<p>I’m not so sure that Wash U admissions deemed anything “wrong” with the kids who they put on the waitlist. I don’t think people on the waitlist came across as not fitting at Wash U. I don’t think people on the waitlist had less than excellent recs. And so on.</p>
<p>I just think that when a school gets tens of thousands of applications, with so many from outstanding applicants, they simply HAVE to pick and choose between the slightest of things, and then set aside numerous highly qualified, good-fit candidates in order to take other highly qualified, good-fit candidates. I would bet anything that the adcoms feel pretty torn up when all is said and done. </p>
<p>There’s bound to be a number of “definitely accepts.” And there’s bound to be a number of “definitely rejects.” But there’s bound to be an even huger number in the “muddy middle” that are discussed and re-discussed as they try to decide who’s an “accept” and who’s a “waitlist.” I’m betting that a whole lot of waitlists and accepts could have gone either way.</p>
<p>(My son was accepted, btw. I’m not rationalizing anything … this is just how I think things go in highly selective admissions.)</p>
<p>I got into WUSTL with my reliable 2240 SAT and 4.18 GPA. I am a proud, underqualified member of the class of 2015, and reading the acceptance thread for the class of 2015 humbles me. To see myself with a pool of applicants with 2300+ SAT’s and high GPA’s makes my acceptance feel like a miracle. But being the rational person I am, I realize there is more behind it. </p>
<p>I heard, before, that colleges (particular the private ones) look for students who would make a “good fit”. Thus, I think this is where extracurriculars and personality may come into play. I am a kind of rebellious sort: I did not take SAT prep, I did not do extracurriculars to satisfy a college quota, I did mostly everything in high school to satisfy my own interests and passions- which at times involved me shirking off homework from one class to aimlessly peruse the textbook of one that genuinely interested me. I was a frustrating student to many teachers: one who would deliver and accomplish during projects or tests, yet failed to deliver with busy work. Some people labeled me as an intellectual B-lister/slacker for my refusal to be insincere (I suppose my sheer number of B’s might confirm it), and were more surprised than I when I received my acceptance from WUSTL. In thinking about it more, I realize that I was wrong. Everyone has potential: some are evident through grades, some through activities, some through the person as a whole. </p>
<p>I feel, that some of those students who call themselves “overqualified” likely have a strong tone of arrogance that unintentionally rang through their application. Perhaps, they should realize that college acceptances are not entirely based on numerical data, and that the person in whole is taken into consideration- including personality!</p>
<p>I didn’t visit WUSTL or schedule an interview; I am located far away, and have a mild shyness. However, in my application I made sure to project myself as a person more interested in building a genuine foundation than a facade of inflated test scores and awards. This is my approach to life; and while you “overqualified” people may belittle people like me during the college process and consider me inferior to your 2300+ tests and inflated GPA; remember, in college, everything is a clean slate. And us “underachievers”- like late blossoms- with the beaming rays of acceptance fostering our growth, will well go on to college and discover our dreams alongside you profoundly worthier individuals.</p>
<p>I think this whole talk of FIT is utter BS! And are you insinuating that other elite schools are looking for arrogant **********? Most qualified applicants have nothing inherently WRONG with their applications. Most waitlists and acceptances could have gone either way! This is confirmed when a lot of those waitlisted and accepeted (and to a lesser extent rejected) get into a lot of other similar elite institutions. It is just as arrogant for those accepted to say that there was something wrong with the applications of those waitlisted, as it is for those waitlisted to say they were more qualified than those accepted!
So no you weren’t waitlisted because your stats are Oh-so-awesome and hence you were deemed “Overqualified”!
And no you weren’t accepted because you application displayed a disregard of the college-admissions status-quo, and you showed your humble and non-stat obsessed self!
You were all just very qualified, and there were was more qualified students, all who could have FIT perfectly at WashU, than there were spot available in the class. It is that simple really. </p>
<p>No need to take shots at people with higher GPA than you do. Many people’s GPA are, in fact, not inflated.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’re quite understanding something. MANY people who have 2300+/3.9+ academics are not robotic; they do many things outside of school and continue to follow their interests. Also, no top tier college would want to take slackers. A high GPA is not the result of massive grade inflation but years of hard work. And no, I am not biased as I have a sub 3.8 UW GPA. </p>
<p>Having said this, I don’t get the whole ‘overqualified’ argument either. That’s just silly; especially with a top tier college that has many highly qualified applicants to choose form.</p>
<p>The issue here is people are trying to understand the formula for college admissions. People want to know what criteria colleges asses apps on and what weight they give to what criteria. And it’s not even because we want to get in, more than it is our curiosity as humans to understand any unknown/complex system given to us. </p>
<p>Personally, I hope they don’t waitlist “overqualified” applicants to wustl, because as someone who was accepted, that would make me feel pretty grim about other schools I applied to. Plus, u do know very qualified applicants who were both accepted and waitlisted. I think it’s more than qualifications. </p>
<p>Point is admissions are complicated and work in mysterious ways. Most of us will be happy at whatever college we end up at anyway, and we can always transfer. Worrying about admissions now won’t change much, unless you have a younger sibling. Colleges probably pick on a multitude of factors, some unique like “fit”, and others arbitrary.</p>
Wow, you sure know everything. Did you read all the applications? I don’t think so. So I’m pretty sure that you can’t make that statement. Wait wait, YOU’RE dead wrong.</p>
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Again how do you know? If you think about it, certain public schools students tend to have higher GPA than top college prep schools. Private college prep schools offer a wider range of AP/IB classes that many public schools don’t (this excludes the premiere public schools like the ones ranked or IB certified). And I can vouch for this since my hometown had a private and a public school and there was a big discrepancy between the difficulty of those two. More students from the college prep school with subpar GPA got into our public school university (ranked as one of the top public research university) than our public school. Our public school had only 1-2 people get accepted into WUSTL last year while the private college prep had about 10 people accepted with 5-6 going (oh and their GPAs were not super high). So yes, there are students that are great, but there are students that have inflated GPA because they didn’t take super hard courses or they had weaker schedules. Also, everyone follows their interest, it’s just what kind of EC they do. There are meaningful ECs and pointless ECs.</p>
<p>I just think that the process is more than stats for some schools. You can disagree, you can imply that I’m a “slacker” (if so, I doubt I would’ve had the chutzpa to write out my college applications by November), or you can just accept the fact that different people fit in different places- and yes, some schools are trying to create a friendly, cordial learning environment. </p>
<p>Also, calling me a slacker is not really the way to describe me. I go to a public school in a city where classes involve around 40 students in a crammed classroom, listening to power-point lectures/videos from broken speakers. There are some teachers who do a great job of teaching and some who do not. I have always been interested in a hands-on, dynamic approach to education- I’m naturally curious, and for this reason; I have a different way of learning. The prospect of college: with its seminar discussions, hands-on labs, and greater access to developing a relationship with the professors excites me boundlessly.</p>
<p>A shout out to the WUSTL people that messaged me; you guys are fabulous! We should have our own discussion in the Accepted thread ;]</p>
<p>I don’t believe I specifically called you a slacker. </p>
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<p>Are you honestly trying to tell me that everyone who think that they got rejected because they are overqualified came off that way in their application? That’s possibly the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. IF they did believe they were overqualified, then they would take special care to make sure they put themselves in a way that colleges would like- definitely not arrogant. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever met/seen a person who is applying to a top college and sounded arrogant in their application. Doing so would just be silly because that would almost guarantee a rejection. Actually, can you give me an example of how someone might come off as arrogant in their application?</p>
<p>Just some food for thought: during my Harvard interview, the interviewer said “put everything you have learned about modesty aside, and while this may go against everything your parents have taught you till now, just brag. Show me what separates you from the rest of the 30K+ applicants applying to Harvard.”</p>
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<p>What do you consider “pointless”? No EC is considered pointless. If a person has an interest in something, then by all means they should pursue it, regardless of whether someone believes it is pointless.</p>
<p>Well, seeing as how you are using personal examples to support your point, I’m not sure I can say anything. But, I will say this: for some reason many people believe that kids at private schools have inflated GPAs because they are paying money to attend the school, so the teachers won’t give them anything below a B…which isn’t true. I can’t speak for all of the schools in the US, but for the top private schools in CT (Choate, Loomis, etc.), I can say that is not the case. And I know this because I’ve attended Choate for a short amount of time, and I was surprised to see that not everyone gets above a B or a B-. Actually, most kids at top privates excel in their classes anyway, and that might account for the fact that they tend to generally receive higher grades. But, there could also be some grade inflation present but not to a great extent.</p>
<p>I am one person who is similarly “baffled” by WashU’s admission decisions. I think I was definitely “qualified” to apply for WashU. I scored a 2400 on the SAT, I am class valedictorian, and I do have something “extra” that makes me stand out from other applicants (it’s an extracurricular activity that I don’t want to describe in detail, since I know some of my classmates roam the CC board). In the weeks before WashU’s decision came out, I also received likely letters from two Ivie League schools and was nominated for the A.B. Duke Scholarship. I was surprised by my waitlist from WashU because I really thought I had a good chance of getting in. People I know who have gotten in were not “slackers” but did not take academics very seriously. Am I an entitled brat for feeling a little angry about my waitlist? I don’t know. Probably a little bit. What concerns me more is that a waitlist from WashU, which I understand is in many ways on par with the Ivies, might be indicative of future rejection from HYP. It would be so easy for me to comfort myself by claiming I was “overqualified,” but I really don’t feel like being delusional at this stage. Simple facts: I was wailisted at WashU because there were other students they would rather take over me. Maybe I’ll get into HYP, maybe not.</p>
It’s all good… I didn’t take your post as flippant.</p>
<p>@misterbeck: Did you apply for financial aid? It’s definitely tough coming from CA, but I would probably be a little mad about a waitlist if I were in your situation and were interested in WashU.</p>
<p>In following these threads for the past week, I would like to compliment you on the good sportsmanship you have exhibited throughout this process. While some, in their disappointment, have denigrated the accomplishments of accepted students by making claims that the accepted are somehow less qualified than the waitlisted, you have been a voice of reason, which speaks to your good character, a quality which goes beyond college decisions.</p>
<p>When there are so many thousands and thousands of qualified applicants, once an individual candidate is above a certain threshold, it becomes a crapshoot to a certain extent. As the head of admissions for Harvard has said last year, he could take the accepted class, put it aside and choose a new class out of the rejected applicants that is indistinguishable from the originally accepted class.</p>
<p>Good luck to you and the other waitlisted candidates. I know that one year from now you will all be at wonderful schools.</p>
<p>The college application process is a tough game, guys. There’s really no need to get upset over it, especially if you consider yourself to be “overqualified” for WUSTL.</p>
<p>I think WUSTL is a challenging school to get into, and that admissions are subjective and hollistic. As my dad told me, “You must’ve clicked with the person who read your application,” and I am grateful for this because it was an application that had to be read rather than broken down into numerical values.
I am grateful that my fellow classmates were accepted for themselves as a whole rather than their statistics, it makes for a more intellectually vital student body.</p>
<p>@Misterbeck, don’t feel too badly. There are a lot of qualified applicants that got waitlisted/rejected. As msbrilliant/sharpenenpencil/many others have stated, WashU is attempting to sculpt a diverse and innovative class, so even if you are academically/extracurricularly qualified, you might not get in. Anyhow, I’m sure you will end up somewhere that suits you. </p>
<p>Also, are you going to accept the waitlist?</p>
<p>@WongTong my interviewer said the exact same thing lol. </p>
<p>I think when it gets to a certain level, some decisions they make are random. Take somewhere like MIT–18,000 applicants for 1,800 spots. I doubt only 1,800 are qualified to attend; more likely around 5,000 are, but their constricted by class size. They have to pick between very good bs very good-- and those decisions can be random or arbitrary.</p>