Rejects of CMC and Pomona

Parents Forum
1

<p>Well, I am just a little curious to know what the stats were of the people who didn't get accepted into either Claremont or Pomona or both. I got denied by both.</p>

<p>Here are mine:
ACT: 34 Math: 35 English: 36 Reading: 32 Science: 34</p>

<p>GPA: 4.13 (4.35 without Freshman Year)</p>

<p>AP classes taken by end of senior year: 10 (Calc AB and BC, Euro, U.S., Chem, Spanish Lang and Lit, English Lang and Lit, and Physics C)</p>

<p>AP Exam Scores: Chem (4), English Lang (4), Calc AB (5), Euro (4), Spanish Lang (3)</p>

<p>ECs: Varsity track and field all 3 years. Made it to state sophomore year in triple jump (43 ft. 5.5 in); participated in numerous junior olympics, even winning the Region X for Long Jump and going on to Nationals. I have devoted about 15-18 hours a week to track since Freshman year.</p>

<p>Essay: Some people loved it, others not so much.</p>

<p>My problem might be community service type things. I never got around to doing much when I was always training for track.</p>

2

<p>You have excellent qualifications. The “problem” is that those schools get apps from MANY top students.</p>

<p>Good luck to you. I bet you have some other excellent college choices.</p>

3

<p>Ditto what cmom said. You are a VERY qualified candidate and I am sure you will have better luck with other top schools.</p>

4

<p>I agree with cbreeze and colorado_mom. You have great credentials. At a lot of these schools, it becomes a bit of a crapshoot who gets in after they give spots to legacies, athletes, etc. Also, geography plays a big factor, as every LAC wants to have kids from as many schools as possible plus some international students. What state are you from?</p>

5

<p>I am from Colorado.</p>

6

<p>I am surprised given the population of the state, how many top students are from Colorado.</p>

<p>Most if not all of the top tier schools have geographic quotas. Not only are you competing with the entire country, but because there are so many top students from Colorado relative to the population, you are competing against others from your state and even your high school. Since Colorado has a relatively small number of good schools, it seems like the majority of top students leave the state as opposed to California, Massachusetts, New York, and others. The top schools want a mix of ethnicity, social, economic, and geographic characteristics, and they also tend to filter by high school. In other words, even if they get ten qualified applicants from one high school (and there are a few in Colorado that could easily provide a couple dozen for Pomona), they will not take all ten. </p>

<p>In other words, it is possible that if you were from another state or even another high school, you would have gotten in…</p>

<p>I know you didn’t want to hear this, but it is true.</p>