Rejected from all reaches so far - any thoughts as to why

Applying to College
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Accepted: University of Denver (28k merit/year), University of Minnesota (5k merit/year), Cal Poly SLO, UC Irvine, UCSD (first choice res college), Occidental College (10k merit/year + Honors Scholar), George Washington University (24k merit/year)

Waitlisted: Boston University, USC, University of Michigan

Rejected: UCLA, UC Berkeley, Stanford (REA), Vanderbilt, Tufts, Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Northeastern, Caltech

Demographics:
Vietnamese-American female, applying as a US citizen but have lived abroad several years in Thailand. Attend a small Christian international school. Significant financial need (family income 30k).
Intended Major: Neuroscience/Psychology/Criminology

Stats:
SAT 1580 (780 math, 800 EBRW)
GPA 3.93/4.2, 6 APs including this year (scores on tests were 4, 4, 5) and 4 dual enrollment classes (2 B’s, 1 A, 1 currently taking) which I took outside of school. Not most rigorous school offers but close (scheduling issues which I explained in additional info). Strong upward trend in grades and rigor

Extracurriculars: 14 years of classical violin (experience as a soloist; sent music portfolio). Run small art business. Design internship with local branch of international anti-trafficking non-profit. Co-director of costuming for school play. 150+ volunteer hours, mostly with orphanages and running programs such as VBS. Stream music performances online (>1M cumulative total views). Private teach violin to 6 students, have tutored elementary students.

Essays/LORs - pretty strong in my opinion. I worked 150+ hours on essays and got good feedback on them by a current Stanford student. Both teachers I asked to write LORs had known me for 4+ years

Interviews: only had the opportunity to do 1 because of my residence and this was for Penn. It was decent but not anything outstanding

Now just waiting on Ivies - Brown, Yale, and Penn. Probably going to commit to Occidental Honors otherwise and am very happy to attend but also want to know if there are any potential red flags in my application?

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No one can know why. For example, you think your essays were strong but they may not have been seen that way.

So the first thing is - you got into some excellent colleges - with the two UCs probably the hardest.

A UCSD, for example, isn’t far off from LA and Berkeley.

So you’ll neer know why - but many of the schools you applied to will have single digit acceptance rates. It could be related to many factors - maybe you didn’t show enough love or you didn’t portray how you’d fit in at a school. Maybe it’s #s. Maybe it’s LORs.

Frankly, you did very well - and I’d suggest rather than dwelling - you look at your wonderful acceptances - and decide where you want to be.

You have some fine options - and you should hold your head high.

Note I said acceptances - not wait list.

Where you go is less important than what you do when you are there.

Hold your head high - and show love to those schools that showed you love - and your list is very good btw!!

Good luck.

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Perhaps this is an issue. At least your private reaches like to consider themselves as not pr-professional. It is possible that your desired major of criminology may have come across as pre-professional. If you simply left it at Neuroscience, your application may have been better received. A bunch of those places don’t even have a criminology major. This is a possibility. Not sure obviously.

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Actual it is simple - they are called reaches. As a reach no person should ever have any expectation to get into any of them. Doesn’t matter how many you apply to - it is hard for you to get in. They each make decisions and have their own needs but it still holds you never expect to get into a reach and you get excited if you do.

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considering many private reaches such as the one OP is applying to don’t even have a criminology major, I don’t think this is an issue. I know specifically UCI has a criminology major. this is probably what they mean, that they applied to different schools with different majors depending on availability.

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What’s your most economical option? I’m not sure I understand why you’d choose occidental. You got into several reaches and should be very proud of that!

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because as far as I can see Oxy is the only full-need-met school in the list of acceptances, which is important for a low-income student

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Ah, got it.

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first and foremost, any schools that offer either two ED rounds (ED1 + ED2) or both ED and EA yield protect significantly. a notable one that you didn’t apply to that’s on the list would be uchicago (ED1 + EA + ED2 + <1% acceptance rate RD). it’s possible you didn’t show enough interest, which is why the school decided not to admit.

for the top tier UCs such as LA and cal, i believe it’s either 1) weak essays or 2) lack of high school recognition. you seem to have a high enough GPA that’s well compensated by a FGLI boost (30K income) so academics do not seem to be the problem. cal specifically has a poor graduation rate in comparison to other schools so they typically take more students from a more rigorous high school (aka feeders) like the T3 publics in CA (all of which you have to test into).

this is all purely speculation and like others said, you already have great options. i hope you don’t dwell on this too much because there’s nothing you can change. keep your chin up, you’ll do great

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Although criminology sounds similar to criminal justice, criminology is typically a more research oriented subject or a subarea of sociology.

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Of course, at this stage, the actual FA offers are what matters in this context.

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Why not Oxy? It’s a great school and may be a better fit, not just financially.

My daughter has been accepted there and is seriously considering it — she’s also been accepted to several reach and target schools, including USC and Tufts.

To the OP: Your stats are great— the reason behind these decisions are unknowable. You have great options. Start digging in, plan to visit virtually or in person for admitted students days and let yourself get excited about the your schools!

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You can read two helpful posts linked in this thread:

You probably didn’t get into your reaches due to circumstances beyond your control. You have good choices and that’s what matters.

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Can I just say that OP’s daughter sounds lovely. She has developed a musical talent to the level that she can teach young children. She is athletic. She volunteers with victims of human trafficking, where she is making a tangible difference in people’s lives. She aced the ACT and the SAT. Any school will be lucky to have her enrolled.

If it’s ok to apply test optional, maybe one day it will be ok to apply ethnicity optional.

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I’m just nitpicky but it seems like OP is the applicant :laughing:

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You’re a rockstar applicant in a tough year. You also sound like a self-starter and will do well wherever you go. What kind of launching board is Oxy for a self starter? President Obama…

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I don’t have any problem with occidental, but from the info given it looked like they’d given very little merit and it’s 75k a year.

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I’m sorry that you didn’t apply to Harvard, which seems to like musicians (and other performing artists) and gives great financial aid. I think that this is because Harvard is proud of their excellent performing arts ensembles, even though they don’t have performing arts majors. So applicants who bring outstanding abilities in performing arts (even though they will usually major in other fields) are often favored for admission, more so than they would be at, say, Yale, which has a graduate school of music, or any of the other Ivies, which may have performing arts ensembles, but don’t seem to favor applicants with high achievement in performing arts to the degree that Harvard does.

Your accomplishments and your record of achievement are wonderful. You will do well anywhere you go, and thereafter. There are no red flags in your application. The only thing that I wish you had done was to have come on here earlier, so that you could have heard from some students and parents who had come before you. In our experience, it was extremely valuable, what we learned on here.

Fair or not, it certainly does make a difference when one is coming from a demographic that the school is actively seeking, which was not the case with you.

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as I said up-thread, Oxy is full-need-met and will probably give OP a full need-based ride (with minimal loans).

source: I live in LA, seriously considered applying to Oxy, got accepted and went to their fly-in program, and had a classmate of mine get accepted ED with their full need met.

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Also an L.A. resident, I don’t think occidental meets full need for international students? Or would they meet full need because she’s a citizen who’s been living abroad? I was trying to get a sense of the OP’s offers.

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