i cant really tell you if they saw my passion, I don’t know what goes through admissions, but I didn’t do an activity just for college. yes, I got involved in things because i had goals but I stayed in those things and found other things because I found what I loved. i love marketing, social media, entrepreneurship— business. my tiktok was started purely from enjoyment, 1.3 million followers later and partnerships like Grammarly, vera Bradley, pentel, and a signing with an influencer agency— I’m still passionate about the account. i reached out to a 501c3 that promotes the field of business and financial literacy among women and became a board member and instructor, I was state champ x2 for FBLA in social media strategies and sales (two categories I chose respectively because they interested me), I did extemporaneous speaking and went to nationals but did the category because I loved it. i did everything because I loved it.
I don’t regret doing the things I did of course. my involvement, my internships, my clubs— they were all enjoyable and gave me connections and experience that shaped me into who I am. I just wish it had paid off in a sense that those colleges saw my hard work too.
i feel like a lot of people here think I’m full of myself and I hope you all know I’m trying not to be. I’m so grateful, I really am. I would be happier with my results if it wasn’t for the people around me and the things I’ve been told throughout middle and high school, where people only notice me and measure me to my accomplishments.
It’s disappointing but my sadness won’t change that. It just hurts seeing friends and people online get in test optional with less impressive ECs, lower stats, etc. i know my stats could’ve been better but it worked out for some people. Anyway, like I said, all the panic attacks and crying won’t change anything. I think I just need to be sad for a little longer and I need to stop asking myself what’s wrong with me and focus on what I can do to make the most of what’s given to me and to improve my application for transferring. I’m pretty set on transferring, I know some people here don’t approve, but it’s what I want. Don’t mistake that for me going into UMD upset though. I have a room mate already, I looked into classes, im going to make the most of my first year.
If you ultimately do create a prospective list of colleges to which to apply for transfer, think about Babson, for which your interests seem especially well aligned.
Your EC’s are extremely impressive but GPA/class rank is usually considered “very important” vs ECs which may be in the “important” or “considered” category.
Even if the school doesnt officially rank, they can make a guesstimate based on your GPA compared to other kids at your school. If you werent in the top 5%, a really high SAT may have helped. The combination of test optional and not the very top of class, plus the essay wildcard may have been the reasons.
At this point, since your are set on transferring, do your best at UMD, and hopefully you will get a better result next year. Good luck!
You don’t come across as being full of yourself. You’re disappointed with your options and that’s understandable. You have strong stats and excellent ECs so it’s reasonable to wonder why you didn’t get in. You should be feeling really excited for this next phase of your life and it’s sad to see you disappointed. It sounds like the only reason you applied to UMD is because it’s your instate option. What about GW? Is it off the table because of cost? It sounds like you’re likely in the same school district as my son with stats that are fairly comparable. His ECs are also really strong but completely different. It’s hard because it’s a high achieving district and kids are going off to an impressive list of schools…but tons of high achievers are going to UMD as well. As others said I think you needed to pad your school list with a couple really safe schools and a handful of matches/targets…and they all needed to be schools you’d be happy to attend as well as be able to afford. I think schools such as Syracuse and Santa Clara could have been nice additions to round out your lists. Just remember, if you didn’t have rejections it would have meant you didn’t reach high enough. You had a reasonable chance at all of the schools on your list. With hindsight I would have rounded out your list as stated and really tried to pull all of your excellent ECs together to make sure they understood your passions and interests, in a way to give you a memorable hook. If you moved during high school I would have definitely highlighted that. If your in the school district I believe you are you spent a year and a half learning on line on top of a move. I hope UMD surprises you and that you end up loving it and want to stay. If so, you’ll have money to enjoy when starting your career or for grad school.
I am sorry to hear that your family is disappointed in you and your friends look down at you. That must be very difficult.
I think you are a very good student with strong ECs, but your list of schools was very reach heavy. I see UMD as a fit school. I agree Syracuse would have been another good option, but it’s also very costly and I don’t see it as “better” than UMD.
Can you afford the schools that waitlisted you? I may be missing something, but based on what I know about Barnard, based on the students I know who attended, it doesn’t seem like a good fit for you. Of course I might be way off base, as I do not know you.
UNC is great and “easier” to get in as an OOS transfer (not sure about the business school, but I do know of students who successfully transferred). It truly is an amazing place, but I just don’t see how you would shine at UNC and accomplish great things, yet not shine at UMD.
You seem determined to transfer. I hope this does not interfere with your success at UMD.
Ok. My son applied to Penn’s M&T program with fantastic ECs (he actually is partnering with a British satellite building company and in the process of rolling out the business in India and the US - just to give you a sense of “fantastic”) and his Penn interviewer was thrilled to learn about it.
At the end, he was rejected. He said “Damn! now i know why almost all tech companies are started by either dropouts or non-business majors!”… He continued to work on what he has been doing and never repented for the time he spend in trying to get to Penn.
No one knows what goes inside admissions office; just because of few rejections, you should never loose track of your goal. Your parents are probably frustrated with the process, but definitely not disappointed with you.
My son is majoring in Aerospace and initially committed to Purdue as he was offered Presidential scholarship and a huge grant that essentially made Purdue free of cost. However, he grew unsettled as 5/1 is nearing and finally changed mind to withdraw from Purdue and accept Georgia Tech where we pay full OOS. His mom was very frustrated with his change of mind; but definitely not disappointed with his decision.
Recognize and separate frustration from disappointment. Having a daughter like you would have made me proud (although sometimes with bit of frustration)! So, cheer up and move on!
Grade inflation is so rampant there are far more top kids and hence the top schools, like a UMD, see an application explosion even in a declining enrollment environment.
That is true on #1, but not sure less on less applications. UCs had less applications for the first time compared to last year, probably the first time that’s happened in years. The number of HS students are going to decline, so admit rates should go down as well, but I think for the highly selective colleges, it will probably be as competitive.
I wonder if your app might have landed in the hands of some AO’s who had negative associations with the whole “TikTok Influencer” concept. A lot of adults aren’t on TikTok and have heard a lot of bad press about it. And it may be that some people in the admissions world read “influencer” and think Olivia Jade. You have plenty of other strong EC’s and academics, so it’s not like your whole app was hanging on this; I’m just curious as to whether this is a risky topic for a personal statement, or if most AO’s would see it positively. I do think it’s an area where biases and generational differences in perspective could come into play.
That’s all just Monday morning quarterbacking, though. The bottom line is that there are many students at UMD who, like you, are impressive enough to have gone to an “elite” school. Many can’t afford their net price at those schools, whether they could get in or not. Some could have afforded it but didn’t get in. Some could afford it but don’t think it’s worth paying twice as much when a top-notch university is subsidized by the taxes their family has paid over the years. Regardless, you’ll find plenty of impressive peers at UMD, and living on campus doesn’t have to feel “close to home” if you don’t want it to.
If you really feel as if there were activities, etc. that you wouldn’t have bothered with if it wasn’t going to get you into Wharton et. al… maybe this is an opportunity to re-calibrate where you put your energy and why. Our choices are always some combination of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic jumping-through-hoops - that’s inevitable - but so much about the lives of high school students pushes those extrinsic motivations to the point where the intrinsic ones can get drowned out. Maybe flip that “why did I bother?” question around, and ask yourself what you would still have done, even if you’d known how it would turn out. And going forward, prioritize those things that you would have wanted to do regardless.
You’re going to do great. And if you get through this and use your social media platform to help future students who face similar disappointments, that could help so many people, in a way that we parent types on CC could never do.
I just wanted to offer you a hug. I’m sorry you’re disappointed in your outcomes. You sound like a very well-accomplished student who is interesting and wonderful. Please know that you aren’t less deserving than anyone with better outcomes. I admire the fact that you are already making a plan forward to meet your goals. You’ve got this!
thank you so much this genuinely made me cry a little <3 this whole process has just made me ask myself what is wrong with me and why I couldn’t have been better and it’s made me so so sad all the time
someone actually brought this up to me a little earlier but I didn’t actually consider the tiktok thing might be seen as a negative. I’ve seen previous cycles where influencers were seen in a respectable way by AOs and a social media account was a really nice EC, especially given my account posts study tips for students and about stationery.
I’m Asian though and even though my ECs were pretty good, my stats weren’t. i understand I could’ve been better in that sense, I just didn’t know they would make or break me.
i actually really liked barnard. I’m really passionate about involving more women in the business field and I had considered going to law school up until last year (now I’m on the fence about corporate law) but I loved the curriculum and all the discussion based classes they offered and the entrepreneurial opportunities. UNC as well is well regarded in business and I liked the campus when I saw it! I’m really hoping I get off those waitlists but if not I’ll try my best to improve my application to transfer while also making the most out of my first year at UMD
Your stats were great but you have to look into the context of who was accepted. UMD is a great get and you are around the average admit.
One thing you’ll have to learn in life is to be happy and confident in what you’ve done.
Who cares what others think ?
I live in a million dollar neighborhood. We have Alabama, UTK, miss State, Arkansas, colleges you never heard of like Lee, MTSU, Lipscomb and the occasional top (Vandy and Cornell).
We all work at my company - even the Vandy MBA, Harvard Law guy - for a Fairleigh Dickinson grad.
You are putting way way way too much pressure on yourself
Go do great things in life.
People, not schools create greatness. You already did with your tik tol and no college helped you. I think that’s amazing personally. But ECs are a lesser part of the admission equation at most. Still that isn’t taught in school - and few could pull that off. That’s Incredible and I’m sure others are hugely jealous (on their insides).
Don’t worry about others. They aren’t paying your mortgage.
To the second part of your statement above, sounds like you haven’t made the right friends
As to being happier with your results, gonna tell you a funny story about finding happiness that you may not understand for a while. There was an article several years back in The Atlantic about Early Decision. Turns out that at UPenn they’ll only give you a legacy boost if you apply ED. Why? Too many legacy kids were being admitted in RD that were furious about having to attend UPenn. Just like you they saw friends with similar or lower stats getting into schools they preferred - in their case Harvard, Yale, Princeton. A new admission dean decided to stop taking these kids with a chip on their shoulder.
Take a day or 2 to lick your wounds. Try to brush off the ignorant and elitist comments from your peers.
And love the school that loves you back. Dive into UMD. It looks like they have a lot of pretty great study abroad options…and research abroad, too. The business school has business program-specific info, too, about study abroad. Just think of what you could do with that plus your passion for promoting women in business.
You can always go to a super elite institution for grad school.
Or yeah, you could transfer. But look at the Common Data Set for each school first before you decide to transfer somewhere. Don’t waste your time applying for a transfer to a school that hardly takes any transfer students.
I’m a 50 yr old mom and I’m totally dating myself here, but when I read your post about your 1M TikTok followers, I thought, “Big deal. Who cares? Everybody wants to be a social media influencer now.”
You applied to way too many reach schools. But hindsight is 20/20. You, like many other HS students, just didn’t realize how hard it is to get into a Top 25/Top 50 college.
Does not getting into those schools mean that your life is over? No. Of course not. It just means that your life will take a different path than you originally envisioned.
You want to make a difference in the female business world? Do that at UMD. Take the experience you’ve gained in your extracurriculars in HS and use that to help train and promote women in business in Maryland. Teach financial literacy in Baltimore to groups of socioeconomically poor women at a battered women’s shelter. Make a difference in your local community.
Do something like THAT and you know what? Maybe it’ll help you get into a kick butt MBA program somewhere.
