<p>A lot of applicants have similar problems so I would like to get them in the open so we can discuss them. </p>
<p>I applied to 10 colleges and am disappointed to hear that a lot of colleges I felt above the applicant pool at, I was rejected. What's lacking on my app?</p>
<p>SAT score 2230 (790 math, 720 CR 720 Writing)
SAT subject test scores: 790 chem, 750 math 1c, 650 Literature
GPA: high school + dual enrolled college classes 3.98
Awards: National Merit Finalist
ECs: Soup Kitchen, tutoring, homeless shelter, nursing home volunteering.
Captain of basketball team, co-captain of baseball, intramural college soccer.
Standout parts of app: started college at a four year university at 14 years old. Went fulltime to university of wisconsin-milwaukee at 16 while still taking high school classes. (Btw home school student).
Teacher recs: great college professor evaluations. </p>
<p>Responses from colleges:
Harvard(rejected), Princeton (rejected), Yale (rejected), Georgetown (waitlist then rejected), Boston college (waitlist then rejected), Johns Hopkins (rejected), U chicago (rejected), Villanova (accepted), Holy Cross (accepted), Loyola Chicago (accepted).</p>
<p>Agreed - Harvard accepts only 7% of its students. Assuming only half of those who apply are actually qualified (I have no idea how many are qualified), you can say they accept 14%. That means that they reject 86% of their perfectly qualified students, of which you were one. You just need to have safety schools you can love.
This is correct; they are reaches for EVERYONE. Because of the very low acceptance rate, NOBODY can count on them.</p>
<p>i see where you guys are coming from but I still am more competitive that the avg georgetown, BC and jhu applicant (avg sat at them are around 2100) percent of freshman class who are merit finalists is approx 10% for each…the same thing happened to my sibling who scored a 1480 sat, started college at 14, and ended going to Fordham, having been rejected from Tufts, JHU, Case Western, oberlin, denison… i understand the ivys being difficult, and harvard and yale almost impossible, but i still am more qualified than most applicants to BC, Gtown, JHU.</p>
<p>You may have too many college credits to enroll as a first year college student(i.e. you would need to transfer)…maybe places like Holy Cross turned a blind eye to this fact because they really wanted you.</p>
<p>Without looking at your app and your essays, and being admissions professionals, we can’t know. All I can suggest is that you let it go and move on with your life. If you have younger siblings, maybe it would be worth trying to figure out for their sake, but for your sake, it’s time to “enjoy Villanova/Holy Cross!”.</p>
<p>If you were able to enroll at U WI-Madison at 14, and you managed to accumulate that many credits, why on earth don’t you just finish up your degree there and get on with your life? You could be wrapping up a Master’s degree at one of these other places right about when the students who did get in are finishing their Bachelor’s degrees.</p>
<p>Whoops, wrong U WI but my comment still holds. A young relative if mine started college at 14 or 15 and was installed in an Ivy grad program at 19. So I know that this can be done if you are the right candidate.</p>
<p>your arrogance pervaded your app? 38% of georgetown’s entering class were valedictorians. For admitted students, 25% scored above 1530 (2 part SAT) for georgetown, while for JHU, 25% of the admitted class scored above 2330. You are within the 50% range of admitted students. Hardly overqualifed as you claim to be.</p>
<p>Blah2009, you can’t add up all the 75th percentile scores in each section and call it the 75th percentile composite score. The students who scored above the 75th percentile in reading were not the exact same students who scored above the 75th percentile in math, and so on. If the colleges themselves do this, then they are being misleading. </p>
<p>Arrogance may have been a problem, but the biggest problem was that he seems to have 2 full years worth of college under his belt. He needs to transfer to a new college as a junior. You can’t go to college for 2(or more, maybe) years and then parlay that experience into acceptance at a “better” college as a freshman.</p>
<p>Thanks for the serious posts!
a few people on here are saying its arrogance, but my app wasnt arrogant at all, I grew up in a working class Milwaukee suburb and accentuated that. I started taking one-to-two classes at 14 and 15 and went fulltime at 16 and graduated high school/uw-milwaukee a few months past my 17th birthday( i will be attending HC/Villanova one year early)…I have a little over 30 credits, which isn’t too much to force me to transfer.
Bla2009-- I am still more qualified than their avg. applicant and being one year early should only accent my scores(took SAT 1/II at 15). also, woodrow wilson jr is right on the scores. Collegedata.com says the avg act score at Gtown is 30…my sat is comparable to a 34 act…(well above the average).</p>
<p>With the increasing applications thru the internet access in the modern time, I start seeing top schools want to pick and assembly a Class as their goal directs them differently very year. It’s not because you are not qualified but it’s because you are not on their whatever target group this year.
my 2 cents</p>
<p>^compaq10, I agree that a lot of these schools have a particular thing they are looking for and if you don’t have what they want that one year you won’t get in…but how come 3 schools I stood a good chance at all reject me…which is why i think somehting on my app suggested that I don’t fit a mold that any of them ever wanted.</p>
<p>too bad JHU and georgetown don’t base admissions solely on test scores. The fact that you were uniformly rejected from the top schools shows you weren’t overqualified. I’d be more sympathetic but your posts incline me to question your maturity. 82% of people who applied to georgetown and JHU were rejected this year. You’re telling me you are definitely more qualified than most of these people? Give me a break. There are thousands of people with your profile rejected at these schools.</p>
<p>I’d say that the problem is in the extracurriculars. I see volunteering and sports and that’s it. While there’s nothing wrong with those things, it’s hard to show dedication and passion to volunteer work and it doesn’t seem like you did amazingly well in sports. The standout part of your application doesn’t make you stand out at the very top universities since plenty of applicants will be taking very advanced courses. </p>
<p>How were your essays? I’ve got better stats (2400 SAT, 36 ACT, 15 APs + Multivariable Calc/Diff Eq/Abstract Math/Linear Algebra, 800 SAT Math II, 800 SAT Physics, state taekwondo champ, 4x AIME, Science Olympiad medals, Science Bowl top 3, etc.) and got rejected from all 8 Ivies. My supplementary essays are probably to blame since I don’t think I really showed that I wanted to attend those schools too badly.</p>
<p>Blah2009–I understand there are more qualified applicants. But I would still be considered to stand very good chances at JHU, BC, and Gtown, and so after being rejected from all three I ask the question what is wrong with my app? your response denotes that you are quick to jump on people without truly understanding what they are saying. </p>
<p>Omicron- you do have very good stats…I would have sympathy but the ivys are truly erratic and impossible to predict, however it appears you are attending Duke which is a top ten school so I wouldn’t say you got shafted at all in your college application process.</p>
<p>If you re-apply again next year, you should study carefully on the essay part. I think for top private schools, essay plays an important part of the application selection. Somehow on your essay, you get to show you, your personality, your qualifications … fit the school well. You get to convince them you and the school deserve each other…</p>
<p>Perhaps they do not want people to enter with a lot of college credit. They only get 2 years of money from you. Maybe it cheapens their degree if you graduate in less than 4 years.</p>
<p>I think you have wonderful credentials for any of those reach schools. It was their loss for not accepting you and I am so sorry that you are disappointed. You will do great wherever you go because it is obvious that you love to learn and are very accomplished. Make the best of everything that is available to you when you start school. If you enjoy research than be sure to seek that out. Join some clubs and get involved in your new campus. When you graduate with stellor grades, apply to some of those schools again for grad school. For some reason they overlooked a great kid. Sadly, these reach schools have only so many spots.</p>
<p>*** My sons also had two years of college when they applied to their four year colleges so I do not agree with what others are saying regarding that being the reason you did not gain the acceptance you had hoped for. Did you hope to start at those schools with those credits or were you willing to forego them? My sons made it clear that they took those classes because they wanted to learn more…did you do that?</p>