Hi, I was rejected from basically every engineering program I applied to, including BU Rise, CMU SAMS, and SSP. I know this applicant pool is self selecting but I thought id get into at least one given my stats/EC. 34 ACT, 1470 PSAT, 3.88 gpa. I am an asian male btw lol.
Are these rejections telling of my college decisions for the upcoming year (I’m a junior)? I know my essays could have been better, I did most of them in the same day and rarely checked them.
Is there any correlation between these program decisions and my future college decisions? Should I be worried about my future college chances based on all these rejections?
NOTE:
I won my most important awards recently and did not report them on my summer program app. I feel this could have helped me get in.
I don’t think your experience with summer programs is in any way indicative of how your college admissions experience will play out. The one experience I have had with these summer programs is the US Naval Academy’s Summer Seminar, which is mainly used as a recruiting tool and is actually unfairly biased against certain groups of people.
I can’t help with specific summer programs but if it’s any consolation, my son also applied for a bunch of summer science and engineering programs fairly late in the game, and didn’t put a lot of effort into his essays. He was not accepted into any of his programs either.
Here’s the good news, these rejections freaked him out because (probably like you) he wasn’t used to getting rejected when it came to academics. But he used these rejections as a wake up call to work very hard on his college applications.
He started early, researched schools for fit and affordability, wrote essays that were well crafted but absolutely his own voice, and asked EARLY for recommendations. He got into top schools. He also got rejected by top schools and waitlisted by top schools. Would his acceptances and rejections have been identical if he had attended a good high school summer program? Who knows. He’s at an amazing college now which I think is by far the best fit for him of all the schools he applied to.
Given your current stats and the fact that you are winning “important awards”, your future college options will be terrific as long as your applications are solid.
Summer program acceptances/rejections won’t make a difference one way or the other. Apart from the really prestigious ones that involve research, they won’t really help that much and all they indicate is that your parents are able to pay for the privledge of taking classes that are offered at a CC. Make sure that your GPA/test scores/ECs are good.
You are wait listed at SSP so you may still get in. Other than that, I feel you don’t quite fit for SAMS. As an Asian male you are an ORM. Are you are first gene or poor? SAMS is not that good anyway. Your stats are low for SSP. You don’t have any major awards, not even an AIME qual ?
In general you just don’t stand out as an Asian male. It’s tough out there.
It is not a foreshadowing of your college acceptances. but admissions to the top colleges can not be guaranteed – even to the best students. However, you seemed to have learned that every piece of the application (including essays) is important so use knowledge that when you prepare your college applications – that way whatever happens you will know you gave it your best effort.
@jakeowl@happy1@Hamurtle
How competitive would you say admission is for SSP in terms of a college? Along with a 10% acceptance rate, and a very self selecting applicant pool, what college would you compare it to in terms of admission?
I would think it is as hard to get into as Caltech and MIT, but not Stanford
Stanford has the lowest acceptance rate. It’s OK to get rejected by SSP because it’s competitive and they only have limited slots. I don’t want to sugarcoat it, but your stats are very mediocre for an Asian male who wants to get into a top school. You probably will be fine with some flagship state schools and 1st tier private schools.
You need to improve your profile. Try to get some major awards. The problem is all the major competitions have ended for the season, so basically you don’t have much concrete to show in your application. Maybe do research in the summer, retake ACT/SAT. Adjust your expectations and apply to more safeties.
Who knows where you wanna get into. You were applying to selective summer program so I assume you want to get into top schools. Depending on majors top state schools are not easy for Asian boys either. Try to cure cancer or clone yourself to quadruplets before you apply.