Was just rejected by: USC, Hopkins, UChicago (after being deferred, and Northwestern. Easy to say March has sucked.
Waitlisted by Emory.
My only acceptance is the Pittsburgh honors college (which I applied because my guidance counselor said I needed a safety. I’m not complaining at all, I just know nothing about the school/ didn’t visit)
I have a 32 on the ACT, 11 AP classes, a 98/100 gpa, and ecs including being the editor-in-chief of my school paper, working in a neuroscience research lab, and running varsity cross country. Guess none of it mattered to colleges though! woohoo
I’m waiting on U Penn, Brown, Cornell, Tufts, and UCBerkeley on Thursday. Those are my only ones left.
Hindsight is 20/20 and there’s no point in lecturing you now, but for the benefit of any future college applicants reading this: you applied to all reach schools plus one safety. All of your schools (other than Pitt) are reach schools for everyone no matter what their stats, and nobody should assume that applying to a whole swath of them means they’re bound to get into at least one of them.
I’m hoping for you that you get into one of the schools you’re still waiting on. But I’d also advise you to start learning something about Pitt so you can maximize your experience there if that’s where you end up going.
I don’t know what your financial situation is, but remember that there are a lot of students who have the stats to get accepted to highly ranked schools but who simply can’t afford to attend. Those students end up either at low-cost state schools, or at lower-ranked privates where they are in the top 10% of students and will be offered significant merit money to attend. Those students have to accept from day 1 that they are never going to get to go to the schools you applied to, and they have to learn to love the lower-ranked schools that are going to make it affordable for them.
Agree with @dustypig , and I am sorry you are disappointed. To answer your question, on a scale of 1-10, you are 1, if 1 means you arent screwed at all. You GOT IN! You are going to college. And your cousnelor should be fired for not suggesting that you apply to a single match school. Your ACT is probably below average for unhooked applicants at any of those schools. And if you are OOS for CA, I don’t think that UCB will happen. Each of those colleges is a reach school, for anyone.
If you want a shot at getting off WL at Emory, be sure to express interest. Email your regional rep saying you will defintitly attend if admitted and that its your first choice. Follow up later in April with any updates, why you fit at the school, it’s your top choice, you will attend. Not too long, but sincere.
If nothing else comes through, in the first week of May, NACAC will publish a list of colleges that didn’t meet enrollment targets and are still offering places. Some of’those colleges are great. Good luck.
Pitt is a great option. But I agree with the others about having no match schools. You should do a post mortem with your gc, so hopefully she will offer better advice to the class behind you.
But I will cross my fingers for you for your remaining schools.
One more vote for the “you are going to college so celebrate” crowd. And yes, too reach heavy of a list. But whats done is done and you still have several to hear from. Hang in there. Hope that if you get good news, it is affordable good news.
Props to your guidance counselor for saying you needed a safety (phew) but yeah, again, for benefit of those reading in the future, more than one safety and more than one match would have been an even better plan. But I hear great things about Pitt, so now’s the time to learn more and get psyched for it. If you get other good news before you have to commit, well, your decision becomes more interesting, but at least you’ll be informed!
You’re only choice might be Pitt. And if it is, there is nothing wrong with that.
Accept it, work your butt off, get straight A’s, get involved in numerous activities, and thrive however you can.
After one or two years if you apply to transfer, four year schools will look at you seriously.
“I have a 32 on the ACT, 11 AP classes, a 98/100 gpa, and ecs including being the editor-in-chief of my school paper, working in a neuroscience research lab, and running varsity cross country. Guess none of it mattered to colleges though! woohoo”
It’s not that it doesn’t matter, it’s just that you are competing with students from all over the country and even the world who have done the same or more. Imagine you are a excellent HS basketball player. Tops in your HS. You want to play in college but you only apply to Duke, Kentucky, and other top programs but no teams that you will be among the best. It’s not that you are not talented, it’s that everyone considered by the top programs is VERY talented. It would have mattered more to schools that were better matches for you. I would argue that your GC was wrong. Pitt was a strong match for you not really a safety. There are kids out there with your stats that have been rejected by Pitt. There will be a lot of students at Pitt with your stats and better. It is up to you now. Pitt really is a great school. It is in a great part of Pittsburgh and while it doesn’t have a traditional campus feel it is very alive. Good luck.
How many times have people been warned about applying to nearly all reach schools and then they act shocked when they are rejected and or waitlisted at all of them? People need to have at least a couple of viable safety schools for a reason.
To the extent you are “screwed” it is because you did not have a balanced application list It looks to me like you applied to a lot of schools that are pretty much reaches for everyone, maybe one match school, and one safety that you spent no time choosing. Your HS achievements are strong, but the competition for spots at top schools is stiff. Fortunately your GC had you apply to Pitt so I suggest that you visit and see if it is a viable option – it is a fine school. And while the odds of an acceptance from a waitlist are small, I would send a letter of continuing interest to Emory.
I would not have considered Pitt a safety this year with a 32 ACT. My dd has 2 instate friends who were not accepted to Pitt main campus - one with a 31 and another with a 32 ACT – both with 9 APs and great GPAs, the competition seemed much tougher this year. They were shocked.
I am assuming you are OOS for Pitt, it is pretty expensive. Do you have any in-state safeties if you don’t want Pitt? Why would you pick Pitt as the safety if you didn’t know anything about it? You lucked out with your blind dart in the dark as you were admitted and it is a wonderful, competitive, up and coming state flagship in a safe and vibrant city. Lucky you!
Pitt Honors is a terrific safety because there will be many really smart students because they give out a lot of scholarships. You will have a lot of good peers, and Pittsburgh is a really cool 3D city. You can also take some classes at Carnegie Mellon next door. If you happen to be into philosophy or psychology it’s top 10 in those departments.
Your stats look great, and having one of those remaining schools accept you wouldn’t surprise me. If you are out of state for UCBerkeley, and full pay, they’d be crazy not to admit you.
In terms of screwed, you are decidedly not screwed. .