<p>It's weird, I got put on "stand-by". It's like, every college I apply to defers me or puts me on standby, hehe. I'm just sort of a limbo sort of guy, I suppose.</p>
<p>Well, here's the stats (although I understand the holistic approach rather frowns upon such quantitative analysis).</p>
<p>White Male
GPA: 4.0 UW
SAT I: 2400 (1st time)
SAT II: 800 Chem
750 Math II
740 Physics
ACT: 34 (1st time)
EC: Captain Varsity Cross-Country, Captain Quiz Bowl, NHS Vice-President, FIRST Robotics, Track and Field, Chemistry Internship
Awards: Various local and regional; nothing special
Essays: I thought the were good as I am not going to be falsely modest, although they may not have been what Olin was looking for
Recs: Better have been good <em>shakes fist</em>, hehe
Other: I'm kinda surprised at the result, but hey, stand-by is better than rejection ya' know? Hopefully some people can't show up for CW (I know that makes me sound like Satan so jk...but really) or some awesome chance miracle happens and I get to go anyways, hehe.</p>
<p>How many people were put on stand-by? It said "you and a select few others", so hmmmmm.......any lurking here?</p>
<p>I was also put on standby. I dunno how many, but I am much happier than I was before, when I thought, for the lack of a UPS truck, that I was rejected.</p>
<p>My daughter received her first rejection letter today, from Olin. To be honest, we were surprised rather than disappointed. She has been accepted by MIT-ea, Caltech-ea and also received Yales likely letter. I have to say that she is serious about Olin, since she did not want her parents to pay for her tuition (we do not qualify for need-based finaid).
About STATS:
SATI 2330 (780C/800M/750W, one sitting); SATII (760lit/780bio/800m2, one sitting); 10 APs, all scored 5 (national AP scholar); USAMO qualifier every year since 9th grade; went to MOP; GPA 3.98uw/6.7w (ranking 8th in our county with more than 10,000 graduating seniors); Recs, should be superb (at least one teacher showed her); Piano (13 years) and violin (7 years); DDR, level 9 (she did not put DDR in her appl). I started to wonder whether Olin understands her achievements.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm starting to think more and more that A LOT of weight was put on the essays.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>After looking at these superb stats and comparing them to mine as an invitee, I'm starting to think that too. I didn't have the long list of impressive awards and experiences as susan4's daughter did, but I've been told I'm a good creative writer. I wasn't too sure about my Olin essays but I think I might just be my own worst critic.</p>
<p>Well, if someone can get to the other three, I would not doubt anything about the persons ability to write assays. As the matter of fact, she is very good at assays. She wrote herself into RSI acceptance with no research experience (she did not put RSI acceptance on her appl. since she took another awesome opportunity which came to her unexpectedly before RSIs result). I certainly can understand your no sympathy.</p>
<p>I've never been told I was a good writer. In fact, every single one of my essays this year have been criticized as muddled and poorly worded. My English teacher spared not time in writing lengthy diatribes about how my ideas were fundamentally acceptable, but my writing (style, syntax, word choice) is deplorable. </p>
<p>I think Olin looks at an applicant holistically to understand what type of a person they are. Rather than letting numbers and letters speak to them, they allow the personality behind the transcripts and scores to present a case.</p>
<p>I definitely think it was an essay that got me invited. Anyone want to read it? :) It's the "Why Olin?" essay. (Actually, I don't know. I personally liked it; my editor did not. I spent A LOT of time on it.)</p>
<p>I was sure I'd get rejected because I wrote absolutely horrific essays...and I still think they were bad. I foolishly decided at the last minute to change my "Why Olin" essay, hit submit, and had submitter's remorse. Looking back, my original essay was much better, but oh well, doesn't matter anymore! :D</p>
<p>On the other hand, I think the rest of my profile was strong...so perhaps all the little tidbits made up for my rather lackluster essays?</p>
<p>As I have heard Olin say before, they are looking for people who would be a good fit at the college, so essays do play a large part. That is where your personality comes through the most (unless you had an interview). But they still look at stats to make sure you would succeed at Olin.</p>
<p>Is Olin really this difficult to get in. Some of the stats I see, even for those who have been rejected, are perfect. Perhaps, there is no hope for me. Also is it really true that some people who have accepted to other top places have been rejected by Olin? It is totally hopeless. Please tell me what I need to do. I still have one year. Here is my stats.</p>
<p>GPA 4.53, I always took the hardest courses.
SAT 2370 I took it once.
I have won many math and science awards, nothing big though. I attend a forgotten public high school.
I have a small business.
no sports
no arts
lots of community service</p>
<p>kaman, I would say, dont worry about the difficulty of getting into Olin.
I dont think that some of the rejections are truly an assay issue, or fit issue. It could be Olins own issues, such as the yield issue, even though people would not admit about that.</p>
<p>Also, it stinks but the truth is, some people get reject from Olin for the same reason they do from Harvard, or MIT or any other schools with low acceptance ratings...because there are not enough spots for all the amazing people that apply. And, while some schools like Harvard might have enough of an endowment that they could admit many more than they do, Olin cannot afford to let everyone in who is amazing and still give full tuition scholarships and have great teachers, etc on our current endowment. Also, part of what makes Olin great is the community, which would be very different if Olin was much bigger. So I know it doesn't help much if you got rejected, but Olin couldn't accept everyone who loves Olin or everyone who is a fit, there is a size issue.</p>
<p>I hope all of you who did not get invited to CW go onto to schools you truly love and have great experiences there.</p>
<p>@ susan4: what exactly is yale's "likely letter"? i thought they didn't reveal any non-ea decisions until april?</p>
<p>@ kaman: your stats are definitely olin-worthy, my 2 cents on the whole admissions process is that they're looking for students who fulfill a certain threshold of stats who also have one or two passions in particular that they really go all-out pursuing and excel at- for you, i would suggest focusing your application on your owning a small business- olin seems to stress having an entrepreneurial streak. good luck to you!</p>
<p>Ivies have an agreement among them to announce their RD results on 3/31/08. However, individual schools are allowed to communicate with their applicants before that date. One way of communicating with their applicants is to send likely-letters to a small portion of students that they are very sure they want to admit. Sending likely letters is a way to help their yielding of matriculation. This year Harvard already sent likely-letters to some athletes they wanted and Yale sent likely-letters to some students who are academically standing out. That is all I know.</p>