I have a son at Temple and he loves it. Philly is a great city. It has lots to do, but is much more affordable than NYC, LA, DC, SF, and Boston.
Just to clarify… most colleges that offer excellent merit aid only offer it to incoming freshman with no college experience; not transfers. That is why a gap year can be helpful. A gap year can, in other words, help you to “re-boot” your search, and widen it to good schools that offer excellent merit aid (and good need aid too).
I do not support using a gap year which just focuses on improving the chances of getting into the same colleges. That typically won’t work, although including one or two favorites cannot hurt. As I said, sometimes persistence bears fruit. Just applying again to the same 25 schools is likely to result in the same rejections, and would probably only waste a year of your life.
All the CC stay at home moms and dads love to make kids feel bad for being upset about only getting into their safeties. You’re right @aboa123 this really does suck! I can only imagine how you feel. You worked very hard in high school, and because of some reason or another, you didn’t get into any of your top-picks. It’s a hard dose of reality. You are 100% validated in feeling the way you do.
Also consider that your college experience really doesn’t define you. Whether or not you got accepted into those upper tier schools, you’re STILL the same hard-working, motivated, ambitious individual you were when you applied. This will continue to hold true no matter what college you go to. Make the most out of the next 4 years, while you have the opportunity to continue to shine just a little bit brighter than your surroundings–something that’s much harder to do in the very selective schools you were rejected from! Best of luck to you in your future.
I don’t know what “stay at home parents” you are referring to there, giraffe…l may spend a lot of time in this office (and on CC) but this sure ain’t my home.
You, at least got into a university. This is a good thing, be happy!
What I don’t understand is this attitude that you were better than everyone because you worked harder.
Harder than what? Have you seen all of the posts about rejections? Do you think its unique that you haven’t gotten into the difficult schools? Think about the class sizes at some of the harder schools. They can’t admit the hundreds of thousands of students. They build a core of students and see which students will jell together and guess at who will work well together. Maybe this same attitude came through in your essays?
All of the students, who ask questions on this forum, seem to have worked really hard, look at their grades, stats and EC’s.
@"aunt bea" I think its unfair of you to just tell her “be happy”. It’s not as simple as you believe. I’m not sure when you were in high school, but I’m sure you know kids work their butt off tirelessly and relentlessly for 4 years in one of the longest auditions in their lives in the hopes of getting into a top-tier university. Getting rejected from a school stings. I can only imagine how it hurts to get rejected by all of your top choices. Yes, the work you put into high school will pay off later in life… to an extent. Some of it was time simply wasted in the pursuit of going to college. Whether or not you agree, that’s what the system and our culture promotes. There’s no time to do high school the “right way” (whatever that may be) when colleges place such intense expectations on their students.
Please remember that directly insulting other members is not allowed. - FC
I was considering a gap year , but what am I supposed to do for the duration of that year?
During the gap year, you could do either paid work or volunteer work (does not need to be “charity” work, many libraries have volunteer positions, for example). Of course you could do a mix of both.
However, the main focus of such a gap year would be to do additional research on colleges; especially ones with excellent merit aid for students with your stats. Perhaps funds from paid work would allow you to visit the colleges you find most interesting. Personally, I would never attend a college that I had not visited (remember that such visits can happen after acceptance). Also take some time to just do a few things you enjoy, like reading books that interest you, or hobbies that you might have neglected.
Probably the most common gap year is paid work.
Are Temple and Spelman affordable after applying financial aid grants and scholarships?
@aboa123 Oprah went to Tennessee State University. She probably would have loved to go to Temple or Spelman.
No kid needs a particular college to be successful.
The world is yours.
@redpoodles But it is highly more likely that if you go to a great school you have a greater chance of finding a well paying job after you graduate.
That depends. If you are aiming for management consulting or investment banking, school prestige matters a lot. In some other types of employment, it matters a lot less.
What major and post-graduation goals are you considering?
The effects of your school on your future depend on whether you’re first-generation (yes), URm (yes), immigrant (yes), lower-income (yes), middle income (no), upper middle income (no), parents with BA/BS (no)… Essentially, students who need a “school name brand” are those whose parents don’t have the social and economic capital to help them “just in case”. However, Spelman IS a “brand name school”.
There’s not always a downfall to being one of the top students admitted to a school.
As of right now, you have two choices. Great-- you have a choice. Start comparing the two, and see where you decide to go.
The biggest factor in your future success is you not your school.
The schools that rejected you are in the rearview mirror. Reject them back.
Forget a gap year, you are ready for college now.
Accept positions on the waitlist. Write a short letter to Lehigh and Miami expressing your continued interest. Then visit and decide between Spelman and Temple. They are very different. Figure out which gives you more opportunity in the direction you want to go. Temple has a lot of really good students who go there because of money. You will find a niche of people like yourself.
I don’t think these choices are beneath you. You have to think positive.
If you can afford Temple or Spelman – without huge loans – then you should go to one of them. Same with Miami and Lehigh, if you get off their waitlist. Only take a gap year if you cannot afford college now.
There is a reason that your applications were rejected by the best schools. So, you need to forget about them now. If you do great at college, you can get a masters at almost any university. Besides, high income has more to do with your efforts than with your college. See the link @emerson2105 (post #35)
That was a great link, @emerson2015!
OP, if you are ivy league material, you definitely should be able to get a full ride at Temple, and if you can’t pay anything, that alone makes it doubly valuable… both Temple and Spelman can be excellent springboards to almost any type of job.
@aboa123 your statement about people not trying as hard as you is not accurate. How do you know that the people at your safeties didn’t try as hard as you? Those schools are some peoples’ reaches and some people DO try harder than you there. Not everyone has the same amount of talent as you…
Here’s why students with lower GPAs got in, but you didn’t: admissions is a 2 part process. First the academics, and once you qualify academically (above the bottom 25% of last year’s acceptances is a good estimate to go off of) you will be considered equally with all the other students, even with lower GPAs and test scores as long as they were above that bottom 25%. The determining factor at that point is the fit for the university. And those details needed to come out in your activity sheet and essays. If your details didn’t convey 100% of what you actually did to contribute value, the admissions officers would never know it happened.
You could try appealing if the schools you applied to accept appeals.