Where is the link @emerson2105 posted?
Reach schools are getting harder to enter than ever. While match schools may not be real match if you just found your score and GPA are within their mid 50. Many schools have lower than 30% chance even if you are on par with the average admission stat. Those top 40 schools on your list are definitely in that class. Also, don’t expect merit aid from those top 40 schools even admitted, so taking a gap year would not help. Think about transfer next year.
@juillet who graduated from Spelman may be able to tell you more about that school.
Looks like it disappeared. I cannot find it either. My own pointer to it said post #35 which is now my own post. Weird.
@aboa123 what schools did you get rejected from? I know it’s a long list. I want to know what your idea of a ‘match’ is.
If you’re feeling really down, you can write a rejection letter to them (without the grammatical errors of course) or make smores like I am using the rejection letters as kindling
@aboa123 I really undestand your position since I have experienced the same feeling. I got rejected by my dream school which is in top 40 even though my stats are good, if not excellent. The thought of attending the same school with people who don’t “try as hard” as you do is terrible, I know. My friend got the SAT score 300 scores lower than me, her EC are worse than me, she doesn’t even try as hard as I do…and we end up attending the same college. BUT, don’t feel frustrate about this. Applying for colleges is like a lottery! It depends all on the application pool and sometimes you feel like they are picking applicants literally closing-their-eyes. Keep up your hope! You can try to do best at your new college and then transfer to another. Or you could take a gap year. Have you considered sending appeal letters to your dream schools? There is still hope. Your door to success hasn’t closed het. Get over the pain and move on!
@Impr176pk and @aboa123 No matter where you go, there will be people that tried harder than you. Some people don’t have your talent or resources. One of my friends scored 100 points lower than me on the SAT (and probably 200+ points lower than me on the Math section). Guess what? He studied and took a local prep course. What did I do? Binge-watch Netflix. I have never taken a prep course or anything like that. I looked at 12 practice problems, got bored, and decided to wing it. Who do you think tried harder?? Also, some people struggle in their classes. A B to them is like a 100 to you. They may try as hard as you…or even harder. Don’t discredit them. They may not get your results, but that DOES NOT mean they don’t try. Some people son’t try hard at school due to lack of passion but may have their talents elsewhere. Just because you don’t see their spark immediately, doesn’t mean they don’t have one. Lastly, someone with a learning disability would most likely have to try much harder than you to get your results. That being said, there will always be at least a select few that didn’t try as hard due to having more innate talent, connections, help, etc. (like that one infuriating person in an AP class that sleeps and doesn’t pay attention, yet still gets an A and a 4 or 5) and in most places, yes, there will be people that didn’t try as hard as you. Just keep pushing through college and your work will pay off. Keep in mind that everyone is different, though.
@aboa123 Oh, and if you got rejected from the Ivies, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Vanderbilt… you get the picture, THEY ARE NOONES MATCH SCHOOLS no matter what your stats are. They look for more than pretty numbers anyway. Could you tell us what your “match schools” were at least? If you want I can tell you where I didn’t get in.
Haven’t read the whole thread b/c I am still googleyed aat applying to 26 schools! Hopefully there were some financial and academic match/safeties in there, and it seems there were. This is not about what the other kid you know did or didnt do academically or for EC’s, as the schools build a class based on what they want. Be happy you have 2 good choices. Thats not true for everyone.
@lmpr176pk: The issue here is likely to be not having “match” schools. By definition, top 40 colleges are going to be reach for most students, simply because of selectivity/acceptance rate. These are smart students, so they’ll have safeties. In their minds they believe they’ll never need the safety, so they don’t invest in investigating those and often their list reads like 8 reaches, 2 safeties, 1 random “match” - they don’t have “good” matches, schools they like as much as the reaches even though they’re less selective, but that are overall closer to their stats, and/or they don’t demonstrate interest in the non-reach schools.
Dream schools, by definition, don’t take appeal letters.
As for transferring, it’s very difficult, and transfers don’t get as much financial aid (and no big merit scholarships).
As disappointing as it may be to come to the conclusion that folks who “didn’t work as hard” as you achieved the same outcome, this is a very important lesson to learn in life. Do you think it will change when you enter the real world? I hate to break it to you, but it happens all the time. Jobs you’re more than qualified for will go to the boss’s college roommate’s kid or the woman with the longer legs. All you can do is seek out those employers who hire based on merit and never look back.
Temple (like Alabama and a handful of others) offers tremendous merit money to top students, so there will be many, many students with profiles similar to yours who will be your peers, classmates and friends should you choose to go there. The kids at Temple from your school who were slackers or underachievers, in all likelihood, are full pay. Console yourself with that knowledge! 
And Spelman is a school with a lot of name-brand recognition. If you can afford it, I would think the sky would be your limit.