Accepted? Waitlisted?
Tough to grasp the results from this application year. Our student has solid stats and after submitting his application in October, he almost immediately got the email about being a good candidate for the Honors College. He then got deferred, rejected from the Honors College (expected), and waitlisted today.
He goes to a private high school that missed three days because of the pandemic. He took real classes, had real tests, and received real grades. His school never went pass/fail like the majority of schools did. The common app hasnât helped most of these kids either. Itâs a blessing and a curse as you now have kids applying to schools theyâre really not that interested in.
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Agreed- hard to make heads or tails of it. Incomprehensible that some of these kids with the resume they have are getting deferred/waitlisted/rejected by some of these schools.
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They really need to rethink the immediate honors college email and postcard after the application is received. It definitely gives false hope. This should have been a safety for mine but it was definitely near the top of his list. No such thing as a safety anymore. Same experience-EA, deferred, Waitlisted.
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I could have written your post. Exact same situation. So disappointed in this application year. Everything changed mid stream. My DD has some good options they just werenât her top choices, so we are embracing what her choices are and hoping one of these Waitlists comes thru! This club is no fun!
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Same for my daughter. EA, invitation to apply to honors college, deferred and now WL. Definitely a top choice.
Son was deferred but applying to music and it sounds like we wonât hear anything until mid-March. I had a couple hours of being hopeful that weâd have news today.
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Thatâs exactly the problem. The common app allows submission to 20 schools with the press of a button. With todayâs addiction/need for âlikesâ brought on by social media, a huge number of students are seeking just that from colleges. They all seem to be chasing the same big SEC and ACC schools in warm climates, with zero intention of attending , which has put the mildly above average student, traditionally these schools target audience, at a distinct disadvantage.
The schools will still only accept the same number of students each year because they know their yield formulas. They arenât complaining because the revenue generated from application fees is a windfall.
Auburn is the poster child for this phenomenon. Two years ago, Auburn was not on the common app. Their acceptance rate was appx 82-83%. Two years later after joining the common app, the number of applications for Auburn has more than doubled and their acceptance rate has fallen to below 40%. They claim to be âtest optionalâ which is just a BS way to get more students to apply, collect more revenue and climb up the list of US News rankings with their selective admission - Auburn only accepted 9% of students who went test optional. Google âNortheastern University games US News and World Report Rankingsâ to see how itâs done.
I donât know what the solution is or if there even is one. There are too many people (college admission coaches) and too many organizations (schools, college board, common app) making a crap ton of money to change the system. So I guess all we can do is adapt and find the school that works for us.
Acceptance rate has become a meaningless metric in regard to the quality of a school for the most part. USC is a good school, but itâs just not worthy of a 30-something percent acceptance rate.
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yeah especially since people who have been wanting to go to USC or Clemson since they were little didnât expect it to be this difficult - leaving everyone unhappy
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DD deferred from Auburn (safety school) rejected from one target and waitlisted at another target. Itâs a crazy application year. Something needs to change!
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Perhaps Auburn is a year or two ahead of the curve. I read something this week that the rest of the SEC schools are next to reach this bubble. Schools such as Auburn, UT, UK, and Arkansas.
USC should have been close to a safety school for our student based on historical stats. The only school he has been rejected from is Georgia and that is mostly due to their ~15% acceptance rate for OOS students. He is likely going to be waitlisted from Clemson today and that would finish off his top three schools and all waitlisted. Fortunately, heâs taking it in stride but itâs tough to swallow as the parent. He applied to a very low number of schools as he thought it was the right thing to do rather than applying to a bunch of schools he didnât really consider.
These schools are reporting record applications and schools like Stanford, Columbia, etc⊠extended their application deadline as their numbers were down.
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Hopefully she has an admit - if not thereâs still time for other fine schools.
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We had the same situation. Child applied to many schools in the SEC because they want big sports and warm weather. Fortunately, they really had no specific school preference between SEC/warm/sports schools, so we will be touring the accepted ones. Child is equally excited about their choices as they would be if they acceptances/rejections were reversed.
Like many here, child was invited to apply to honors and eventually got waitlisted. Childâs cousin got into USC 2 years ago with a 2.5 GPA and 1000 SATs , so the change has been extraordinary quick.
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A friend was accepted this year with similar GPA and 800 SATâs.
Were they an athletic recruit? There seems to be many kids with over 4 GPAs and over 1400 SATs being waitlisted
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College admissions is broken. I donât believe Common App should allow 20 schools. Itâs just not necessary. I get the 3-4 each of safety/likely, target and reach (9-12 schools), but beyond that, it almost becomes confusing. Itâs seeing what is happening now with admissions where students think a school is a safety (or easy target) and they they are rejected or waitlisted (even deferral is stress inducing). So to be safe, they add more schools. My D23 applied to 13 schools, and I thought this was a little high, but âyou never knowâ. She had one first choice school, which is where she really wanted to go. She would have happily only applied here, but I advised that she canât put all of her eggs in one basket. If she had been accepted, it was a yes from her and no for everywhere else, no need to even visit anywhere else. This happens to be our state school (UMD) and both her dad and I went there. It is her only rejection - not deferred, not waeitlisted, not spring admit. Rejected. And it shouldnât have been a reach at all. She was accepted UofSC (after deferral), UDel, OSU, PSU, Pitt, Purdue, Indiana, UIUC, Mich St, Miami OH and JMU (waitlisted UConn) - so sheâs no slouch on her application. To make it worse, she is an early childhood education major - so after paying OOS tuition, she will have to do additional certification testing to be a teacher in Maryland. Itâs just infuriating. And their condescending âwe strongly encourage you to consider transferring to Marylandâ in their rejection letter really makes me mad.
Hope it gets fixed before I have to go through this again with my D32 
(and I welcome the break after S19 and S21)
And sadly schools donât have a problem with kids applying to 20 schoolsâŠthey are making BANK off application fees. Do we really think these schools are doing a deep dive into a Childs application? NOPE. USC is a stats type of application. They arenât really looking at extracurriculars, leadership etc⊠I learned this from my 2021 during her application process. So it isnât like they are really looking deeply at each application. But yea, test optional and an application fee⊠they are bringing in good money. No reason for any college to complain about the common app. Until people start putting their foot down and stop paying these rediculus college costs and putting these kids through all this testing and stress⊠it will never change. I am just as guilty. Mine applied to 10 schools, even though she really wanted Pitt or West Chester or Boulder (talk about different schools!). She should have been a shoe in at Pitt but is currently waitlisted. I have sophomore at USC who does truly love it, so I pushed my senior to apply thinking that if she gets in (again, she should) that weâd go to visit and sheâd be sold! At this point we are just so over this whole process.
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Oh and those are some pretty awesome schools your daughter got into. Mine has gotten good money from UDel so she is going to do a tour and give it a chance.
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800 SATs? I have a hard time believing that. My daughter has friends deferred or rejected with 1200+ and decent grades
I agree common shouldnât allow just 20. But I think they should allow more. If a student chooses to apply to more, why should it be harder. My daughter had to do some school only apps - then you have to figure out, which ones donât need a reference and do it there. We ended up applying to IU and Arizona direct - but it would have been nice not to have had to. It turns out she didnât use spot 20 so we could have done one of those two direct. Not everyone is sure of their first choice up front - and many do want to have a choice or to compare merit, etc. And applying to more gives that freedom.
I didnât find admissions confusing at all. Each of us (parent, student) are different and some spend an inordinate amount of time on it - admittedly. I missed on one school - I thought my daughter would get a rejection but she got an acceptance there. But the merit is the part, short of schools that have auto merit tables, thatâs a tough one to get right.
But I understand your POV as well. UMDs admission stats have skyrocketed. While both mine got in and I fully expected it, I called it a high target for my daughter - if it came in rejected, Iâd have been surprised but definitely not shocked. Itâs just too strong today.
Given her major and the expense of OOS not to mention the low earning potential, what it be wise to apply to another in-state if theyâre still accepting - a Salisbury, Towson, UMBC or Frostburg, etc.
I dontâ think colleges want you to apply to 20. That hurts their yield. But I do think they want you to apply to them.
That said, every year more colleges are joining the common app - and their app #s skyrocket!! So to me - if this is the case, then why not increase the # you can apply to as thereâs more choices. But again, I do get your point. Some choose to apply to more and I donât begrudge them at all. But some choose to apply to less and thatâs fine too.
Iâm not sure itâs about the $$ - many schools donât charge period or have waivers. But I do think they are looking at rank - and prestige - and that often comes from a higher caliber of student. @cgemaj may be right about the $$ - I just think thatâs chump change in the overall budget, etc. But perhaps itâs used to fund the admissions team, etc.
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