Obviously there’s nothing wrong with being rejected. But what I wish I could know is why. I think I’m a very qualified applicant
3.7 UW GPA (#20 private high school in the country)
Honors and APs (4 AP Euro, 4 AP Bio, 3 in AP Lang and AP Lit but didn’t submit)
1520 SAT 1550 superscore
34 ACT 35 superscore
80+ hours of community service
Varsity volleyball and softball (captain)
finance internship
AP scholar and distinction, school honor roll, etc
and I would say I’m a pretty good writer too
This by no means is to brag or anything but I think it’s definitely humbling. You do the best you can and still don’t get in to places you were qualified for. Granted, this is a weird year, but still I wish I could know why
where did u apply? True story: my brother from top ranked public hs in NJ was class valedictorian. Scored just shy of perfect on SAT and got all 5s and one 4 in a multitude of AP classes; he trained a seeing eye dog, did lots of community service, was in International Baccalaurate program, and competed in a varsity sport for 4 years. He had many ECs as well. He received a personal letter from Harvard asking him to apply and they rejected him. He was also rejected from MIT (his first choice) and Cal Poly He was waitlisted at Stanford. He was accepted into Cornell school of engineering, UMichigan with scholarship and Georgia Tech with scholarship. He chose Cornell–he had the most incredible education and experience! Loved every minute of his time. Majored in chemical engineering…was one of 2 undergrads across the country hired by Proctor & Gamble upon graduation, and a couple of years later was recruited away from P&G by Apple. He was the “lead” on the latest iPad. He just received a new promotion and job at Apple (cannot disclose) and he just turned 31…my point of all this is not to brag, but to encourage–Cornell ended up being the best fit for him in every way! You will end up in a good place!!! Keep your chin up!!!
This is a tough time of year for the many, many students who are still waiting to hear back from colleges and universities.
Many years ago when applying to graduate schools I remember a few rejections being humbling. Then I got an acceptance from a great school and completely forgot about the rejections. Hopefully you too will be looking at at least one acceptance soon.
Attending a top ranked university can also be quite humbling when you see what other students are there.
If that is his list it looks like it is loaded up with mostly reaches. UNC is a reach for everyone out of state. U Chicago has a 6 percent acceptance rate so also a reach for everyone. Northeastern is also very competitive. College list seems to be lacking target schools and safeties. Also maybe a rigor question? Not taken many APs and those schools want you to take the highest rigor offered.
Let’s say you go to a school like Nobles, where does a 3.7 fall among their students. From my experience that is only slightly above average. The school is amazing but a good number of kids getting into UNC/Chicago or better are the athletes and 3.8+. I am assuming college softball is not an avenue you are pursuing. Also, assuming you sent in scores, you probably know your SAT>ACT. Colorado College and NEU are somewhat of a surprise, but Chicago and UNC I would have expected to be on the high end for you. From my experience, people with your grades from a school like yours most commonly go to Tufts/BC-level colleges - just a level down from Chicago and UNC. Are you confident that you chose the right teachers for recs and that your college counselor appreciates all you have to offer? I would have a meeting with him/her just to put your mind at ease. Good luck.
@mom23boyz This is along the lines that I was thinking as well. Looks like OP may have also applied to Econ at UChicago which is probably one of their best programs, if not the best program there, so it is probably a reach for everyone. I think this person also applied to Penn and Cornell which are also reaches and may be setting herself up for more disappointment unfortunately.
Is UMass the only target or is that a safety and no targets? I don’t know anything about UMass. Even with rigor a 3.7 doesn’t seem strong and with minimal AP’s most likely the rigor is lacking (also no 5’s on APs). Maybe this person fell into the trap of thinking a high test score equating to elite college acceptances not realizing colleges want to see both? Hard to say.
Hopefully OP will have some other safeties or targets, but if not maybe a surprise in store but in this really tough year, she may not have cast a wide enough net. Sounds like she also could have used better guidance since there are not enough target/safeties here and if her school is Top 20 private as she says, then that is something they should have been doing.
Hi this was just my early process!! I have about 40 schools on my list (yes a lot of far reach) but my RD is loaded with more target schools. Granted, UMASS was my safety/likely school, but Colorado and NEU I definitely thought were more achievable. UNC for sure I was expecting a rejection and UMich I’m waiting on (but most likely rejection today). UChicago was my ED so of course I shot high, but I definitely loaded my RD list with schools like Lehigh, BC, Hamilton, Skidmore, Union etc. Since I already got into UMass, I’m trying to shoot higher than that but somewhere less competitive than the schools I applied to.
I wish I had a more accurate representation of my GPA because my school doesn’t calculate any honors or APs nor does it report GPA, meaning the schools would calculate it themselves (I’m taking two more this year including calc), leaving me with a total of 6 AP courses by graduating and 4 honors and 2 independent studies. I think what I’ve needed to realize is that I’ve definitely seen people with less rigor/lower stats that are unhooked and still get into ivies and amazing schools and it definitely shows there’s more than just numbers involved (which makes sense). I’m hoping that in the RD round I find better luck and hopefully a better fit!
I do have multiple other extracurriculars but I don’t know how worthy it is to mention here as much as it does on my common app but I do tutor as a volunteer and as a job, I’m in multiple singing groups, and theater along with sports, I do volunteer work at Shriner’s hospital, and I am writing a novel:) I do think that I would have had better chances NOT applying as an econ major in ED/EA, so I changed that for my RD schools.
Don’t lose hope with Michigan as in normal years (non-Covid) they don’t reject anyone in the EA round. It’s usually Defer or Admit. So you can very well get deferred in this round. Michigan also takes away all +/- grades and un-weights everyone’s GPA’s and recalculates them based on rigor.
It’s easy to think someone may have less rigor or honors when you don’t really know what they have unless they’re at your same school. Most people I’ve seen don’t really talk about how many Honors classes they’ve taken. They only mention dual credit, AP or IB classes. My graduating senior has taken all Honors classes or higher with the exception of English, PE and a Fine Arts course. He has a crazy high GPA, high ACT, great EC’s, etc. yet I still expect him to be deferred from Michigan today too because of their yield protection, the way things are this year, and because of their history of not taking the highest stats kids from a school. We know that going in, it just is what it is. Worse is that our OOS school tends to be a feeder school to Michigan and we’re a top public school in the country. This year it means nothing though.
You’ll find your place, everyone does. And, if you don’t like it, you can always transfer - plenty do that as well.
I definitely relate to that anxiety about Michigan but since it’s been so long since I applied, I’m more focused on crushing RD interviews! I was initially hurt by my first rejection (UChicagon ED) even though it was no surprise, but it took me some time to realize that it was only one school and one admissions round and maybe not the place for me. My older brother goes to Colby and he has been applying to transfer his past two years, and he got accepted at USC but he still chose to stay at Colby and he’s very happy there:)
By the end of it, you’ll have some great choices. My son has gotten into 2 so far, deferred from his ED, and a waitlist. Looking for a big one here also as he’s not overly interested in going to the 2 he’s been accepted to either. It’s going to be a long wait for him. He’s not even that interested in Michigan, but I’ll be excited for him if he does get in because it is a great program for what he wants.
There’s a link in this thread The original “Average” Excellent student graduates today
to my original “average excellent” thread. I suggest you read the original link, but also understand that you will end up where you are supposed to. If you make the most of your college experience, where you attend won’t matter as much as what you do with the experience. Good luck to you!
Yeah! I work with literally tons of graduates from U.Mass Amherst. It is a very good university. The best of the graduates from U.Mass are as strong as the best graduates from anywhere.
I think that you can relax knowing that you are in at a good school. You might not know where you will be in September, but you will be somewhere good. If you (not likely) end up with 39 rejections plus an acceptance to U.Mass, then you are in at a good school with many very strong programs.
but I do tutor as a volunteer and as a job, I’m in multiple singing groups, and theater along with sports, I do volunteer work at Shriner’s hospital, and I am writing a novel:) I do think that I would have had better chances NOT applying as an econ major in ED/EA, so I changed that for my RD schools.