Official Swarthmore Decisions: Class of 2012

<p>Bitter is fair! </p>

<p>I think the proper attitude towards a college that rejects me is, "their loss!". "They blew it on this one." "I'll go somewhere else and be even happier!"</p>

<p>
[quote]
...why are you guys pointing out your ethnicity

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Ethnicity is a major factor in elite college admissions. It is impossible to evaluate chances without considering ethnicity.</p>

<p>College admissions is all about separating the applications into piles -- piles by ethnicity, piles by sport, piles by extracurricular interests. It's best to be in a short pile of applications for "something" the colleges want more of than they get. It's not as good to be in a large pile for "something" they get more of than they need. Simple as that, really...and a lot of this pile sorting is out of your control and no reflection on you as a student. </p>

<p>That's why nobody should really take college admissions personally. If they need more blonde tuba players this year and you are a red-headed cello player, what are you gonna do? Some other college needs red-headed cello players this year and so that's the way it goes. You can't kick yourself.</p>

<p>ok whatever</p>

<p>

You call it "building a class;" I call it "juking the stats." It is true that a college can't admit all of the qualified students who apply. It's also true that some overqualified students become the victims of the college admissions numbers game.</p>

<p>

Class rank is highly variable. Some schools are far more competitive than others, some teachers far harder, and so on. This is precisely why standardized testing is used. It helps brush aside some of the variance between schools and get down to testing a student's academic/intellectual capacity. Fothi got in because she has a really strong all around application. First chair violin, district orchestra, summer programs at Brown and Bard, and the list goes on. And she's obviously driven, with a strong work ethic. Did the #1 class rank help? Sure, it's one more valedictorian Swarthmore can brag about having, but I don't think the admissions office believes it represents academic ability anymore than it really does.</p>

<p>On the flip side, aznfishy (for example) didn't get rejected because she was "merely" 4th in her class, but because someone in the admissions department at Swarthmore is smoking crack. Students who can knock out perfect SAT scores in one shot, get three perfect SAT IIs, and score 5s across the board on AP tests, as well as rack up state level awards in science, be varsity athletes and so on don't come around everyday.</p>

<p>
[quote]
...not going to lie... I'm kind of bitter. Less for me actually than for everyone else, I mean seriously, this is ridiculous!</p>

<p>You can say that high school record is the most important, but I was second in my class, I took all the hardest classes available (no blow off APs) and I even did pretty well and I was still outright rejected. The worst part is... I still love Swarthmore.

[/quote]

As an alum, I'm here to let you know there's a silver lining in all of this. You've been spared four years of being overworked, being fed some of the worst college food this side of England, and having a tedious, virtually non-existent social life. Swarthmore is OK and all, but it's also a lot of hype.</p>

<p>As a parent of a Swarthmore student, I want to say congratulations to all that were accepted to Swarthmore, and to all that were accepted elsewhere. </p>

<p>However, I also want to say that no matter where you decide to go, it is who you are and what you do that is important. You can have a great experience at a "top LAC," or Ivy League, or a state university. After all is said and done, I actually think that my Swat student would have been happier at a state university because there would have been more direct career opportunities.</p>

<p>However, having said that, there are good things about Swarthmore. But please don't get too upset if you weren't accepted. </p>

<p>There are lots of good things about every college that you have been accepted to. Good Luck, and Enjoy College!</p>

<p>"Swarthmore is OK and all, but it's also a lot of hype."</p>

<p>Truer for some than for others, as I'm sure you've deduced from the arguments made against this statement in previous threads, and as with many elite colleges in America. I don't know if it's a good idea to start that debate again in an somewhat unrelated thread ;-).</p>

<p>
[quote]
Truer for some than for others, as I'm sure you've deduced from the arguments made against this statement in previous threads, and as with many elite colleges in America. I don't know if it's a good idea to start that debate again in an somewhat unrelated thread ;-).

[/quote]

Right, truer for the smarter people, like those who got rejected on account of "Tufts Syndrome" policies at Swarthmore. ;)</p>

<p>Please don't rain on the parade of those who either just received word -- or are about to receive word -- of the results of the most competitive year of college admissions ever at one of the most competitive colleges in the US. All bets are off this year...and, can anyone other than the admissions staff truly know the depth and breadth of the talent pool and the very difficult decisions that had to be made when the pool of candidates (many highly qualified and diverse in myriad ways) exceeded the available spaces by over 5:1?</p>

<p>[size=+1]** Accepted ** <a href="early%20write,%20just%20never%20had%20the%20time%20to%20post%20before">/size</a></p>

<p>** Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT:2300 (Math 710, Reading 790, Writing 800)
[</em>] SAT II: Bio E 750, US Hist 740, Math 1 730, Chem 650 (
[<em>] ACT:34, 35 superscored
[</em>] GPA: 92ish (unweighted)
[<em>] Rank:5th?
[</em>] Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB):Euro 4, Physics B 4, Eng Lang 5, US 4
[/ul]
Subjective*[ul]
[<em>]Essays:i think it was good? i wrote about a camp i went to and how it opened my mind a little (sorry this sounds so vague)
[</em>]Teacher Recs:good i hope?
[<em>]Counselor Rec:ditto
[</em>]Supplementary Material:a LOT of extra recs from non-teachers/counselors....i sort of bombarded all of my colleges haha
[<em>]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):I think my extracurriculars are sort of unique and I think my interest/passion in what I've done sort of came through.
[/ul]
Personal[ul]
[</em>]Location:New York
[<em>]High School Type:Public, small
[</em>]Ethnicity:caucasian
[<em>]Gender: female
[</em>]Applied for Financial Aid: Yup...and got a really generous package too, although I still can't afford Swat haha
[<em>]Extracurriculars: Nationally Ranked Debater (National Forensics League), Internship at Columbia University (Engineering/Science-y type stuff), Math Team Captain, Forensics Team President, Head Intern at a local film education center, directed a documentary, Human Rights Club, Political Club, NHS, FNHS
[</em>]Awards:mostly forensics/debate related
[
]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: I kind of have no idea how I got in, let alone early write....I think my biggest assets were the debate accomplishments and my quirky essay (it was kind of really out there...) and my extra recs (they were from a coach, and two mentors) which i am assuming were really good. I'll be at Ride the Tide....see the rest of y'all there![/ul]</p>

<p>I really hope the piles for post-Calc BC math and research are really short because from the looks of pchan's and other people EC's, I'm going to need it :|</p>

<p>I can't concentrate on <em>anything</em> any more. All I can think about is how the last and most important decisions come in the mail tomorrow and how much I really want to attend them. These acceptances with their nationally-ranked whatevers are really scaring me.</p>

<p>Personally I am not trying to rain on anyone's parade, I just am trying to get across the idea that there are pluses and minuses to every college and university, and that it all works out in the end!</p>

<p>Now the pile argument has me worried...in my head, pchan took the white female debater slot.</p>

<p>Oh well.</p>

<p>Muddslinger, where do you live?</p>

<p>pile argument is full of it</p>

<p>Probably somewhat. But four months (four years?) of waiting cultivates gullibility.</p>

<p>i know, but there is no way that they are making piles for white debate girls. I can see them making more generic piles, but no where near that specific.</p>

<p>As someone who has been involved in academia for over twenty years, as a high ranking administrator and a faculty member, I will state that the obsession with posting statistics is more a disservice than a helpful pastime. An SAT or ACT score is nothing but a snapshot of how an individual has performed in a given day vis </p>

<p>Accepted (early write)</p>

<p>Stats:
SAT: did not submit
SAT II: Nope
ACT:33
GPA: 4.4
Rank:9/330
Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB):Micro Econ 4, Comp Politics 4, Gvt 4, US 5
Subjective
Essays: How I chose fasting during Ramadan over swimming
Teacher Recs: fine
Counselor Rec:fine
Supplementary Material:None
Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):Good activities, Good why swarthmore essay., attending discovery weekend
Personal
Location: Missouri
High School Type:Public
Ethnicity:caucasian (Iranian)
Gender:Male
Applied for Financial Aid: Nope.
Extracurriculars: Research at Washu, Muslim Jew dialogue group, Tutor Afghani women english, NHS Treasurer, Community Outreach at West VP
Awards: Outstanding Science Student Sophmore year, AP awards...blah
Advice? Commiserations? I got to know the admissions office. They are amazingly kind people! I dont think i will be at ride the tide, but i will be there for an interview (Evans Scholar)</p>

<p>Nice post, Dramatica. Thanks!</p>

<p>I'm from the midwest for the person who asked. I'd rather not give out anything that anyone could use to find my secret identity :)</p>

<p>And props to dramatica for sharing my perpetual dislike of standardized testing! In addition to the socioeconomic bias that I hadn't considered before, people applying to these schools are far better academically than the test is able to measure.</p>

<p>I'm willing to bet that it's been at least a year since any seniors on CC studied their basic algebra in math class and studied grammar in English.</p>

<p>Personally, it's been 7 years since I studied the algebra they test on the SAT/ACT math and a good 3 years since SAT II. For grammar, that was 5 years ago. I find it difficult to study for tests like that, but they're given a great deal of weight anyway. Or maybe I'm just bitter because my ACT isn't perfect despite my college-IB coursework ;)</p>