rejected at wesleyan & penn, WL at brandeis... any hope for me?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>sooooooo as the title suggests, i'm kind of bumming right about now.
any help would be great, whether that's encouraging or another healthy dose of reality. i swear there's nothing horribly wrong with my application... colleges just don't like me for some reason!</p>

<p>how are my chances at:
barnard
tufts
vassar
northwestern (medill school of journalism)
BU- communications/applied for trustee scholarship
brown (but i'm assuming i'm not into that one, haha)</p>

<p>1460 SAT, 780 V, 680 M
SAT II: writing- 800, bio-700, world hist-680
weighted gpa (not senior year)- 92 ish
Weighted gpa for senior year: 96.4
one of top public schools in country in CT
AP exam grades: World- 5, U.S.- 4
Currently taking: AP Euro, AP Gov & Politics, AP Studio Art, AP English, Honors Advanced Functions (mix of calculus and pre-calc), Journalism III</p>

<p>my essays are supposedly really good..</p>

<p>ECs-- these are just hte main ones, i do a bunch more too. </p>

<p>-Editor-in-chief of school paper, was Features editor last year, went to prestigious summer journalism program at northwestern (may give me an edge at medill maybe?)</p>

<p>-ART ECs, also ran and produced art gallery show to benefit children with special needs, attended selective art program at Wesleyan University for five weeks, currently painting an 8x30 foot mural</p>

<p>-staff of literary magazine, writing and art accepted every year</p>

<p>-piano, play at festivals at most advanced level</p>

<p>-varsity swim team- 4 years</p>

<p>-mock trial- lead prosecuting lawyer, defense lawyer, lead witness</p>

<p>-founded french club, biking club</p>

<p>-national charity league- involvement in many local organizations, more than 60 hours/year</p>

<p>-internship at local tv station and am co-producing a program with them</p>

2

<p>***? you got rejected???? omg, wat's ur AIM, we need to talk!!!</p>

3

<p>haha, i'll private message it to you</p>

4

<p>ur kidding. it's not even funny.</p>

5

<p>oh, trust me, i wish i were kidding</p>

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<p>I'm surprised you were waitlisted at Brandeis. Did you have a Blue Ribbon application? You're in at BU, and if you don't get the Trustee Scholarship, I bet you'll get some merit award. I don't know how much being a cherub gives you an edge at Medill...if you can swing it financially, Medill is top-notch. (I'm a Medill grad---bias here!)</p>

7

<p>yep, i applied blue ribbon. medill's great, i'm just concerned about my chances there and the others, i love barnard and tufts but i honestly don't know anymore. any opinions on my chances at these schools? anyone gotten in recently who may have an idea? thanks!</p>

8

<p>I think your problem might be your GPA, if its a 92 weighted it must be in the 80s non-weighted. </p>

<p>That would make Penn and Wesleyan tough, but Brandies should accept you in the end due to your SATs and ECs. As for the others, I see Brown not happening due to the GPA, Northwestern slightly better but I doubt it. BU is a lock with money, and at least one of Tufts, Vassar, Barnard should come through. I think you'll be fine.</p>

<p>If you don't get in, take heart. You are the IDEAL transfer candidate for top schools. If you do well your first semester your HS record will be balanced, and most of your reaches will will come through (my bet is if you end up at BU and get a 3.5 plus you are a lock into Northwestern as a transfer...if none of your others come through this time around). Sorry to be talking transferring, its just good to know. My brother was similar to you (actually slightly worse SAT and GPA), but he did well his first semester and got into UNC-CH, Cornell, and Northwestern as a transfer.</p>

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<p>in rock hard apps there are several outstanding candidates who should ahve gotten into the 1st choices, but got rejected almost everywhere due to poor management of their applications. this may be the case for you. i would go over a copy of the application and see if there are any areas you can elaborate/improve on, and then resubmit to the schools you still have a chance at.</p>

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<p>scorch,</p>

<p>First, you have the stats to get in to good schools, do not be discouraged. You have applied to all highly selective schools and that is why you need to do 7-8-- because the odds get better with multiple apps.</p>

<p>Your schools are a wide range of places. They seem a bit dissimilar. Wesleyan & Vassar seem sort of different from the others which are larger and more urban (I 'm counting Barnard sort of lumped together with Columbia, for ambiance).</p>

<p>Is there a remaining school you <em>really</em> want? If you got in everywhere, what school would call out to you? I would make an effort to get back in touch with the school(s) you most want. Visit, send any supplementary material you have etc. Let the #1 place know it is your #1 choice. Can't hurt and might help.</p>

<p>slipper makes a good point re transfering, but hang in there and you will probably not have to. Good luck!</p>

11

<p>Brown is a high reach for anyone, along with Penn and Wesleyan. Your grades are your Achilles Heel, particularly if you are not ranked high in your highschool, and with so many kids applying from the good Connecticut schools, these NE colleges well know where you are in that crowd even if your school does not rank. That is the other problem with your file Though geographics is not really a heavy part of the app process, it cannot help to be from New England and applying to schools like Tufts and Brandeis. They can fill their class with New England kids. If you had been from Ohio, for instance, I am pretty sure that you would be in Brandeis. Vassar is highly selective for women, and again, you live within a couple of hours from there, where the bulk of the applicants come from--that two or three hour radius. That leaves Barnard, which has about a one third acceptance rate, and BU where I think you are likely to get in, but the scholarship--well, they usually like to "buy" unusual applicants that they do not have too many of, and, again, the geographics will come into play. </p>

<p>You are a strong candidate for many colleges, and if you had been willing to apply to more schools in the midwest or the south, you would have likely gotten into colleges with the same accept rates as Brandeis. Wash & Lee, Wake Forest, College of Charleston, GW, American, Franklin and Marshall, Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, Emory, all would have been more receptive to a New Englander though the NE dominates at all selective schools, it seems. But when you are applying within such a short distance, you have to understand, many other kids are doing the same thing, and the schools want some geographic diversity. Not to say a high stat kid would not still get in, but you are within a category that has plenty of picks, so the process would be more selective for you. When I was in Pittsburgh, it was frightening how many top students from the area were turned down by CMU, and how few got merit awards, because CMU does not want to become another UPitt; it wants a national student body. They openly admit that they have two categories from the onset--in state applicants, and out of state.</p>

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<p>Well I think your grades really aren't that bad, just the cometition for those schools is rough. I would have predicted at least WL for Wesleyan and in at Brandeis.</p>

<p>I looked on usnews site for WL stats at Brandeis. last year 755 were offered a spot on the list, 367 accepted a spot and 108 were eventually accepted. So if you stay on their WL, keep in contact with them and let them know how much you want to go there (if you do), you could have a decent chance. </p>

<p>As for the others I agree Brown is a big reach and BU you're in but I think you have a chance for at least one of the others.</p>

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<p>scorch, you still haven't messaged me!!!</p>

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<p>Scorch, 2332clk, has some good advice regarding Brandeis. Also if it is your first choice at this point and you feel you can commit to it (a sort of early decision informal agreement), you may want to write a letter telling them so and having your GC back you up. Demonstrated interest will give you a good chance to get off the wait list as I think you were definitely a viable candidate and would have been accepted had you not been from New England, so close to Boston.</p>

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<p>I had three friends get into Brandeis with the Blue Ribbon application; 1380, 1280, 1250 SAT.
I'm suprised at how many people on CC, with all these amazingly high SAT scores and ECs, get rejected and waitlisted at schools that my friends are getting into no problem.</p>

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<p>2331clk-</p>

<p>Where were you able to veiw the waitlist stats from last year. I went on the US news site and can't find them? Thanks!</p>

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<p>thats some terrible luck man, but you'll end up somewhere good, your stats are great i don't know whats wrong with them</p>

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<p>Wow, thank you all so much for your great responses. I really hope it does work out. </p>

<p>While my grades are my weak point, I was told by my GC it shouldn't matter, because my courses have been all honors and AP throughout high school and my school doesn't give out As easily, either. While my school doesn't rank, I am pretty high comparatively. Also, a typical junior year day involved: waking up at 4:45a.m. to swim; going to school with three honors, one AP class, physics (hell), an extra elective and no frees; then swimming again; going to a few meetings, including being features ed of the paper; and returning home finally at 9:30 p.m. It's impossible to do it all, and I made my choices. I've really made a difference in my school and my community though, and that's what I'm proud of. </p>

<p>As for my app itself, there really wasn't anything "poorly managed." I sent in supplementary art to all of them, in the form of a creative flip book, and I actually wrote Wes an extra essay explaining why I wanted to go there. Also, I had an extra rec to begin with from my journalism teacher, and then my principal and another teacher asked me if I'd let them write one. So I have about five or six recs in the files. All are very strong, I have real relationships with these teachers and none are repetitive though, because they all know me in very different lights as I do very different types of things. </p>

<p>I'm really hoping for Barnard or Tufts at this point. Is there anything I can do if I'm not sure which is my first choice? My whole school administration is in somehwat of an uproar about all this, so I think I may let my principal call pre-emptively, as he wants to. Any of you have any more suggestions for my game plan?</p>

<p>I actually found out that I got into UMD-College Park, for their journalism school and for College Park scholars. So I'm there if anything, which is good news, though I've never been to Maryland and don't know much about the programs.</p>

19

<p>How have you heard from Penn and Wesleyan already?</p>

<p>I agree- it sounds like a case of terrible luck. I hope April brings some nice acceptances.</p>

20

<p>Yep, unfortunately your gpa is pulling you down. The rest of your app is golden.</p>