Official Vanderbilt Class of 2021 Results Thread

Colleges and Universities A-Z Vanderbilt University
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I wanted to share the Vanderbilt waitlist data I found and hope this information will help waitlisted students make decisions. This link to a 2016 The Washington Post article, “Top colleges put thousands in waitlist limbo and some wont accept any,” shows in 2014 Vanderbilt waitlisted 6,018 students, 4,536 students accepted a spot on the waitlist and 210 students were eventually accepted. Since the article ran, Vanderbilt has removed waitlist data from their Common Data Set for all prior years.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/04/16/top-colleges-put-thousands-of-applicants-in-wait-list-limbo-and-some-wont-admit-any/?utm_term=.d46e8c9af4dd

Best of luck to all waitlisted students.

42

WAITLISTED for Regular Decision Engineering

SAT I: 780M, 750R - 1530.
(1510 without a superscore, but all of the colleges I applied to superscore)

SAT II (subject, score): 800 Chemistry, 800 Math II

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0

Weighted GPA: 4.67

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1st out of 326

AP (place score in parentheses): Chemistry 5, Calc AB 5, English Language 5, Psychology 5, APUSH 4, AP Spanish Lang and Culture 3 (Won the AP scholar with distinction award)

Senior Year Course Load: Differential Equations (Dual Enrollment), AP Physics 1, AP Statistics, AP Literature, AP Macro (single semester) , AP US Government (single semester), AP Calculus BC, AP Comp Sci A

ECs -
Assistant Manager working at my parents’ store over the summers for 4 years (really enjoyed this, wrote an essay about it)
Volunteer/internship at local free clinic
President of my school’s science club - we did the science olympiad, the envirothon, and a bunch of other small competitions
Ultimate Frisbee - just a regular club sport but I had a ton of fun with it
Public Relations officer for SGA - tons of volunteer work/coordinating school events
Vice President of NHS - organized various campaigns for our school
President of AVID Tutoring Program - tutored students twice a week and worked to recruit other tutors.
President/Founder of Debate Club - we met to discuss political issues (the 2016 election was a pretty great time for this club)

I applied for different majors at every school, but I put either math or chemical engineering for about half of them.

I wrote my commonapp essay about being an atheist and always feeling the need to keep quiet about it, and tied that in with the reason I created my school’s debate club (to give people the ability to speak/be heard)

For the obligatory “elaborate on an extracurricular” essay, I wrote about organizing tournaments at my parents’ store and my overall experience working over the summers.

Race: white
Gender: male
Income bracket: my EFC was in the low 40 thousands, but my parents have never told us how much money we make.

43

Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2400 (first attempt)
ACT (breakdown): 34, did not send
SAT II: 800/800/800 Math2/Chem/Physics
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: N/A
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 2%
AP (place score in parenthesis): Seven 5s, one 4
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: Pretty rigorous
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing THAT major. National Merit Finalist, AIME, National AP Scholar, nothing else really worth mentioning.

Vanderbilt Merit Scholarship: Applied for and did not receive CV scholarship.

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varsity tennis, piano, quiz bowl (captain), science bowl (captain) orchestra. Placed at state in tennis, a couple of major piano accomplishments, made nationals for science bowl.
Job/Work Experience: None
Volunteer/Community service: About 250 hours at hospital.
Summer Activities: Mostly relaxing. Playing a lot of tennis and video games. Also got most of my volunteering done over the summers.
Essays (rating 1-10, details): I’m not a terrific writer. Common App was maybe a 7-8/10.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: History teacher, didn’t read. He thought really highly about me though, so I’d guess 9-10/10/
Teacher Rec #2: Physics teacher, also didn’t read. He’s had many more students far smarter than me, but I think I still stood out in my class. Plus he has a reputation for writing awesome recs. 8/10 probably.
Counselor Rec: Didn’t know her that well personally. Probably a 7/10?
Additional Rec:
Interview: Didn’t choose to have one.

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes.
Intended Major: Engineering
State (if domestic applicant): One in the Midwest
Country (if international applicant):
School Type:
Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese)
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Less than $100k.
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Nope.

Reflection

Strengths: Stats and being well rounded I guess.
Weaknesses: No major strengths or extraordinary achievements.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Stats and being well rounded I guess.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:

Accepted: Duke, Vanderbilt, Princeton
Rejected: MIT, UPenn, Yale
Waitlisted: Harvard, WashU

General Comments:

44

Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): did not send
ACT (breakdown): 33 composite
SAT II: did not send
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.65
Weighted GPA: 4.35
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 14/423
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 in World History, US History, English Language; 4 in Spanish Language
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP English Literature, AP Statistics, AP US Government, Honors Model UN, AP Economics, Intro Art 3D
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Hispanic Scholar, National Honor Society, Rho Kappa Social Studies Honor Society, AP Scholar w/ Honor, Letter of Commendation from NMSC, US Geography Olympiad Varsity State Champion (AZ)

Vanderbilt Merit Scholarship: Nope

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Model United Nations (President/Treasurer), History Club (President/Secretary), Boy Scout of America (Eagle Scout, Patrol Leader, Assistant Patrol Leader, Troop Instructor, Troop Guide, Scribe), JV field sports (one year)
Job/Work Experience: Intern with Senator John McCain
Volunteer/Community service: Co-founder and President of volunteer service society at my school; led Eagle Scout service project
Summer Activities: Numerous summer camps with Scouts, including Philmont High Adventure backpacking trip; 2015 EF Tours trip to Paris, Normandy, & London with History club
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Probably an 8 or 9, I wrote about overcoming a leadership failure
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: 10 from MUN teacher, I’ve known him for a long time and he wrote a great recommendation
Teacher Rec #2: 10 from English teacher, really nice lady and great letter
Counselor Rec: 8? Not much personal aspect but she took the time to go over my activities with me
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: N/A

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: You better believe it
Intended Major: Political Science
State (if domestic applicant): Arizona
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public high school
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Middle class (divorce makes exact stats complicated and up for interpretation)
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM

Reflection

Strengths: Strong extracurricular activities, recommendations, honors
Weaknesses: GPA, could have worked longer on essays
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I think that my leadership experience and extracurriculars got me into Vanderbilt.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:

Accepted: Vanderbilt University, George Washington University, University of Arizona (honors), Arizona State University (Barrett honors college), other state schools
Rejected: USC, Georgetown, Duke, Stanford

General Comments: After having been turned down by USC and Georgetown, I expected the same result here. It just goes to show you how random this process is, and how subjective at times.

45

Waitlisted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): N/A
ACT (breakdown): 35 (35 E, 33 M, 35 R, 36 S)
SAT II: N/A
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.3
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 12/713
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (5), AP Biology (4), AP Spanish (5), AP English 11 (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Literature, AP Government, AP Econ, Law Academy, AP Physics 1, AP Calculus AB
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with Honor, National Honor Society, National Spanish Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta

Vanderbilt Merit Scholarship: No

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): National Honor Society (Treasurer), Interact Club (Chaplain), Peer Helper (Group Leader), Student Ambassador, Hoover Belle (representative for city of Hoover), Empire Mock Trial, Varsity Winter Guard
Job/Work Experience: Spanish tutor, summer nanny, after-school nanny
Volunteer/Community service: annual church mission trips, weekly service at the local food pantry over the summer
Summer Activities: Nannying, mission trips
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 6/10. I wrote in response to the Common App prompt asking to tell something about myself that was not already included in my application. I wrote about my childhood growing up overseas while my parents were serving as missionaries in the Middle East and how that experience evolved into a passion for international studies and my career goal of working in the Public Health field in foreign countries. My AP English teacher helped me edit it down to the word count, but I don’t think it was my strongest writing.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
I didn’t read any of my rec letters, but I think they were all pretty good. I got the teacher who taught me two years of APUSH and one year of Law Academy who honestly loved me. I also got my AP Biology teacher since I was looking into studying a science and then my AP English teacher because he is familiar with my good communication skills

Interview: I contacted an interviewer, but she was living overseas for a year and emailed me back to say that she was unavailable to interview me. After that, I did not request another interview

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Medicine, Health, and Society
State (if domestic applicant): Alabama
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Large public high school
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: My parents make 80k a year combined
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none

Reflection

Strengths: test scores and GPA
Weaknesses: extracurriculars (not much leadership or continuity, I quit color guard for my senior year to have more time for things like Mock Trial and Ambassadors), essay
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Probably wait-listed because my extracurriculars were honestly not that impressive and I applied Regular Decision, which I realize now seriously decreased my chances. If you know you want to go to Vandy, go ahead and apply Early Decision. I have heard now that you can back out of Early Decision if the financial aid isn’t enough, and if I had known that I probably would have applied ED and might have had a better chance of getting in
Accepted: Auburn, Samford, University of Texas at Austin, Baylor

General Comments:
Apply Early Decision if this is where you want to go and financial aid is the only thing holding you back.

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