- Test Scores
- GPA
- Course rigor
- Your essays
- Your recommendations
- Your ECs
- The school doesn’t think you will attend
- No connection/understanding of school demonstrated in your application
- You require more financial aid than the school is willing to commit to an applicant with your qualifications.
- Too many more highly qualified applicants in your demographic (major, area of interest, ethnicity, gender, athlete, etc.)
You anticipate a few threads asking this question, right?
I will take the liberty of adding that, especially at the top colleges, it might just be that it wasn’t your lucky day. They have so many top applicants. It could just be as simple as they think Joe sounds like a more sincere guy than Jim, or Sally wrote a great essay about whatever, but so did 20 other people, so they picked Susie because her essay was about something different, even though it wasn’t quite as good.
I have read many articles about reasons why top colleges reject people. One guy said he got food poisoning at an Italian resturant, and the next day he rejected anyone with an Italian surname. I have a friend who does alumni interviews for Brown. He said they could fill their incoming class three times over with all the great people they have to reject. Another AO said she read an essay from a girl who loved baking bread. So did the AO, and she got in.
Well, actually, I had intentions of expanding on some of the things on that list, but the first followup I wrote was too negative, so I deleted it.
If I had to add a number 11 to the list, I would include “blind luck” although I think that is also sort of covered in 10) Too many qualified applicants.
If I had to pick one thing that I think most CCers fail to understand, it would be the fact that their essays and recommendations are not all 9/10 or better, especially when viewed by the top schools.
I’d add “Sloppy application” to the list. Of course that includes numerous typos, and significant ones (guessing Carleton tosses the ones that say “Carlton”). But I also think apps that are not well organized and understandable are more likely to be rejected. Context and explanation (concise, but clear) are appreciated by admissions.
Agree with the “sloppy application” comment above, although I kind of think that is at least partly covered by 4) Essays in my original list.
On essays, I have seen countless variants of the following over the years from adcomms and counselors:
25-30% of essays actively harm the application
50-60% of essays don’t really have any positive or negative impacts
10-15% of essays help the application
5% of essays strongly help the application
The numbers are always a little different, but the story is essentially the same, and this certainly reflects my own experience.
At the bottom end, there are all sorts of thing that go wrong. There are essays that are just poorly written, but I think it is far more common that the essays actually reveal a side of the applicant that is not very flattering - adcomms are pretty sensitive to things like kids who are arrogant or entitled, kids who are obsessed with prestige, etc…and for the most part, these can be deal-breakers. Most 17 year olds aren’t really terribly good at understanding how they come across to adults, especially when writing, and a lot of essays reflect this.
Blind luck/meeting the institutional needs of the college that year.
My older son got into Harvard and Carnegie Mellon CS, but not into MIT, Caltech or Stanford. He was waitlisted at Harvey Mudd. It happened he applied to Harvard the year they announced they were forming an engineering school and planning to hire a hundred new professors. A CS kid was probably extra-desirable that year, while they were a dime a dozen at the places that rejected him. I don’t think it’s really worth worrying too much about why you were rejected if you have made a list of schools you’d be happy to attend including safety schools.
I think some students do phone in their applications. RPI mentioned when they came to our school that a surprising number of students don’t bother to figure out how to spell Rensselaer. (I always copy and paste it, because I can’t remember!)
The Boston University admissions website has/had a list of examples of bad essays they had received. One essay stated how they were looking forward to a Jesuit education. That’s Boston College, not Boston University!
Agree completely, re: essays. They can be so revealing, and in ways I don’t think most teens realize. One big thing I’ve noticed, specifically in reading essays for students aiming for the Ivies & hyper elites, is that their essays aren’t bad, but they contain no real depth. And depth of thought–demonstrating complexity, maturity, etc.–I think is essential for those schools. If you don’t have that depth, you can’t fake it. I try not to actively crush dreams when I help teens with their essays, but I can usually call who will get in, who won’t, and who has a real shot at scholarship money (if the essay in question is for a competitive merit award). Essays matter more than some people realize. It’s why I’m not as shocked as others when I see those “perfect” students rejected from top schools. I always assume something in the essay didn’t work and/or their recommendations weren’t as great as the student thought they were.
Colleges know that not everyone who writes a rec letter for the kid, can be convincing or erudite. But that’s not the fault of the kid. however, the kid is directly responsible for the essays/personal statement. For the top schools, a supportive but not well written LOR isn’t a deal breaker if other aspects of the app might be stellar – such as a great personal statement.
I think LORs follow much the same pattern as I outlined for essays. Most make almost no difference whatsoever, they are generally positive and no one really cares. A small percentage are so well written and enthusiastic that they provide a small boost.
At the other end, they range from lukewarm to actively harmful - there are lots of people who feel the need to “appear fair” when writing them, and are sure to include some negative comments about the applicant. There are others who don’t regard the applicant as highly as they thought - again, 17 year olds aren’t always the best judges of how adults perceive them.
None of this necessarily kills an application, but it can definitely be a net negative. What does it look like if the same characteristic (say, unsteady motivation) is mentioned in more than one LOR?
0 Applicant has an all-reach list of schools to apply to, because any suggested safety candidate is "beneath" him/her.
One CC’er referred to any school below USNews rank 40 as “ghetto”.
I think the interview as well. If you’re extremely awkward during the interview and really can’t articulate yourself, then that could really hurt your application. Also if you did prepare at all for the interview and give a really vague response to the “Why School” question, that can hurt your chances as well.
Sloppy application also applies to EC descriptions and judicious/effective use of Additional Info, not just essays.
WRT to the top schools, the ones that get the most attention here on CC, there’s one factor that is largely neglected, and is probably the most important.
Character.
After all, that’s why your application includes LORs, essays, and lists of EC activities. It’s also a huge component of any reasonable definition of “holistic” admissions. Assuming you’ve cleared the bar in terms of the “objective” aspects of your application (Grades, Test Scores, Curriculum), what else do you think you are being evaluated on?
Broadly, I think these schools are looking not just for people who are talented and gifted academically, but people who are going to make the most of what they have to offer. They are looking for people with high levels of motivation, with proven track records of achievement beyond school, service to others / community, creativity, etc…
What they aren’t looking for is people who are overly concerned with prestige or collecting trophies - they want people who are not wholly focused on themselves. And I think they are probably pretty good at looking at applications and figuring out who is who.
I don’t know that character is that crucial a factor in admissions decisions. Adam Wheeler, for one, begs to differ.
Kids from the top 5% outnumber the bottom 50% by a margin of 2 to 1 at most of these colleges. I don’t think character is 20x more common among the top 5%, so I think it quite likely that other factors have a more significant effect.
I am not arguing that character is the MOST important factor in admissions decisions - obviously, it’s not. However, I do think that character (or whatever you want to call it) is a much more significant factor than most people realize, once the pool of applicants is pared down to the “objectively qualified” stage.
And, with regards to the kids from privileged backgrounds versus the bottom 50% - which group has a better understanding of how to present themselves in their application in the most flattering light?
@proudterrier , I know exactly what you mean about the essays not showing maturity or depth. My son had the same issue – nothing technically wrong with his essay, but it lacked anything that would indicate here’s a thoughtful writer. Articles like this don’t help: https://medium.com/@evan_cudworth/i-ve-read-over-10-000-admissions-essays-here-s-a-simple-formula-on-how-to-write-a-good-one-7802800e793c#.inftzelsq
Fortunately, S worked with his counselor to weave in a literary device or two that made the message much more compelling.
I actually didn’t think that was such terrible advice. My younger son wrote something very similar, though he didn’t really connect it directly to academics.
One thing I think people don’t say, is that it helps to come off as likable. I think both my kids showed that they had a sense of humor in their applications.