<p>International, ED Dartmouth but rejected...got 2340 on SAT and GPA 3.90, some good activities. I believe the essays were fine. What went wrong? Is it that I applied 50% financial aid? </p>
<p>Applied to Dartmouth ED as well, but got deferred (pretty much same thing as getting rejected though; deferred students rarely get admitted). Honestly, college admissions is a crapshoot anyway. Nothing to do but keep your head up and move on. You seem like a good applicant, but perhaps “good” isn’t enough for the Ivy League’s anymore. Also international students have it harder than domestic students.</p>
<p>Dartmouth has already left my mind. I’m going to focus on Swarthmore and Amherst now. </p>
<p>No one can know without seeing your whole file and we are not admissions anyway. But you don’t ask for "50% aid’, only for aid and they will tell you what they can give you. It is tough for internationals. I would be a little worried about my Letters and my essay, though. Are you from a very competitive country?</p>
<p>I’m sorry you were rejected.
From the most recent Common Data Set (2013-2014), I see that Dartmouth only accepted 29% of ED applicants.</p>
<p>S&A are awesome choices. carry on and best of luck!</p>
<p>I’d say quite competitive, and from what I learnt Dartmouth takes only 4-5 students out of all applicants here every year. wanted to ED Brown at first but changed my mind :(</p>
<p>29% is not a small number tho. The waters are rough for intl students, we pay large amounts and work super hard to get in top 20 schools. </p>
<p>Haha yep thanks. Honestly for early decision, you also have to take into account that a portion of that 29% is legacy applicants, recruited athletes, etc. that make our chances even smaller.</p>
<p>Hope you do well in your Regular Decision colleges. What are you applying to?</p>
<p>Cornell and Northwestern. and some rank 20 LACs for financial aid 
</p>
<p>Fin aid isn’t an issue at all. Probably nothing went wrong with your application. What went wrong is that you didn’t dispassionately internalize that you (and every other unhooked applicant) have low odds of getting in to Ivy/Ivy-equivalent schools. If I give you a 6-sided die and told you that you “win” if you roll a 6 but “lose” otherwise, do you ask yourself “what went wrong?” when you roll a 5?</p>
<p>Now, admission isn’t completely random, but the Ivies/Ivy-equivalents get waaaay more high-stats/non-hooked/non-special applicants than they can/will admit. So don’t take the rejection personally.</p>
<p>Are you top 10 in your extracurricular activities in your country/region? Are your essays or activities so striking that several days after reading about them, they would pop in to your readers’ brains unbidden? How do you know your essays were “fine” or that your activities were “good”? What did you compare them against?</p>
<p>In any case, in the US, there are many many paths to success. Here is something I posted elsewhere:
"
I think that something like Payscale’s salary rankings is illuminating:
<a href=“WSJ.com”>http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Salaries_for_Colleges_by_Region-sort.html</a></p>
<p>If you sort by 75th percentile mid-career salary, Georgetown, ND (despite being in the Midwest, where pay is on average lower than on the coasts), and Colgate(!) outrank Columbia, Cornell, and Brown.</p>
<p>Yes, salary isn’t the end-all and be-all, but I have to imagine that the opportunities at Georgetown, ND, and Colgate can’t be all that terrible if their better grads do better than the better grads of some Ivies.</p>
<p>Also of note is that the 75th percentile of Cal, UCLA, UVa, & UCD outrank the median of every Ivy (actually, every school). 75th percentile of Tulane = median of Dartmouth and is above the median of every other Ivy.75th percentile of UIUC is above the median of all Ivies besides Dartmouth. 75th percentile of UCSD is equal to the median of Princeton and above all Ivies/schools besides Princeton and Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Note that a quarter of UCB/UCLA/UCSD/UCD would be more people than 100% of each of Princeton/Yale/Brown.
A quarter of UIUC would be more people than 100% of each Ivy besides Cornell & UPenn.</p>
<p>Another way to look at it: 10% of the student bodies of each of Cal/UCLA/UCSD/UMich is more students than 25% of Harvard’s student body. The 90th percentile salaries of Cal/UCLA/UCSD/UMich grads are each higher than the 75th percentile salary of Harvard grads.</p>
<p>More grads from each of Cal/UCLA/UCSD/UMich than from Harvard have mid-career earnings of >$180K.</p>
<p>These are all good schools, though none of them would be seen as an Ivy, yet the opportunities there can’t be all that terrible (or, alternatively, where you go to school can’t matter all that much) if a good number of them, 10+ years out, are doing pretty darn well.
"</p>
<p>Such elaborate answer. thanks very much!</p>
<p>"… if their better grads do better than the better grads of some Ivies."
…or maybe the worst grads. Basically everyone i knew personally at my school got an advanced degree, someplace down the road, hence wouldn’t be in payscale, right? Not to mention differences in student body objectives, etc.</p>
<p>However, though I personally wouldn’t rely on Payscale to bolster the argument, I agree with the premise that there are many paths to success, </p>
<p>@monydad:</p>
<p>Definitely differences in objectives, though I believe that that particular Payscale chart did not exclude folks who got advanced degrees.</p>
<p>I guess sometimes we’ll have to sound “less perfect” than we want to. It’s becoming a trend that Ivy prefers “less perfect” candidates from our country, like those with not-too-high SAT/GPA, because they look more genuine and real. :)</p>
<p>Actually, the Ivies prefer someone who’s done something awesome.</p>
<p>@jostyae
You sound “less perfect.” Your GPA is not a perfect 4.0 and your SAT score did not break 2350. I do not understand why you would accuse the Ivies of preferring imperfect students when you were imperfect but still rejected.</p>
<p>The Ivies are selective. Without hooks, tragic sob stories, and/or prestigious awards such as the International Math Olympiad, you should not expect any Ivy to accept you.</p>
<p>@mangiafuoco WOW…that is a little harsh. I don’t think jostyae was accusing the Ivies of anything…just saying that the Ivies aren’t just looking at “perfect scores”. I don’t know if you realize how you sound, but it is pretty abrasive.</p>
<p>I think what @mangiafuoco is trying to say is that no one is perfect; and, that even people near-perfect, get rejected. because there is just not enough room for every applicant that wants to go to school in the US. Additionally, add the fact that the OP needs money to go to school here. Unless the applicant has made literal “headlines”, the application is placed in the “reject pile” with the thousands of international students asking to have the university pay for each student’s four years of education.
I think that most international students don’t really understand that the schools don’t have “piles of money” for them. Money from the universities’ FA budgets has to be spread and dispensed among thousands of students who do qualify for government aid.<br>
It’s tough.</p>
<p>sure. Stats dont explain all about Ivy’s admissions; the process is getting more and more enigmatic. After all, without “hooks, tragic sob stories or prestigious awards”, should be okay with rejections</p>
<p>LOL yes, and now I will not apply for any financial aid for regular decision. btw how do you guys @ somebody in a reply?:0</p>