In Retrospect: I Got 9 Bs and It Was Okay, Or: I Applied to 19 Schools and It Sucked (UCs, CMU)

Applying to College Admission Stories
1

Hi everyone! I’ve posted on CC sporadically, seeking help, and someone suggested that I make a result/hindsight post. I’ve gained a lot from CC, so I hope this thread will be helpful to future applicants.

Truthfully, I think “average excellent” fits me well. As in, I’m a good student/well rounded applicant but in a really generic and average way, nothing earth-shattering. As a result, though I had a bunch of reaches, I didn’t go quite as reach heavy as others (ex. apply to all top 20 schools). I also didn’t have super high expectations.

The usual numbers:
Stats:
SAT: 2300 (750 CR, 800 M, 750 W 8 E) single sitting, 2014
GPA: 3.85 UW, 4.45 W, 4.0 UC GPA (I think?)
Class Rank: ?/625-650. School district does not officially rank, but I am in the 30s, so top 5-6%.
SAT II: Chinese (740), USH (770), Math II (770), Bio M (720)
AP:
9th grade: Human Geo (5) Chinese (4)
10th grade: Euro (4) Physics B (3)
11th grade: USH (5) Lang (5) Micro (5) Macro (5) Bio (4) Japanese (3)
IB: Diploma candidate, SL math (5) SL Econ (6)
Future tests/current courseload:
AP Calculus AB, HL Japanese, HL English, HL and AP Chemistry, SL Art History

Extracurriculars:
-Volunteer leader in a program run by a neighboring city- grades 9, 10, 11, 12.
-club fencing- grades 9, 10, 11, 12.
-violin- on my own, at school orchestra, and an outside orchestra. Former participant in a charity/fundraising based orchestra.
-Girl Scouts- grades 9, 10, 11, 12. Treasurer.
-Local leadership organization run by high school students- grades 11,12. sponsorship coordinator and staff. Though I started this EC pretty late, it really did have a huge influece on me.
-some other unimportant ECs

High honors awards (school)
CSF, NHS, Distinguished Scholar (basically honor roll for the entire year)

Other awards:
National Merit Commended (222)
National AP Scholar
An award from US Fencing Association, kind of like “student athlete”
Other little competitions and recognitions
not an award, but I included the abstract for my EE in the additional info section

Internship/work experience
none

These mean nothing because I’m biased, but I’ll copy these from my original post anyway.
Essays: I think my common app is decent! nothing groundbreaking, but 7-8/10
Teacher Rec: I asked four teachers, since the max for a few schools that I applied to was 4. They’re listed in order. So, if 2 recs were allowed I invited the first 2 teachers, if 3 were allowed I invited the first three teachers, etc.
Econ teacher (grade 11): likes me better than average, did well in his class, supposedly writes amazing LOR
Language arts teacher (grade 11): same as above
Chemistry teacher (grades 9 and 12): took two of his chem classes, he’s a perfectionist
Japanese teacher (grades 9 10 11 12): has a really good idea of my personality, but iffy on whether her LOR are good
Counselor Rec: he really likes me, and his LOR was nice and flattering. 8-9/10

School: large public magnet in southern CA suburb
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Asian
Intended major: economics

Schools that I applied to, in alphabetical order: (reach heavy, I know)
Boston College
Brown University
Carnegie Mellon University
Claremont McKenna College
Colgate University
Columbia University
Emory University
Fordham University
Northeastern University
Rice University
Tufts University
University of Chicago
University of California Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz
University of Southern California
Washington University in St. Louis

A brief summary:
Freshman year: Took AP HuG (school’s requirement for pre-IB students), self-studied AP Chinese as I had taken Japanese 1 in 8th grade and wanted to continue. My middle school was literally steps away from high school and that enabled me to get started on 1 year of foreign language and take geometry. I also took biology, and it allowed me to take chemistry in 9th grade instead of biology (usual sequence is biology > chemistry > physics, AP science of choice, or no science > whatever’s left to take, HL science of choice, or no science). That allowed me to take an additional AP science, which wasn’t the best choice. Struggled a bit in honors chem (the only honors class that’s weighted, so you know it’s serious!) but pulled through. Second semester was one of the only times I had straight As.

Sophomore year:
Took AP Euro and had a great teacher who loved the subject, had passion, and wanted to help her students. Also took AP Physics B and had a teacher who understood the material, was really good at physics but Did Not Know how to teach it properly. Other than that, had a pretty relaxing year compared to what came next. Language arts teacher was a family friend and really focused on intellectual engagement/exploration, discussions, and understanding oneself. Definitely a breath of fresh air.

In the summer (and I think this is where my story starts to really deviate from the norm) I went to SAT boot camp. Honestly, I think I could have studied on my own, but I needed the discipline and structure of a class. I won’t pretend I knew everything and could have scored a 2400 without studying, because I definitely learned some grammar rules (writing was my weakest section). My practice test scores always hovered around 2000-2150, so I was surprised yet relieved to see my actual SAT score.

Junior year:
AP overdose (6 tests, oh my) and the start of IB. It wasn’t pretty. I got a B in TOK, of all subjects. I struggled a lot in SL Math and got Bs both semesters and took AP biology with a retiring teacher who barely had a coherent lesson plan and would go off topic to discuss irrelevant topics. I also took APUSH with a teacher who was in his last year of APUSH teaching. He was passionate about the material and helping students, but extremely disillusioned with the school and education in general. He was also really lax about homework and cheating (the type of teacher that doesn’t comment but definitely knows when people cheat). I got straight Bs in APUSH but eventually got a 5, which bumped my grades to As. (APUSH the test is easier than APUSH the class, IMO.) I took AP/SL econ and loved it. I had previously read books and magazines that piqued my interest but it wasn’t until taking this class that I realized that this was a subject that I actually liked. My teacher was amazingly thorough and not only wrote recs for my college apps but also for my summer programs.

to be continued.

2

I started thinking about college about halfway through junior year. This is another place where my journey is different compared to most people. I had a private college counselor who helped me start crafting a list, reminded me to keep my grades up, suggested things to do that could potentially boost my app, such as a project of sorts that I could write my common app essay about. There were also essay workshops, but those didn’t help at all. The majority of my writing occurred from July - mid December. I only toured a few schools, all within an hour or so. This freaked me out when I realized that some schools considered interest. I also only had one interview. Towards late December, my original list was finished so I decided to throw in a few extra apps to Northeastern, Fordham, and Tufts.

Though all my essays were completely original, I do think that my apps may not have gone as well had I not had a private counselor. First, my college list would be different. Also, the suggestions and feedback I received on my essays were truly invaluable. It was not so much the spoiled hand-holding that most people think of when they hear “essay workshops and editing” but more like my counselor telling me that my common app essay didn’t focus enough on how my experience helped me grow, or that my “why college __” essays sounded too generic. In the end, I’m happy with how it all turned out, and I do think that had I forgone the counseling services, I may not have had such favorable results. Though it was a bit pricey, my parents justified it to me in this way- if the service cost $X, but my app improved enough that a school wanted me enough to try to lure me with an extremely generous aid package, the $X investment has paid for itself. That’s what ended up happening to me, and I’m extremely thankful.

Quite frankly, I am really, really, unimpressive. And honestly, that’s okay. I won’t pretend to have any special insight into the admissions process but I do think that my stats were essentially acceptable, as in not horrible enough to reject right away, and my essays carried me the rest of the way. Obviously it didn’t work out everywhere, but overall I’m really happy with how it turned out. My final “ratio”, if that matters, was 9 acceptances, 3 waitlists, and 7 rejections.

Acceptances:
Boston College (Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences)
Carnegie Mellon University (will be attending) (Dietrich College/Tepper School of Business)
Fordham University (Rose Hill?)
Northeastern University (College of Arts and Sciences)
all UCs (College of Letters and Sciences)

Waitlists:
Colgate University
Emory University
WUSTL

Rejections:
everything else

Up until the last week before the SIR deadline, I was torn between UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Carnegie Mellon. In the end, I chose CMU, where I’ll get amazing support and advising (econ majors get advisors from Dietrich and Tepper!) along with great career prospects. Most importantly, I visited and felt how close-knit the community was, and I feel like I’ve already found a home there by talking to fellow admitted students. I’ll also be getting a really great deal, so there’s that!

Something that I’ve realized and relearned is that truly, a school’s stats and USNWR rank is pretty meaningless. Of course, rankings and numbers do provide valuable information, but they really say nothing about a school’s intangible qualities. There could be a million reasons why someone would fall in love with and choose a school ranked “too low” and that’s perfectly fine. I was really humbled when I realized that someone’s safety is another person’s reach and dream school. It’s really disheartening to see people post on “College __ Results” comments such as “This was my safety school, I expected to get in”. A school that I had never really considered, and wasn’t planning on attending, was my close friend’s dream school. I, who wouldn’t have gone there, was admitted with honors, while she, who loved the school, didn’t get in. In the end, I’m only going to attend one school, anyway. It served as a reminder to not look down on schools that were perceived to be “beneath me” because really, I would be honored and privileged to attend any of the excellent institutions of higher education in this country.

At any given school, other than those reaches for everyone types, there are students who are attending because of financial reasons, despite getting into “better ranked” schools. There are students who considered the school their match. There are students for whom the school was a reach, and never in their wildest dreams did they consider the idea of gaining admissions. I know someone who turned down an Ivy and Caltech for a state school, and another who turned down UCLA for a small, 100-something ranked LAC. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter. There are so many amazing schools and so many opportunities even if you’re not at the top 15 or 20 or 25 or whatever the new arbitrary number for top schools is. Rankings are really worthless, in 10 years I won’t be telling people that I attended the #__ school in the nation. Higher education is what you make of it. Sure, I didn’t get into my first choice, or second choice, or third choice, but none of that matters to me anymore. Right now, CMU is my first choice and I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to get a great education and college experience there.

Go Tartans!

3

Thanks for sharing your story — and congratulations!

4

Great post. Your last paragraph especially should be required reading.

Go get 'em!

5

You got into some great schools, and congrats on CMU. The best lesson here for students is that applying to a balance of schools is really important, and you did that. But 19 is totally excessive IMO. Your list would have still been very balanced if you had eliminated several of the UCs (did you really think you would have a hard time getting in, except for UCB maybe?) and a couple of reaches, because I bet you actually were not in love with all those reaches.

I am a little concerned at your self-described average excellence. (As the coiner of the phrase, I do feel I am a qualified assessor of said description:-)) Okay, your GPA isn’t 4.0, but look at your course load. 12 APs is not average, neither are four SAT 2s, especially with those scores. Plus your IBs. This is not average excellent, and neither are “other little competitions and recognitions”, a fencing award, violin in three orchestras, and at least three leadership roles, as well as all the other stuff. I would definitely describe you as “above average” excellent, and close to exceptional) I get why you say that, because your resume doesn’t include anything really earth shattering. You have to remember though, there aren’t actually that many earth-shattering kids out there. A guy from our school got into Harvard, and there was nothing earth-shattering about him. I saw the Dean of Harvard admissions in an interview. He said the bread and butter of Harvard is still the well-rounded student. I applaud your success in building a balanced list, but I hope any students reading this don’t come away thinking that if you are average, there is no hope for them. Thanks for sharing your story, good luck at CMU.

6

Yeah, I’m looking for “average excellence” too.

We should all be so excellently average. :wink:

Congratulations! CMU is a wonderful option (you had several that many students would be thrilled to have).

7

@Lindagaf, I believe it takes as much work to apply to one UC as to apply to all of them.

8

Yes, but it costs more, right?

9

It’s really interesting and also helpful that you described your experiences with the SAT bootcamp and the college counselor…there are frequently questions here on the forums about whether those services are “worth it”. Always good to have a student eye view… Good luck in PGH…I think you’re going to love it!

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@Lindagaf, yes, but admission to the UC’s may be crazy conpetitive these days. Especially for certain majors. Thus nothing is guaranteed. In any case, it’s better to have many UC choices than not enough.

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^“competitive”

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Ha, at “average excellent”. I’d say with your stats more like “wicked awesome”. You were a very good candidate for a lot of “excellent” schools, congrats and good luck.

13

Definitely top 1%.

But because admissions is so crazy these days for ORM (coming from CA doesn’t help), admissions season could have been disappointing. But it wasn’t because of a really smart application list.
0/4 on Ivies/equivalents.
4/10 on near-Ivies and other elites, leading to some very good options.

14

Your school has a policy? How does it work? What if you had gotten a 4?

Did you look into fencing recruiting at all?

Interesting post. Good luck at CMU.

15

Actually, the OP’s UC-weighted GPA of 4.0 did not make most the UCs to be obvious safeties, according to the admission rates given at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary (click Freshman Admit Rate, HS GPA, and select campus). The OP’s essays and stuff probably impressed the admission readers at UCs quite well, and s/he apparently did not apply to selective majors/divisions that are harder to get into.

16

Another question, I assume that your counselor encouraged most of the applications such as Brown, Tufts, Emory and WUSTL. Why those schools as opposed to say Cornell? Did she have a rationale or was it your preference? Also why no ED or EA?

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Hi, everyone. I forgot to include this and my original post/comment were so long, but I feel like this is worth saying regarding UCs:

My mom actually wanted me to apply to UC Riverside because she was scared that I wouldn’t get into UCI. When I was a sophomore and I saw 2 Bs on my transcript, my dad told me that I wouldn’t get into UC Berkeley. I think my parents overestimated the competitiveness of UC applications and were overly cautious. In addition, my UC GPA was 4.0. From what I remember, that’s actually lower than UC Berkeley’s average admitted UC GPA. Maybe they were right. Out of the schools I was accepted to, the one with the lowest acceptance rate was either UCLA or UC Berkeley. I don’t think stats have been released yet, but they were 15-20% last year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if each school’s respective acceptance rate decreased. My parents weren’t the only ones, either. On my CC chance/help posts, people categorized UC Berkeley (and maybe UCLA?) as reaches. I’m not saying that they were wrong. For all I know, I was accepted by the skin of my teeth. I’ll never really know for sure, though for what it’s worth UC Berkeley requested recommendation letters from me.

That being said, another factor that is really important but nearly always overlooked is admissions from source school. I only found out about this in March, but for CA residents aiming for UCs this is very very important, IMO. UCLA and UC Berkeley have overall 15-20% acceptance rates, but if I had looked past the general numbers, I would have seen that the acceptance rates for students from my school specifically were 40-50%, and therefore closer to matches than reaches.

18

@SeekingPam

The social studies department, not the entire school, has the following policy on AP tests and grade bumps:
Score of 5: raise both semester grades by 1 grade, up to an A
Score of 4: raise one semester grade by 1 grade, up to an A
Score of 3: raise one semester grade by 1 grade, up to a B
So, if I had gotten a 4, I would have ended up with one B and one A.

I’m pretty sure I’m not good enough to get recruited for fencing, but by the time I read up on it, the chance had passed. I did see a teammate approached by a college coach (Brandeis maybe?) at summer Nationals.

Brown: She originally told me to look at one or two Ivy/Ivy equivalent reach schools. Very reasonable. I eventually settled on three: Brown, Columbia, and UChicago. I applied to Columbia ED and UChicago EA.
Tufts was a last minute addition. Literally last minute, as in I submitted my application less than 30 seconds before the deadline. I applied on a whim because I could reuse an essay and just needed to write one.
Emory: I don’t remember if she suggested Emory, I think I found it when browsing Fiske.
WUSTL: No supplement, it was an easy app. I submitted it at the same time as ED/EA, though later I realized that I had no interest in the school. No point in taking it back, though.
I’ve read a few of those “if you have __ GPA and __ SAT you have a very very good chance of getting into at least one elite school!” posts, and I do realize that my chances would have been higher had I also applied to Cornell, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, maybe even UPenn. Out of these schools, the only one that I actually have/had an interest in is UPenn, and I seriously regretted not applying. Quite frankly, I’m just not really interested in Cornell.

19

@Lindagaf

I agree that 19 schools is excessive. However, all UCs share the same app, and I applied to a few schools without supplements. Those required no extra effort on my part. Nonetheless, I probably should have paid more attention to a safety instead of sending apps to the lower (hate this word but don’t know how else to categorize) UCs. You’re right, I didn’t fall in love with all of my reaches. The ones I truly did love were UChicago, Columbia, CMC, and Brown.

I legitimately thought I might get waitlisted at UCLA or UC Berkeley, but wasn’t seriously concerned about the others. There were many qualified students at my school, with 40-50% acceptance to both schools, who got waitlisted. Some have gotten off the waitlist, but $70 is cheap insurance.

I guess I probably misinterpreted your “average excellent”, but I honestly did believe that I’m a really generic kind of applicant. Good enough grades and test scores, but no superstar. I read your post again and thought that this fit me pretty well:

“excellent student, (especially if a white girl, or Asian), in a good school district, with excellent test scores, grades, and a range of ECs”

Regarding AP/IB/SAT2, I was on the IB track as a freshman and sophomore, so a few of my APs were required. The rest were really just tests that complemented the IB courses I took. Same with SAT2s, with the exception of Chinese.
I’m flattered to know that you consider me above average excellent/exceptional, though. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thank you for your well wishes, and I also hope that any HS students, rather than become discouraged, remember that there are plenty of places for people who aren’t necessarily earth-shattering.

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@thingamajig

I’m glad that you (and hopefully others) found that part useful! My mom actually solicited advice from a fellow mom-friend, whose son is a year older than me. His mom said that the SAT boot camp didn’t help at all, and that made me doubt whether it was worth investing in. It depends on each person, I think. If you’re the type of person who is studious on their own, give self-studying a try. For students like me, who need structure, boot camp may be worth your time and money. Also, my college counseling place guarantees admission into one school (or maybe one UC?). As a result, they will push and push and push for the students to meet deadlines and get apps done. There’s a lot to say about college counseling services, but they’re generally very interested in getting students done and to the goal line.

In case anyone was interested, I just got officially rejected from WUSTL today, in an email stating that their class of 2020 is full, and they will no longer accept students off the waitlist.