<p>I am not the jealous kind, and I think I might be overreacting.. but this girl at my school got into Upenn with 28 ACT. All she does is copy people, cheats during tests, goes out drinking and worse every weekend. Two people have also gotten into Northwestern, and a person at Brown. They were decent students, but their ACT scores were lower than mine.. (they pretty much told everyone their ACT scores)</p>
<p>I'm not saying I am the perfect student, but I have a 3.97 GPA, ACT in the middleish to high 30s, captain in 2 sports(state champions in soccer), play 3 instruments(2 for 10+ years), have been volunteering since I was in 8th grade and other stuff. I didn't think I was good enough for any "good" schools. The school I applied to is my state flagship university, which is a great school, but literally everyone who applied got in.</p>
<p>I am kind of depressed. All that work I did during high school, to get into a school that accepted a lot of other people at my school, and this girl who cheated her way through high school gets into an ivy.
I'm not saying I am entitled to get into any school I apply to, I just wished I applied to other schools, and now I feel terrible. Just want to get this rant off my chest. Someone please tell me I am just being a baby and to man up. Man I sound insecure, what the..</p>
<p>Did you not apply to any other university besides your state flagship university? If not, then that may be something to keep in mind if you’re interested in graduate schools, etc. </p>
<p>If you’re really depressed about it and want to change, you can always transfer to a better school after attending your state flagship for the first year or two. If you want to start over, I had a friend who went to Berkeley for a year, completely re-applied to college again, and then went to Princeton the next year as a freshman (again). Not saying you should do this or anything, just saying that it’s a possibility if you’re really upset about your situation. </p>
<p>Whatever you decide though, I’m sure you’ll have a great time in college and will forget about all the other students from your school soon enough. :)</p>
<p>It could be worse. You could go to school with a guy who goofed off academically but ended up playing pro baseball for the Toronto Bluejays, making millions of dollars a year (yep, that was a guy in my HS class). One time, during history class, he climbed out the window. We had a substitute that day, and for some reason she asked ME if I knew where he went. I wasn’t going to lie, so I told her. So that was the day I got a future Gold Glove Award winner in trouble.</p>
<p>Are you sure it wasn’t Penn State? It seems really doubtful that she’d get into UPenn with only a 28 ACT unless she was seriously hooked. But yeah this college thing can be pretty random</p>
<p>Getting into college is the first step. Succeeding in whatever college you attend will be the greater factor which determines your future. For the most part at least. Life isn’t fair. Sometimes you’re dealt crappy cards. </p>
<p>This is the first thing about college admissions that is the first step in the college process: rejection, where you learn that life is unfair, **** people get ahead, and it’s time to grow up and deal with it.</p>
First off, you chose where to apply and where not to. Feeling terrible isn’t going to fix things. More important, what are you going to learn from this? When you are in college are you going to join clubs, get to know profs, use the career center regularly, etc? Or sit back, unwilling to put yourself out there, and then post in 4 years how all these people around you are getting great job offers or into top grad programs but you are not?</p>
<p>Second, if the only reason you did all this work in HS was for how it would look to some adcom, then perhaps you might want to rethink what you do and/or why you do it. There are lots of kids that find intrinsic satisfaction from volunteer work; they even continue it in college or their adult life when they have nobody to impress. Same with sports; plenty of kids enjoy the thrill of competition and the comaraderie of being on a team. If all these things were to you were checkboxes on a college app then it probably indeed was time wasted.</p>
How high into the 30s can you get on the ACT? ;)</p>
<p>If this student did get into UPenn you can be sure it was based on other attributes than her ACT. Make the most of your own career and see how she did later in life.</p>
<p>Check the Common App’s search tool for schools with late deadlines! You can still apply to about 350 colleges.</p>
<p>So, why didn’t you apply to schools other than your state U.? That is the obvious question.
If the answer is that the only school you can afford is the state U., then just move on. If it accepts a lot of students that you consider less capable than you, so what? There will also be a lot of students just like you who are going there for the great bargain it represents. Go there and take advantage of all it offers you.
Wait and see how many of those kids who got accepted elsewhere actually go there. Often, kids have to turn down the big name schools if they didn’t get enough FA.
Finally, you can transfer out if your grades are good and the money isn’t an issue.</p>
<p>If you are unhappy with the university that you did apply to, and you want to take a chance on admission at X, Y, or Z, then take a gap year and apply to all of those places. Nowhere is it written that you MUST attend college this fall. If you have been active in a number of ECs, chances are that you know where you could get a nifty volunteer position that would keep you occupied while you write all those college applications. Just don’t take any college-level classes during that gap year. In some cases, even one credit earned after HS graduation could turn you into a transfer application and blow your chance for decent financial aid.</p>
<p>Things change ALOT once you step foot on campus. Unless you frequent CC and Facebook, the rest of the world falls away, you should get totally immersed in your new surroundings, won’t care what others are doing at their schools. Get excited about the school YOU are accepted in. You should shine there. There will be MANY who are ivy league candidates that are attending for other reasons, usually financial. Forget about what everyone else is doing, you are young and are going to college, you have a bright future in front of you!</p>
<p>Last year, an out of state friend shared the good news that a gal in her hs was thrilled by her Ivy admit, (the school where I work.) It was about this time of year and no, the kid had not applied ED. Come spring, oh, the gal had “decided” to go elsewhere. </p>
<p>If those kids were truly accepted to schools beyond their abilities, wish them the best and know they may have a hard road ahead. Other than that, you don’t know from stats and hs chat what makes a kid interesting to a college. Good luck.</p>
<p>I hear you. Parents are forcing me into a community college before going off to a real university, and I feel way too cheated. I got all A’s (except math I got a B) for four years in advanced classes, I played two sports competativly for four years, and 2 clubs. I could’ve actually have had fun. Whatever. guess I’m prepared for college now or whatever.</p>
Whatever. guess I’m prepared for college now or whatever.</p>