For anyone reading now and Whoever will end up stalking my threads, I applied for class of 2021 to about 10 universities and I didn’t get in, and so I’m reapplying. I got plain rejected to all(not even wait listed). When I ask people why they thought I was rejected, they say it was because of my essay. So that you can also have an opinion, this was what my essay was like:
I wrote about how I was in a very difficult and restricting life situation and then I Showed that I only started to show personal and academic improvement when I was no longer in that situation,I.e, when things became better. So it showed that I had 0 resilience and that I couldn’t handle tough situations.
Otherwise, my high school transcript is good(we don’t record GPA), I have awards(even national awards), and my recommendations were like 10/10 because my teachers really loved me. My sat score wasn’t good(I’m rewriting) but I know that wasn’t the factor because I know other applicants from my country who also had quite low sat scores but got into schools like Duke, Princeton and MIT and Harvard.
Oh and that essay above was my common app essay.
So I have a question, SHOULD I:
Use the same essay as my common app essay but show the resilience I didn't show?(will the AO look at my previous application and see that I've changed things and hence look like a fake???)
Or
Should I write a whole new essay?
I will updating my thread very often so that other people can see my progress. I will be writing CHemistry sat and math level 2 in June, and sat I in October.
And what else do you just think I should improve or add to my application as a whole?
What are your stats? What schools did you apply to? You probably need a more realistic list. You say you are international. If you need financial aid that makes it more difficult.
If you think you were rejected because of your essay, why would you consider using the same one again?
1° Are you an international who needs financial aid?
2° You can PM me your essay. There are also experienced essay readers on the “Essay” forum you can ask for help.
3° You need to build your list from the ground up. Find 2 safeties (schools you wouldn’t mind going to, can afford, and are sure you’ll get into, meaning you meet automatic admission criteria or they admit almost all applicants with your credentials), 5 matches (40-50% acceptance rate and you’re at the top 25% threshold), the rest being reaches.
4° Around May 5th there’ll be a list of colleges that miscalculated yield and still have places. Every eyar there are excellent colleges. Make sure everything’s ready by that date so that you can have a second chance.
@girlgoingtouni - you don’t provide much information about yourself, so it’s hard to judge whether the essay was the problem. I can say that for most universities, an essay will be considered, but it is rarely a dealbreaker if you are a strong candidate on paper. Did you only apply to very competitive schools? If you don’t have a demonstrably strong GPA (you say your school does not have this, so how are students assessed?) and standardized test score, you need to look for matches in the middle tier. There is nothing wrong with that. The societal obsession with Ivy schools is unhealthy and ridiculous anyway.
With respect to your essay – start from scratch. Try a totally different approach. Choose a different prompt. Write about something related to a travel experience, a talent you have, a book and teacher that inspired you. Don’t recycle what did not work.
Good luck.
Please listen to @MYOS1634 . It seems you are an international student. In all likelihood you were rejected becasue you needed financial aid. If you are not a tippy top student in your own country, it is extremely difficult to get into US colleges that give financial aid to internationals. It might have had nothing to do with your essay, but you will of course have to write a new one. Don’t write about your family struggles. Write about something that gives an insight into your character. They will never admit you becasue they feel sorry for you.
During your gap year, you will need to do productive things. Get a job, start some kind of project relating to your interests. Maybe take the SAT or ACT again to get the highest score possible. Make an impact during your gap year, and have all your ducks in a row to reapply next year. Get the strongest teacher recommendations possible. Be sure your school will be ready to send transcripts. Good luck.
And I just looked at some old threads of yours. It seems you have a low GPA and you applied to top ten US schools. You have been on this site since 2015, so you should know by now that those school reject applicants with perfect grades and test scores by the thousands. I am really sorry, but I think you might be spinning your wheels. Unless you can afford to pay, you will have a hard time getting into any US colleges. If you can pay,then there are other less selective colleges that would love to have you.
Thank you so much @MYOS1634 (I am about to pm you my essay) , @suburbancat ( I had a 690 Biology and 1420 SAT I), @me29034 (I will take all that into consideration) , @lindagaf (can I pm you my essay too? And thank you so much for that advice)
@MYOS1634 please shed more light on the universities with miscalculated yield and the date around May 5. Please please please. Do I have to submit a whole application form again?
Yes, you have to submit the commonapp (as it was, or with a modified essay) and their supplements. The faster you go, the better the odds at getting a scholarship. However if you don’t have 20-25k the odds are low they’ll have enough for you at this point.
The list will be published on the NACAC website and probably discussed on this forum too.
If you are reapplying to the same schools, then yes re-write the essay. But the essay is more about how it is written vs the topic, so it is impossible to tell from your description if your essay is good or bad. The most important thing to do is to come up with a realistic list of schools to apply to. And use your gap year productively. That can perhaps help your app.
What country are you applying from? Who there has been advising you? If you have been doing this all on your own, then get in touch with the closest advising center of EducationUSA or AMIDEAST. The counselors there are expert at helping students from your country find admission in the US. They will be able to look at your profile, and tell you where students like you have been admitted in recent years, and whether or not those students received financial aid. https://educationusa.state.gov/find-advising-center http://www.amideast.org/country-offices/where-we-work
I don’t think your essay did you in. In other posts you said you had "a GPA of 2.6 and lets say SAT of 2285 " and that you applied to top schools “Harvard Yale Princeton Middlebury f&m Oberlin Stanford Amherst brown Cornell Dartmouth Duke. And yes I want to reapply to these same schools plus a few others that I haven’t yet picked.”
I think no matter what type of essay you write you will not meet with success. If you are looking for aid, you would be best off exploring options in your home country. If you don’t need aid you need to explore options that are in line with your academic stats, in particular your GPA.
I found this too “I can’t give An approximation of GPA but I was rank 2/88” Can you state your academic stats clearly in this one place. You should be able to calculate your GPA using your grades from each class. There are a number of GPA calculators online.
But even if your GPA/rank is high, I would completely overhaul your list and add a number of less competitive schools, particularly if you need aid. And certainly don’t use the same essay if you no longer like it.
I did look at your other threads for more context. I have two questions.
In one you said that your expected graduation date is November 2017. Is this still true? Schools will want applicants to graduate before they matriculate. That alone could be the reason for your rejections.
You also said that you submitted only one SAT II subject test. For schools that require two SAT II test scores, your application would have been viewed as incomplete and probably would not have received further consideration.
Most schools will keep your application on file for two years. If you reapply again, they will pull out your old application. What new information will you be adding to your application? Unless you have done something really earth shattering, it would be a waste of the application fee.
One of your challenges as others have mentioned is that you are an international student. There are only 5 schools in the country that are both need blind to international students and meet 100% demonstrated need. For international students, the acceptance rates at those 5 schools are in the single digits. The pool is wide and it is deep. For all other schools, your ability to pay will be a factor in admissions.
A 2.6 overall gpa is really going to limit your chances at any selective schools. What your 2280 demonstrates that you test well. Your GPA demonstrates what you have done in the classroom day in and day out over the past 3.5 years.
OP, pay REAL attention to what the above posters have said.
you need to apply to OTHER US colleges AND have the ability to pay $70,000 per year for your application to be considered. If that is NOT possible then you need to drop the dream of getting an UG degree in the US. There are tens of thousands of tip-top US students who are rejected from the same colleges you also applied to. There simply is not enough room for all of the qualified students from the US , let alone those who apply from overseas.
The colleges you already applied to wont give another application a second glance, so dont waste your time applying to them again.
It’s highly likely, if you rank second in your class, that you miscalculated your GPA. In the US, someone with a 2.6 is not going to a four-year college. Perhaps to an open-enrollment college where they’ll have to take some remedial classes. They’re certainly nowhere near the top 50% in their class, let alone salutatorian.
What country do you live in and what’s your actual ‘average’ in this system?
Sorry I don’t have GPA of 2.6. I didn’t even understand GPA by then. My school doesn’t even use it because we don’t have a grading system like that of the US. Our grades are simply as a result of mid term and end of term tests. No assignments, no homework, etc. however, if I were to approximate, I’d probably have like a 3.6 or so(very rough estimate)