<p>I was deferred from Princeton SCEA, then rejected by NorthWestern and waitlisted at UChicago. I've only gotten into UCLA and UCSD so far. Am I screwed for Ivies + Duke/Stanford, since NorthWestern is far less selective than all of them?</p>
<p>Deferral at Princeton and wait list at Chicago are signs you are competitive for Duke/Stanford and Ivies. Do you have any hooks? Northwestern rejection not end of world. Schools are looking for different things, plus NW may have been skeptical you would come from sunny LA.</p>
<p>I actually am in almost the same exact position as you. Accepted so far to UCLA and UCSD, waitlisted at Chicago and rejected at NU. From what I’ve heard NU is MUCH more competitive this year. Not only is there more applicants than ever but they are accepting a much smaller number of applicants this year. I really think the percent accepted for NU, when it comes out, will be as low if not lower than some of the Ivies. Don’t lose hope!</p>
<p>^^
I’m Asian, so I have an anti-hook, lol. Here are my stats:</p>
<p>Decision: Rejected </p>
<p>Objective:</p>
<p>SAT I (breakdown): 2340 superscored (800 CR, 800 W, 740 M)
ACT:
SAT II: 770 US History, 710 Lit
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.87
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1 out of 532
AP (place score in parenthesis): Euro (5), Human Geography (5), Lang/Comp (5), US History (5), Environmental Science (5), Biology (4), Psychology (self-studied) (4), MacroEcon (4), MicroEcon (4), Chem (3).
IB (place score in parenthesis):
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, AP Lit, AP World, Spanish II, Physical Education (required), AP Gov second semester, AP Art History and AP Psychology online.
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National AP Scholar, National Merit Commended, Interact Merit Award for Outstanding Service as District Governor. </p>
<p>Subjective:</p>
<p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Rotary Interact-- President/Founder (9&10), District Governor (11&12), Founder/Chairman of International Governors’ Consultative Council (12).
Boy Scouts-- Eagle Scout and Den Chief
Academic Decathlon- Co-Captain
Piano (12 years)
NHS
Peer mentoring </p>
<p>Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service: Interact/Boy Scouts
Summer Activities: Summer Camp, trip to Singapore, trip to Yosemite, examining my own hypochondria and OCD and attempting to find a cure.
Essays: First was one was a bit overly misanthropic and forced; I liked the second.
Teacher Recommendation: Both good, although they both included some criticism.
Counselor Rec: Didn’t read, but he said it was very good.
Additional Rec: None
Interview: None </p>
<p>Other
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): CA
[</em>] Country (if international applicant): United States
[<em>] School Type: Non-competitive public
[</em>] Ethnicity: Asian.
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>]Income Bracket: Fluctuates, didn’t request Financial Aid.
[li] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None </p>[/li]
<p>Reflection
[<em>] Strengths: Rank, AP scores, SAT, Interact
[</em>] Weaknesses: Unweighted GPA, SAT IIs maybe, lack of depth in ECs past main one, race, math level.
[<em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: No clue.
[</em>] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Deferred from Princeton SCEA, waitlisted at UChicago, accepted at UCLA and UCSD.
General Comments: Shocked. Didn’t think I would get a straight-up rejection. Not even a waitlist.</p>
<p>No, it means you are in the ballpark. Did you show interest to NU? what other Ivies did you apply?</p>
<p>^
NorthWestern didn’t even offer me an interview. My first instinct was to call it Tufts since they may have assumed that NU wasn’t one of my top choices.</p>
<p>I applied to HYP + Wharton enthusiastically. Applied to Columbia with joke essays, rushed through Brown, and threw in applications to Cornell and Dartmouth at the last minute on a whim.</p>
<p>Post #6, that maybe why. FWIW, I remember one guy on CC( in the last 2 years) was rejected everywhere but Yale. So there is still hope.</p>
<p>examining my own hypochondria and OCD and attempting to find a cure.
Essays: First was one was a bit overly misanthropic and forced</p>
<p>Skip thoughts any rejections are about bias against Asian-Americans. Not only do the holistic schools care about how you project yourself, they can often tell when you “rush through.” </p>
<p>Nonetheless, wait and see. NU is no indication. They could have had a barrelful of top performers apply from S. Cal.</p>
<p>^^
NorthWestern didn’t request summer activities. I think I only listed those for Princeton.</p>
<p>Edit: And oh, NorthWestern was at 18%? I thought it was still 23%.</p>
<p>No. Northwestern is not “far less competitive” than Ivies + Duke. NU is actually decreasing its class size because the yield rates have been unexpectedly high, so it’s actually becoming more competitive.</p>
<p>Saugus</p>
<p>Dont be discouraged. You still have March 30th (or 31st).</p>
<p>^^^
18% is around Cornell level, though. Dartmouth is 11%, Brown is 8%, and HYP is like 5% for RD. Logically, if I couldn’t get into the 18% school, then it would appear anything with a significantly lower rate is off the table barring a fluke.</p>
<p>Cornell is made up of different colleges each with distinct acceptance rates and some are more selective for males than females, like engineering, which is one reason why going by acceptance rates can be misleading.</p>
<p>And schools are looking for fit and a class. There are posters in previous years who got into HYPM and rejected and/or waitlisted at cornell, chicago and johns hopkins to name 3.</p>
<p>No, if you couldn’t get into NU, at 18%, you don’t know what it was. Admissions isn’t about how your stats make you prime for a private school; there’s so much more they also look at- and the more competition among top performers, from your area, with your interests, the harder the comparisons are. I don’t want to give false hopes; we don’t kow how those essays (or the rush jobs) appeared to adcoms. But, all anyone can ever really say is: I am in range, I made the best decisions I could, the rest depends on the pool. That’s all.</p>
<p>The guess at the NU site is that the acceptance rate will be closer to 15% this year, fwiw.</p>
<p>I got rejected at Northwestern, waitlisted at Rice, and I’m worried I wouldn’t have a shot at any ivys. My first choice is Brown.</p>
<p>I got into wellesley so far.</p>
<p>Don’t worry. I got rejected at Northwestern and waitlisted at UChicago as well, but got a likely from Penn.</p>
<p>My close friend was rejected from NU last year. He is now happily at Stanford (and also pocketed an acceptance from Johns Hopkins). Admittedly, he was not accepted to any Ivies. He applied to Penn, Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia.</p>
<p>Saugus, I am in the exact same position. Deferred SCEA to Princeton, waitlisted at WUSTL and Northwestern, accepted to UCLA. I’m Asian, too, have similar stats, and applied to basically the same places. I guess the problem is, there are too many of us? Princeton deferral was pretty heartbreaking. Recent waitlists were depressing but not nearly as bad. NU wasn’t my first choice, and probably not yours either. Maybe that’s why we didn’t get in. Cheer up, at least you’ve got somewhere to go.</p>
<p>^
Oh man, that’s what I’m starting to fear. I always thought I was NOT a generic Asian, especially since I don’t even identify with the culture at all. I can’t even speak the languages.</p>
<p>But what if they just see me as a high stats Asian high-up in a service organization with a few conventional throw-in secondary activities? That’s pretty common…</p>