Stories of rejections from match/safety universities and acceptances from reach schools

Applying to College
1

I just got rejected from a university which I thought would at least waitlist me…
Any stories from people that applied in 2014 or even 2015 and had something like the title happen?
It would really help me and maybe a few others get out of this gloomy emotional state.

Thank you.

2

I got rejected at the University of Texas at Austin but accepted at Duke. What. Even being out of state my stats were very competitive and I thought I’d be a shoe-in but I guess not. Duke is life! :stuck_out_tongue:

3

@homeless2harvard Thanks man. I’ve been seeing you around the UC forums for a while, glad you finally landed on Duke. I hope something like that happens to me too.

Bump for more of these!

4

UT Austin tends to be a reach for applicants not in the top 7% ranking of Texas high schools. All out-of-state, international, and non-top-7% Texas applicants (and those from non-ranking high schools) compete for the few spots left after the top 7% Texas applicants are automatically admitted.

If you were rejected from a “safety”, it was not really a safety to begin with (same if it is not affordable). Possible reasons why an apparent “safety” may not be:

  • School considers subjective criteria strongly, so that grades/rank/scores are not a reliable indicator of reach/match/safety.
  • School uses "level of applicant's interest" and you did not show enough interest to indicate that it was more than a "safety" to you.
  • School has different buckets for admission (like UT Austin, or like schools that admit by major or division) and you applied into the more competitive one (e.g. the non-auto-admit bucket at UT Austin, or the engineering division at some schools where engineering is more competitive).
  • School had a surge in strong applications compared to previous years.
5

errr not sure if this counts but I was rejected at brandeis and accepted at ucla…

6

I would say that counts Soap, Congratulations, Great News

After reading through a week of threads from people who have been WL and rejected from the various UCs (most of which are new to me) due to the budget in California I can now rank them, having never actually visited one or applied to one

7

re ‘homeless’, don’t even give UT-Austin a second thought. if your’re not TX HS top 7% (see list of variations of this that ucb included), it’s selectivity is akin to harvard’s.

8

Curious

9

Haven’t been rejected yet (most likely will from Berkeley), but so far I’ve been accepted into UCLA, UCSD,UCSB, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly SLO, Long Beach, and San Diego State. I was definitely surprised I got into UCLA & UCSD! Best of luck to all of you.

10

I was wait listed at my likely. (Kenyon) I was worried a bit because I couldn’t go visit and it was too late to interview. My guidance counselor was convinced it wouldn’t matter and Naviance did make it look favorable. I was accepted at Amherst and Northwestern, both dubbed as Reaches. feeling very lucky.