Well I came out strong in January up until early March with acceptances from Georgia Tech, Stony Brook (My in-state), and RPI. I was awarded all tuition to Stony Brook and half of it at RPI and still waiting for Georgia Tech. But man, has this last week or so been harsh! I have been rejected from UT Austin, MIT, UC Berkeley, Rice University, USC, and Carnegie Mellon. I am realistic, so I was expecting at least half of those to be denials, but boy it has really been a let down to just hear rejection after rejection. I am still waiting on some good schools including University of Michigan (I was deferred EA), University of Pennsylvania (My number 1), and Columbia. I am glad I was accepted to Georgia Tech though, it was high on my list and is a great school, it just comes as a surprise to me from the rest of the schools. My stats were a 33 ACT, 3.8 GPA, Top 10% of Class, 3-Season Varsity Athletics, Eagle Scout, in addition maybe 6-8 other extracurriculars and leadership positions. I thought my essays were outstanding and I had three positive letters of recommendation. Looking forward, or maybe not :(, to March 31st!
The same thing happened to my son about 5 years ago. His acceptance were spread out over a 3-4 month period and then his rejections (7 to reach schools) all came within a 24 hour period. I remember him telling me that it felt like someone had kept “hitting him every time he tried to stand up.” It bothered him for about 48 hours so give yourself that kind of time. My son then got excited about the schools that he were he was accepted to. He never mentioned the rejections again especially when he found other classmates had the same experience.
At his family weekend visit in October of his freshman year, I found my son to be super happy with his college choice. In fact he told me “Mom, I am so glad that those schools rejected me, this is where I really belong for college.” He was right and graduated very happily 4 years later.
Just remember that there are about 40K high schools in the U.S. so you have that many valedictorians. There simply isn’t enough room at the reach colleges you have listed. My DD goes to Georgia Tech and loves it so if it is affordable for you, I recommend it. My son ended up taking the college that offered him the most merit money and nothing takes the sting off a rejection like a nice merit award. Hope this helps.
Think of it this way, it could have happened the other way around, think how depressed you would be if you had gotten the rejections BEFORE you had gotten into GT and RPI and Stony. You have great options.
Don’t worry! I was rejected at UChicago, WUSTL, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Amherst, waitlisted at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, and then finally broke the streak with Carnegie Mellon! Keep on believing in yourself!
You should be really proud of GT, especially this year because it was tough.
You may get one or two more nice surprises, or none. But you’re still sitting in a great spot!
You have a good attitude. Congrats on your acceptances and keep your chin up. You will do well wherever you end up.
So what’s it going to be, GeorgiaTech Stony Brook or RPI??
D16 has similar stats to you. She was admitted in her first decision, but since then has had 4 rejections, 1 waitlist and 1 acceptance (to the local school 20 minutes away, where her brother currently attends and mom and dad both went, so she doesn’t want to go because she wants to be different). There’s been 3 disappointments in the past 72 hours - one of which she was above the 75th percentile and one where she was at the 75th percentile. There have been lots of tears today. But we made arrangements for an overnight at the one far away school where she was admitted and she feels better now.
Both Georgia Tech and RPI are great schools. You do have choices!
I was rejected Northeastern, UChicago, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins and then Vanderbilt. After that I got admitted to Duke and Amherst and am still waiting for the ivies. Have faith! 
If you don’t get anymore acceptances, you still have amazing options!
I’ll just echo what others have said: focus on the acceptances! You have some amazing options, and now is the time to get excited about those opportunities.
In the end you can only pick one school and you already have some great acceptances. For what its worth, my D has a good friend at GA Tech who loves it there!
I was on my S about being negative about rejections when some kids didn’t have any great acceptances yet. He says “I’m a teenager. We’re not used to not getting what we want so many times in a row!”. So though it stings, it is just practice for adult life, where you will just be thrilled you could get into GT;). Good luck!
My D1 said the same thing about a year after starting college – she said, “I wasn’t convinced at the time, but the admissions people knew what they were doing.”
Same thing happened with my daughter six acceptances – four safeties so no real surprise there plus Macalester and Brandeis – and then nothing but rejections – UChicago, Bowdoin, Grinnell, Carleton, Swarthmore, Oberlin – with a couple of waitlists – Haverford, Colby, Wesleyan, and Skidmore. Waiting on about 4 more – 2 Ivies and 2 reaches – so not expecting another acceptance. Some of those were clearly reaches so no surprise, but I really expected her to get into at least a couple of matches.
I’m very upset, but after my daughter got into Macalester (with a generous FA package so we can afford it) she no longer cared.
It’s interesting to note (in her case) all the rejections, except Skidmore, were applied to as a Quest Bridge finalist. Maybe that application was weak, or perhaps it didn’t help to advertise her low-income status.
It’s interesting, I was accepted to all my Early Action schools, but past ED2, all I received was rejections and waitlists?
does anyone else have this trend?
Could be the QB app for sure. Mac with good FA is great tho! You never know on those last 4!!
D15 had a mix of accepts, WLs and rejections. It was tough for her, she hadn’t had much experience with not getting into things before.
Looking back, it prepared her well - as a college freshman she’s applied to numerous research programs and internships this year and guess what? It’s happening again. This time around she’s taken the "no"s much better and keeps plugging away…again, she can only do one.
Cahill, your stats are fantastic so it is surprising and disappointing you haven’t gained more acceptances. But as everyone has noted, you have three great options already and can only attend one! Having full or half tuition scholarships proves those schools really want you, and you will have a better college experience attending a school with the much lower financial pressure that those generous grants provide (and that a more “prestigious” school may not give.) DS was deferred ED from his first choice liberal arts college, then was admitted RD! Along with a couple others that would have been great alternatives, like Macalester and Oberlin. In fact I’m relieved he was rejected from his one “super reach”, because he would have wanted to attend it for the perceived prestige, and I don’t believe it was as good a fit. But at this point it does become an ego issue comparing acceptances, WLs (3) and rejections(2), even though they are completely irrelevant because he really loves his first and original choice! And I cannot perceive any pattern or reason for the accepts/WL/rejects, it’s all over the map. So it’s hard not to have hurt feelings, especially since you are an extremely strong candidate, but try not to let it get you down! I truly believe it has as much or more to do with the number, type, geography, gender and FA of all the other applicants as the particular individual’s application so don’t take it personally.
My son had a similar experience. Got into UChicago and Michigan EA. Then a couple full ride merit offers and a couple honors and regents acceptances from UC schools. Then rejected outright by USC, UCLA, and even UCSB. Not even wait listed. He never visited or reached out in any way despite the fact that all are fairly local. Those schools were all back ups for him (and yes I know those aren’t safeties for anyone) but he treated them as such. Looking at your list of schools, USC, Rice, and CMU are all high stat schools but I think they are very good at sniffing out who is interested and who isn’t that excited about them. Our experience, and most friends found the same thing, is that they had a lot more luck with the schools that they were very engaged with, like meeting and interacting with regional reps, visiting, knowing the school inside and out, and writing a great essay about why the school is perfect for them and why they are perfect for the school.
@notveryzen your son’s list of schools especially Chicago and Michigan make me question all the wisdom people always quote on how the AdComs are concerned with fit and kids get into the right school for them and all that other blarney.
I cannot imagine two schools less alike in the Top 30 than those two and your son was accepted to both. One is the life of the mind and the other is “I got one chance at college I want to do it up right!” (that was what our tour guide quoted when we visited UM.) Yes you can get a fine education at either but I cannot imagine the same person being happy at both.