Perplexing Admission Decisions

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm a senior from a suburb outside of a big southern city. My high school is in the top 1000 in the nation. </p>

<p>GPA: 3.98
Weighted: 4.6
Class Rank: 1 of 410
12 Honors and 13 AP classes</p>

<p>ACT: 36
ACT Math: 35
ACT Science: 36
ACT Reading: 36
ACT English: 36
ACT Writing: 8</p>

<p>SAT: 2400</p>

<p>SAT II Math 2: 800
SAT II Chemistry: 800
SAT II Literature: 770</p>

<p>Extracurriculars/Leadership
Eagle Scout with Bronze Palm, Captain of Knowledge Bowl and Math Bowl, President of ACT 30 and Above Club, Vice President of German Club, church youth group, Beta Club, NHS</p>

<p>Awards
99th percentile on National German Exam three times, National Merit Finalist (230 PSAT), 1st in West Tennessee and 6th in the state on Calculus and Advanced Topics Math test, 3rd in West TN on Precal and 9th in West TN on Alg II for same organization's tests, various 1sts-3rds in Extemporaneous Speaking (Speech and Debate) at local and regional tournaments are the main ones. </p>

<p>School: Decision
UChicago: accepted with 10k/year merit scholarship
Princeton: wait list
MIT: wait list
Stanford: rejected
GA Tech: accepted with 5k math department scholarship
UT Knoxville: accepted with 5k/year Chancellor's scholarship, 2k/year Volunteer scholarship, 2k/year national merit scholarship</p>

<p>I am aware of several African-American girls from my school and nearby schools who were accepted to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, etc. They are all in the Top 20 with ACTs ranging from 30 to 33. </p>

<p>Why? Am I lacking something? I interviewed for every school but Chicago and Stanford, and I applied regular action to all schools. My EFC is around 70K and I'm a white male.</p>

2

<p>ACT 30 and Above club? Rofl. Anyways, I’ll copy what I said to someone else:</p>

<p>All Ivies get huge numbers of applicants like you, perfect stats and EC’s. They cannot distinguish. They would absolutely love to have you, but they can’t admit that many. There was a thread around here that outlined an NPR recording of a Swarthmore adcom session. Its emotional for them, and anything in your application can get you tossed out. It isn’t a judgement on you as a person, its just they simply cannot admit everyone.</p>

<p>Sorry to hear, but this year was extra competitive.</p>

3

<p>no… thats not exactly perplexing. whats perplexing is i get into vanderbilt, into davidson, waitlisted to ND but rejected from colby. while my friend (at a lower caliber than me) gets rejected from ND, waitlisted from colby. and my other friend (way higher caliber) gets a likely letter from Upenn but gets waitlisted at vanderbilt.</p>

<p>at this level, its a crapshoot, be happy you got into one top level school, cause many dont</p>

4

<p>ACT 30 and Above Club is mostly a resume booster . . . We do go to the zoo every year. Thanks for the condolences.</p>

5

<p>OP-Your last two words (in your first post) pretty much sum up your only weakness.</p>

6

<p>^ Sad, but true.</p>

7

<p>That really sucks. At least I did get into one great school. Any suggestions on what could have made me better?</p>

8

<p>You did everything right. You will have a great education at Chicago, and you can thrive there (and try Ivies for grad school). Let go of the “what-ifs”…the college admission policies are impure, and unpredictable.</p>

9

<p>srcphoenix,
It’s not about your being a white male (though that probably doesn’t help), and it’s not about your “lacking” anything. It’s just that the schools you applied to get thousands of applicants with very similar qualifications and you weren’t the one selected by some of them. Not to take anything away from your ECs—they’re very impressive, though I do tend to agree the “ACT 30 and Above Club” sounds like resume-padding, and to that extent might have been a little off-putting to some adcoms. But there’s nothing in your profile of yourself that screams “this kid is unique,” nothing that distinguishes you from the other 4.0 UW, #1 in class, perfect SAT, suburban Eagle Scouts out there. Princeton might have admitted 4 or 5 just like you by the time they got to your file, and when they got to your file someone might have said, “Well, obviously a very strong candidate, certainly highly qualified and undoubtedly would do very well here, but didn’t we already admit 4 or 5 basically indistinguishable from this one? Too strong to reject, though; how about we wait list, and see if we can get a little more variety in this class.” </p>

<p>In any event, I don’t know what you’re bellyachin’ about. You got into the University of Chicago with a $10K merit award. That’s darned impressive. </p>

<p>But you write as if you were entitled to be accepted everywhere you applied. That’s not how it works. And if your essays in any way smacked of any sense of entitlement, that might have hurt you, too.</p>

10

<p>Thank you for your response bclintonk. I agree that my application was not unique, and that that could have hurt me. Thank you also for emphasizing the good in my mixed bag of college results.<br>
I don’t think my essays were arrogant or gave off a sense of entitlement, but I do think they were a bit bland and generic. For Chicago, their unique prompts and lack of a word limit caused me to write a long, heavily researched essay blending hypotheticals and science . . . The other essays were pretty standard and boring, and I doubt that they made big impressions on anyone. I am updating Princeton and MIT soon with new accomplishments, telling them that I am one of 5 seniors in the US to win a free, month-long trip to Germany from the American Association of Teachers of German. That could make me seem more unique, but it is is not the same as a great essay or a more colorful mix of extracurriculars. In any case, I would love to end up at UChicago - you’re right, it is a top-tier school.</p>

11

<p>^ Well, it’s unfortunate that, knowing what you now know, you don’t have another opportunity to redo your essays for the schools that didn’t accept you. From your description it sounds like you really cut loose on the Chicago essays, and went beyond the predictable. Chicago obviously liked what you showed them. And the fact that you really showed yourself to Chicago, and they liked what you showed them, says to me it’s a great fit. </p>

<p>So just shrug off the others. You’re obviously a very talented and accomplished kid, and this may be one of the first times in your life you didn’t get what you want. It won’t be the last. But that doesn’t need to be a defeat; it’s just an opportunity to channel your energies in another direction. The opportunity to study at Chicago is an extraordinary gift. Don’t waste time worrying about the schools that perhaps didn’t see your full potential, whether because you didn’t show it to them in the way you showed Chicago, or because you did show it and they just didn’t appreciate it, in which case the failure is theirs. Having gotten into Chicago, there’s no limit to where your undergraduate studies can take you. Make the best of it!</p>

12

<p>“Am I lacking something?”</p>

<p>Yes – HYPSM-level ECs. Eagle Scout is the only one you mention that shows a consistent passion/achievement outside of academics, and it’s not the kind of thing that makes it obvious to colleges how you’ll contribute on campus. Academics alone will not usually not get you into HYPSM unless there’s something above and beyond high school excellence (usually original research or extensive college-level coursework).</p>

<p>It was worth giving it a shot, and you got a great outcome just a notch below your targets, so it’s really a happy start to your college story.</p>

13

<p>Thank you Hanna. I am excited about Chicago. I did also go to Governor’s School for Computational Physics.</p>

14

<p>You are not lacking anything. </p>

<p>I am in a similar position as a white male with a 2370 and top 5 in a top boarding school. </p>

<p>Yet, the differences between our waitlists, rejections, and admittances shows how you didn’t do much wrong yet were simply lost in the crowd. </p>

<p>Harvard and Princeton: Reject
Stanford: Waitlist
UChicago (Also with 10k merit) and Caltech: Accept</p>

15

<p>The only thing I see missing is experience. I bet any type of internship or research would have pushed you in. Without that, you have great stats but just aren’t interesting. Your awards follow suit- show you’re a smart kid but just not that interesting. Essays may have kept you from going all the way as well. Still, If your application was reviewed 5 times by one of these elites, I bet you would have gotten in at least once. It’s just the nature of admissions.</p>

<p>When there are 36,000 applicants, well. You need to stand out in more way than just stats. Congrats on UChicago though.</p>

<p>There is really no use in mentioning race. Obviously affirmative action exists. That isn’t why you were waitlisted.</p>

<p>On a more positive note, grats on UChicago and good luck with those waitlists.</p>

16

<p>There are enough folks here on CC, including my son, that could join a “Got rejected from HYPSM with a 2400/36 and #1 rank” club. </p>

<p>It was a very tough year. Be happy you got into at least one of the top-25 outright. There are quite a few here on CC currently in waitlist-or-safety-school purgatory.</p>

17

<p>It’s amazing how prevalent those stats have become. Things that I have noticed that may have kept me from getting in, so far, include:</p>

<p>-interesting or in-depth ECs
-work experience
-unique essays
-research/internships</p>

<p>And I agree that race should not be mentioned in this thread.</p>

18

<p>And thank you everyone, again, for the condolences and good words about UChicago. I like the school more and more every day!</p>

19

<p>The first thing I have to say is congrats on UChicago. It is an amazing school in a great city. And the fact that you got 10,000 dollars a year can’t hurt. This is the way I look at it-you’re obviously a smart kid. People want to go to elite colleges because it will make them more succesfull in life. But with your intellect, you’ll be sucessful wherever you go. </p>

<p>But on another note, I think it is the EC’s that were the problem-they were all amazing, but not unique. I think people have to have unique, almost weird EC’s on top of amazing scores to get into HYP. Adcoms look at SO MANY applications, maybe they would like to see something different? All I can think of.</p>