@TomSrOfBoston I didn’t write that…
I know. I referenced sciencenerd123.
@TomSrOfBoston I meant that Northeastern wasn’t at the top of my list. I liked Notheastern, but I’ve been accepted at WPI for biomedical engineering and I would choose that over Northeastern because Northeasterns bioengineering program is fairly new and not ABET accredited. It bothers me because being deferred from a school does not feel very good. I was deferred ED from Brown. Then deferred EA from Northeastern. As someone who has worked so hard and put so much effort into my application, it really hurts, especially after what happened with Brown. It just feels like I’m not getting in anywhere. I cried for weeks after I was deferred from Brown. I applied EDII to Tufts. I was deferred from Northeastern. What does that say about my chances at Tufts? Maybe I’m not a good fit for Northeastern, maybe I didn’t show enough interest. But it still doesn’t feel good especially at this time when I am feeling so sad and discouraged and not the least bit confident in myself. It just feels like everything I’ve done up to this point means nothing. That’s all. There’s no need to be mean to a senior on the internet who feels like their world is falling apart. They say hard work pays off, but when?
@sciencenerd123 I’m kind of in the same boat 
Good luck to you.
Add a real safety - a decent college with a feb1st deadline. (Dickinson???)
@sciencenerd123, but if you got in to WPI for BME, why do you think your world is falling apart?
The few folks I’ve heard who went to WPI or sent kids there seem to looooooove that school.
And in the real world, you can find some folks who think WPI is superior to Tufts (or many other schools that are ranked higher by USNews).
This sounds like a case of Northeastern protecting their yield, the so called Tufts effect. Given your stats, recs and probably polished essays, they probably know you’ll have better offers. You probably don’t fit the profile (stats etc) of the middle of the pack student at NEU. I wouldn’t worry about it. Having been thru college admissions twice in recent 3 years, I can tell you its full of plenty of ups and downs, twists and turns, surprises, disappointments and joys! You will experience all these emotions. This is your low. Try not to worry. Keep calm, and carry on! All will work out well.
Dickinson does care about interest, so the OP would have to do a bang up job on a “why Dickinson?” essay if they haven’t visited or signed up for mailings before.
Wow, and you have not even started college yet!
I predict you will both have great opportunities!
“Pull up your socks” and enjoy the next four years! Your futures will be more defined by what you experience than where you did it (WPI excepted). Your focus on these pending opportunities will build your experience and these other concerns will fade to a laugh over diner in a five star restaurant!
:bz
@PurpleTitan Because all I wanted was to go to Brown. Everything about Brown is perfect for me. I thought I had a lot going for me and there is so much pressure to succeed and get into these amazing schools that I feel like a failure because I keep getting deferred. It’s hard to think about the positives when a month ago the only school I could even imagine going to said that they didn’t want me.
Got it. So one big mistake people make is to have a dream school (or dream spouse or dream job or dream whatever).
The truth is that every school/job/person will have terrific aspects and also sucky aspects, but you may not be aware about the sucky aspects if you are not intimately intertwined with the school/job/person. Another truth is that lots of other schools/jobs/people also have terrific positives and negatives. I mean, how did you know that Brown was perfect for you? Do you live in Providence and visit Brown every day? And even if it is, did you break down what aspects you love about Brown and looked for schools that had some of those aspects? I’m curious how you even ended up applying to NEU, then, since, other than being urban privates in New England, those two schools have almost nothing in common.
BTW, being rejected is part of life. Most people (who don’t play it safe all the time) will be rejected by most schools and most companies. Most boys will be rejected by most girls they approach/message. Being able to bounce back from rejection is a part of growing up.
@sciencenerd123
“all I wanted was to go to Brown. Everything about Brown is perfect for me”
– do you have any idea how many TENS OF THOUSANDS of students have said the same thing about Brown for decades & ions?
C’mon. It’s like saying “all I wanted was to win the lottery. Everything about winning the lottery is perfect for me.”
BTW, for all the kids freaking out, I would suggest doing something that centers you:
Taichi/yoga/aikido/meditation/etc. Maybe just read about people in other parts of the world to gain perspective (when there are kids in Syria your age who are just trying to survive and have had their education interrupted for years and tons of kids all over the world in families too poor to pay for their education even though they have the potential to have done even better than you, well, it hopefully does make you think about how lucky you are to have been born in the time and place you were with the parents you had; none of that was due to your hard work).
Tamping down the emotions and longing out really does make everything less stressful and life more enjoyable and fun.
@katliamom I am not saying that I am entitled to a Brown education. I’m not saying that I thought I would get into Brown. I am saying that after a lot of research and after visiting a ton of schools, it’s only natural for one to rise to the top of the list. For me, that was Brown. Am I not allowed to have a dream? And if that dream doesn’t work out, am I not allowed to be upset that it didn’t? It’s not the lottery. People read these applications and discuss them and it hurts that after putting in so much work, after spending so much time on my essays and being such a great fit for Brown, my application still did not convince them to accept me. It makes me think: am I not smart enough? Am I not interesting enough? Did they not like me? Why did they not like me? If I did not win the lottery, I wouldn’t cry for weeks about it. After putting so much hope into Brown it’s only natural to be upset. There’s no reason to be rude. My heart was absolutely broken by the deferral. That’s only natural. I’m sure you’ve been heartbroken before; I’m sure you’ve been rejected before. I know that I will move past this and I will be happy at whatever school I end up at but that doesn’t mean that at this particular moment in my life I am happy. And that’s OK. I’m allowed to be upset.
The admissions “game” is perilous journey. Sometimes, hardwork and dedication never pay off, but tenacity and fortitude almost always do.
It is frustrating and demoralizing and I am sorry that many kids are forced to face reality, in what can be a very startling and unexpected manner.
No one wants to hear it, but Walt Disney and the Sherman brothers may have said it best…
“So there’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day”
Hi, if this helps. Everyone is speculating about your chances. Getting into college is like winning lottery.My son who got into Wash U with similar stats like you. May be he had better EC but who am I to say. You will get into one of these schools. Stay strong!
Hi, if this helps. Everyone is speculating about your chances. Getting into college is like winning lottery.My son who got into Wash U with similar stats like you. May be he had better EC but who am I to say. You will get into one of these schools. Stay strong!
@sciencenerd123: “After putting so much hope into Brown it’s only natural to be upset.”
Well, that’s the problem. That’s like putting all your hopes and dreams on a guy/gal and being crushed when they reject you.
It’s human to do so, but maybe you shouldn’t put all your hopes and dreams on a school (or a person).
Oh, and go work out. That’s standard advice for getting over a person. Probably works for getting over a school as well.
@PurpleTitan The thing is I was pretty much over it. I mean, I still love Brown but I was feeling a little better about it. Then Northeastern had to go and defer me. Honestly, I’m not quite sure why I applied to Northeastern. I was never going to go there (maybe that’s why they deferred me?), but it just stressed me out even more than I was before and brought back the emotions that I felt a month ago. If I had only gotten into Brown last month then I would be so much happier and so much more motivated and I wouldn’t have to go through all of this crap. But I didn’t, and that’s why I am so upset about it all over again. I feel like “deferred” is one of my identities now. It’s a defining trait. Good enough to be deferred, not quite good enough to be accepted. Great.
You can love a school to death. But the school that does not love you back is not a dream school. This exact conversation is why you will see so much advice out here to develop a full list of schools with varying degrees of selectivity that will work for you. It takes a lot more work to find the safeties and matches that you can be very happy at, but they are there. Every students should have a list of schools that they’d like to attend so they aren’t crushed when that low probability school doesn’t come through.
Plus, no school (not even Brown) is perfect. One of my kids had great college admissions results. When she went to do final accepted student visits at her top 3, guess what? The school she had liked best going in and thought would probably be her choice didn’t look like quite as good a fit for her when she spent 24 hours on campus (and this was a higher ranked school than Brown). She ended up at the school ranked 3rd going in her mind going in to those visits, and it turned out to be an amazing experience that she loved.
So you need to (1) accept that you aren’t going to get in everyplace, (2) keep an open mind about the places you do get into, and (3) remember that little about you is defined by what college you attend in the long run in life. Be resilient. Tamp down the drama. Focus on the schools you are likely to get into, and remind yourself what you liked about them.