<p>Today I got a waitlist letter from one of my (5) safeties. While it is a great school, it is the easiest of all of them to get into and I am way above the 75th percentile for them. I am applying to mostly highly selective NE LACs, so this letter has me considerably worried.</p>
<p>Has anyone out there gotten waitlisted/rejected from a safety and later received an acceptance letter from (really difficult) reaches? </p>
<p>I have read other threads and am not concerned about what to do if I don't get accepted anywhere - I already have a ton of internship offers and a steady job as it is. Also (and this is a curveball) I go to a distance learning school (school online). Because of this, I work full-time at a private school teaching and working in their marketing department and have been able to study abroad in France and Italy. So maybe the waitlist letter is because the school is somewhat conservative. Nonetheless, I am still very curious about people who have gotten hit in the gut but patted on the head (so to speak)...</p>
<p>Friends daughter/neighbor was rejected from 2 safeties. One told her when she visited the school that she was a perfect fit and would likely receive money… NOT!!!</p>
<p>She got into 2 reaches. One that she loved and chose to attend. Gave her merit award as well, likely due to her community service record.</p>
<p>It means that the safeties were not really safeties.</p>
<p>Were they state universities significantly reducing capacity due to budget cuts, or schools which use “level of interest” which you did not show in a way that they can record?</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick reply BTW.
I just think that college acceptance is so much of a crapshoot these days. This school is a very small LAC with around an 80% acceptance rate. It values study abroad (which I have done on three occasions now) and independent study. My interview was almost 2 hours long and the admissions officer ended up taking me on a second tour (to meet professors) and then to lunch afterwards. She constantly said that my HS career played right into their program and that my HS resume looked really great.</p>
<p>I have heard that some schools waitlist top tier applicants to see what their response is i.e. they wait to see if the applicants want to attend or are waiting for better news.</p>
<p>Some people might not have safeties, but this school fits every definition of the word… To a certain extent, it seems totally random.</p>
<p>sometimes if your that much overqualified for the school they know there probably your safety and may judge your application a bit harder… other than that sometimes you just dont get in.</p>
<p>chill man, very likely was that you were overqualified, you safeties probably just worried that you wouldn’t go even if admitted and that hurts their yield rate…</p>
<p>If she did not even get into UC Merced but got into Stanford, then could it be that she was missing some UC requirement (e.g. the art/music course in high school) that Stanford decided was not as essential?</p>
<p>You don’t seem to be a traditional student and that can be a drawback at some schools that do not want that situation. Some of the more selective schools are interested in differences to the point that they seek them. A safety is not just because of the overall numbers. It’s a school where for good reason you know you will likely be accepted, the reason being that there are many like you with lower stats that are there. But if you are not traditional, that really puts you in a special category and you have to be careful how you define your safeties.</p>
<p>My son’s safety was a school far more selective than a lot of schools that he was wondering whether he’d get accepted or not. He knew he was “in” at the one school because of the relationship it had with his high school and he was taking courses already there. In his situation, it would be unheard of to be rejected. Yet many kids with stats much higher than his did not get accepted there. So the stats are not the whole picture.</p>
<p>LeCorbusier : Totally agree , my son was rejected from a safety school…stats, grades, languages etc all made him an excellent candidate. Shocked at the rejection. It does all seem random. If visiting is the only way admissions can determine level of interest then the system is flawed… it is not possible to visit every college that is interesting.
NO worries though , two weeks after safety rejection…acceptance at the biggest reach school in the list.</p>
<p>The only safeties that are true safeties are public schools with auto admissions. There are no true safeties in privates unless a school has 100% admit rate.</p>
<p>I have not heard of any college valuing study abroad for a high school student since it is not a common occurence among public high schools. If they value study abroad highly and you have already gone to three different countries, what do they have that you could possibly value is the question the adcom should be asking.</p>
<p>Private schools can and do waitlist you if they don’t think you will show up. Whether that rule applies for you and this school can only be determined if you ask to stay on it and they admit you.</p>
<p>If you are homeschooled or are using a distance learning program, be aware that your grades are not going to carry that much weight. The onus will be on your test scores. Colleges will likely want to see how you are doing in your academic subjects by looking at SAT2 and AP test scores to get some idea how rigorous and thorough your education is in the basic subjects as compared to other students. Did you take those tests as well as the ACT and/or SAT1? </p>
<p>My friend who homeschooled all of her children with a Christian distance program was devastated with her very bright, very competent daughter’s school acceptances. I told her that she would have likely done very well with Christian schools that knew the program, but mainstream schools that don’t would need something to show where a student is with other high school seniors in brick and mortar schools. Though the girl’s SAT scores were good, they were not stupendously high and she did not take any APs or SAT2s. The community college courses she took and aced did not seem to do a thing in terms of showing how well she could do in school. Many selective schools do not count cc courses as college level work unless they are taken in a program or at a cc that they well know and formally recognize. I know that my son’s program at a state school has restrictive requirements on getting course credit from other school, and they are hard on most CC courses that are not specifically listed at schools in their area.</p>
<p>I guess my college counselor never told me that a safety was a 100% acceptance rate school, but really most community colleges have this type of a setup. I hate to sound elitist, but I am not really that interested in a school that has a 100% acceptance rate, because it really can’t be that much better than a community college (and there is a really good one in my town).</p>
<p>I guess I am not sure if I was waitlisted because I am non-traditional or because they think I am using them as a safety. With the waitlist letter they included a send-back form that asked for all of the other colleges I am applying to and my status at each; so I am thinking that they are doing the old Tufts Syndrome gambit…</p>
<p>@ Corinthmom - that makes me feel a lot better!</p>
<p>In response to the above poster, I have got a 33 comp. ACT (w/ 36 on English and Reading) and a 2200 SAT. </p>
<p>I take all AP classes at this distance program, and it is not at all religious or for religious reasons. I wanted to work full time because I was bored with school, so I work as a teacher at a local private school and as an intern in their marketing dept. and do my work at night.</p>
<p>A safety is not a school with a 100% acceptance rate, but one that has a very high acceptance rate for the category student YOU are. You may have an “in” at some schools because you are untraditional and exactly what they want. Stats are really only one part of the picture. </p>
<p>I can tell you that a lot of schools do not look at it positively that you are working fulltime and doing school on line part time. Also what is the on line program you are using? If you were taking Johns Hopkins AP online courses, that is one thing, but if you are doing the Thomas Aquinas program, for instance, the schools that will know and think that is great are the smaller Catholic schools. How high are your SAT scores and did you take any subject tests to that college can see where you are academically? SAT/ACT scores are not a good measure of how well versed you are at college prep courses and if colleges are not familiar with your on line school, you could have a problem.</p>
<p>I go to the Laurel Springs School, which is fairly well regarded in the West at least. I also took the Stanford AI class this year; I did an independent study program where I took Carnegie Mellon online courses; and took a set of workshops in business and city planning at Bocconi in Milan. I did well on the SAT Subs: Fr. W/ List. - 730, US Hist. - 690, Lit. - 700. I decided not to do AP tests because I am not a good test taker, and most of the schools I am applying to don’t accept AP credit anyway.</p>
<p>I of course never said that school was my second priority - because it isn’t… I love working, but I really enjoy my schoolwork as well. My online schooling allows me to do things that I would have never been able to do. I also think that it has taught me how to be independent and a non-procrastinator, both of which many (at least I’ve heard) Freshmen have trouble with.</p>
<p>What if LACs which expect you to stay at them for 4 years and hang out with students and professors are looking at your application and wondering you may get bored with them? I am assuming you did not slip and state that you did not attend school because you could do something better with your time.</p>