<p>I am so over these Ivy league BS admissions.... Why yes, I am bitter! It seems like today with Harvard at 6%, you have to either be african american or physically handicapped.. If you're a middle class white guy from a public school in Texas you can forget it. Yes, I was rejected from Harvard...
My stats were:
4.00 Unweighted
4.4 Weighted
1/534
2390 SAT (790W)
800M II
800 Chem
780 Physics
770 USH</p>
<p>5-AP CHEM, 5 AP Calc BC, 5 AP Bio, 4 US History, 5 Spanish, 5 AP PHSYC </p>
<p>National Science achievement award recipient
Student Body President
School appointed Math Tutor
Special Friend Mentor
Sparrow Club Vice President
State-wide musician award.
Jazz Band President
Chemistry Student of the year,
Calculus Student of the Year
Physics student of the year,
Spanish Student of the year,
Biology Student of the year,</p>
<p>GREAT recommendations, solid essays..</p>
<p>I'm find with being rejected if there are more qualified applicants,
but it's a little disheartening to see kids with 2200 SATs getting in over me.
I realize it's not simply about numbers, but I didn't really think my application was lacking anywhere. If only I had cured cancer....</p>
<p>Sorry.. I just needed to get this off my chest. Anyone else feel cheated?</p>
<p>Hey man I know how you feel but it’s harvard. If you go back and read the very heat warming letter by a current Harvard student, he says that every student felt like they got in bc of luck. Thats how Harvard is. I’m sure you got into other prestigious schools so put Harvard out of your mind.</p>
<p>It is usually very hard to make it into both Yale and Harvard or else they will only have 50% yield. Apparently you are more Yale type than Harvard and you should be happy with places you got into since they are all excellent.</p>
<p>I agree with you 100%. With those acceptances in hand you have no basis for complaint. It’s not like you were overlooked or the system somehow failed you.</p>
<p>Last time I checked, admissions were based on qualifications, not skin color. Harvard doesn’t admit unqualified people and set them up to fail simply because they are African American, Native American, or Hispanic American. Rather, Harvard admits several students of racial diversity who ARE qualified and who have worked very hard for a chance at admission, just like you have.
To say that anyone is more or less qualified than you are without having read his or her entire file is simply asinine, sorry.</p>
<p>“I got into Columbia, Yale, Georgetown, and MIT.”</p>
<p>You should be proud of yourself, not complaining lol. I know how you feel, I was rejected by my first choice Columbia while someone I know who had lesser qualifications was admitted, I felt annoyed at first, but now I’m happy for that person and I feel fortunate for being able to gain admission to Ivy/Top schools etc.</p>
<p>Btw Have you seen silverturtle’s stats? He had a 2400/36 Val etc. rejected by HYS, but got into Columbia/Brown/UChicago (I think he took a spot on the waitlist for Princeton though) and he’s not complaining.</p>
<p>Now that I re-read my post, it is a tad dramatic isn’t it? </p>
<p>I am very happy with the choices I do have. All I’m saying was there are surely admits that had lower stats and no better ECs than mine. That’s the game you play with Ivies though. They have the power to accept and reject who they want, based on a large variety of factors.</p>
<p>I’m not saying admissions are based merely on skin color. Think of it like this… If I was African American I would have probably been accepted. On that basis, aren’t they essentially using skin color/race as a factor? </p>
<p>Again I’m happy with the colleges I have so I’m merely asking these questions as food for thought, rather than out of bitterness.</p>
<p>“I’m not saying admissions are based merely on skin color. Think of it like this… If I was African American I would have probably been accepted. On that basis, aren’t they essentially using skin color/race as a factor”</p>
<p>I completely agree. It’s not to say that african americans/URM’s accepted at Harvard and other Ivies are unqualified, just that they are NOT AS QUALIFIED AS many of those who were rejected. One may present a variety of reasonings to account for the situation (pointing socioeconomic discrepancies, efforts to select a varied freshmen class, etc), but the fact is that they DO have a huge advatage. To negate this is to be hypocritical.
Whether this advantage is justifiable is up to debate, but I’m highly convinced that the OP (supposing, of course, that he is telling the truth and that his essays/recommendations are indeed good) would have been admitted if he were from an ‘admission-favored’ background.</p>
<p>If you were African American, chances are that you woud not have had the opportunities to allow you have achieved the stats that you achieved.</p>
<p>You were rejected by Harvard and waitlisted by Princeton. Maybe they saw something in your application and your attitude that said: “Nice stats, but we would rather not have this kid at our school”…</p>
<p>and guess what, based on your attitude on a public forum, after having been admitted to such incredible schools such as Yale and MIT, might show a bit of a clue why you had problems with Harvard and Princeton.</p>
<p>^ the reason I don’t agree with affirmative action is many African Americans DO have the same opportunities! is it fair to admit someone on the basis of their skin color? to me, absolutely not.</p>
<p>As liv4physicz said, many African Americans do have the same opportunities. I can compare myself to the African Americans at my private school. We are both paying tuition without aid at the same school, learning the same things, have chances to participate in the same sports, etc. However, they were accepted to ivies with lower stats (2000ish SATs) and worse ECs (no leadership, no depth OR breadth) than myself. I can’t complain because I was also accepted to ivies but I don’t see the advantage given to them as fair.</p>
<p>@College9999, I disagree, what about an African-American young lady graduating in the top of her class, great test scores, and was homeless along with her family. How is that being not as qualified as those rejected who are not minorities?</p>
Most idiotic statement I’ve seen on this thread. Who are you to determine who’s “qualified” and who isn’t? Unless you’ve seen every single URM who applied to HYPMS etc’s essays, test scores, ECs, teacher recs and whatnot, which I guarantee you have not, you can’t possibly argue that URMs accepted to Harvard are “NOT AS QUALIFIED”.</p>
</p>