<p>So I got rejected from CAS and I have a burning question...</p>
<p>What does this say about me? I heard that for early decision, the vast majority of people who don't get in are deferred (reading the penn decisions thread confirms this). So by getting rejected, is this like really really bad? Bad as in I should give up on any other schools of this caliber? It was a reach, but I felt like I would at least get a deferral. </p>
<p>I'm not that depressed about penn per se, just about what this rejection says about my regular apps</p>
<p>Anyone wanna read my essays to see what was wrong with them? I sort of took a laidback approach and didn't get them carefully reviewed before turning them in, figuring I could go with my gut... I am not a hardcore CC'er or college admissions expert by any means (so sorry if this thread seems dumb).</p>
<p>It shouldn't matter. A friend of mine got rejected from every school (applied Penn ED) and got into Harvard. It's a crapshoot no matter what you do.</p>
<p>It doesn't matter at all.
It just tells you that you probably didn't have something Penn was looking for, which other schools are not that serious of.
Again let us all mourn for our rejections!
(I also am rejected, but thinking of my spec it's really not a big deal)</p>
<p>I got rejected...and now I don't know what to do with myself. I honestly don't understand this decision, I never thought I would be in the bottom third of applicants. There are kids in my school that I have 200 SAT points over (and that's on the 1600 scale), and the same GPA as, and they were at least deferred. I can't get this. I'm going to talk to my counselor on Monday to see what in the world happened.</p>
<p>I got rejected too, and I did NOT think I would be on the bottom 30% either. I'm pretty embarrassed that I got rejected instead of deferred. </p>
<p>But at the same time, being deferred is being rejected slowly. If you don't get into a school when you bind yourself, what's the chance you'll get into a school when you don't...</p>
<p>I'm in the same boat as you. Definitely was not expecting to be flat-out rejected. It's a real bummer. Hopefully something else good will come along for all of us (and you lurkers who may be feeling the same thing).</p>
<p>I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who was totally shocked at outright rejection. I really thought my essays showed how much I wanted to go there. But I was looking through the decisions thread, and the distribution of results is pretty random and I don't see a connective thread. That's what makes me think this process was totally random, so I'm really trying not to take it personally (even though it was infuriating at first).</p>
<p>Honestly, I'm over it already. For everyone who's struggling with this, remember that you have a life to live, and nothing can be done about this. Trust me, I know how cheated everyone feels, but dwelling on it will not make you happy.</p>
<p>I'd take a look at your essays. Remember, some kids apply to HYPMS Cornell Upenn and all the ivies, get rejected from cornell and every other school save for Harvard. Rare but happens ;)</p>
<p>this year is a particulary hard year when i comes to applying to colleges... esp ivies.<br>
- because of the echo-baby-boom, the class of 2008 is one of the biggest graduating classes relative to the recent graduating classes. bigger application pool, lesser chances of getting accepted
- which two ivies eliminated their early decision plans this year for the first time? whichever ones they were, there was certainly a trickle down effect among that ivies that still have ED. more highly competitive application pool, lesser chance of getting accepted</p>
<p>i think the difference between a deferral and a rejections is totally arbitrary-- it's not indicative of what kind of potential they thought you had (or didn't have)</p>
<p>stay confident! the mere fact that you applied to a school as competitive as this one says a lot</p>
<p>Remember that even though your stats are constant, each application is different. For example, Penn places a lot of emphasis on the Why Penn essay. If you didn't get in because that wasn't strong, then it's not going to affect any of your other applications as long as you make sure those essays are solid. But what they're looking for in Why Penn and what everyone else is looking for in any other general essay is completely different.</p>
<p>I've heard directly from people working in admissions (through working with programs that deal with prospective students) that the Why Penn essay is a major factor.</p>
<p>I told my D (who did get into CAS) that probably the only reason she was accepted was 1) ED 2) Legacy and 3) (possibly most important)- faculty. While I certainly think she would have been a strong candidate with stats, she was unusual in many respects. It's a total crap shoot, and there are many rejected one place and accepted another. Where you go undergrad does NOT determine your life success, reflect upon your worth as a person and ability to do good in the world.</p>
<p>i was rejected from Wharton and am aleady over it. hopefully, what people are saying is right and I still have a chance at other top tier schools! [Northwestern, Georgetown]. </p>
<p>We have no idea what goes on behind the scenes of the admissions process, so I think it wouldn't make sense to read anything more into this decision other than the fact that we aren't going to Penn, for whatever reason it may be.</p>
<p>Well for people working in the admissions, they obviously are not going to state that they look way to into the GPA/Rank because it would not be holistic.</p>
<p>If you look at the people on the Decisions page, you would notice that people who got deferred/rejected often had high SAT scores but low GPA. People who get accepted are those with high GPA (3.9/4.0), but varying SAT. Unless you're saying that all people with higher SAT but lower GPA write bad Why Penn essays...</p>
<p>College confidential does not provide a random sampling of results. You can't make such generalizations about why people got in or got deferred based on what people are posting in the decisions page. Obviously GPA/Rank are important, but with so many high GPA/Rank applicants, it's definitely not going to be 'the' factor that separates the ins from the outs.</p>
<p>Also, the Why Penn Essay is not 'the' thing that makes an applicant either. I just disagreed with you putting so little weight on it.</p>