Amazing…my DS has been accepted to a number of far more prestigious schools than Santa Clara and was “deferred” just now (ie he did not get EA and was deferred). He’s been to Santa Clara 3 times (we do not live nearby), recruited by their club rugby, heavily involved in the Catholic community, strong GPA, ACT, EC’s up the “wazooo”, huge alumni support…and they defer? I am actually shocked. I know he may be successful under regular admission but still kind of irked. Oh well…
DD just accepted in to the Leavey School of Business. It’s one of her safety schools, but we are still happy!
I was deferred too!
Academics:
GPA (Unweighted): 3.7( downward trend freshman to junior, jump from junior to senior, but overall i got a LOT of B’s (maybe 22A’s, 12,13 B’s and B+'s)
GPA (weighted):4.31 (F: 4.13 S: 4.16 J: 4.4 Sr: 4.82)
ACT: 34, 35 superscored (2 tests)
Sat Subject Scores: Math II: 800, Chemistry: 690
Rank: 29/721 (Top 4%)
Senior Classes: Calc III, Linear Algebra, AP Economics, AP Comp Gov, Orgo/Bio Chemistry, PTE Class, Science Research
Extracurriculars:
- part founder of Indian Cultutral Nonprofit organization at 8 years old, helped run it for 9 years, donated over $5000 dollars to local hospitals. Helped me be in touch with my culture and business practice.
- As part of my nonprofit, i also participate in Voice of Specially abled people, where we help disabled people in india
- President of Computer science committee: Tutor students, compete, and make apps using computer science.
- Worked on Developing an ios game app, now on App Store (game name is Arö, check it out)
- I teach java programming to students who want to take it but can’t, I have 7 students(Taught for Fun and Free)
- Invest in Stocks outside of school(using money from summer job), one experience i bought DCTH stock, which went up over 100 percent in a day. Wrote my Personal essay about this experience
- National CyberPatriot Competition - Captain of CyberPatriot team 2 years,CyberSecurity competition, eliminate vulnerabilities on a computer. Certificate Winner - State Platinum competition twice, 14th and 18th place in Northeast Competition (top 12 go to Nationals)
- participated in a club where our school refurbished electronics and donated them.
Took STEM classes at George Mason University Junior and Senior Year
At GMU, I did University Research and Innovation Classes
- Developed a Water proof Life Jacket that heats up to prevent Hypothermia using resistance wiring.
- Junior Year Research: Researched and coded a bipedal leg implementation made from 3-D printed parts focused on cost efficiency
- Finished an audio to text translating AR headset that will display translated text in field of vision, hope to get University funded patent
- Currently Researching and developing an Infrared HUD display for firefighters. It will display sensor data in a field and it it has access to thermal imaging to facilitate firefighting
- Hoping to qualify for ISEF 2018
Recommendations:
Counselor’s - Great
Calc II Teacher - Great
AP Economics - Good
Why didn’t I get in?! I’m kind of pissed
No word yet from SCU one way or another. Applied EA. 4.0, 35 ACT. Does anyone know if notifications come out gradually or all at once? Seems odd not to get any news.
SCU decisions come in waves but you will get your decision by the 23rd at the latest
I was denied
3.3 GPA
1330 SAT
dream school…
@THEGZA - Wow…reading your and other messages with deferments, and sitting here in bewilderment over my son’s similar situation, I too am “pissed”. SCU is a great school and all…but my DS has been accepted and received very healthy merit awards to what I’d consider near-Ivy league schools. What is just "odd’ is, SCU was kind of his safe school and there are other factors at play here that made him, well, a shoe-in. Happy for the one person who got in but this is just weird. Anyone have any ideas?
@sweetie234 - Hey there…were you denied or deferred?
I was accepted EA with the following stats:
-4.1 GPA (weighted, my school doesn’t do UW)
-33 ACT (36 E, 35 R, 34 S, 26 M)
-1460 SAT superscored (710 Math, 750 ERW)
-Great EC’s (theatre all four years+multiple clubs and community service/volunteering)
-Unique essay (wrote it about my favorite word)
-Good teacher/counselor recs (I think?)
-Catholic school
Congratulations to everyone that got accepted, and good luck to everyone that got deferred!
Maybe SCU has a bit of Tufts syndrome going on - a recent admissions presentation we attended was loud and clear about the importance of Demonstrated Interest. Or maybe SCU is prioritizing GPA over test scores with a good helping of uncertainty over the New SAT.
SCU still hasn’t posted the profile for Class of 2021 yet, and here we are with Class of 2022 getting decisions. All I’ve seen on Class of 2021 is an article with score averages, no middle 50 data. Does the profile typically get updated very late?
As a Santa Clara alum, I feel that the school is getting picky now with the kids they accept. I bet my son would have ended up being deferred last year as well-I wanted him to apply to the school as well but it didn’t click with him during our visit.
His friend applied to SCU Engineering last year with a 4.05 weighted and 2100 old SAT and was deferred EA. I ended up writing a supplemental recommendation and the friend was accepted RD.
SCU is holistic in its admissions and they still subscribe to the Jesuit values to a certain extent, but the Catholic aspect has been really lessened since I was there. To be honest, if you’re accepted, that’s fine, but I might have a student go to the higher ranked alternative since outside of the immediate Bay Area not too many people know the school.
@evergreen5 - pardon my ignorance…what is “Tufts Syndrome”? Curious…
@SgtFriar2015 I was going to attempt an explanation myself, but wiki does it better:
[quote]
Yield protection (commonly referred to as Tufts syndrome) is an alleged admissions practice where a university or academic institution rejects or wait-lists highly qualified students on the grounds that such students are bound to be accepted by more prestigious universities or programs./quote
@SgtFriar2015 Tufts Syndrome refers to schools who defer or outright reject students with high GPA/test scores since the school assumes that the student is using that school as a safety.
Tufts University in Massachusetts is notorious for doing this since kids used to use them as a backup to Ivies.
I would never associate Santa Clara with Tufts Syndrome. Although back in my day a lot of kids rejected by Stanford and Cal went there.
@SgtFriar2015 sounds like your son has some great choices of schools. I would say forget Santa Clara if they are Top 20/Ivy level and offer decent financial packages.
I am still thinking Tufts Syndrome (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Though it’s not straightforward to compare without more data, SCU has higher test scores than, say, Pepperdine. SCU class of 2021 average SAT is 1371 whereas Pepperdine’s 75th percentile is 1380. And yet, Pepperdine is now ranked as a National University by US News. Villanova also managed to vault itself from regional to national rankings. Maybe SCU would like to bring down the acceptance rate in order to do the same, to move from regional to national. The importance of Demonstrated Interest was practically the very first thing the admissions officer mentioned, and emphasized, in the presentation we attended.
I think that Santa Clara fits nicely in its niche as a top notch regional university. It might lose its character if it became a national university. IMO Santa Clara doesn’t have the resources to go down that path, but I digress.
Certainly as a Jesuit institution there is no way that SCU could compete with Georgetown or even Creighton.
They are putting more resources into Engineering including new buildings. Maybe they do want to attract a different group of students, meaning they are deferring students who would have been admitted in previous years.
@SgtFriar2015 I was denied
@Hamurtle - Agreed. I think he’s going to decline RD. For whatever it’s worth, aside from his high GPA/ACT, he’s a Catholic school grad, long-time servant in a very unique international Catholic Charity group, travels Europe as a vocalist, plays varsity football, rugby (was being recruited by SCU’s rugby team), heavy LOR’s from key SCU alumni and advocates in the Catholic Church, sports, service groups, teachers, and has been to SCU for numerous visits. Didn’t view they as a safety but really didn’t expect a deferment. So much more to say but I’ll leave it at that. Thank you all for the info on the “Tufts Syndrome”. I get it now and whether it’s a factor at SCU or not…they lost a good kid for reasons I have yet to fathom. Onward and upward!