Please help: Why was i rejected

Applying to College Admission Stories
1

Hello,

Can someone look at my profile and let me know why was I rejected from Hamilton College and Colby College. Also please advice me on what should be done next. And do I still stand a chance at need blind colleges.

International student ( INDIA )

SAT Score - 2030

Career Goals - Politician, Major - Pol. Sci. or History

Grades - Class IX - A+, Class X - A+, Class XI - A+, Class XII - B+

Financial Aid: Yes

Annual Income: USD 3500 per annum

ECs outside School

<ol>
<li>Co-Founder of Two Registered and recognized NGOs ( One spread across major cities city and the other in Northern Bengal ), First helps the poor people in their pursuit to gain education, Second helping the homeless and poor.</li>
<li>Writing two books which would be published in the coming month.</li>
</ol>

ECs in School

President and founder of Student union of my school
President of student government
President and Founder of Youth Bank
President and founder of Eco Club
President and founder of school disciplinary committee
Founder of various extracurricular clubs for students
President, Founder, Speaker of Economics and Political club of my school
RWA President
Teacher of adult literacy campaign
Teacher ( Maths, Social Sciences and Painting ) for underprivileged kids
Chief Artist and group leader of our school’s art club ( won many painting competitions )

Awards -

Received award from Government of India for my successful participation in the literacy campaign.

Other awards mostly from School

Recommendations - Excellent ( Talking about my excellent leadership, administrative and organizing skills, love for people and potential as a future politician. ) GC has also explained the circumstances which resulted in the sudden drop in Class XII final grades.

Essay 1 - How a personal problem forced me to wander in the streets where I observe the plight of the put and hopeless.

Additional Information - Describing my books and awards.

Additional Essays ( Sent via email ) -

Essay 2 - A memorable trip to my native village where I discover my roots. ( Descendant of the first constitutional monarch of Bengal )

Essay 3 - My obsession with Adolf Hitler when I was child but how I grew up to understand that he was the epitome of evil.

Essay 4 - Capitalism a boon or a curse for an overpopulated nation like India.

2

Probably Financial Aid. I am from Pakistan and was rejected from Colby (I never applied to Hamilton). I, myself, scored 2020 on my SAT. Had 7A’s 2B’s in O levels and 2A’s and 3B’s in AS level. Apart from that, I was the president of the School’s Literary Society, Chief Editor of School’s Magazine, Head Delegate of School’s MUN Team. I am a senior correspondent for the school’s regional educational journal. Apart from that, I have worked as a freelance writer for various publications. And much more.My annual family income is around $45k.

My common app essay was about how I took influence from the character of Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory. I wrote another essay, about my presentation of causes of financial crisis of 2008. In fact, I even sent a few colleges the presentation itself. Moreover, I wrote another essay on the importance of positive outlook of life basing upon the riches-to-rags story of my grandfather’s migration from India during partition.

Well, I got rejected too. =P

3

You really have a good profile… You are right - financial aid might be the reason we have been rejected.

I hope we get into need blind colleges… :slight_smile:

GOOD LUCK for 29th.

4

I think FA hurt you two, unfortunately. Anirudha, you may have also run into trouble with your essays; the ones about Hitler and Capitalism sound particularly controversial. But I haven’t read them, so it’s hard to say.

Best of luck to you both in the coming week!

5

I’m not sure how much I could be of assistance, but I noticed a few things:

<ol>
<li>You seemed to have been the founder of quite a few things, but how much did you mention those things in any essays? Were there not a lot clubs in your area? Being a founder is good, but it also gives you a negative leg up because of course a founder should be president since you’re best equipped to do the job. It may come off as a given rather than an earned position even if you worked for the position.</li>
<li>There may have been other applicants with higher SATs and applied to the same school (not certain if SAT is required for international students, but they may have compared you with others who took it and are from your country)</li>
<li>Fin aid can hurt chances when there are people who can pay in full (unless the college is need blind)</li>
<li>With the essays, it’s always wise to think like the adcoms; they want to understand what kind of person you are AND see why you should be accepted. If you seem like you’ve done everything and that you’re satisfied, you’ll never get in. Nine times out of ten you need the school more than it needs you, so you must convince them that you should be there.</li>
</ol>

Now with your essays specifically, the last two are controversial and don’t give off good impressions (that is just my opinion from seeing the topic only, so I could be wrong). For all essays, you must ask yourself why do they care? Yes, you may have learned something or experienced something different, but why do they care? You must show amd explain why these things matter. For the Hitler thing, you could have talked about how children experience a blissful ignorance and that it takes years to emotional mature and we later realize how misguided we are. Don’t be afraid to mention faults. People are so worried about looking bad that they do not realize that they come off as automatons.

That’s just my take. You’re still a great applicant and you do so much so I am sure you’ll get into some place great.

6

^ I wasn’t a dictator… there were elections everytime … sadly for others I used to win everytime… :smiley:

My main idea was something in tune with what you say - How my personal conditions forced me to feel as if Hitler was the best and I got political motivation from him but then I matured enough to understand that he wasn’t the correct person to follow - He was a devil…

Thanks everyone… Come 29th I hope I get into 1 or 2 need blind colleges/universities… :slight_smile:

7

Unfortunately for international students, the US government effectively limits the number of international students a college can admit and therefore the competition is tough.

I will second the thoughts of a previous post by Aquiana. The old say goes something like “Jack of all trades, master of none”. There just isn’t enough hours in a week to do justice to the number of organizations that you listed. I would therefore think that you were not putting a true effort into any of them (or even realize what is required). Better to be part of fewer organizations and really work at them. As a hiring manager, I would evaluate resumes in the same manner.

Your essays are a means to tell the admissions people who you are in detail. They should talk about what you did in your ECs. Specifically they are looking at how you took advantage of your opportunities. The brief descriptions of your essays don’t seem to convey that thought. Think of college as a great opportunity. You need to show the admissions people how you’ve done in the past with your opportunitities as a measure of how well you will do with the opportunity that their college will provide to you. How Hitler is the essance of evil may be a great essay for some classes, it isn’t for admissions.

8

Firstly the student union that I formed was an umbrella foundation to all the other organizations. I had to form a few more organizations to take care of many more aspects of the school, this was the promise I made to my fellow mates to garner their support for the student union and I had to fulfill the promise.

Secondly I thought I had to explain my passion for politics and my future political ambitions through my essays so that the colleges really know what I want to learn and what I want to do. My essays are about my life experiences and how they have shaped my ideas, dreams and ambitions. I felt that the colleges would already know my qualities and achievements through the EC section, LORs etc so I needed to show the adcoms why was I exactly interested to come to the US and where I see myself in the future.

You cannot question my success or commitment … My NGO is able to provide education to thousands of poor kids… But I am not the only one responsible for this success, lots and lots of people have been equally responsible.

9

BTW … What has happened has happened. Any amount of Post mortem won’t get me accepted at Colby and Hamilton but atleast I am thankful to all of you that now I can see the mistakes I had made on my application and the possible reasons for rejection.

I can wait only till 29th, check my other decisions and if I don’t get accepted anywhere, move on in life and apply to good colleges in India.

Thanks for the help. Cheers!! :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

10

Aniruddha1993 bhai, please don’t rationalize yourself or your job throughout the high-school over it. If it is of any solace to you, I got rejected today by Vassar.

This was my seventh rejection- including UChicago, Lafayette, Colgate, Wesleyan, Washington & Lee and University of Richmond. For three days, I tried to console myself in every possible way and finally fell into a state where now I expect a rejection even from ‘Zimbabwe State School’.

My income bracket was same as yours, SAT was 2170 and blah…blah. The harshest reality is that

THE NEED OF FULL RIDE BURIED US IN THE GRAVE. God! if I had the money.

11

@specific - Zimbabwe state school - I am sure anybody asking for aid will be rejected from there because their endowment will surely be lower than even our bank balance. :wink:

But don’t lose hope, our story will be something like " Rejected at XYZ but Accepted at HYP " :slight_smile:

12

As they say in Hindi " Aapke Moo Mein Ghee-Shakkar"… :stuck_out_tongue:

13

For those of us in the dark; In english it literally translates to “Ghee and Sugar be in your Mouth”. Figuratively it means “Let whatever you said be true”.

Great saying! So much more colorful than the Western, “From your mouth to God’s ears.”

14

International students are not reviewed on a need blind basis. If a school does not want to meet your need, they will reject you rather than gap you,

15

Just hoping that tomorrow brings some very good news for everyone.