To rejectees:

<p>Chris/Silver: You are an amazingly strong person. Your inner strength is incredible. Something good is awaiting you. Good luck!</p>

<p>Schwaa05 - I was also deferred to CC. Did she tell you what you needed to do to better your chances? Any other insights that might be helpful? Are you going to write a new essay? Thanx.</p>

<p>ColumbiaDreamin-</p>

<p>Yes, she told me EXACTLY what I needed to do to better my chances. She told me precisely what the committee had to say about me, and what their "concerns" were. I plan on writing an essay/letter to give them an understanding of what was unclear to them. </p>

<p>I strongly urge you to call your admissions counselor, whether or not you've met them before. Of course, if you've met them before it probably helps. But remember, regardless of whether you know them, THEY know you. I'm sure that most of them are obliged to offer you some advice as to what you can do as a deferred applicant.</p>

<p>Calling and/or e-mailing not only gives you the opportunity to find out what you can do to improve your chances, but also shows that you're still interested. And "interest", as we keep hearing over and over again, is often the tiny extra nudge that pushes some applicants over into the admit pile. </p>

<p>Best of luck to everyone!</p>

<p>Schwaa05 -
You're awesome man! Thanks for the advice! Oh yeah, do you think emailing her would be okay -- I've never met her. Thanks again.</p>

<p>ColumbiaDreamin-</p>

<p>No prob! I'd probably e-mail him/her, if you've never met them, but its up to you. When I met my person, she gave me her phone number, so I took that as a cue to call her. It's totally up to you, though! You can IM at trendifendi5 on AIM if you have any more questions or anything!</p>

<p>So shwaa could u post what was wrong with you app to help other ppl...</p>

<p>Man, I took you guys up on your suggestion and called my geographical advisor, and she was NOT nice.
She was like "Well, I really feel this call is unneccessary. You were a promising candidate which is why we deferred you. Write some essays or send some auxilliary recs or something. Keep me posted on any big events."
She was awfully short with me.
Hmpf.</p>

<p>Jesus H Christ, I just spent literally 30 minutes typing out my entire college story. It was actually a beautiful narration, if I do say so myself. The post didn't work.</p>

<p>Summary: I feel for you guys, I really do. I'm a CU 08. Harvard was perfect for me, and I was deferred. Absolutely empty feeling. The whole school was rallying behind me, no one could believe I was deferred, I had a 1550, almost perfect grades, top distance runner, college courses in the summer, etc. etc. It was a disaster. I ended up getting in Columbia, waitlisted and then rejected at Princeton (second choice), and I got in MIT. I visited MIT and CU and chose CU because I wasn't sure if I wanted to do science, and now I'm glad I chose CU for that reason. However, it's been tough to adjust. Honestly, a lot of the people here aren't what I had hoped. There are a whole lot of "how did you get in here" people and there's a lot of partying (at least compared to what I'm used to). However, the only consolation I can give you is this: you're still just as talented as you were before you were rejected, and you will do great things if you want to. Make them sorry they didn't take you. A. Hamilton, Matt Damon, and Bill Gates all had the same amount of talent before they attended Ivies as they did when they dropped out. Your gifts are already within you. Use them. Life won't hand us gifts - everything had come so easy to me before the Harvard rejection, but now I realize I gotta grind it out for what I want. Find a passion and explore it. No one would give Spielberg a job, but he ended up doing ok. Stephen King almost failed, but he stuck with it. Keep at it, and don't let anyone stop you. So many of you would be absolute stars here. I have no clue how/why you were rejected. I'm sorry. But you will get in great colleges. Find a smart group of friends. Find your passion. Take life by the balls and don't let go.</p>

<p>Ioson33-</p>

<p>Damn, I'm really sorry it turned out that way. I'd expect the admissions people to generally be nice about calls like that, but mayeb the one you talked to was particularly stressed out. They do have lots of things to do.</p>

<p>Someone asked what the specific "problem" was with my application, according to my admissions counselor lady. She said that academically I was fine, but that in terms of me ECs, they didn't really understand what I did with my free time(i'm the VP of the school of visual and performing arts at my school, and i production manage most of the shows there). I think this is probably due to the fact that I didn't write about what I did in my essay, and there wasn't a question on the Columbia app asking what your top committment was and what it meant to you and bla bla bla. I hoped that my counselor rec and my supplementary rec(from the advisor of svpa who i've known for a long time) would have satisfied the EC field for me, but I guess they didn't.</p>

<p>So now I have to write a letter or an essay or something explaining more about what SVPA means to me and how much time i spend there and yada yada yada. She also said it'd be a good idea to tie in theatre at Columbia as well, so I guess I have to do some research on it and sneak it into my letter to them.</p>

<p>But what was "wrong" with my application is certainly not the same for everyone else's.</p>

<p>I'm bored of revising and I was looking back at all these old posts...
Just have to add, at this later stage..
I am so glad how everything has turned out :)
Back then I may have been crushed. But seriously (I think I said this back then as well, and hoped it was true), Columbia ED rej was a HUGE blessing in disguise.
I'm having such an awesome time now.. with all these great options .. being open to all these great schools!
I love gettin every acceptance!</p>

<p>looks like its "dig up my old threads" day lol!</p>

<p>hahaha for sure!</p>

<p>go48 where u from? and u got d-ed columbia right?
where have u heard from so far.. do u noe where ur goin in the end</p>

<p>didnt we just discuss it on nyu board?</p>

<p>haha i forgot</p>

<p>silver, you're awesome! Are you considering Barnard at all?</p>

<p>aww thanks :)
didn't i just see u on another board? gtown?
lol...</p>

<p>yeh i'm totally considering barnard...</p>