Rejected from Wash U

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hey guys, I frequent these boards often, but I hardly contribute because of time constraints. Many of you are very considerate to donate your energies (since we all have overachieving schedules) by helping others in this crazy transfer process, and I just wanted to give a quick thank you on behalf of all the lurkers out there. </p>

<p>I applied to Wash U for this fall of 07? and was rejected last week. Not many people post their rejection stats, so hopefully mine may provide some prospective to waiting applicants, especially those who are constantly debating the high school grades v college grades and SAT for transfer students. Of course, we all know college admissions are a gamble, so I?m definitely not suggesting that anyone should base future applications on my rejection. There are always exceptions, and you?ll never truly know why you were rejected unless you?re brazen enough to ask for feedback, and they?re benevolent enough to provide a candid answer (rare combination, in my opinion).</p>

<p>So, here?s my story?
Wash U has been my first choice school since I began the application process last fall. It was also my largest reach. I have weak high school grades, weak SAT scores, but good college grades, and strong ECs. I honestly felt my chances for acceptance were low, but I received encouragement from professors at my university, and from friends, so I applied. Here are my stats: </p>

<p>College: Texas 4 year univ. with 35,000 students</p>

<p>Years at university: 1.5</p>

<p>College GPA: 4.0</p>

<p>Major: History</p>

<p>Current courses: Calc I, Bio w/lab, Chem w/lab, Government, Honors English Lit/Creative Writing, History</p>

<p>Mid term GPA: 4.0</p>

<p>Work: 2 part time jobs (about 10 hrs a week each) One as an SI History tutor for my school.</p>

<p>ECs: President of an academic club (founder, wrote constitution, raised thousands of dollars for a current service project), vice president of community service org (logged hundreds of hours volunteering in Mexico), competitive body builder, intercollegiate athlete (not bodybuilding, and not NCAA), sky diver with 10 jumps.</p>

<p>I?m not exaggerating on the scope of my ECs. I?m extremely involved, as much of what I do is pertinent to my future career goals. I?m usually awake at least 20 hours a day, which begins at 5:00am for mandatory team practice. </p>

<p>Awards: I?m on a full scholarship for athletic and leadership talents. I also have some leadership awards. Nothing academically, other than the standard Dean?s list.
Letters of Rec: I sent 2. One from a professor, and the other from a professional in my future career field who I?ve worked had the experience of working under for four years. </p>

<p>Hooks: Drove over 1500 miles to interview at Wash U, was offered a full scholarship (same one that I enjoy at my current school), and I?m first generation, if that?s a real hook anymore.</p>

<p>High School: Large, suburban public school w/graduating class of over 800. Some fellow classmates attend MIT, Harvard, Rice, Stanford, U Penn, and Wash U. </p>

<p>Rank: Top 35%, but just barely</p>

<p>SAT: 640v 500m. I didn?t study for the test at all.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.9/6.0. However, I had a drastic turnaround senior year achieving a 5.4/6.0 gpa?..of course, that also shows how low my gpa would have been without senior year grades. My worst year was as a sophomore. I had one D, in math, and an F in an honors science class. No pertinent excuse. </p>

<p>AP courses: One (5 in Eng Lit during senior year)</p>

<p>ECs in hs: President of club with over 100, varsity athlete in two sports, team captain.</p>

<p>Awards: National leadership awards, national and regional creative writing awards, voted by peers as 1 of 10 people who?s who in our high school , athletic awards from school, Spanish National Honor Society.</p>

<p>That?s my bio at a glimpse. I kind of changed one or two things in case there are college reps prowling around, although I?m sure if they?re that interested, it wouldn?t be too hard to find out more info on me. The changes I made above were minimal, and I only substituted an activity or two for a similar activity of equal merit. </p>

<p>So, as you all can see, I?m a good case for poor academics in high school and a 180 turn around in college. Excelling in science and math courses took a lot of work for me since I never grasped the basics in high school. I think I spent more time in my College Algebra book then any of my honors liberal arts course books. I did, however, manage the second highest grade in the class of over 75. This semester I have the highest grade in my Calc I class (a 117/100), with only a few weeks to go. </p>

<p>I think I wasn?t accepted primarily because of my high school work. I didn?t have the time to study for the SATs in college, but perhaps if I had and scored highly, things may have been different. Wash U may also have viewed my freshman course load as too easy by their standards. I took prereq liberal arts classes. I did score the highest grade in almost all them, and I remarked on that in my app, but I had no way to prove my claim. </p>

<p>I hope this helps somebody out there, so some good comes from my rejection. I applied to Wash U on March 12 and received my decision on April 10. I?m also applying to Brandeis, Wake Forest, and UT-Austin. Congrats to all of you who were accepted! You guys have awesome stats, and definitely deserve your acceptance letters. Kind of sucks to be the only transfer student on CC to be rejected, but at least there?s no waitlist for transfers to Wash U.
Sorry for the long post! I?ll be hitting up my studies now, and probably won?t post on here for a while. But I?ll let everyone know about the other decisions when I receive them. Good luck to all, and may we be in better places come next fall! Drive on.</p>

<p>ps. Thanks for your help Cavs, and congrats again!</p>

2

<p>well i think you are an amazing student
it a pity WU didn't accecpt you.
thank's for your post. i have a low SAT score as well
maybe l should retake them to transfer.</p>

3

<p>Damn man, it just goes to show it truly is a crapshoot. While I'm enthralled I have the opportunity to attend Wash U, due to its location it still finds itself on the middle of my list and should I get into one of my other choices I most likely wont attend. Its truly unfortunate someone as passionate as yourself will not be able to attend just because of, what I see as a low math sat score being the only flaw in your app. I'm confident you'll succeed wherever you end up.</p>

4

<p>Maybe the problem was the essay...?</p>

<p>Anyways, dont hurt yourself because of this. If its meant to be, its meant to be, and theres nothing one can do about it....Im sure there is something better planned for you, you'll see :)</p>

5

<p>js1684 - I doubt you are the only person on CC that was rejected from WashU, just the only one who's had the balls to tell everyone. It is definitely helpful for you to make this for future applicants to get an idea and you have great stats that show you will do well wherever you end up.</p>

6

<p>This is goldcoast, I am too applying as a transfer for washington U. I</p>

<p>would like to know js1684 how many college classes you have? If you</p>

<p>have less than two years, the college looks at your high school </p>

<p>documents. I was told by washington since I have been away from</p>

<p>high school for seven years. I do not have to submit test scores or high</p>

<p>transcripts. Js1684 you should give them a call to find out the reason.</p>

<p>Please respond.</p>

7

<p>My gpa is 4.0 gpa at a community college but did intend </p>

<p>a university before. I was told go full time by washington which I did.</p>

8

<p>ur GPA is 4.0 and you got rejected?
=(
I am so sorry.</p>

9

<p>I was not rejected lilsunflower, not yet! However, I just sent in</p>

<p>my application. I hope my 4.0 gpa is enough. Thank you.</p>

10

<p>Thanks guys. I appreciate the love. Seriously, it?s nice to hear support from others who know all to well the blood, sweat, and tears that go into academics and attempting to transfer up. Sometimes I think CC kids should just found our own utopian university?</p>

<p>Yyss: I would definitely recommend that if you don?t feel confident with your SAT score, you should retake it. I think Brand_182?s advice about the role of standardized tests in the transfer admission process is the best I?ve heard. A high score can?t hurt, and if you know your talented enough to achieve more, and you?re already shelling out time to complete the app itself, then you might as well go the extra mile to prove you absolutely have what it takes. After all, a 4.0 accompanied with a 1600 carries an entirely different connotation than a 4.0 with an 1140. This is especially true for students from lesser known universities or community colleges. You may be able to hack it with low scores, but if you know you?re good, then why risk it like I did?</p>

<p>Mojojojo69: Yeah, one can never be sure how the essay will be received. Personally, I believe writing to be my strongest attribute, but in retrospect, I think my essay was somewhat generic, and I caught two grammatical errors after I submitted it, so I won?t rule anything out. </p>

<p>Goldcoast: I had 48 completed college hours at the time of application, and I currently have 20 hrs in progress. When I interviewed, I too was told that I wouldn?t need my high school transcript or SAT score report, despite the contrary instructions provided on Wash U?s website and in their course catalog. However, I had already submitted my high school transcript, so I was out of luck. I didn?t send my SAT scores, but they?re on my college transcript, and I believe I unofficially reported them on the common application. </p>

<p>Having not been in high school for seven years, I?m sure you?re somewhat of a unique case. More than high school stats, they?ll probably evaluate how you?ve spent your time during the hiatus between your graduation and now. Of course, I?m just speculating. </p>

<p>I was thinking of writing a polite letter asking the reason for my rejection, but I have a feeling I?ll receive an abstract response alluding to the competitive nature of a talented applicant pool, rather than specific feedback. </p>

<p>During my interview, I asked the admissions counselor if I was at least competitive. My worst fear was that due to my high school gpa and SAT scores I wouldn?t even be in the ballpark, and was doomed from the start. It was a loaded question, and his response seemed just as saturated. He said, ?anyone with a 4.0 is competitive.? Take from that what you will. I sincerely wish you the best of luck!</p>

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<p>wait i can take tha SAT/ACT again for transfer??? what if i already took the SAT 3 times... should i take the SAT again or the ACT (second time) ? im a hs-senior btw.</p>

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<p>ACT since they won't know how many times you've taken it. for me, it was also easier.</p>

13

<p>ok i'll see about that... how many classes should i take in my first year? 5 ? i dont know how hard college is but i dont wanna take too many classes and drop my gpa so badly... btw i got a 23 on my ACT first time</p>

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<p>I took an astonishing three classes in my first semester! I ended up dropping one (online) but after that consecutively took 4 and then 5 per semester, including summer.</p>

15

<p>well i want to go to med school, so i have to take bunch of science classes. probably 4 or 5 next year. but before that i really need to transfer to a good college. i have a 3.9 gpa in high school right now. but my sat verbal messed me up (im an international student)... so english isnt my first language, and same thing happend with the ACT.......
any advice on what i can do ?</p>

16

<p>do well in your college english classes ;)</p>

<p>maintain a high GPA and do your best on the ACT. It's not a huge deal, but if you're applying for sophomore standing later it'll be more important than if you apply for junior standing.</p>

17

<p>yes i want to transfer for my sophomore year... idk i'll see about that.
ok i will take the act but, im trying not to take too many english classes in college b/c i know my gpa will go down! so i guess i just have to take the core classes first...</p>

18

<p>well the thing is they'll probably combine your low english ACT score and the fact that you don't take many English classes in college to come to a bad conclusion: that you are very bad at English. I would think you'd be better to give it your best shot; even a B in an English course is good for an intl. that is not a long-time english speaker.</p>

19

<p>im taking 3 ap's right now: chem, calc ab, and psych. my grades are like B- in those classes ... if my goal is 4.0 in college, should i even take the ap exams? b/c if i do well on the exam and send my scores in, B- would be in my transcript and would hurt my gpa... should i just not take the exam and retake the class in college (maybe i'll get a better grade since im retaking the class) ?</p>

20

<p>I dunno...I can tell you at least that I didn't take any AP exams. If you're getting a B- in them, it's likely that you won't score a 4 or 5 on the exam, which is what you need for it to matter, so it will probably be a waste of cash.</p>