When Will RD Applicants Hear Back?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Bucknell University
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<p>I am sorry some of you were waitlisted, but I get a sense from some of you that you are indignant that Bucknell would waitlist you when you are "clearly superior" and, oh by the way, you applied ED to...."insert ivy here" and are waiting to hear from "some other top school."</p>

<p>Maybe, just maybe.. Bucknell addmissions is filled w/ professionals who know which students really want to attend and which ones want to rack up #'s of college acceptances.</p>

<p>If you actually want to attend Bucknell, keep your name on the waitlist. As camel said, many of you will be committed to other top schools. And you guys know, that if you are committed to these other top schools, you would have been regardless of whether you were accepted, waitlisted or rejected from Bucknell!</p>

122

<p>Bucknellkid, please clarify how my campus visit, $60 application fee, money spent on spending in SAT scores, and completed optional essay (with much thought put in) does not show "interest." My only point is... please do not make assumptions about those of us who are waitlisted. Those of us who applied to Bucknell as a "safety" or tentative safety obviuosly did not do so to make ourselves "feel superior" but because we would be excited by the possibility of going to Bucknell. This is the same for someone who views Bucknell as a reach and also applies to schools ranked below Bucknell.</p>

123

<p>Waitlisted.
We just went through the same inconsistency of results on the Wash Thread, but on the other side this time. Accepted at Wash U, Reilly Scholar at Notre Dame, waitlisted at Bucknell. </p>

<p>SAT 1: 800(CR), 780(M), 750(W) 1580/2330
SAT 2: 780 (Math II), 760 (US History)
GPA: 3.95(UW), 5.02(W)
Top 10% at top public magnet school</p>

<p>National Merit Finalist, AP Scholar w/ Distinction, Presidential Scholar candidate.</p>

<p>To be honest, thought this was a safety. Sure is a tough process to figure out.</p>

124

<p>tjd, first of all, congratulations for being accepted to Wash U, and being a Reilly Scholar at Notre Dame, and being a Presidential Scholar candidate. I know that how difficulty it is to be a Reilly Scholar and Presidential Scholar candidate, my D was both last year and she is currently attending Penn. I have no doubt that you will have many great options. I am curious to know, though, if you visited the campus and/or wrote the optional essay.</p>

125

<p>How many people were admitted?</p>

126

<p>MORRISMM: The fact of the matter is that someone at my school was recently accepted ED II with a sub-3.5 weighted GPA and approximately 1800 SAT I. It's all about yield, and clearly Bucknell is hurting. I visited campus from across the country, have several family members who graduated in the past, and took the time to complete the entire supplement. I did not apply to another school ED. As we have seen on this thread, I am not the only person who has been disrespected by Bucknell's system. As I mentioned before, I'm sure that my fellow waitlisted applicants will find another great school, because they have no other choice. This doesn't mean that it would have been that way had they been accepted to begin with.</p>

127

<p>BGapplicant: sorry for clearly upsetting you. i was not pointing fingers. if you read through the posts, there are people that clearly stated that they did not do the optional essay and did not visit campus, and it was those people that i was addressing. you also should not make assumptions that everyone put in as much effort as you did. i'm sorry that you were waitlisted, and good luck with the rest of your schools.</p>

128

<p>carmel-- #1 question--Was Bucknell your #1 choice? </p>

<p>I have 3 kids. All 3 applied to Bucknell. The first 2 knew it was a safety given their stats and legacy. D2, the ONLY schools she was accepted to were Bucknell and Cornell. She was deferred and waitlisted at some other schools. (None of her SAT or SAT II scores were below 700). She choose to go to Cornell.</p>

<p>D2 applied to Bucknell. Her stats were good. Maybe not as good as some of you waitlisted folks. However her interest was evident and stats were acceptable. </p>

<p>She loves Bucknell, will be RA next year, is very involved and is trying to achieve (so far so good) high grades.</p>

129

<p>Meant to say in third paragraph, D3 i.e. third kid applied and is attending and so far loves Bucknell!!</p>

130

<p>Bucknell was among my top choices, however I could not commit to ED because of financial reasons. I could have applied and not withdrawn other applications, but that would be unethical. What I didn't know was that Bucknell's admission system was unethical--either that or unprofessional. The job of an admission officer is to make decisions, but extending the waitlist shows indecisiveness.</p>

131

<p>morismm,</p>

<p>I don't think we are being indignant, just curious as to why people who are definitely qualified (both in objective terms, and in my case, i believe subjectively) are getting waitlisted. That is all.</p>

132

<p>I find it somewhat ironic that people are accusing Bucknell of protecting their statistics by waitlisting "overqualified" applicants and admitting "lesser" applicants. That practice would protect yield, but if the university really wanted to protect their reputation, they would just admit all of the applicants with the best scores, bringing their middle 50% up. Seeing as how they seem to admit students more holistically than that (taking students with a range of scores, thus "hurting" their SAT range), I don't believe Bucknell (or any other college that uses a waitlist) is really doing anything wrong.</p>

133

<p>I am no way superior to Bucknell. It was never considered a "safety" school by me. </p>

<p>I visited the campus last June and left my review in the campus visits section of CC. Earlier this year I emailed the director of the pep band to inquire about instruments for next fall, in the happy event that I'd get in. I don't know what more "interest" they want from me except if I had applied ED. That wasn't an option for me at ANY school because my sister starts grad school this fall and we don't know how much that will cost; I couldn't enter a binding agreement with any college. </p>

<p>In June, my mom asked the gentleman who lead the info session what Bucknell's admit rate was for ED, which he hadn't mentioned. It was 60%. That's probably one reason for the high waitlisting on RD. There was no way I could have applied ED here or anywhere else because of the money issue, so this is just my tough luck. If this is the worst thing that happens to me (and you) this year, then we can consider ourselves lucky indeed!!!</p>

<p>GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF US WAITLISTED APPLICANTS!!!</p>

134

<p>I am reading these threads and it brings back painful memories from last year. My D is happily a freshman at Bucknell. She too had high stats and the stats to be a strong candidate at more competitive schools. She got the dreaded w/l and rejections to the shock of many. She liked Bucknell from the first visit and did show interest so when she got accepted it was a great relief. My only complaint is that it would be great to have more "ivy" rejects at Bucknell to raise the bar a little bit. These highly qualified applicants like those who got waitlisted at Bucknell may find they get w/l or rejected everywhere else for what ever reason. This is the frightful thought. College admissions are too unpredictable and a bit unfair as I see these great kids do everything right and still have to play the guessing game when finalizing that list of schools.. I have 2 more kids to go and I am not looking forward to this roller coaster again. Good luck to all of you. I know it is painful. I hope you get into a school you're happy about and if not, call the admit offices of where you held your names on the w/l and tell them how much you want to go to that school. I've heard that helps move your name up the list.</p>

135

<p>If Bucknell admitted all the waitlisted students who were qualified both objectively and subjectively, then the University would run the risk of overenrollment. The adcoms have to draw the line somewhere, and unfortunately some students who have every intention of going to Bucknell aren't admitted. Also, it's unfortunate that the adcoms have to meet certain metrics such as a 30% acceptance rate or 40% yield. Running a university is similar to running a business, and as you well know, running a business involves advertising. When a students researches a college for the first time, they often look at the profile of the freshman class. A school which markets its 30% acceptance rate will likely attract stronger students than a school which markets its 60% acceptance rate. Also, there's a reason why school websites (Bucknell, Colgate, Lehigh for example) often post the accepted students stats as opposed to the enrolled students stats. The admitted students stats are often higher than those who actually enroll, and marketing the admitted students stats will more likely attract stronger applicants. One of the large factors that affects the quality of a school is its student body, and it's the University's job to market itself to prospective students in the best way possible, even though the methods may be misleading.</p>

136

<p>It's not personal. It's business.</p>

<p>The immortal words of the Godfather. I know that being waitlisted (or rejected) from a college can be disappointing and dispiriting, but you should try not to take it personally. Colleges cannot accept everyone who is "qualified" as good schools have far more qualified applicants than they have slots for. </p>

<p>They have to make very hard decisions and have to base those decisions on many things beyond the easily quantifiable (GPA, SATs, activities). Yes, they have to make some determination of level of interest and most give that some weight in the decision, and some more than others (apparently, this is the case at Bucknell - Penn is another). They have to look at what majors they are needing to add to or slow down, or what particular skills or talents they need (do they need jazz saxophone players who will major in economics and are from Ohio? or do they need Hispanic females from the East Coast who will major in engineering?) </p>

<p>They will look at many odd little statistics/characteristics that have historically told them that the applicant is more likely or less likely to accept the admission offer or that the applicant will be more likely or less likely to fit in/find a niche at that school and, therefore, are more likely to thrive and contribute and graduate or more likely to be unhappy, withdrawn, and flunk out/drop out/transfer out (or worse, suffer for four years and leave unhappy, wishing they had been somewhere else). </p>

<p>They also have found, as have just about all other colleges, that a balance of skills, talents, aptitudes, passions, etc. infuses the college community with variety, diversity, and vivacity. They cannot simply accept all superstars. In sports, teams with all superstars rarely do well as egos and personalities clash. Those with a good mix of a superstar or two, lots of very good players, some role players, some utility players, and some aging but wily veterans are the teams that tend to enjoy success. (Can you tell I'm a baseball fan?) A college community is the same way, so some with high quantifiables are waitlisted or rejected on the basis of some of those other factors. </p>

<p>Finally, the people working in admissions are experienced professionals who can discern all of the above and are good at finding the applicants who are a good fit for their school. And, sometimes, it's just an unfortunate series of events - too many from your HS or zip code applied or some other unknown (to you) thing happened (budget cuts?).<br>
Although my own college experience was in the dark ages (the '70s!), I've been through it with my son three years ago (now a junior at William & Mary) and am in it now with my daughter (7 acceptances so far, including Bucknell engineering and waiting for the last two - then it is decision time). Between the two of them, we've toured some 35 or so colleges and talked with a lot of admissions people - they all stress that waitlisting means that they do find you qualified and they believe you would do well at their school and would be an asset to their community but that they just had to draw the line somewhere and, sadly and regretfully, you ended up on the less desirable side of it. On the other hand, take heart - my wife was rejected twice from the college we both graduated from (W&M), then waitlisted, and only got off the waitlist a week or so before classes started. She enrolled, we met, we graduated, we got married, we have two great kids, and she makes about four times the money I make (I'm a teacher and she is really good at getting things done and getting other people to get things done so she has great value to her company). Things work out. And if you don't get off the waitlist, then you have the opportunity to go to another great school and have the great experiences that school can offer. What was the old country song? Be thankful for unanswered prayers - it often works out better in the end.</p>

<p>There is a school out there that will find you are an offer it can't refuse.</p>

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<p>For those that were wondering in the earlier posts -- the combined ED1 and ED2 number for bucknell this year is 392 (based on fb 2013 group). assuming not everyone admitted joined the group can we say 400? that would make it over 40%.</p>

138

<p>Hmm, I don't know. I was accepted RD and I think I am far less qualified than some of the wait-listed applicants on here. I think it certainly might be Tufts Syndrome, and they think that the super-qualified kids would likely choose an Ivy over Bucknell anyway. They're probably right; if the 2300-SAT kids really did consider Bucknell their very first choice and they weren't trying to reach anywhere higher, they would have applied ED. If these kids are dedicated, they will accept a place on the WL. I guess Bucknell was willing to risk it. </p>

<p>Accepted RD:
3.67 UW GPA
2100 SAT-- 730 CR, 650 M, 720 W
2080 SAT II
great essays, good recs, okay extra-currics, bad community service</p>

<p>I wrote the optional essay and visited the school.</p>

139

<p>I don't mean to get so emotionally invested in this process that I get touchy about every decision that admissions officers make. I know they can't admit everyone and that they have to use their discretion. I just regret that the process has to be such a guessing game. My fear is that this is only the beginning of bad luck. In this particular application year and in this particular economy this is the worst of all application years. With this in mind, in many ways I also feel bad for the admissions offices because I know that the statistical models they use, which are generally pretty reliable, are going to be completely unpredictable this year.</p>

140

<p>Just to correct a few of the misconceptions that Bucknell is in bad shape, playing games or being mean-spirited, here are a few facts about its applications. As noted in a recent article citing an interview with a member of Bucknell's admissions department, Bucknell's early admissions applications were up 19% this year and, unlike other schools who saw RD applications decline by 30% or more, Bucknell's RD applications only declined 5%. Also, the class of 2012 yield was significantly higher than expected, causing overenrollment challenges. The fact is that Bucknell is on the move, is applying a well-defined strategy to drive further up into the top tier of schools, has become hugely popular and its admissions results show it. I know this may not make the waitlisted/rejected any happier, but I thought a few facts might help.</p>