What do rejections from easier schools mean for the harder schools I applied to?

Applying to College
1

Okay so I’ve been accepted to Penn State University, University of Miami, and American University. Their acceptance rates are about 54%, 40%, and 43% respectively.

Recently I was rejected from Pepperdine University(37%) and Boston University(35%)

Next week, I will hear from Chapel Hill(28%), NYU (34%), George Washington U(35%), University of Southern California(19%) and Syracuse University( not sure, I think 50 something percent rate.) Anyways I am really nervous now because it seems like I can’t be accepted by schools with lower than a 40 percent acceptance rate. My top schools (dream is chapel hill) are all harder to get into than Pepperdine or Boston University, should that worry me? Does that mean anything? I really don’t want to get four rejections next week (Although I definitely expect to be rejected from NYU and USC.)

Help ease my stress or get me prepared for FOUR rejections?

2

No one knows why an applicant is accepted or rejected from any college and acceptance stats are mostly irrelevant. Based on this, you have no idea what will happen with your outstanding applications. I bet you’ll be accepted to some and rejected from some and never know why (and shortly won’t care). Just as an anecdotal - my daughter was admitted to Yale and wait listed at Northwestern (she eventually was admitted and chose NU over Yale). Who knows why.

3

Colleges can be very unpredictable, and at times there’s not a surefire way to tell if you’ll be admitted or not. Usually I’d say getting rejected by an “easier” school does not bode well for “harder” schools, but it’s impossible to say. Anything is possible though.