Rejected by all 8 Ivy leagues with straight As and 2270 SAT

Applying to College
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Yesterday was slightly brutal for me as I got rejected by all 8 ivy league schools! I wasn’t expecting much as I understood they were extremely selective but I was surprised to be rejected by every single one.

The point of this post is not to moan or say that I deserved to be admitted more than others because I do not think that at all. I am not overly upset because I have been admitted to a great school in the UK which is of the same calibre as the ivy league schools. However, my dream was to go to university in the USA. It is more of a question of whether I did something wrong.

I’m applying from the UK but I am a US citizen, so admission is need-blind. I go to one of the top state schools in the country. My exam grades are almost perfect, I don’t have a single B and I have the best A level grades in my year, hardest possible courseload.

My SAT is 2270 (800M 790W 680CR) in one sitting (this was my 4th attempt, I don’t know how much that matters but I reported all attempts). Subject tests 800 math 2 and 730 spanish.

I play 3 sports, one to a regional level and I speak 3 languages. I have a few awards which are fairly prestigious such as math olympiads and Grade 8 piano. I play around 3 hours a day of piano and I have a Youtube channel where I post piano videos which has over 200 thousand views.

I put a lot of work into my essays and I was very proud of them. I suppose a few of them were slightly risky because I wanted to show my personality; audacious perhaps. But only a few and I don’t think it was too significant.

The other 2 students from my school that applied to university in America were also rejected by all the schools they applied to, and they both had perfect grades and 2200+ SAT scores.

Overall, although my application was far from flawless, I felt that my academics were of a high enough level for these institutions. I understand that they are looking for more than just academics but I thought that I was well-rounded, and I take part in many extra curriculars. In fact, I’m the opposite of a nerd, I’m very outgoing. There are many other things that I didn’t mention in this post such as my work experience, but I can’t imagine that it’s very significant. Perhaps the fact I didn’t mention any community service? Or that my SAT critical reading was low?

I’d be interested to know who actually gets into these schools, especially from the UK or other european countries. I spent a huge amount of time on my applications to American universities compared to the UK, but I was much less successful in America.

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Imagine 10,000 applicants, just as good as you. Then pick 100 of them. See what I mean?

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I have a 2350 SAT and 36 ACT. Top .1% of my class of 900. Play one sport. 800 Math 2 and 770 Physics. Great extracurricular and internships (in my opinion). Solid recommendations. Got rejected by all 8 ivies, and not really surprised.

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Same story again. There are a dozen threads exactly like this on Cc right now. If you had been on this website six months ago, at least, before you had applied, you would have known that your grades and test scores guarantee absolutely nothing at the top schools, and that you MUST apply to some match schools. My kids best friend is the valedictorian, her SAT was 2370, her GPA is 99.5, lots of 5 scores on her many APs. No acceptances to Ivys. But, she was sensible and applied to lots of match and safety schools. She got into three highly selective colleges, got offered loads od money at others, and full rides at some.

Not trying to rag on you, but your downfall is that you didn’t plan for the real possibility that you might not get in anywhere. There are simply too many amazing students to choose from, and if you don’t catch their eye for some really great reason, forget it. There are just too many of you, as unique and wonderful as you probably are. You can still come to college in the US. Look for colleges that offer rolling admissions. In May, NACAC will publish a list of colleges that haven’t met their yield and are looking for students. Some of the colleges are really great. Have a look. Good luck to you.

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In the United States, there are Ivy League quality applications enrolled at all of the top-200 schools. In fact, the top-20 schools are Indistinguishable from the Ivy League in the academic quality of their student body.

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I think maybe the CR score might have had a negative effect (as well as taking the test 4 times.) Also, a frequently successful approach to ECs these days for elite US colleges is to have a deep mastery of one area, with regional or national level recognition, whether it be athletics, music, scientific research, etc. Perhaps you were too well-rounded and they couldn’t quite see your uniqueness or “passion” ( that overused term.)

In any case, the schools need so many recruited athletes, URMs, legacies, etc., there are not so many open seats left. Treasure your UK acceptance, work hard, and you can aim for grad school here. All the best in this trying time!

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Unfortunately, all As are meaningless and there are about 13,500 with 2270+ scores and closer to 28000 at 2200+.

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you know, there are thousands of kids with perfect SAT and ACT and GPA’s. Even they might not get it. I’m not too surprised, to be honest.

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Sometimes when I hear that a student has applied to all 8 Ivies, I think do you really have an interest in all of them and think they all could be a good fit or are you just chasing prestige. While they do have a sports league in common, there are stark differences between the schools, Perhaps a focused applicant is a better applicant

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Dear OP, You rejected hundreds of colleges and universities in the US in favor of 8 schools. Why? These other universities work hard to provide a good education to the students who attend them. We’ve placed schools in just about every city and every state in the hopes that they would attract students like you. Why oh why did you reject them all? Some of these schools have Pultizer Prize winners who teach class. Others routinely send student off to complete Fulbrights. Most offer dozens and dozens of different majors. Many have state of the art science programs designed for students just like yourself. But you rejected them all. Do they not deserve students like yourself? Why after they have constructed what they believe to be a nearly perfect university do you, OP, reject them all?

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Top end grades and test scores are just one part of what keeps you in the game for super-selective colleges. You then need something else really impressive to them (e.g. state or national level achievement, award, or recognition in something) and no defects (e.g. poor essays, recommendations, or interview) to have much of a chance (and even then, you have to be someone that the super-selective college wants when it is building a class).

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@lostaccount , that is awesome.

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There are American universities that provide opportunities just as good as the 8 who are in a northeastern sports league (and are otherwise quite different from each other). For some reason, it seems that many applicants don’t realize that.

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That 680 CR is subpar for the ivies, especially if you tried 4 times.

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don’t feel bad! i agree with the above posters; there are SO many great schools out there. The Ivies are amazing, but so are 100s of non-Ivy league schools. College is what you make of it; being the top student at a state school and making an impact there is better than “going” to an Ivy league school but getting poor grades, slacking etc. Not that people do that, but just saying.

Plus you already got into a good school in the UK, be grateful for that :slight_smile: Maybe you were a better fit for there anyways!

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Thank you everyone for the responses. I definitely feel better and more informed after reading them. I would have applied to slightly less selective schools in America but I had already been accepted to a very prestigious school in the UK and so I just wanted to apply to top schools in America to see if I had a shot at getting in. It does just leave me wondering, who actually gets into the Ivy League schools from the UK/Europe? I can’t imagine there being many students here with a 2300+ SAT as it is a very different test to anything that we have prepared for. If anyone knows of anyone that did get accepted I’d certainly be interested to know about them.

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The one thing that does occur to me is, that if all the applicants from your school were rejected - could there have been something about the recommendation letters that wasn’t quite geared to what the Ivies expect? Has the school had success in previous years?

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I think you are placing too much emphasis on your scores, because they are the most important factor for getting into the best schools in England and enabled you to get into a prestigious English university. In the US, they are only one factor and the top colleges only use scores as one factor in the application. I know a girl graduating this year who got into Stanford (not an ivy, but just as selective). Her scores are lower than yours, however she has published original math proofs and participated in the USAMO (the most selective math competition in the US).

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@Conformist1688 2 years ago someone got into princeton but he was a recruited athlete. Other than that almost all applications have been unsuccessful.

@Yomama12 Valid point. However I would still say that I’m more well rounded in terms of sports and other extracurriculars than the majority of my high achieving academic peers.

@fauve I appreciate that feedback, I did fear that my critical reading score would potentially let me down and I definitely should have spent more time preparing for it. I just hoped that they might have noticed that I am much more of a math-oriented person and that I was surely not going to be an english major, and consequently focused on my achievements and scores in math. Academically I don’t think I’m overly well rounded- as my scores suggest, I am a maths and economics student and the intended major that I declared was economics. I understand that my chances would have been better if say I had a critical reading score of 720, giving me an overall SAT of 2310. But I just wonder if that would have genuinely been the difference between me getting accepted and rejected, because 40 points in the critical reading section is literally 2 multiple choice questions- I don’t think you could differentiate between two applicants on that basis as that could purely be down to lucky guesses.

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However, the idea that the Ivies are the only top unis in the US is naive and wrong. Not to mention that the Ivies are quite different from each other.