<p>Look, forget about the kid’s attitude. It doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>there are tens of thousands of kids around the country who are feeling like they were just hit by a truck this morning.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that his school supported these apps by sending out transcrips and recs to this many places like this. He tossed his app in the lottery pool, and he thought he had better odds than he did. Nobody has good odds at these places, but the kids don’t really know this. All their life they’ve been better at school than anyone they have ever met in their life, barring a couple of other kids.</p>
<p>They’re too young to realize that the world is full of smarter, prettier, richer, younger people…</p>
<p>This is the start of getting out of that small pond and finding this out. Of course, after twelve straight years of smashing success after smashing success and all the feeling of youthful inevitability that comes with this, they’re stunned. they are young, young, and young.</p>
<p>ETA: Oh, and OP and others, keep in mind that while there are those who are wildly excited right now about how great it will be to go to those schools, some of those kids are going to be in the bottom of the class at those schools. So, “the best is yet to come.”</p>
<p>Maybe a lack in demonstrative passion in something? Your stat is good, but so are all those people who applied, it must be something or lack of something in your essays. Sometimes you need something interesting that comes across that catches the attention of the adcoms. When your folder comes around, what do you think they discuss about you? What do they attach an image of you with?</p>
<p>Like everyone says, move on to the next and better things that you can control.</p>
<p>@poetgrl - what you described is a very sheltered existence. I’m not disputing that it can/does happen, but it doesn’t EXcuse it. Schools send transcripts wherever they are asked to - it’s not their job to be a filter.</p>
<p>Life isn’t fair. He should have learned that lesson a long time ago. But now is better than not.</p>
<p>I’m trying to prove a point. I probably didn’t do it in the best way possible. I’m just pointing out his/her flaws and how his/her attitude will only bring trouble in the future.</p>
<p>I have friends who ended up going to Ivy Leagues and they were very altruistic people that dealt with their problems instead of cry about them and complain about them to other people. </p>
<p>I also have friends who were in the same situation as the OP. They didn’t get into a single Ivy League, but they didn’t classify it as “ridiculous” because they had other options.</p>
<p>Excellent post #21 poetgirl. There are a couple of similar stories I’ve heard regarding kids at my son’s school. One, with similar stats to the op, applied to just 4 of the top schools in the state and was rejected by all. I don’t know if it was arrogance or ignorance not to have a few “safties” in there, but what a painful lesson to learn.</p>
<p>I don’t know why you assume he should have learned that lesson long ago. I think that’s a kind of strange assumption. Like I said, these schools accept below 10% of the applicants. Someone who has been the best up til now can find themselves rejected. It happens. </p>
<p>Also, I can promise that there are kids celebrating today who are going to be shocked when they end up in the bottom 25% of their class. It’s not over yet in the growin’ up game for any of them.</p>
<p>Look, it’s been one day. </p>
<p>The kid asked a question a page back, he said, “Given my options which school should I choose?”</p>
<p>If you’re planning to major in one of the fields that Carnegie Mellon is famous for, such as computer science, I think you would really enjoy it there. There are a lot of people who would kill to get into Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>There’s a mom who frequently posts here whose son chose Carnegie Mellon over Harvard because it’s the better school in his particular field of interest. If Carnegie Mellon is good at something, it’s VERY good at that something.</p>
<p>Do your interests match Carnegie Mellon’s strengths? And is it an affordable choice for your family?</p>
<p>I’m the one with the son who chose Carnegie Mellon over Harvard. In computer science, absolutely the right decision. If you are going to med school, I’d prioritize for low debt. </p>
<p>Interestingly my high stat kid did a little worse than expected in the admissions game (despite the Harvard admission), while my younger son with lower stats did much better than we expected. He’s more social and caring than my older son, and wrote much more interesting essays. In all of them he showed his sense of humor and managed to show his potential for analyzing historical/political data through his essays. Most essays are pretty generic, I think his really were more fun to read than average. He also really crafted each application for the particular school. In fact he ended up liking each school so much he couldn’t decide where to go - even his safety was a great choice for him.</p>
<p>My aunt got waitlisted at one ivy, accepted at another, and accepted with a full-ride scholarship at a “second tier” school. She took the scholarship and got what she calls a “fantastic” education because she was at the top of her class, got lots of individual attention, had a ton of internship/job opportunities, etc. She graduated not only with no debt but with much of the cash she needed saved up for grad school. My uncle (her brother) went to a top 20 school on a much smaller scholarship and ended up coming out with a lot of debt and couldn’t afford grad school. Did he get better jobs because he went to the better school? Not really. Don’t people here keep saying you’ll get out of your education what you put into it? Is Harvard really THAT much better than Carnegie Mellon? Is Carnegie Mellon really THAT much better than Case Western?</p>
<p>It is what it is. At this point it’s time to quit the wringing of the hands and look forward. The posts from ‘Poetgrl’, ‘mathmom’ and others are right on. While the OP may come off as arrogant and entitled, and may even actually be so, we have to remember that the OP is like 17 or 18 y/o and isn’t the only one that age who thinks he/she knows a lot more than they actually know. Sometimes they’re reflecting what’s been told to them by their parents and others. Most of us have heard people utter the words “with your academic success you’ll be able to go anywhere you want” which would be nice but simply isn’t true. On top of that the OP is understandably disappointed. I think we should cut the OP a break in this regard.</p>
<p>Now’s the time to move on looking at the options which for the OP are excellent options. </p>
<p>OP - you’ll need to do what everyone does at this point - focus on where you’ve been accepted considering perhaps first, the cost of the school and how that works with your available finances keeping in mind grad school plans (which may well change over the next 4 years), the type of school as far as size and location both geographical and urban or not, which school is best for your intended major, and whatever other factors you deem important. You would have had to do this anyway even if you were accepted to all the ivies. Don’t forget the important point in mathmom’s post - what might seem to be the default option, i.e. the HYPS, might not be the best option even if accepted and finances are no issue. For some they’re better off going to CMU or MIT or CalTech or Harvey Mudd or a variety of other schools. The focus should be on your academic and career plans more than some kind of false bragging rights.</p>
<p>Getting into Brown and Dartmouth is just as competitive as getting into HYP. It is not uncommon to get rejected from Brown, Dartmouth, etc and get into HYP or vice versa. This year Brown took 2760 from about 28,000 applicants. Not good odds. None of the top schools (Ivy or not) are guaranteed for anyone, no matter what your stats.</p>
<p>In making your decision, will you and/or your family have to take out loans to make any of the schools work, and if so how much would the loans be?</p>
<p>Since you asked I think there may have been a problem with your essay topic</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A lot of applicants write about overcoming adversity. It just isn’t original.</p>
<p>Also</p>
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</p>
<p>The schools you are talking about received so many applicants that have this same list of extra curriculars, (not exactly the same but that read the same). What the adcoms look for is being passionate about one of them and that being demonstrated in recognition. I’m not saying you weren’t passionate about any of them, I’m saying that needed to come through in your essays. The part about building a diverse class, being an Indian would have helped you there.</p>
<p>It’s harder than ever to get into these schools, I’m glad you have some good options.</p>
<p>For example, Rutgers reputation may be merely good, not great, overall, but its reputation in some subjects like philosophy, math, computer science, English, and history is significantly higher so that a full ride there would be an excellent choice if you want to major in those subjects.</p>