Waitlisted! Stung a bit more than I was expecting, but I’ll be okay. Congrats to all the admits!
Acceptance with $15K John F. Oberlin CONFIRMED!
Rejected 
Decision: Waitlisted
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2150 M 750 CR 630 W 770 ( I can’t critically read…)
ACT: 33 (36 M, 31 W, 28 CR, 32 S, 8 Essay)
SAT II: 750 Math Level 2, 570 Lit, 650 Chem
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): ~3.9
UC GPA: 4.07
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 4%
ELC: I don’t know what this is
AP (place score in parenthesis): Calc AB(4); Chem(3); Chinese(5); Lit(2); Psych(3); US History(3); World History(4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): School doesn’t have IB
Senior Year Course Load: AP Stats, AP Gov, AP Physicsi, AP Lang, Advanced Orchestra, AP Calc BC
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist, Presidential Volunteer Award, Hugh O Brian 2013 Seminar Ambassador
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Piano
Varsity tennis (Singles/doubles; co-captain)
District symphonic orchestra (Concertmistress)
District summer musical pit orchestra
American Red Cross Club (Co-president)
Project Outreach (Co-founder/Co-president)
Hospital volunteer
Animal rescue foster parent
Job/Work Experience: Privately tutored individuals in my community for math and piano
Volunteer/Community service: ~1,100 hours
Personal Statement: The idea sounded better in my head haha but I wrote about biking
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major : Neuroscience
State (if domestic applicant): So-Cal REPRESENT
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: <20k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, research, etc.): First-generation college student
Reflection
Strengths: I have no idea honestly.
Weaknesses: I still have no idea.
rejected but the nicest rejection I’ve ever received. said I could apply to transfer if I want to- which no other school said.
wonder if they said that to everyone.
Rejected, and lowkey, I’m a tad surprised and shaken up. Not because I was particularly vying to go to Oberlin, but rather because I arrogantly had thought my acceptance was a done deal. Upon reflection, I’m not too surprised, my “Why Oberlin” essay was pretty shite. Goodluck Obies!
if my letter online doesn’t mention merit aid, does that mean I didn’t get any, or will it say in the mailed letter?
Check the Presto financial aid portal.
My D didn’t see anything about merit aid last year with her online acceptance. The merit aid letter came via snail mail. So happy for those who have received good news this morning. And feeling really bummed for those who didn’t…I’m really sorry.
Here’s everything you need to know, per @lulu. S tried it and it worked. Notice that the admissions portal and the financial aid portal (Presto) are different.
Oberlin has an admissions portal here: https://connect.oberlin.edu/account/. They have been posting decisions online at least since last year. I applied early so I can tell you that they will send an email when decisions are up (but I happened to see my deferral notice a few hours before I got the email). I don’t know if the email actually tells you the decision if it’s positive news. When I got deferred it just told me that there was an update in the portal. I got a hard letter in the mail a few days later.
They also have a separate portal for financial aid here: http://presto.cc.oberlin.edu/. I wasn’t aware of that till yesterday. I’d seen references to Presto on here, but I just thought that was the name of the admissions portal.
About the rejection letter…my D’s letter said the same thing, about applying as a transfer, starting with a clean slate, etc. Unlikely though! Onward and upward!
Congrats, everyone! My d is in with a John Oberlin scholarship. Very happy.
We had happy news and are thrilled for our D. Reading the genuinely kind comments on this thread has lifted me up… To all who did not receive the news they were hoping for, I can say you are all bright, remarkable people who will thrive at whatever school is lucky enough to have you.
Wait listed unfortunately. Really not sure what to do now.
@annaisabella - If Oberlin is your first choice, you should get on the waitlist and let your local admissions rep know that you’re still very interested. You can send additional recommendations, supplemental materials you might not have included with your application (such as artwork), or even samples of papers you’ve written for school. The key thing is letting them know you’re still interested.
So many schools had huge spikes in application numbers even while the number of applicants (from America at least) is declining. I heard that Colby had a 42% increase in applications this year! People are just applying to a zillion schools so I have to think that colleges will end up having a tough time admitting the right # of people who are seriously interested and may end up going to the WL more than usual. I suspect that this is particularly challenging for schools like Oberlin that have no fee or like Skidmore that have no supplemental essay. They may end up with a lot of people who just thought they might as well tack on one more application. I hope you end up at a great school.
How do I make a presto account? I’ve looked all over the site and the directions I’ve found have been pretty unclear.
How do I log into presto???
If you go to the Presto link above you’ll find a little light bulb in the corner. There should be a login link right there.
FYI. The merit aid was not on presto when the acceptance was announced. It came today by snail mail. Haven’t checked to see if presto has been updated yet. It was a nice surprise.
does anyone know when the package in the mail should come? I’m out in California so i’m assuming it will be a while