<p>Your right scottj, but I hate when people judge based only on numbers and nothing else. When will people understand that admissions is not a numbers game, but a process that involves a holistic review if each applicant?</p>
<p>I love the way people on this thread are posting “I got the tabs” as if it was some sort of disease hahaha
Anyway, the tabs DO mean that I’m IN right? I’m an international student and I don’t see the mail as coming any time soon here but I’ve got them, as weird as that sounds</p>
<p>@scottj
Sorry, it seems pretty dumb that some 17/18 year old would get on an internet forum and whine about their rejection, while attacking others who got in. -_- People need to grow up, that’s all I’m saying.</p>
<p>This was a target school for my child and he got rejected - I don’t blame you for being shocked as every book you read about getting into these type of schools are about minimum grades and top grades almost guarantees you a spot unless of course you have had some level of adversity and have bad grades then they make an exception at the detriment of kids who have good grades and maybe experienced some level of adversity.
I also find the rejection letters patronising as they say “you will succed at some other great school” but what if they all reject you?</p>
<p>I got waitlisted and not putting my name on the list. I already have a few schools to choose from who wanted me the first time around. Congrats to those accepted</p>
<p>Dear church : Remember the numbers for Boston College - 31,000 applications, 7,000 acceptances, 2,250 enrollments. Certainly, there are not 24,000 unqualified applications throwing away the application fee to make a contribution to the Boston College University Fund. </p>
<p>The focus on adversity cases is misplaced. While there was one such posting on this thread which sparked the discussion, the number of such instances at BC is actually very, very small - statistically less than 2% although I do not have finer numbers to share than that.</p>
<p>All of the US News and World Report institutions ranked in the Top 40 are experiencing similar competitive landscapes for admission. For these schools, there are no guarantees - ever. Many of the reviews for chance-me threads that I personally author here on College Confidential start with a very critical review of a candidates numbers, board scores, rank, class curriculum, and academic awards. We then move into activities, leadership, the arts, sports, community, volunteerism, passions, and any other shred of evidence that can allow a candidate to stand tall in at least one area - something to make that application stand out from the 31,000. The farther down the academic totem pole that an applicant is on the numbers dictates how much higher the bar is that the intangibles needs to clear.</p>
<p>Often times here on the Boston College board, we will stress the need for at least a midpoint three-way SAT (2060), a strong ACT score (31 or better), and top 10% rank with an AP/IB Curriculum. What amazes people is that this is the midpoint profile on accepted and enrolled students. Not the best, not the top - the midpoint. Do students get into an accepted class with lower credentials - sure. None the less, 85% of this year’s enrolled class graduated High School in the Top 10% of their class; 97% were in the Top 25%. When you start with those kinds of numbers, differentiating applicants can become tough.</p>
<p>Some years back when my oldest was doing the Ivy tour, a counselor at Yale made a very good observation. Culling the list of applications from 20000 down to 8000 is somewhat easy based on the numbers alone. Getting from 8000 down to 5000 candidates is based on reading the essays. Moving below 5000 to the accepted pool is a crap shoot.</p>
<p>Your question is sincere however - “what if they all reject you?” When we guide students here on College Confidential, the target list of 10-15 schools should divide into three categories. The stretch schools which are academic schools which midpoint at 100+ points above your current SAT mark, expected schools where you would fall into the midpoint rank, and safety schools where the student would be in the top quartile of the entering class. Using this spread, you should never arrive in a situation where “they all rejected you” (providing the application was completed well).</p>
<p>Dear church : Following writing, I checked your other postings and saw that your child was rejected from Boston College and Duke - and was accepted by three safety schools which were of much less interest. Were there schools in the 40-to-100 range in US News and World Reports, for example, where additional targets were identified?</p>
<p>Put it this way the 3 safety schools were REALLY safety and he did apply to 2 others in the 40-100 and got another rejection and a wait list. His stats were all top end/above the safety schools; mid point for target schools and midpoint/top for reach schools…
It seems to be a crap shoot all around unless you accept attendance to a school that you would have got into for doing half the work…it seems he could have not worked as hard the past 4 years and got into the same schools as he has - instead he worked really hard to get a great GPA on the hardest level the school offers(IB)/strong standardized test scores/multiple varsity sports/community service/NHS etc…etc. so not a real stand out in one area but very strong in all…to get into a school that you would have got into if you had worked 50% of what you did</p>
<p>Dear church : First and foremost, the reward for four years of strong High School performance is the personal improvement that your child has seen. Please do not measure the value of his/her work by the acceptance/rejection cycle from colleges. Second, it might be worthwhile going over both the recommendations offered in your application process. Third, a careful review of submitted essays, although after the fact, would be a valuable exercise. For your child, based on quality statistics that you reference, to completely miss on six schools distributed among the Top 100 implies something had to have been amiss that many schools and application readers sensed. Whether there was a negative reference about maturity or college readiness in the recommendations, grammar and spelling errors in the essays, a Facebook reference noticed during various checks by admissions, or something more subtle, all of these should be considered.</p>
<p>A review with your child’s guidance counselor is critical. A phone call from the school’s principal to a midtier school where a waitlist opportunity is pending might also help open another acceptance for you.</p>
<p>This is not meant to provide you with an “it’s all OK” message; instead, the idea here is to retrench and think about what proactive steps can be taken to potentially change the current outcomes to something more attractive for your family. This starts with a critical review of the entire application process and essays as a matter of priority.</p>
<p>Dear church : Can you please supply the Universities from which rejections, waitlist assignments, and acceptances were supplied? This might help us understand the spread of schools and offer some additional ideas on next steps.</p>
<p>Dear church:
Your son has a choice. He can look at all the achievements he worked hard for during high school (grades, activities, recognition, etc) and either let them go stale (so he can coast at his safety school) or he can try and build on them (and work even harder at his safety school).</p>
<p>It sounds like your son is in a position to “shine” at his safety school if he’s determined to do the work. That would open up doors if he ever decides to transfer to a better school. Doors will open.</p>
<p>Accepted to the College of Arts and Science</p>
<p>Stats:
SAT Verbal: 690
SAT Math: 800
SAT Writing:700
SAT Total: 2190
SAT II:Biology - 710, Math 2 - 800, US hist - 670
ACT: didn’t take
AP/IB taken/scores: biology - 5, US hist - 5, waiting on calc BC, Physics B, and European history
GPA weighted:?
GPA unweighted: 3.79
Rank or % estimate:?</p>
<p>Essays: good?
Teacher Recs: the teachers seemed to like me?
Counselor Rec: good?
Hook (if any): probably not</p>
<p>State or Country: Hawaii
School Type: Private (religious)
Ethnicity: Chinese
Gender: Female
Legacy Yes/No: N
Recruited Yes/No: N
Important ECs: NHS</p>
<p>I got waitlisted. I wasn’t as depressed as I thought I would be. I’m probably going to take a spot on the waitlist, but as of right now, I’m going to Emory! :)</p>
<p>Dear ch0iminy : What an excellent decision; extremely happy for you. I wish you the greatest level of success and joy. Is it just me or were you destined to become an “Eagle” whether at Boston College or at Emory?</p>
<p>scottj - I thought the same about something missing from his profile etc, so have spoken to the guidance counsellors at his school and asked them to contact a few of the schools that they believed were his targets to find out what was missing…</p>
<p>jpm50 - thanks for the words of encouragement…and I know he will do well in life no matter what - it is just difficult right now seeing him so dispondent and his pride so damaged…unfortunately a very good life lesson has been learnt - but he has been through worse so know he will pick himself up from this and move forward…</p>
<p>**ACCEPTED: CAS **</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT Verbal: 740
[</em>] SAT Math: 670
[<em>] SAT Writing: 770
[</em>] SAT Total: 2180
[<em>] SAT II: 680 World History, 680 Chemistry, 680 Bio, 750 American, 670 Lit
[</em>] ACT: 31 (not submitted) composite
[<em>] AP/IB taken/scores: World History, American, English Language - 5; Bio - 4; Chemistry - 3
[</em>] GPA weighted: 4.1
[<em>] GPA unweighted: 4.0
[</em>] Rank or % estimate: finishing 14/396 (very long, frustrating story… used to be 7)</p>
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Essays: Apparently, it was good. 
[</em>] Teacher Recs: Read one or two, all good.
[<em>] Counselor Rec: Didn’t see, but expect it was good.
[</em>] Hook (if any): One of my teachers was an alum… Dunno if that really counts as a hook. </p>
<p>[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: NY
[</em>] School Type: Public
[<em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[</em>] Gender: F
[<em>] Legacy Yes/No: No
[</em>] Recruited Yes/No: No
[li] Important ECs: Cross Country, Track, Academic Club, National Honor Society… I had 8 pages of activities haha</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Other Factors: I’m not sure, but I am very happy to have gotten in. </p>
<p>General Comments/Congratulations/etc: Also, got into the Honors Program. Wondering what anyone knows about that? Thanks, and congrats to everyone else!</p>
<p>I’m a BC alumnus, and I’m pretty disappointed at some of the results here. The company line on affirmative action is that it gives the nod to URMs who are roughly competitive with overrepresented groups. But hundreds of points lower in SATs is not roughly the same… Some of these who were waitlisted or rejected are right to be ticked off. “Holistic” shouldn’t be a code word for “ridiculous.”</p>
<p>^
-_-Elitist. Scores aren’t everything in college admissions.</p>
<p>^ agreed. Stop living in the past. Just cause someone got a 2200 on the sat and had a 4.0 doesn’t mean they should automatically gain acceptance. Maybe all they do with their time is stuff related to school like study and homework. Others who aren’t as privileged have other responsibilities and maybe don’t have the means to fianance a $1,000 sat class to boost their scores hundreds of points and thousands more to fund a private school education. Holistic does not mean ridiculous. RIdiculous is that post that you made. I can guarantee you that any student you deem “unworthy” to attend BC will bring more to the school than the students that were not accepted. As I said earlier. Some people were accepted for a reason while others were not.</p>
<p>Schmalz,</p>
<p>It seems to me legacy candidates - those fortunate enough to be born of parent(s) who attended BC - benefit from a form of affirmative action. Do you feel the same way about them?</p>