I received admission to most of my top ranked schools in the low 10s and high 20s, which I never expected to happen. Now looking at my application, I sold myself short and didn’t think I could get into the ivies so I didn’t bother. I applied to the lowest ranked ivy and got rejected. Now looking at videos on youtube, people got rejected by this ivy and then got into higher ranked ones. I know my stats are not great but the reason why I got into most of my reach schools is because my story is unique and ambitious. But I regret not applying to the ivies… SO BADLY. It’s such a crapshoot and I think I had a decent shot at a couple of them to be honest because of my passion project/hook. I am grateful for the schools I have gotten into but I feel so bad about not applying and missing this once in a lifetime chance. Ideas for what I can do? Is it hard to transfer to the lower ranked ivies?
In answer to your question, yes it is hard to transfer to nearly all of the Ivy League. Cornell is the transfer-friendly, but mostly their contract colleges. CAS is pretty difficult.
To which schools were you accepted ?
By which schools were you rejected ?
Stats (ACT / SAT scores & GPA / class rank).
ECs.
Anything else we should know about you ?
If you want an analysis / educated guess on your chances, the above info. would help.
P.S. Were you admitted to Amherst ? If not, then Ivies unlikely.
If you feel really bad about it, then you should at least try to transfer. Or if you want, you could even take a gap year to work and then apply again next year.
You can’t project that since you got into school A, you would have gotten into school B. Focus on getting excited on where you have deposited. Looks forward, not backwards.
You an always take a shot at one of these Ivies for grad school.
Regret, even a “greatest regret,” can be associated with attendance at an Ivy League school as well: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/10/15/charlie-baker-takes-proust-questionnaire/p2B2GsYFIUnYnVLsZCiX3I/story.html?outputType=amp.
So ? He got 27 of 28 questions right. Not bad. 
Plus, it seems like this was this political candidate’s way of letting folks know that he went to Harvard–but that he’s really just an ordinary guy.
Wellelsley, Middlebury, Colby w/ Presidential scholars, Emory, all the UC’s except Berkeley, Tufts, and Wustl are the main ones. Passion project was creating my own clothing company from scratch.
@Publisher rejected from Swarthmore and Bowdoin. Waitlisted at NYU and UNC OOS. Declined both waitlist positions. My school doesn’t do rankings, and my stats are decent but not that great. I think my hook was definitely my company.
Amherst ?
Deffered and rejected
Also, your original post shares that you applied to the “lowest ranked Ivy and got rejected”.
There is no obvious indication that any Ivy League school would have offered you admission.
Starting your own business is relevant for MBA programs & for undergraduate business schools such as UPenn-Wharton–but stellar stats are needed for Wharton.
P.S. Admission to Wellesley, Middlebury, Colby with scholarship, Emory, Tufts, almost all UCs, and WashUStL is an outstanding accomplishment, but does not equate to an Ivy League admission.
Amherst, Swarthmore, & Bowdoin were your toughest challenges and none offered admission. Doesn’t necessarily mean that you would not have been ofered admission to one of the 7 Ivies to which you did not apply, but the odds do not appear to be in your favor.
Time to appreciate the schools which appreciate you. As noted above, you can almost certainly attend an Ivy League graduate school if that fits with your future plans.
Just to be clear: Wellesley College, Tufts, Emory, WashUStL, Colby with Presidential, Middlebury College and several UCs offer an education as good as–sometimes better–than the Ivies.
It is easy to understand why you feel that you should have applied for the most prestigious schools, but it was not necessary as you clearly won the college admissions game.
Congratulations !
Forget the regrets & look forward.
Congratulations for your acceptances. Good wishes for a great experience at your college. No sense looking back with regrets about this. You want to try to transfer, go right on ahead.
You can be wistful about not taking your shot, if you want… but letting that rob you of the joy of having six elite privates plus UC’s to choose from seems like a foolish way to live.
Your pattern of acceptances does not suggest that acceptance at any single-digit-acceptance-rate school was likely. IMHO your results validate your application strategy very well. If you’d gotten in everywhere you applied, then sure, kick yourself for not aiming higher. But you got into your matches and some reaches, and got rejected at some reaches. That’s perfect - it means you found the “bubble” zone where the decision could go either way. You calibrated your application strategy well and ended up with amazing, enviable choices. Isn’t there at least one of these schools that you love?
This is an opportunity to purge this kind of second-guessing from your life, before you end up as the person who can’t be happy with her partner because she keeps wondering if she could’ve done better.
Where are you going to go? Surely you must be at least a little bit excited about at least one of these terrific colleges…?
I remember having something like this feeling when I started doing tutoring for the SAT, doing volunteer college counseling, and hanging out here on College Confidential - the latter half of undergrad.
I later realized that with my stats and especially as a first-generation African American student, I probably would’ve had a good chance at admission. I was tutoring and mentoring students with stats lower than the ones I’d had in high school who were getting into these highly selective colleges.
It made a slight resurgence when I did go to an Ivy for graduate school, and was blown away at the kind of services and resources the undergrads there had access to and the employers that vied for their attention.
Each time this happened I realized…that I was always in exactly the place I wanted to be anyway. I absolutely loved my undergraduate college experience, and given the choice, I’d choose Spelman again in a heartbeat. And then I went to an Ivy League graduate school, and then I started working for a company I love, in a job that uses my degrees and skills, on projects I’m really passionate about.
What would going to an Ivy as an undergrad have changed for me?
I encourage you to go into your new college with an open mind, and without preconceived notions about it being worse/lower (or better/higher) than any other college. Yes, it is possible to transfer to an Ivy - but I’d also encourage you to go in without being determined to transfer right from the start. You chose the colleges you applied to for a reason! Maybe the one you chose is just the perfect place for you. And if you’re a high achieving student who could’ve gotten into even more selective colleges, then you’ll do fine as long as you apply yourself wherever you go.
(As an aside…how meaningfully different is the college you chose from a “lower Ivy,” anyway? Schools in the “low 10s/high 20s” include places like Cornell (an Ivy), Rice, Wash U, UCLA, Emory, Berkeley, USC, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, Davidson, Wesleyan, Bates, Harvey Mudd, URichmond, Barnard, and Macalaester…those are excellent colleges! You would have access to a lot of services and resources at any of those, too.)
@Publisher @cptofthehouse @aquapt @juillet You are all true, there is no point in looking back at things I cannot change. And there is no clear indication whatsoever that I would have gotten into any ivy, but I am angry at myself for not trying because my college decisions came out better than I expected. This is all I have been thinking about for the past couple of days
@DSNSW01 , my father used to tell me “Every personnel move is for the best.” In other words, you are meant to be where you are meant to be. Maybe being at an Ivy would change your life, but to me it’s highly unlikely, especially considering the other schools that accepted you. I have great friends that went to Ivies, some have done really well, others are struggling. I also have friends that went to no name schools and are killing it, and others not. Plus if you want to attend grad school, you could attend an Ivy. To me, the Ivies are an interesting experience, but it’s also a bit more about a boost to the ego than it is a different experience. There are a ton of great schools out there that are not Ivies where you can get a quality education. Which is why you have the terms “Public Ivies”, “Potted Ivies”, “Hidden Ivies” and “Little Ivies”.
Just because you attend an Ivy doesn’t mean the world opens their doors for you. You will find this out whenever you start working. I went to a Top 3 public university and really struggled finding work both after undergrad and after getting an MBA from a Top 30 school. The world owes you nothing and 30 years into the working world, no one cares at all where I went to school as much as I do. What you do to differentiate yourself from other job candidates will likely land you the job, not the diploma hanging on your wall.
Life will be a series of these types of things: where you go to school, what car you drive, where you live, who you marry or love, etc. You just make the decisions that make you the most comfortable and seem right, not caring what others think. That’s an invaluable lesson.
I was also waitlisted at UNC OOS and I’ve always wondered how my life would have changed had I gone there, not because it would have opened up any more doors, but just curious where I would be living, who my friends would be, etc. But there is no point second guessing. Just enjoy the ride you’re on. (And maybe consider that Presidential Scholars award at Colby, or any other great financial package you received! The best gift is to get a quality education with little to no debt at the end.)
This is the second thread that you have started stating your regrets about past decisions. That looks like something that you may do much too often.
You applied the right colleges, were accepted to the right colleges, and will attend the right college.
Your life will be made up of many many decisions. In most cases, your decision will be a right one. Not THE right one, but A right one. There are always multiple choices which will work very well for you. There is NEVER any reason to regret any choice unless you see that it is not working out for you. Even then, you should see if you can make it work, or find a way to fix it.
Every one of your acceptances is an amazing college, and each and every one of them will provide the same level of education, and provide the same level of opportunities.
Aside from the futility of regrets, there is absolutely no reason to believe that attending an Ivy would help you achieve your life goals more than attending one of the colleges to which you were accepted. Moreover, it is more likely than not that you would have been rejected from every Ivy League college to which you would have applied.
In all honesty, I think that, had you applied to any Ivies, you would either have had a few more rejections, which are not a happy thing to get, or, in the best case, you would have another few choices over which you would agonize, and likely regret, if you chose them.
You made the right choice not applying to any Ivies - you stress yourself out enough, and do not need any more ways to add to that stress.
You are going to a great college, where you will do extremely well, and have a great four years. These years will help you set you up on any of the many paths that you wish to follow.
Congratulations and good luck!
What are your long term goals?