Keeping our fingers crossed here in NJ. Saw on their FB page that decisions were mailed on Friday.
People in Richmond got their decisions (which makes sense)
no email??
@Catherinelym No, regular mail only u less you’re international then email.
Waitlisted and devastated
GPA: 3.997 W (3.7 unweighted)
ACT: 31 (32 superscored)
Class Rank: N/A but at least in top 20% at a highly competitive school
Taken 3 APs in High school (APs only available as a junior and senior)
Sports: Varsity Gymnastics 4 years
ECs: volunteer tutor at the library, founder of a service project, cook meals for a local elderly home once a month, National Honors Society, National Latin Honors Society, coach at a gymnastics clinic
Volunteer Work: volunteer at a local elderly home every month, volunteer tutor twice a week
Summer Activities: worked as a hostess at a local restaurant
White female
No hooks
No legacy
No financial aid needed
I am so so sad. I love Richmond. I would appreciate any advice on how to get off the waitlist 
Good luck guys
@Syrupandpancakes did your waitlist come with any instructions about the waitlist? I’ve been in your spot before so I understand. I’m also a white female with no FA needed, but I am a legacy in multiple ways. I would suggest contacting your AC in a few weeks and telling them you’re still interested. Accept your spot on the WL. Don’t rush to call them because you just got it in the mail. If you have any major updated info you need to send like grades or achievements then maybe send those? If you don’t get in don’t give up. I applied as a transfer this year and I will most likely find out this weekend. They told me the accept about 50% of transfers. Way better odds. You’re a great applicant so please don’t get discouraged you did nothing wrong.
@Syrupandpancakes I’m so sorry, my D was denied from her 1st choice & just devestated, WL can work out! Please call & let them know you’re interested in staying on the WL and ask them if there’s anything you can do, make sure they know how interested you are! Good news for you is that you need no aid, WL,s are usually need aware so that will work in your favor, good luck!
Waitlisted as well. Richmond is my second choice, and also the second school to waitlist me. I’m not too upset, it is just incredibly frustrating to keep playing this waiting game.
For reference, my stats:
SAT: 1250 (690 CR, 560 Math)
3.9 UW GPA
6 APs (Lang, World Hist, Lit, US Gov, Bio, Spanish)
Multiple ECs, too many to list, but ones that stick out include being the President of a 501c non-profit organization, Student Council President, 400+ hours of community service
Awards include being named an Outstanding Young Citizen for two consecutive years in the area of Pittsburgh and being named a candidate for the Presidential Scholars Program through the US Dept. of Education.
Hooks are URM and first gen college.
Oh well, I was so certain I would get into Richmond – just a bit humbling. I still have five more schools to hear from!
Just got my acceptance letter today! So excited!!
ACT: 31 (35 eng., 30 science, 34 reading, 26 math)
GPA: 3.93 uw, 4.39 w
APs: Calc AB, Chem, Bio, Lit, Lang, Apush, and gov
Extracurriculars:
Varsity cross country, senior class president, junior class secretary, Latin club officer, pageants, Faith, travel club and 100+ service hours
Essays:
Wrote a dang good common app essay and decent other essay!
Tip for any junior reading this: get your English teacher to read over your essay!!
@Syrupandpancakes i just sent you a private message. hope it helps. good luck!
Congratulations! What did the outside of the letter look like? I am waiting for my daughter to come home and open her letter.
@JPSMom Apparently, both acceptances and wait lists come in a huge envelope. My acceptance had “Is This The Envelope You’ve Been Waiting For?” and was relatively thick (contains both a folder and a separate large envelope from FA Office). Postage for me was $02.66. Front has spider with address label.
Decision: Accepted
Objective:
SAT I: 1450 (730 M, 720 RW)
ACT: 31 (30 M, 27 S, 30 R, 36 E)
SAT II: 690 Math II, 640 Physics
Unweighted GPA: 3.9
Weighted GPA: 4.3
Rank: 8/159
AP (w/ scores): Stats (4), US History (2), English Lang (5), Physics 1 (3)
Senior Year Course Load: AP US Gov, Honors Econ, AP/DE Eng Lit, AP Chem, AP Calc AB, AP CSP, DE Psych
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None
***Subjective: ***
Extracurriculars: Stanford EPGY C Courses 1-3, Freelance/Hobbyistic Web Dev, Yoshukai Karate (1st Degree Black)
Job/Work Experience: Theater Staff Leader, aided parent’s startup as web dev + tech support
Volunteer/Community Service: None
Summer Activities: Tech MOOCs (don’t think I listed)
Essay 1: Reads like a story and took a long time. Talks about attempt and subsequent failure of startup and devastation at squandered work.
Essay 2: The only reason I applied to Richmond was because of this essay. I thought the Spider Essay prompt was so cool that I wrote the whole thing for a class project for AP Lit and decided to submit my application just because I had liked writing it so much and it would have been free to apply for me. Not until later did I actually really start liking Richmond as a college option.
***Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): ***
Teacher Rec #1: Didn’t read, but pretty confident. Honors Lit 10 + AP Lang teacher, and we’re great friends.
Teacher Rec #2: Didn’t read, but pretty confident. Honors 9 Geometry + AP CSP Instructor. Extremely like.
Counselor Rec: I’m practically her unofficial aid. We talk every day and I spend around 30 mins per day there.
Additional Rec: Stanford EPGY instructor. Liked him a lot during courses. Mildly disconnected (should catch up)
Interview: Was not offered to me
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes, received
Intended Major: It’s complicated. Applied on Comp Sci; might switch to CS/Pre-Eng with Biz/Econ focus
State: Alabama
School Type: Small Public School
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Low
Hooks: URM? I’m Russian w/ Duel Citizenship
Reflection
Strengths: Dev Experience, Great essays, interesting Spider essay, Russian immigrant, Above Average Scores
Weaknesses: No community service, not as many AP’s as I wanted, bad SAT II scores
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Test scores were good, put a lot of time into my essays, may have had some diversity factor (not a lot of students from Alabama), have odd (but cool) work experience
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: University of Alabama in Huntsville, Stanford, Macalester, Swarthmore, Richmond
Places Applying: Vanderbilt, Tufts, Cornell, Rice
Comments: Excited for the opportunity! I also got more aid that I expected, so this one just shot up to my second best (and first is Vanderbilt with 10% acceptance rate, which is a long shot). Anyways, congrats on all of those accepted and best of luck to the ones on WL. Hope for the best!
**Decision: Accepted/b
I’m a little late on this, but I figured I might as well do it for future applicants.
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2310 on old (800R/760M/750W)
ACT (breakdown): 35, don’t remember my subject scores
SAT II: 800 US History, 770 Chem
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 3/360ish
AP (place score in parenthesis): 9th grade: human geography; 10th: world, music theory; 11th: chem, apush, lang, calc AB; 12th: calc BC, bio, lit, gov, psych, german (outside of school); all 5s except world
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: orchestra, calc BC, bio, lit, gov, psych, german (all AP except orch)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): US Presidential Scholarship candidate, NMF
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): extremely involved with cello (principal 10-12, Region member and All-state alternate, featured soloist 9-12, played self-arranged pieces 9-10, etc); Academic team/quiz bowl (president and captain, 2015 state champions); two-month exchange to Germany; GSA co-founder; German club
Job/Work Experience: N/A
Volunteer/Community service: volunteer at animal shelter, teach free cello lessons to underprivileged kids
Summer Activities: exchange to Germany, trip to Italy with orchestra
Essays (rating 1-10, details): like 7/10 for common app essay not super special but not bad and I think my voice came through; 8/10 for richmond essay (I did choose your own prompt and used my favorite parts of other essays)
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): didn’t see any of them so who knows, probably good but not amazing
Teacher Rec #1:
Teacher Rec #2:
Counselor Rec:
Additional Rec: none
Interview: very good! I really enjoyed it and thought it went very well.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: yes
Intended Major: cognitive science, linguistics
State (if domestic applicant): SC
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: midsize public
Ethnicity: white
Gender: female
Income Bracket: middle-ish I think
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none except maybe that I’m from SC
Reflection
Strengths: test scores, ECs (??), maybe essays
Weaknesses: recs maybe
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I have really high objective stats and the interview went really well
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted to Clemson (+Honors), USC (+Honors, Top Scholars), W&M (+Monroe), deferred from Yale, waiting on a bunch of other schools
General Comments:
**[asize=4][acolor=#008000]Decision: Accepted[/color][/size][/]
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1210 (630 R/ 580 M)
ACT (breakdown): 25 (28 E/ 24 R/ 24 S/ 24 M)
SAT II: N/A
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.880 (later became 3.888)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 6/316 (later became 5/316)
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 AP United States History and 3 World History (didn’t send)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Government, AP English, AP Calculus, Dual Enrollment Teacher Cadet, (second semester) AP European History, AP English, AP Calculus, AP Chemistry (Had 99’s or higher in all classes when grades were due besides Calculus where I had a 92 . . . as a note, I later dropped AP Chemistry).
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): (Not sure if these count) William and Mary Leadership Award, 2nd Place Regional Forensics. Girl’s State (selected as one of two)
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Junior States of America (Founder, Secretary), Robotics (Head Journalists), Scholastic Bowl (previous Underclassman Co-Captain), Student Council Association, Model United Nations, History Club, Forensics, SODA, National Honor Society, Student Body Association (President)
Job/Work Experience: Interned with County Attorney for Summer
Volunteer/Community service: Appomattox Library Teen volunteer, DHS (my school) tutor, Bible School tutor and teacher, Cancer Awareness Volunteering group at school, Homeless Care Package and aid volunteer, Orientation at my school. Have amassed over 50 hours.
Summer Activities: Girl’s State and Internship.
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 9.5/10
This is a blur because I was so sure I was going to get rejected. I wrote about my struggle through poverty, abuse, and being the only African American in many of my AP and advanced classes. I glorified Richmond as an amazing school and tied in some stats and info on them. I remember, I chose that a good question for admissions would be for a student to talk about their weakest area on their application. I chose my SAT and talked about my testing struggles and still trying to do well. I also talked about how people should be more than a number or score and how I will amount to something no matter what happens. I remember it really being how I wanted to present myself to the best I could (and made me cry). I also remember thinking that when someone read it, they could feel my struggle and probably couldn’t reject me (though I was still convinced I wouldn’t get in).
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): ?/10
- No idea honestly. I know that my Guidance counselor thought that Richmond was the perfect school for me; however, I asked him really late and close to the deadline so I don't know how good it was (Sorry Mr. Rapp). I can imagine it was really amazing or it was pretty good and my GPA and Essay carried me. Also, I have a really close and pretty good relationship with my Guidance counselor. He always pushed me to take harder classes and talked me out of dropping, so I really need to thank him for my admittance (cause I wouldn't have taken the classes I did if it was not for him).
- On another note, I regretted not doing the teacher recs or other stuff( like parent one). However, I still got in so . . .
Teacher Rec #1:N/A
Teacher Rec #2: N/A
Counselor Rec: ?/10
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview:N/A
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes, will receive full ride as my parents make less than 60,000
Intended Major: Undecided
State (if domestic applicant): VA, baby 
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Southern, low-income, has some failing departments (Math, etc), mostly white, (these things all up my chances from what I heard too), not in top schools (and I was told ranked lowly before), only school in County I live in.
Ethnicity: African American
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Less than 20,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, live in poverty, come from a southern county, only African American in top classes in school, only African American in top 10 (and 20 for that matter) in school, neither parent has a bachelor’s (not sure if hook or not),from Virginia,was bullied for racial reasons (not sure if hook),and I can’t think of any other ones . . . (will edit if I do!).
Reflection
Strengths: Essay or Rec (must have been one of them), Extracurricular and leadership, GPA (this 100 times, thank god for my grades being good).
Weaknesses: SAT and ACT Scores (Can’t test with these to save my life). . . I took it like 10 times (not kidding) and maxed at 1210.
Why do you think you were accepted:
Don’t ask me lol. But seriously, this is amazing. Maybe admissions identified with my struggle? I know they want to increase URMs in the school. Also, my GPA is in their higher end (I think) of what they wanted. I also was in Girl’s State and the President of the Student Body (they like to post that stuff on their page, so they must really like it).
Where else were you accepted:
(I only accepted places I thought would give aid or I could get a really good scholarship for) Richard Bland College (VA has an amazing VCCS program) and James Madison University (Amazing school! Go Dukes. I have yet to hear from honors).
General Comments:
I subscribed to the College Confidential safety school play. RBC was my safety, JMU my match, and U of R my reach. I am very excited to get my reach and get a full ride. I don’t know what really stood out to them, but I am excited it did and so happy I applied! Thanks so much CC! I hope to help others who need advice or aid in the future (though my stats seem out of the norm).
- Whoops I messed up the formatting. I was accepted.
*Also, though it may not seem like it, I took pretty much all AP and Dual Enrollment stuff (and went out and did online) available.
Congrats to all of you, wow, some impressive kids! Have any of you decided on UR for sure?
@TheYellowBiscuit you got a full ride and as you said it was your reach school will you go? My D would have gotten either a full ride or close to it but they take into account my ex husbands income so that screwed it up for us. Family is helping so we’re able to swing it but our portion will be tough. A free ride a UR seems hard to pass up! Congrats on your hard work in school, it literally paid off!
@cloudysmom I am 95% sure I will go. I kept thinking that I wouldn’t so I started to drift towards JMU and started to fall in love with some of their programs, and such. However, U of R is amazing! The fact that they provided so much aid really makes me pretty set on them. I just want to visit the campus as I was never able to before I applied. From what I hear it is breathe taking and gorgeous. Sorry to hear the news about your D, I know I would not be able to attend without the aid. Yes, I am very happy! U of R is a very wonderful place and has so many perks.
@TheYellowBiscuit. Please consider it! While JMU is a good school the quality of education and opportunities just don’t compare. I have been researching this for months, the research opportunities, the low faculty to student ratio, the $ spent on students due to their large endowment, their diversity and real stake in each and every student, not to mention job opportunities put UR much more in line with little ivies. You of course must do what feels right to you but as a mom who obsessively researches this stuff, I truly feel your chances for career after college are greatly enhanced by choosing UR. Please go to one of the Experience Richmond days and get to know the school. I think it’s the 4/3 or 10th or 22nd. Chose a date, for accepted students only. And you can sign up & view agenda on the admitted student page, and don’t forget to sign up for your free t-shirt! Also I think 4/21 is a special day for accepted students of color, info on that same site about it!