<p>Decision: Rejected</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2240 (Reading 700, Writing 780, Math 760-- One sitting)
[</em>] ACT: 31 (three times straight)
[<em>] SAT II: USH (740) Lit (750) Math II (690)
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.97, 5.1 weighted
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 5 / 190
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): Human Geo (3), World History (5), English Lit (4), USH (5), Psych (5)
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): Psych SL (5)
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: Gov / Econ H, IB HL History of the Americas, AP / IB HL Biology, IB HL English 2, IB SL Math Studies, AP / IB SL Spanish IV, IB Theory of Knowledge
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Just small local awards-- PC Fellow, National merit, Student of the Month, Youth of the Season at my youth group, Degree of Outstanding Distinction in NFL, etc.</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): American Red Cross Youth (member for 6 years; Secretary for 3, current President; CPR / First Aid certified instructor, helped the group continue after the recession took its facilitator away; hosted two successful Youth Leadership Conferences for a total of over 250 teens throughout the state; community service projects each month ranging from Special Olympics to Safe Harbor to a local nursing center), NHS / Interact (Co-President), Student Council (Senior Secretary), Newspaper (Co-Editor), Forensics (Secretary; NFL qualifier, District Champion, ToC qualifier, Degree of Outstanding Distinction), Youth in Government (4-time legislator, MUN resource staff, other conferences, selected to attend CONA), Film Club-- Upstate Youth Film Festival Assistant Director, Youth Leadership Greenville class participant
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: /
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: See above
[</em>] Summer Activities: Took Calculus at local college, attended college summer camps, Red Cross, became a CPR / First Aid instructor
[<em>] Essays: I thought they were good. My personal essay was on red hair-- evidently they don’t like gingers. My extracurric essay was obviously on Red Cross, but perhaps I was too impersonal in that one. My supplemental Princeton one sucked because I wanted to apply early and didn’t put enough time into it. I thought my Harvard and Yale ones were phenomenal. They were about how I lived my life trying to be something greater than just me and how I wanted to start a legacy of my own.
[</em>] Teacher Recommendations: I’d guess they were good. They love me.
[<em>] Counselor Rec: Probably average.
[</em>] Additional Rec: From American Red Cross CEO who I have worked with-- apparently very well written according to someone from last year who got one from her
[li] Interview: Gave me the best response allowed</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): SC
[</em>] School Type: Public
[<em>] Ethnicity: White
[</em>] Gender: Male
[<em>] Income Bracket: No financial aid
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None, besides a series of letters I wrote beforehand letting them know I was going to try my best to be accepted signed Legacy Man. I also transferred to the IB school after my sophomore year-- showing commitment to take opportunity.</p>
<p>[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: The fact is none of my statistics are stellar, and that is what they are looking for. All of my application was good. Nothing was great.
[</em>] Weaknesses: I should have taken the SAT more than once and superscored made over 2300. I should have taken more SAT IIs and retaken the Math II one because it was very low. My rank could have been higher. Also, I am not good at boasting about myself-- perhaps a problem with my application was I didn’t elaborate quite enough on my accomplishments with the Conferences I’ve organized and leadership I’ve exhibited in the community. Advice to anyone reading this: CAPITALIZE ON THE SPACE GIVEN.
[<em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: My school has always had a very good relationship with Ivies. Last year, members of the senior class were accepted into every Ivy. This year, one person got into Penn. That’s it. Who knows? Maybe they had too many people from this area already. Besides that, there was just nothing above and beyond to distinguish me from anyone else. As simple as that. Even if there had been, I still would have needed to get extremely lucky to be accepted.
[</em>] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Rejected: Harvard, Yale, Princeton (EA deferred, then rejected), Brown, Columbia, UPenn, Dartmouth, Cornell
Waitlisted: Vanderbilt, UNC Chapel Hill
Accepted: Duke, USC H, Clemson H, Furman, Emory</p>
<p>[/ul]</p>
<p>**General Comments: ** I mean, I look at all these people who were rejected and think to myself what the hell-- how would I have gotten in anyway? Gradually the Ivies are going to lose their prestige. There are simply too many qualified people to be students at Ivies, and all of these people will end up at other schools that will become more competitive as well as time goes on. It was so demoralizing getting rejected from all 8 Ivies. I certainly wasn’t expecting much, but I thought I would at least get into one. At least I got into Duke with a 5% acceptance rate and with a ranking above some of the Ivies anyway. I look back on the past four years of my life, grateful for the opportunity I took and the decisions I made and the work I put into my community, but I have to offer some advice. It really isn’t worth all the stress just to get into an Ivy-- because you can be the best candidate they could ever possibly have and then still not get in.</p>
