Here is the list of schools to which I applied:
Carnegie-Mellon
Cornell
Duke
Emory
Indiana University Bloomington
Rice
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt
My unweighted GPA is a 3.8 and my weighted is a 4.8. I got a 1500 composite on the new SAT, 760 Math and 740 Reading, a 24 on the essay (I don’t think this matters but maybe it does?) and I have taken exclusively Honors and AP classes when possible. I hope to major in finance or economics. I was accepted to IU with direct admission to the Kelley School of Business and admission into the Hutton Honors College.
Today I woke up to a rejection letter from UVA and just got rejected from Emory and now I’m super concerned about where I’ll end up, mainly because those are the least selective schools on my list. IU is great, but because it isn’t competitive, I’m not sure that I’ll be a great job candidate in the future and it’ll be hard for me to work in New York City, which is where I want to end up. Should I be concerned about admission into the other schools, or are the admissions decisions more independent than I think?
Congrats on your acceptance to Kelley and the honors college at Indiana!
With the exception of Indiana, your list consists of all reaches. UNC is less of a reach if you live in NC. Nobody can predict whether you will get accepted. The good news is that you have an acceptance with a direct admit to the business school.
Sorry but like @twogirls said, it seems like you applied to not enough safeties. Luckily you do have good stats-but still a reach school, is a reach school for even the most qualified, so it’s very hard to chance someone for that school. Still, good luck and I have a gut feeling you’ll end up doing great things, no matter where you go to school!
Hey I feel you! I got into UVA OOS yesterday but I just got rejected from Emory, which was the lowest on my list. I go to a pretty good boarding school and a lot of people with lower stats (3.7 GPA ish, 1450-1500 SAT) got accepted… I felt rly bad and discouraged as well! Isn’t UMich lower than Emory? Some of your schools are high reaches (Duke, Cornell, etc) while others are more reachable reaches.
This may sound hypocritical cuz I’m trying to grasp this mentality like you, but one school doesn’t affect all ur school decisions! I heard Emory rejected/waitlisted a lt of “overqualified” people who wouldn’t pick Emory as first choice, so who knows! (kinda hope thats true)… best of luck! I wouldn’t lose faith.
But I agree with the above comment-- you could have applied to more safeties like boston college or northeastern
Are you IS for UNC or IU? If you’re OOS for UNC, I wouldn’t stake your life on an acceptance. It is not uncommon for UNC-CH to reject people with perfect ACT scores and GPAs OOS.
Boston College and Northeastern would not be safeties.
@twogirls these two were considered my safeties (I got into both, along with UVA and Umich) and the person who posted seemed similar (I guess) to me, so I suggested mine. Perhaps they’re not safeties for your school, but they were deemed safeties for me
I agree with @twogirls. Seems so much people on cc lately have been disappointed with admission results because they haven’t applied to safeties, or don’t even know what those schools are
@hungrihippo congratulations on your acceptances to BC and Northeastern. I would not consider these two schools to be safeties for the OP. I would consider them to be solid matches.
“IU is great, but because it isn’t competitive, I’m not sure that I’ll be a great job candidate in the future and it’ll be hard for me to work in New York City, which is where I want to end up.”
You don’t know how the world works, do you?
Take a look at where the Kelley IB workshop students end up. Also take a look at a Kelley employment report to see what region their grads go to.
@hungrihippo, you should feel great that you were admitted into schools that are currently admitting less than 25%, but they aren’t safeties for anyone today.
I have twin DD’s that yes luckily got accepted into several USNWR #7-25 LAC’s , but it’s gotten so much more competitive each year given the world population keeps growing and the schools aren’t adding seats, so including schools that are in the 30-40% acceptance range makes a lot of sense.
My nephew graduated from Kelley 3 years ago. During college he interned at a Wall Street company, and had an offer of employment from that company before he graduated. He is still working there. I don’t know if his situation is typical or not. But overall I think Kelley is well regarded and would not be a bad place to go, if that’s where you end up. Good luck!
Thank you all for the responses!
I actually live in Ithaca, NY and I attend the high school that essentially feeds into Cornell. I did apply to a SUNY school and I was accepted but because I already got into IU, I didn’t put it on the list because there is essentially no way that I will attend that school over IU.
If it makes you feel better, I got rejected from UVA and into Cornell last year.
UPDATE: I have now been rejected from Rice University as well.
Indiana is a great school and Kelley is noted for having a great undergraduate business program. You can absolutely work in New York if you graduate from there, so don’t worry about that.
Were you accepted at Michigan? Sorry if I missed that. I know the rejection feeling. I was rejected from UChicago, JHU, and Northwestern all last Friday. Just waiting on Cornell and if that’s a no I’m probably going to choose IU over Michigan which gave me no merit aid. Good luck and don’t get down. IU is a beautiful campus and the people are great! And Kelley is outstanding! @jasonwang7517
Hindsight is 20/20, but NYU, BU and then BC should be good targets with your stats. UNC (OOS) is like a lottery. Vandy/Duke will be difficult. CMU (finance and Asian combo will be challenging)… still a chance in Cornell (again, Asian and finance together may not help). That said, keep the hope up, college admissions process is more random than formulaic. JMHO
Regarding safeties, a school can’t be considered a true safety (even for kids with very top stats) unless:
- The admit rate is at least 40% (the higher, the safer), and
- Your GPA and test scores are at or above the 75th percentile among last year’s admits, and
- You can afford it, and you wouldn’t mind attending. (if you can’t afford to go or if you hate it, there’s nothing safe about it)
BC and Northeastern aren’t safeties. They would be matches or high matches for you, probably.
Perhaps you should have applied to more safety schools, but Kelley is an excellent undergraduate business school Good luck.