Daughter received a letter today saying she has been wait listed and has an option of waiting for Fall 2015 acceptance or a garaunteed Spring 2016 acceptance. She applied to Isenberg. Class rank of 20/337. SAT of 1150 (CR AND MATH). 3.85 GPA. Over 150 community services hours and was a member of Class Government as well as National Honor Society. Thought I would post her stats incase anyone else was comparable so they have a better idea of what they’re decision will be. Congrats to all who got accepted!
Isenberg is a different animal at UMASS.More competitive. She would have easily gotten in with another major.
TBH @tmahoney I’m shocked she should be easily accepted, maybe because she applied to Isenberg college and not to other major. However, I’m sure she will find a better place to attend, best luck to you.
The Wait is over – Umass said “No”. Lots of other great choices. Good luck to everyone who is still waiting!
@mostapha - you are a great cheerleader! Can you stay on the board until we all get our acceptances/denials in?! Lol. Seriously, we all wish you the very best. I am delighted that as a refugee you will experience more of the American Dream at umass Amherst.
@tmahoney - does your daughter know what to do now or is it too early to say? Jeez I hate these college curve balls. A yes/no is so much simpler. We are still waiting to hear. I swear we will be the last posting on this thread!!!
2kidsmom. So sorry. Hope you are ok with that. What are your great choices?
@ajs1997 hmmmmmm we are in state also. Without telling. Me the name of your school can you give me a ballpark range - size, demographics, and part of MA? My DS has also heard nothing from friends but then again… He doesn’t ask and they don’t tell… 8-|
Seeing as Umass was her first choice when she first opened the letter she had a bit of a breakdown. She has been accepted to all of her other schools and offered multiple scholarships and grants from these options. Right now I believe she is going to commit to Merrimack College as a double major in the honors program as her backup plan. However she already mailed back her response within a couple hours of recieving the news in the mail to Umass, reserving her spot on the wait list, but will not have a full decision until after May. She still has hope though, she claims Umass will offer her not only the best education but the best all around experience!
@SQBrit of course I will stay on board, I have experienced the same situation and I know your feelings now. I think you should just take a deep breath and hope for the best. I can prove to you in million of ways that umass amherst will keep sending acceptance letters until April 15. If you check people on twitter you will know that they are being sent everyday. Whatever the outcome is, its always the best for you trust me. My sister started in STCC (a community college) and she never thought that one day she will transfer to umass amherst, she considered it impossible to transfer to Boston University after she got in Umass Amhers. My sister is now studying medicine in Boston University and has only 8k loans to pay. Trust me you guys all will be fine if you try your hardest, we will have bright future ahead of us. Best wishes to all! :)>- ^:)^ =D>
Well I know how waitlists go. DS is on three of them! It is always good to have hope. Fortunately, we have 1 decent acceptance and plan to visit that school this weekend. This is seriously nerve racking stuff and very hard to predict! I think DS will get accepted to UMass but the lingering doubt is creeping in. No news is stew news, lol.
@Mostapha - Those stats are below UMass’s average, this being said, a very well balanced portfolio even if it’s below average will still give you a shot. (Great EC’s with a 3.7 GPA as well as a 1200+ SAT will give you a solid to good chance)
@Greenman57 my stats are the following
1010 on sat 560 math and 450 English , however i stated that i came as a refuge for 5 years and couldn’t master the language.
my gpa is 3.7 with only 3 ap classes and an average of 91 first semester.
had good EC, founded a science club.
I think these stats are very common among high school students today and I feel other people who are still waiting have better stats then I do so I feel like they should get in hopefully.
@Greenman57 Also, I know more than one person in our school who had either low sat scores or gpa and still got in. I At the same time a guy with good sat scores and good gpa is rejected. I started to feel like it depends on the mood of the people responsible on deciding, umass decision really doesn’t make sense sometimes lol
@Mostapha - Your stats look lower than they actually are since you said you have a 4+ weighted GPA. Additionally they understand that it must have taken a lot of effort to get where you are as a refugee that a few years a ago couldn’t speak English. Lastly, I’m saying is that perhaps using your stats to compare to others is a tricky thing to do since you come from a very specific situation.
@Mostapha - Ya the admissions system is strange but it is possible that there are several teams to work on each area of admissions (Science, Language, Business etc…) and therefor vastly different results depending on what major the student applied to. This is likely since they have 43K+ applications this year, which is too much for one team to deal with, and overall they will likely accept only 55% of those apps this year. (This year’s # of apps is much larger than last’s)
I must say that I once respected Umass Amherst however throughout this whole experience, I realize that they are a college in serious need of leadership. My daughter applied for EA with a 3.9 GPA SAT 2200 and 6 college level classes her high school year. She applied very early, undecided major was deferred and is still waiting to hear. A friend with well over 4.0 was wait listed. There is no rhyme or reason. Upon visitation, many parts of the campus are run down and honestly filthy. All schools are receiving record number of applications and yet they are able to process them. I believe that Umass Lowell has surpassed Umass Amherst under the lead of Chancellor Meehan, I just hope he doesn’t jump ship to save Umass Amherst. If accepted I would not allow my child to go here, just not worth the money.
@ppsmom - I must say I mostly agree with your sentiments although I can’t speak to the appearance (haven’t visited recently). Dragging out the process this long really sends a very strange message. It makes a poor first impression for parents and students alike. It’s hard to believe that they want to accept students that have been left waiting for a response for 6+ months. It’s a bit like throwing a party for your closest friends at your house and then not showing up to host for the first three hours!
On the other hand, we receive daily emails from DS’s accepted schools hoping to make a good impression such that he will choose to accept their school. From UMass - silence…Clearly, they are backlogged and short staffed. However, there are no excuses for not anticipating this and adjusting accordingly. I can only compare this experience to UConn - another state flagship school in New England. In that case, everyone received notice AT THE SAME TIME, by the third week of February. And they received a record ## of applications also.
Denied…
Why am I not surprised.
The denial letter was terrible as well.
I got denied to all my top schools, and the fact its becuase of my sat score sucks.
@BostonSportsFan - I’m really sorry to hear that. I’m sure you are feeling very disappointed. Not being a good test taker is not your fault. It is also not the best measure of a student’s ability to do the work or succeed academically. What are your options?
Your 100% correct, but in the admissions process unfortunately its basically one of the most important factors after GPA I would say. Ill get over it eventually.
I got denied by my top three choices - Syracuse, Uconn, and Umass. So ill be attending - Providence College. @SQBrit