chin up. Pick one of those schools and do so intelligently. Try and look at these schools in a new light and really delve into their offerings. Visit if you can. Talk to alumni and admitted students. Chart a course for yourself there that allows you to grow as a human and as a professional. Set yourself up for success from your new perch even if it is not as high as the one you imagined for yourself.
You are going to be okay. My best friend truly “got rejected from everywhere.” She went to state school, graduated with top honors and went to UPenn law. By contrast, my husband’s friend went to Cornell, graduated with middling grades and went to a Ho hum law school. Guess which one is thriving now? Both. They are both thriving. One is a partner at a law firm, the other the chief counsel at a top entertainment company.
Best of luck to you and I am pulling for you.
Xoxox
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this right here is the best response to the OP and the best advice I’ve seen on this forum
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I was grabbing them from Niche, from memory from 2 years ago. Currently it is listed as 1070-1310 on Niche, which is a tad higher than it used to be.
In either case, a 1500 is easily in their top 20% (maybe even top 10%), which was my point. But I do appreciate your info. It’s good to know.
Thank you. Xoxoxoxo
Great and important point! I went to a community college (due to being a rebel in HS) and decided to finally play the education game, transferred to a “C+ Niche ranked” 4 year school. There I decided to get my money’s worth and double major (English, Computer Science). Have had a great career, currently managing multiple software development teams at a top financial firm. My brother dropped out of college as a freshman, decided to start his own business, and now owns a successful chain of restaurants across 4 states. My brother-in-law had the 1600 SAT and perfect grades, went to Yale, then NYU for a masters. He’s doing OK, not great. He’s sort of bounced around and now does some contracting work here and there for a little money.
It’s really all about the person, and the OP’s improvement year over year shows a lot about his trajectory.
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You may be right, but i call them as I see them. Lots of confusion on Penn State stats because of the campuses - and many reasonable applicants don’t get into the main one. Also, underachiever profiles hit some people funny.
So Niche is still significantly wrong. It’s obviously not a good source for these statistics. My guess is this data is either lagged by several years or maybe crowd sourced which is useless. Much better to go to the common data sets or the school press releases.
To reply to the OP: I’m with others that GW is great for your major if your family can afford it. If not, go to Rutgers and shine there.
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I guess - what is interesting is that every school I have ever looked at their stats on their site is always higher than the stats shown at the major sites (Niche, Princeton Review, US News all list Penn State University Park as significantly lower than Penn State itself claims). I’m going to be honest, I don’t trust the schools entirely either, as it’s in their best interest to “tweak” their numbers. I am sure there are checks and balances, especially for state schools, but I am also used to how the business world works, and how these things can be changed.
Every presentation for tours or admitted students I have seen online or attended in person for all of my kids has always shown higher SAT scores for their school’s middle 50% than any other objective third party tool shows. As an example, my oldest attends Binghamton. Sites listed their SAT scores as 1200-1400 when she was admitted, but when we went for admitted students, they were showing numbers like 1350-1490.
It’s all a bit relative, too. If use these sites for all of your metrics, you sort of get the “flavor” of the ballpark SAT range. So while US News may show 1150-1350, and Penn State is claiming 1210 - 1420, you get the gist.
I wonder if Niche is using all of Penn State’s satellite campuses combined vs just University Park (main campus).
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The OP’s UWGPA is 3.6, no shame, that’s what one of my senior’s has (and only 1390 SAT), I don’t think most colleges look at senior year (too bad, my son had all A’s)
I think it must be, because it also shows a 76% acceptance rate, while US news shows a more realistic 49%, and Princeton 54%. It’s not secret these sites use data from prior years (US News is using Fall 2019 rates), but 76% and the SAT scores seem like they would make sense for satellite campus inclusion.
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