Tell me your worst rejection stories

<p>I don’t have a story, chaosakita but I just wanted to tell you that we’re in a similar boat. I saw you over on the Wellesley thread and although I didn’t post myself, I also received a possible. I too thought I had a good chance and was disappointed with the decision. It definitely made me discouraged and worry about what’s going to happen around April 1st. (Just for some background, my SAT was 2320 with 800R 800W and 720M and I’m number one in my class. I also believe I had the extracurriculars and such to match) So yeah, I applied to many selective colleges and can totally understand the panic factor that’s happening around this time, especially being waitlisted/deferred from a college at which you thought you had a good chance.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I’m glad to know that we’re in the same boat together! I was pretty upset about my Wellesley decision, even though it was hardly my #1 school. I’m sure we’re both going to get in somewhere we love though.</p>

<p>I’d like to add a somewhat different perspective on safeties. In touring small LAC’s with my daughter, we met a number of very high achieving HS graduates who had applied to and been accepted in some cases by Ivey or similar schools, yet chose these LAC’s because of either better merit aid or some other “fit” factors. These are schools where the top students are as good as any accepted by Ivey’s, so the kids have peers there and seem really happy and academically challenged.</p>

<p>My daughter applied to a few reach/targets… she is similar to what you’ve mentioned, schools where her stats put her comfortably in the range of accepted students at Ivey’s, but we knew these were not safe choices for anyone. It’s true that her other choices were ones where she would be in the top 25%, but I don’t think that means she’ll get a less challenging education. These are still really great schools with a lot of super smart kids and dedicated faculty and great programs.</p>

<p>So for the parents bemoaning the fates of super smart students randomly not accepted by any of the super toppy toppy schools… if they were smart they applied to some also great schools where their chances were much better.</p>

<p>So far my daughter has 3 acceptances (RD, but given the news early) with good merit aid… so even if she doesn’t get into the targets that are her first choices, she’ll be going to good school that will fit her well and where she will find plenty of smart peers in similar circumstance.</p>

<p>

This was my older son, and I thought he needed a top school, however, I also knew he wasn’t a slam dunk. His interests were extremely one sided, he’s pretty anti-social, his ECs were all academic. He was a very typical brilliant computer science nerd. While I thought there was a good chance he’d get into a top school, when you are talking about acceptance rates that even back in 2007 were in the 15% range you knew there was the possibility that he’d end up at a safety. Particularly since for top students there aren’t really any match schools so he had a reach heavy list. There were two very good schools we were 100% positive he’d get into RPI, WPI and then most of the others were lottery schools.</p>

<p>Tech oriented kids can find good safeties at the lesser known tech schools. Males may have a better chance at the formerly female LACs and some other female heavy schools. (My B+ boy got into Vassar, but it was a good fit too.) But I agree for the tippy top kids matches are not that easy to find they may often be best off at honors colleges at State Unis.</p>

<p>kathieh1-the smaller LAC where the the kids will come in at the top 25% are the schools our kids are targeting mostly because those are the ones with the programs they want. I’m trying to see a 'bad" side to this strategy and I just can’t. They are smart kids but the don’t come off as nerdy brainy kids and have found camaraderie with even just the tour guides on tours. I think the opportunities for the top kids at a “less prestigious” school are better. I think it is better to stand out in the crowd vs just being one of the masses like they would find at a tippy top school. Am I missing something here?</p>

<p>LOL @ Vassar and Haverford as safeties/matches. You can think a top school is a “match” for you all you want, but the fact of the matter is that those schools are reaches for anyone, period. Take one of the guys I go to school with, for example: 2330 SAT, 35 ACT, 3.97 GPA, decent EC’s. Rejected by Amherst and Williams, waitlisted by Vassar and Middlebury, and accepted to Wesleyan. I know several people who had similar stories, and I’m sure it is like this at every top school.</p>

<p>A student I know very well was rejected by the top choice school. Frankly, the community is shocked, I saw it coming. This student will be valedictorian, perfect gpa, perfect act’s, this student had both parents attend the school and the mom even is an alumni interviewer. Everything was done to prepare this student - except develop a personality.</p>

<p>This student had 0 ec’s and all they ever did was study around the clock. Other kids talked about the amazing outlines and amount of studying and work done for the classes. Studying is the only hobby, borderline obsession. My child is friends with this persons sibling and would often talk about the craziness.</p>

<p>The most sought after teacher talked to me about writing my child’s recommendation. I was shocked because my child didn’t take the ap class, and didn’t even get an A. His opinion was the grade was irrelevant, it was the intellectual curiosity and that he had too many AP grade grubbers who were in his words, selfish learners.</p>

<p>This teacher wrote one of the LOR for this student and I’m guessing it said basically about the study skills, but probably lacked the thing colleges look for - insightful participants.</p>

<p>I’m sure this student will get in somewhere else, but the lack of personality of interests were for sure the downfall.</p>

<p>This year in late fall/early winter, I was pretty stupid and considered prestige as a top priority and applied to Yale EA. </p>

<p>Ha. I had a 3.87 GPA UW (4.2 W) , 2220 SAT, and loads of volunteering and some good ECs like MIT LTI and other stuff. However, who was I kidding? My competition was FIERCE.And yes, I was flat-out rejected. </p>

<p>Quite honestly, though, I’m (no, really. I’m not just saying it to make myself feel better) actually pretty happy I was denied. Why? It helped me fall in love with a school that I ABSOLUTELY loved, and not for something stupid like prestige: Tufts University. I got in EDII at Tufts, and I know that my chosen field of study is excellent there. I’m a Jumbo, not a Bulldog, and actually, elephants are a better fit! </p>

<p>Yale was a totally out-of-bound reach, and a school that, in retrospect, was not for me. Congrats to all who got accepted to Yale, and know that I am equally happy with my top choice Tufts! :)</p>

<p>Well seeing as Vassar’s average GPA is a 3.77, the 75th percentile SATs are about low to mid 700s, and looking at Naviance for my school… I objectively looked at my stats compared to all of the above and took into consideration my ECs and determined that Vassar is a match. Yet again, a match doesn’t mean you’re definitely getting in. It means you have reasonable chances. Unfortunately, the kid you mentioned happened to be in the group that got rejected for each school. Either there was nothing compelling about that student to not have gotten in with those scores, or he was just very unfortunate each time. Hopefully he had safeties, however, saying a kid with super high stats shouldn’t consider schools like Vassar a match is incorrect.</p>

<p>So moral of the story and to stay on topic: “top” students who only apply to Ivies and safeties, and nothing in between, should consider such schools as matches, so that they DON’T end up rejected to all of the schools except for the one or two safeties.</p>

<p>Yes SteveMA, that’s the point exactly. I think a lot of kids will be very happy at great schools where they can excel with plenty of other smart kids, but where they have a really good chance of admission and even aid. The kids from HS who really don’t care about school and did poorly in HS are either not going to college, or going to much less selective ones than the ones we’re talking about. These are schools where 95% of the students are in the top 25% of graduating classes.</p>

<p>I would never say Vassar is a safety, but I think it’s okay to call it a match for kids with very high stats - assuming it’s a reasonable fit - you still have to write essays that make you seem like a plausible candidate. I don’t think my older son would have been accepted by Vassar. Matches aren’t guaranteed.</p>

<p>No story here, but just a quick reflection.</p>

<p>Our counselors at our suburban public school are overwhelmed and overworked. They barely know most of the students and because a huge percentage of students stay in-state (we have the HOPE and most families don’t qualify for enough financial aid to send their kids out of state), the counselors really have very limited expertise in college counseling. Many of our top kids end up getting into none of their first/top choices because they generally focus on the HYPS type schools and the state schools and none in between. </p>

<p>Our counselors generally don’t have much expertise in college funding, though a seminar is offered twice a year.</p>

<p>I think Vassar and the like can be a match. Just because you got rejected doesn’t mean that you didn’t have a 70-80% of being accepted, which seems reasonable to me. Of course, there’s always the chance of being rejected. Nothing is guaranteed.</p>

<p>That said, anyone else have any other stories?</p>

<p>Just wait until April, when people will be here posting:</p>

<p>“I got rejected everywhere, what should I do?”</p>

<p>“I cannot afford any school that I got into, what should I do?”</p>

<p>No horror story to post but just an observation: i’ve heard that sometimes kids are rejected or deferred or wait listed at “safeties” or “matches” because they are overqualified and the school wants to protect its yield.</p>

<p>So no need to panic until all the results are in.</p>

<p>Desicollegegal, you are wise beyond your years.</p>

<p>Wow, she ditched a super-super selective school for a merely super selective school. Both have a lot of prestige, but I guess laypeople wouldn’t recognize her. No offense to her, and I’m glad for where she’s going, but that hardly qualifies someone as “wise beyond their years.”</p>

<p>But talking about fit? Is there something that Tufts has that Yale really doesn’t? (The size?) I don’t think Tufts is a bad school (it was one of my choices until my parents told me they wouldn’t pay for it after visiting), but I find it hard to believe that someone would enjoy being at one and not being at the other. Personally, I think the idea of fit is kind of inane. How are you supposed to know a college is ~the one for you~ without actually attending it? I feel kind of annoyed too when people apply to a school just because it’s Ivy League without knowing anything else about it. But in the end, most differences are superficial, and people end up highly enjoying wherever they end up.</p>

<p>S was waitlisted at UMich, in state, with a 33 ACT and 38+ gpa. Waitlist and rejection are the same in practical terms at UM. He didn’t have any organized ECs or leadership … he played in bands and mixed music, but apparently that doesn’t earn points for admissions. It really bugged him that so many kids from his high school who were less academically prepared were accepted. He could have transferred later, but he decided not to … so I guess that, while it stung not to be accepted, it was okay because he didn’t really want to be there, after all.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Some baseline fit characteristics should be easy to tell:</p>

<ul>
<li>Can you afford to attend?</li>
<li>Does it offer the courses and majors that you are interested in? (or a wide variety if you are undecided)</li>
</ul>

<p>

</p>

<p>That’s why applicants should be aware that colleges which list “level of interest” as an admissions criterion should not be viewed as safeties.</p>