<p>I applied to a bunch of EA schools and got deferred/rejected by all of them--some from schools I thought would be low match. I know it definitely could just be my application not being strong enough, but could there be problems with my essays/filling out the application as well? </p>
<p>SAT: 2300+ only sitting (800 on CR, 770 on math)
SATII: 780 and 770 (90+ percentile on both)
GPA: 3.8 UW, 4.0+ W, 5 APs (10 by the end of the school year), top 5% of class</p>
<p>Neither of my parents went to college in America and I had zero help in doing the commonapp.</p>
<p>On the extracurricular activities section, I won a lot of awards for writing and they wouldn't all fit in the 'Awards' box for that extracurricular activity, so I wrote "See additional information" and listed them all on the additional information section--now I'm worried that maybe colleges aren't seeing the awards there (and I got published multiple times, so that was supposed to be a strong part of my application)? Or I wasn't supposed to do that? But I didn't know--like I said, I had no help with filling out the application. </p>
<p>Well, which colleges did you apply to? If all the schools you were rejected from are Ivies or similar in competitiveness, then that’s understandable. Also, I’d suggest moving your awards to the appropriate section. If you have too many, then just choose the most impressive ones.</p>
<p>What about your essays and recommendations? Are you sure they were equally impressive? Well, your SAT scores were awesome, even for the most competitive schools, but keep in mind that students with 2400 on SAT I and 3 subject tests with 800 get rejected every year at these schools. If you own voice doesn’t shine through your essays, I believe you’re unlikely to be admitted at selective schools</p>
<p>Also, do you need financial aid? As you may know, only 6 schools in the U.S. are need blind for intl’s(From “Neither of my parents went to college in America”, I get that you’re probably an int’l). If you apply to a need-sensitive school with an admission rate of 20%, chances are that admission rate for int’l who need fin. aid is around 5%</p>
<p>Follow ivanov’s advice regarding your awards, and, since you had no experience with Common App, there is still a chance that you didn’t send what you were expected to, especially if you applied to schools where average SAT scores are, say, 1800. Can you contact a counselor to help you?</p>
<p>That you didn’t get in shows that you didn’t apply at any places that were dead-on safeties. That’s all.</p>
<p>A reach is a place where you are likely to be rejected, and a match is a place where you have a chance of rejection. You just weren’t lucky. Kick these aside. Move on.</p>
<p>Place your publications FIRST in your ECs. List the other EC’s by order of importance to you but also by order of how rare and distinctive they are (research would be second, any national or international prize second or third…)
If you have many similar EC’s, list them under one heading:
Publications:
Writing/awards:
etc. Detail the awards and prizes.
Do you have a way to check your letters of recommendation? Could your teachers be the kind who think saying you’re a “good” student is a compliment (in the US, it’s not. Not when the choices also include very good, excellent, outstanding, and top few in career).</p>
<p>Can you tell us where you applied? If you included a handful of target schools (meaning schools that accept roughly 30% or more of its applicants AND your GPA and test scores are above their 75th percentile mark), then something weird is going on. Your GPA and test scores are very good; I too would question whether your recommendations were not positive, and what your essay was like. You need to sit down with your guidance counselor and talk about this with him or her – your GC could then check in with one or two of the schools to investigate further.</p>