hi everyone! so i had a question; i got rejected REA (not even deferred) and i thought my stats + ecs and even essays and reclets were pretty strong (i had multiple teachers and counselors look over them). My ecs are on my profile chance-me post - I did change up a few things by the time I finalized my common app though. I wanted to ask if this bodes ill for my future apps? I’m still applying to the rest of T20s + safeties but I’m a little discouraged by the outright rejection. Thanks for any suggestions/pointers!
Yale: slightly under 10% accepted; under 21% deferred, and ~66.5% denied
Harvard: 7.56 accepted; 78 percent of applicants were deferred; 9.5 percent were denied.
Yale did not defer a lot of students this year—so I wouldn’t read into it the same way as if it was Harvard. In some ways I think it is kinder to deny students who might have a great profile but, given the pool, and the trends they are seeing, they just do not picture accepting in the regular round. At the same time, I totally get how a deferral can be reassuring that you were at least on the right track for consideration at a very selective school.
Are your teachers/counselors familiar with applications that have been successful at the schools to which you are applying? Do kids from your school typically have success gaining admission to these schools? Did they look over your supplementals and activity descriptions, too? If yes to all of this, then trust them. If not, then it may make sense to have someone more familiar with T20 admissions look over your application to either reassure you or to give you some last minute tips.
No matter what, remember that you are the same person no matter where you go. You can find amazing opportunities pretty much anywhere. It what you do with them that counts.
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I would not be overly discouraged. See my post #575. Do you have enough matches and safeties that you would be happy to attend on your RD list or that you have already applied to rolling or in the case of publics, EA?
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I see that you are an international student. You’re in the most competitive category for admission there is. Yale is need blind for internationals. Fewer than 20 American colleges and universities are, and this of course means that those colleges get lots of international applications. The percentage of international applicants accepted is much lower than the overall admission rate.
To a certain extent, you are competing against others in your home country who applied. Yale likes to have students from as many foreign countries as possible. If Yale gets a lot of applicants from your home country, your odds of acceptance are lower. It may be–pure speculation on my part–that Yale got a lot of applications from your country and therefore yours was rejected. Please note that this doesn’t mean the application was better; it may just be that the applicant met some institutional need you don’t.
For the sake of argument, pretend that one of the applicants from your nation is an internationally acclaimed squash player. The coach wants him on the team. One of the “slots” for your country is going to go to him. Another participated in the International Math Olympiad and placed well. He gets in. A third comes from a more remote region of your homeland. Most applicants come from a few large cities, so his application gets a boost.
You get the idea. Your rejection may have more to do with who else is in the applicant pool from your country than anything in your application.
So what can you do? If your parents can afford to pay the entire cost of attendance or even most of it, apply to a few colleges that aren’t need blind for internationals because they’ll have fewer international applicants. If they can pay most of it, look at colleges that are “need aware” for internationals, but do give some aid. Apply to some more rural colleges. Most internationals are only interested in attending colleges on the East or West Coast and in major cities. That leaves out some wonderful US colleges.
Apply to some liberal arts colleges.( A few of these are need blind for internationals.) With a few exceptions, these tend to be less popular with international students.
Apply to a few colleges that are less well known in your country or which gets fewer applicants from your country.
Of course, there may be something wrong with your application. Not having seen it and, more importantly, not being an admissions officer, I can’t tell you if there is. It’s more likely though that there isn’t anything wrong and it’s just that other candidates had other things going for them.
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Thank you for your help! My counselors are quite experienced and have sent around 5-10 kids to Ivies and T20 and have looked over every component of my app so I guess I’ll press on w/ other schools. As for my PS, I’ll try to read it over once more to see if there’s anything I can change or better. I don’t think my recs were generic because even though I wasn’t allowed to read them, I did get the outlines after they were submitted and all my teachers made sure to focus on clear strengths of mine and back each point up w/ examples from my activities and interactions. I was quite off kilter when results came out but I think I’ll continue w my current apps and include more safeties and matches. Thank you all so much for your reassurance and help!
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Where are you from?
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If I could make a few suggestions…
Consider Washington U in St. Louis. It is NOT need blind for internationals; it is need aware. However, if you are accepted, it will award you what it considers to be your full need. (Some colleges will accept you, but give you less than even the college admits you will need to attend.) Sometimes–I can’t say in this specific case–it’s easier for an international student whose family can pay a significant portion of the cost to get into a need aware school. This is in part because they get fewer international apps than schools that are need blind for internationals. It’s also because often these colleges want to get more internationals for the same amount of money. For example, rather than funding one student who must get the full cost of attendance to attend, it might fund 3 students who need one-third of the cost to attend. Again, I can’t say this will happen in your particular situation; I’m just saying it could and based on your interests it seems like a good choice for you.
Amherst College–this one is need blind for internationals. You don’t seem to have any smaller schools on your list, which IMO is a mistake. A very difficult admit, but just a different profile.
Bowdoin College-the weather will be really cold. It too is need blind for internationals. A smaller school which tends to be less well known abroad.
Mt. Holyoke–this is an all women’s college. Some people rule such schools out immediately. Known for especially strong support of internationals.
Carleton College–definitely NOT need blind for internationals. However, it does give some financial aid to internationals and you may be a good candidate for a Starr Foundation Scholarship. https://www.carleton.edu/admissions/apply/steps/international/
All of these are reaches, but I think your odds of admission may be better than at Yale.
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is there a thread for students who got deferred from Yale REA fall 2023?
Two elite LACs are need-blind (and meet full demonstrated need…) for international admissions: Amherst and Bowdoin
Many more top LACs will meet full need, but are not need-blind.
If you are unfamiliar with the liberal arts college concept, here are a few notable ways in which LACs tend to differ from universities:
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LACs tend to have small class sizes all four years, even in survey-level (100-level) courses. LACs typically feature smaller classes than similarly selective universities – even HYP.
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LACs offer fewer majors, especially pre-professional majors like Engineering, Business, and Journalism. There are also fewer courses, typically, from which to choose. Definitely check out a LAC’s course catalog to see if they offer enough to sate your depth and breadth needs.
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Because LACs have no (or few, at schools like Richmond and Wesleyan) graduate students, 100% of the focus is on the undergraduates.
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LACs tend to be smaller, in land area and population, than universities. Most elite LACs, like Bowdoin and Amherst, have around 3000 students or fewer.
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Both Amherst and Bowdoin were already on my RD list and I’m looking into UWash and Carleton! I prefer co-ed so I didn’t include Mt Holyoke, though. I did like the large class size and diverse courses of national universities better, but I think I’m going to shotgun at this point. Thank you all so much 
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Just be aware that both of those also have <10% acceptance rates.
And be cognizant of the fact that shotgunning means you are dissipating your focus.
I really encourage picking a mix of reaches and likelies that all seem like a good fit.
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If your family can afford $40k/year, are you applying to Duke and Emory? Those are two top X colleges that are very strong in your areas of interest. Atlanta is the home for the Centers for Disease Control so some other colleges there that might interest you are Oglethorpe, Agnes Scott (women’s college), and Spelman (women’s HBCU). The Atlanta schools are all in a consortium and can take classes at the other schools in Atlanta as well.
If you applied to Johns Hopkins, have you given any thought to Loyola Maryland? It’s just down the road and also has a consortium agreement with John’s Hopkins.
Essentially, though, I agree with everyone else’s advice about your general application. You are a strong candidate, but the competition is extremely difficult. The schools I have mentioned are easier admits than the Top X schools while still providing a strong education.
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