<p>Nevermind</p>
<p>
The snarky response would be because you don’t know what the words “every school I applied to” mean. The other answer is you applied to the most competitive schools in the country which are reaches for everyone.</p>
<p>
If you were accepted at Madison and Santa Clara, you were not rejected from all universities. If the 4.3 GPA is weighted, your unweighted GPA might be lower than most at highly selective colleges. In another thread, a poster linked to the presentation at <a href=“http://phs.princetonk12.org/guidance/Forms/Betterton%20College%20Planning.pdf”>http://phs.princetonk12.org/guidance/Forms/Betterton%20College%20Planning.pdf</a> . I don’t agree with all of the content, but I do agree with how much non-academic achievements out of the classroom can influence admissions at highly selective colleges. Your awards and achievements sound decent, but not as exceptional as many of the other applicants at highly selective universities, like the ones to which you were not accepted. Having a polished application including essays edited 20+ times by a professional also might have led to the wrong impression.</p>
<p>Also, Vanderbilt does not release decisions for a couple more hours.</p>
<p>Nevermind</p>
<p>If I were you, I would make my profile a little more anonymous. Seriously. </p>
<p>Your test scores are good, but the schools you are looking at usually accept 34+</p>
<p>You don’t increase your chances at any one school by increasing the number of reaches to which you apply. Each school made its decision independent of the others, so in some sense you were rejected by each school and not all of them. Could you imagine yourself being rejected by any one of these reaches? Sure you can. </p>
<p>I understand your anger, disappointment, and frustration. This happened to my D last year when I wasn’t counseling her. In fact, she didn’t even get into her low matches, perhaps because she did not show enough interest because her eyes were focused on her reaches. This experience was her first academic disappointment, and it hurt her visibly. Heck, it hurt me that she hurt so bad. Knowing her resumé, I was in disbelief that so many schools could not see what I could, and then I began educating myself and found that there were tens of thousands of students with better credentials than hers.</p>
<p>This is only by way of saying that your experience is not unusual. It could have been avoided, but that realization doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. This year D got into every school to which she applied except for being wait listed at her two reaches. It feels a lot better around here now. A big part of her would have applied to ivies again, but I strongly discouraged her. We’ll never know if it was for the better, but the waitlisted schools suggest it was.</p>
<p>Hang in there. Lick your wounds. Learn the lessons. And if you’re going to work in academia, expect that disappointment will occur more frequently than success. You learn after awhile that it’s not personal, has almost nothing to do with you, and will roll right off your back while you’re putting together your next attempt.</p>
<p>This is how you get rejected from so many schools…you only apply to ones hovering in the 10% or less admit rate. </p>
<p>It is like buying 100 lottery tickets. You might not win a single dollar on that. Or you might. But, your odds do not improve all that much -there are still roughly the same odds of winning big time in lottery,whether you buy one ticket, or 5 or 100 and so on. Astronomical odds. </p>
<p>If Harvard offered in neighborhood of 5.8% for soring admissions decisions, then nearly 95% of applicants are told no. </p>
<p>Of those kids and those admitted, some fairly stellar applicants. Kids with oerfect GPA’s and test scores, those who have done more extravurriculars ot more sports or whatever it is they are looking for. Maybe they wrote a killer essay or made an app for iphone. </p>
<p>You simply cannot ask why. You need to move on quickly, figure out plan B - either a gap year or a transfer. </p>
<p>You should have had more safeties and matches. You did not. Not sure why. Sorry. </p>
<p>Not picking on OP, but I think some students are putting in applications like they’re lotto tickets - if I buy enough, I’m bound to win! Although the applications are evaluated independently, for similarly competitive schools, they are to some degree linked. How you do at one is an indication of how you will do at another.</p>
<p>The other big fallacy is that “My essays were great!” Really? Take a look around at CC, everyone says their essays were great. But ask admissions officers, and they’ll tell you most essays are horrible. May 5-10% are considered good by the people who read them. Who told you the essay was great? You? Your friends? Or a GC who knows a good essay when he reads it, and it likely wasn’t good the first time you submitted it. If essays are a big part of the admission process, not test scores, and your essay is horrible, and it goes to every school, is it any surprise you’re rejected by similar schools?</p>
<p>If I had any advice to give next years applicants, other than Rigor! Rigor! Rigor!, which is really more advice to freshman and sophomores, it would be pay more attention to the essays and get help with them from someone who knows what colleges are looking for. Get started early, especially for your most important schools. Even if you have to pay a consultant to do so, it might be the best money you spend in the whole process.</p>
<p>That’s important advice, MrMom62, but it’s also some of the more difficult things to get students to do. I can proofread the daylights out of something, but if the student is unwilling to take the initiative and put in the spark there’s not much I can do to help. It is after all not my life colleges want to hear about and theirs is not a life I know well. When students are willing to settle for some of the essay ideas I’ve read, you can only hope the readers are emphasizing some other criterion. Those are the kids who don’t get into the Top 15.</p>