Objective:
[] SAT I (breakdown): 730 W 700 CR 670 M
[] ACT (breakdown): DNT
[] SAT II: 700 Lit 710 USHistory
[] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):
[] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 6/120 at a competitive but underserved school
[] AP (place score in parentheses): n/a
[] IB (place score in parentheses): n/a
[] Senior Year Course Load: Most challenging courses available sans orchestra and journalism
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): n/a[/li]
[/list]Subjective:
[] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Orchestra (principal viola and President of orchestra) National Honor Society (president) Journalism/yearbook (Editor-in-chief) Health Occupation Students of America (Secretary and state finalist) History Club (National History Day State finalist) and some misc stuff
[] Job/Work Experience: worked during breaks
[] Volunteer/Community service: 200+ hours
[] Summer Activities: work
[] Essays: Strong. I wrote about how being in the middle of the 2006 Lebanon war affected my outlook on life
[] Teacher Recommendation: Very good
[] Counselor Rec: Very good but focused on my personality, not academics
[] Additional Rec: n/a
[] Interview: did not receive one
[] Supplementary Material: n/a
[/list]Other
[]Applied for Financial Aid?: yes
[] State (if domestic applicant): Texas
Country (if international applicant):
[] School Type: competitive public magnet
[] Ethnicity: did not put down but my name is Arabic
[] Gender: male
[] Income Bracket(mention if FA candidate): <30000
[li] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):[/li]
[/list]Reflection
[] Strengths: Essay
[] Weaknesses: Scores
[] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Because colleges don’t want to look at your application unless you are the cream of the cream of the crop (yes that was intentional)
[] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected from 4 ivies, berkeley, washu, vanderbilt, and duke. Waitlisted at Boston College. Accepted at UT Austin (safety in-state automatic admission for top 7%)
[/list]**General Comments: **
Very disappointed with the entire experience. Colleges should really stop making us wait months to learn of a decision that was probably made a few weeks after you submitted your application. I hope future students learn from my mistake of aspiring to attend a great college and understand that these places do not want you unless you have done something spectacular or were born as a favorable candidate (URM, legacy, etc.) Really, just don’t bother.
Hi OP, Many, many other outstanding students were also rejected from the Ivies and the other extremely selective schools to which you applied. Please put them out of your head. UT is “a great college” and you will thrive there. Don’t look back, attend admitted students day at UT, and start making plans to go there next fall. I wish you huge success in your future; your resume shows you have earned it.
People do actually get admitted, so I don’t see how this is sound advice. This isn’t the end of the world. And these schools are holistic. I’m sure many people don’t believe that I was the cream of the cream o the crop and I got into Northwestern with a 3.7 GPA and 1970 on the SAT. Maybe you didn’t get into those schools because you wouldn’t have been a good fit. It’s more than stats. You applied to 9 EXTREMELY selective colleges and one with automatic admissions. You should not have expected a different result. Sorry, not sorry. UT- Austin is a great school. I’m sure you will enjoy it there
I am not jealous and in no way downplaying the accomplishments of the students who are admitted. They should be very proud of themselves and I would have been overjoyed to know that one of my friends got in after applying to a very selective school of their dreams. That being said, people like myself need to understand that simply doing well in school and being passionate about the activities in which you take part in are not good enough for these ultra-selective colleges. You must be a very standout applicant who has done something with themselves- in essence, someone who doesn’t even really need the college to which (s)he has applied. In regards to your situation, Calicash, because you had lackluster scores/GPA, you have either A) showed the school that you have done great things which are not reflected in the numbers, B) added to the diversity of the campus in some way or another, or C) got lucky. Based on one of your threads, I believe you were accepted because you have a hook which is your URM status.
As CaliCash said, you applied to 9 colleges that are generally coined as most-selective. These schools are reaches for anyone, and especially for someone with a 2100 SAT and good, but not great, ECs. You should have applied more broadly. Boston College is a 34% acceptance rate, and all your other schools are in the single digits or teens.
I urge every person reading this thread to not listen to anything OP is saying. Do what you can to make your high school experience meaningful, and hope for the best, but understand that any school below 20% is not a sure bet for any student.
I have friends who got into Harvard, Brown, Stanford, etc. I did not get into any Ivies, but I did get into a few very fantastic LACs, and I will be attending Middlebury College next fall. My application process was not pointless; it was a valuable experience and I am not less of a person because I did not get into any Ivies. I did what I could given circumstances (being a first gen, late exposure to competitive college admissions, etc), and I am ecstatic about the results. To be quite honest, even if I had gotten into an Ivy, I’m not so sure I would go because some of the schools I got into seem to be a better fit.
No that is actually EXACTLY what you said and meant. I got in because I actually had a passion for the schools I was applying to and researched the programs and was a fit. I worked my butt off on my supplements and I know that my decision would’ve been the same if I was white. How dare you. There is no need to try to discredit or reduce the legitimacy of my acceptance just because your list of colleges was shortsighted and poorly crafted. It wasn’t a significant factor. The only people who think that are the ones who got rejected and are sour about it. Get over yourself. Enjoy Austin and move on. No need for whining now.
And FYI, there is an Asian girl who graduated from my school several years ago who got into Penn with a lower SAT and GPA than me and she didn’t even apply ED. Not everything is about race.
AND FWIW I got rejected by a less selective school despite my oh so coveted hook.
Ioganwahl, I’m sorry that you misunderstood me but I am in no way shape or form implying that students should not try to do great things, I am just saying they should be a lot more realistic when it comes to applying to colleges. When I say “don’t bother” I mean don’t bother applying to top 20 schools unless you are TRULY outstanding. I thought I was a strong applicant, especially in regards to my essay (which was very personal and described a life-changing experience for me.) Unfortunately I held myself to too high of a standard and paid for it with my time, effort, and money.
Calicash, I’m sorry to have offended you, but like I said, I am not trying to discredit your achievements. I have full faith that you were a wonderful applicant, but your URM status can make up for weaker points in your application. The fact that a more inclusive college rejected you may hint at that, as these schools usually are not trying to diversify so much as they are trying to climb the ladder of rankings.
You should be very thankful that you will have the opportunity to go to UT-Austin. Many, many students in Texas and OOS would love to have that opportunity.
MaineLonghorn, I am very happy with my acceptance to UT, but to say it was my first choice would be to lie and to say I am not allowed to be disappointed with my other results is unfair.
Your advice to younger applicants should be to apply to a wider range of colleges. If you had added some other schools ranked in the 30s or even lower 40s you would likely be looking at admits to places other than UT. There are some very fine schools that you did not apply to. A 1430, while a great SAT score, is not as high as most of the Ivies look for. Kids get rejected with 1600s all the time.
@Yofool Maybe you should quit while you’re behind. You don’t know anything about @CaliCash 's app. You don’t know her essay, recommendations, supplements etc. Your writing score does not factor in for some schools so just looking at 1370 for CR+M and your subject scores and rank, you have normal good stats. Oodles of kids with normal good stats gunning for top spots.
You’re a big fish in a small pond but it’s an ocean out there.
You may not have been trying, but what you said was extremely offensive and you are still being offensive. Not everything is about numbers. Thats what I am trying to tell you. Someone as smart as yourself should know that. As the caliber of the college your are applying to increases, numbers really matter less. Based on your attitude, you probably though you were entitled to admissions because of your stats, but you arent.
There was a reason you didn’t get in anywhere and your ORM status had nothing to do with it.
And if you really knew about Affirmative action, you would know that it is used to prevent an unnamed race from dominating the population of elite colleges. I won’t be specific, but you get what I’m saying.
Why is there such a strong sentiment against me? I LITERALLY posted that I have full faith she was a wonderful applicant. @mom2and that is great advice, but I still would not encourage applying to highly ranked schools without that “special something,” whatever it may be. The reason I chose to apply to the schools mentioned is because I enjoyed different aspects about each school and I need a lot of financial aid- something they can offer. After these, UT was my best bet for its own combination of accessibility and desirable characteristics.
OP, yeah, you said that. But then you conveniently threw in a qualifier
Look, you got into a great school. UT will give you a great opportunity at success. If you didn’t get into those other schools, it’s because they weren’t a fit. If anything, you should look at this as a positive. At least you eliminate the possibility of buyers remorse. I wish you the best in your academic endeavors.
@Yofool The post sounds bitter. Don’t even bother to apply? Why not? You try, you get rejected so what. As long as you are smart about including safeties and matches, you should be fine. Your stats are not high enough for you to be surprised. But life is about taking risks and UT is a great school.
No interviews? That is really odd, with four Ivies on your list. None were offered?
Test scores were not stellar, no AP, no IB. ECs questionable - no sports, no state or national.
Also, there is a lot of talk about how essays about significant world events (and 9 years ago for an 18 year old) can be a plus or a minus.
Maybe you were just unlucky. Or maybe every applicant who says their essay is “strong” wouldn’t know a strong essay if it bit them in the butt.
My son fully anticipated being rejected from his top twelve choices, and had two rolling admission schools on his list that he would have applied to this week. You looked at the process the wrong way - either be happy with UT or look elsewhere.
My brother applied to a top private college in July after he graduated HS - if you really want to go somewhere else, apply somewhere else. Or take a year off and get some amazing experience to allow you to reapply with a different outlook.
Calicash, I never felt entitled to a spot at any of the colleges and my strongest motivator was the financial aid. Not everyone is living a comfortable enough life to say that they chose their schools based on passion and fit. I am happy that you were offered a spot at a school that you love, but not everyone thinks that way, and for many of us, there are other things to worry about (massive debt being one of them.) Also, my numbers are not strong by any means. I don’t know where you got the idea that I felt numbers were the end-all, be-all.