<p>qwilde, those numbers are for accepted students. I agree with NSM. At many non need blind schools, applicants needing significant aid are treated as though they are applying for a merit scholarship. You need to be at the top of the pool, an athlete or someone they want for another reason.</p>
<p>There is a naive belief that being low incomes helps everywhere. That is far from the truth. Other than at some very high endowment schools and some states, not needing aid is the advantage. And lets not fool ourselves, even ivies need a whole lot of full payers.</p>
<p>And they probably won't tell you this is the reason.</p>
<p>Based on what you have said about your essay, I suspect that the reason you were rejected was need, though it may be difficult to get that info from admissions. I see no evidence that GWU is need blind. I also continue to think it's possible that with the upcoming change in their president, the admissions office may not wish to admit students with high financial need because the new president may wish to use more of their aid as merit aid to try to increase GWU's rankings more.</p>
<p>Ultimately, that is what lead to GWU's dramatic increase in rankings. Though GWU does not have a large endowment, so they rely on those few whom can pay full tuition "and more". This money has been allocated to revamping the facilities and providing merit based aid. Those who meet full tuition though often, not always, bring GWU's stats down, and ultimately you can attract only so many with merit based aid, so they require applicants to "balance the scale". Generally, these applicants are those that demonstrate finanical need. I'm gathering this from what I read, so I could be entirely wrong. My point is evinced on quite a few of boards, in which people have been admitted with similar stats and receive no finanical aid in forms other than loans.</p>
<p>Just to clear up some things with some facts: GW has already announced its next president: "Steven Knapp, a scholar and highly regarded academic administrator who is provost of Johns Hopkins University, has been named the new president of George Washington University. " Also, from our school's naviance records of the last few years, GW has only admitted applicants with 1950+ SAT scores and a 3.5+ UW GPA. My daughter was an EDI applicant last year with stats better than those (she was admitted). So that's the type of competition you're now dealing with at GW. Northstarmom, GW isn't the same school it was when you attended. I really think it's best not to speculate on why someone wasn't admitted to a school. After all we haven't seen the OPs application or the applications of the rest of this year's EDI pool. It's best to call the admissions office and see if they can provide some additional facts.</p>
<p>I just got off the phone with the admission director (who is really nice) of GWU</p>
<p>Some things I learned: She said that the admissions process is need-blind. </p>
<p>I could not find out any aspect of why I was denied because she said "there isn't 1 factor" . I told her how I was well in the range of other students that were admitted, sometimes above other admits. She said that there isn't 1 factor again that got me denied. Couldn't get any reason to why I was denied.</p>
<p>1 thing though, there may have been an error. GWU listed me under their Elliot School (much more competitive) when I should have been listed under Columbia, which is significantly easier to get admitted into. This error <em>may</em> have been fixed but again there is a good chance that my I was read under Elliot.</p>
<p>She will call me back today about whether I was read under Elliot (mistake!) or Columbia.</p>
<p>It's great that you had the guts to call. Sounds like there's a possibility that GWU made a mistake. Update us when you hear back from GWU. Have your GC call if GWU's final answer to you is unclear or doesn't make sense. Most admissions officers will reveal more to GCs than students about the reasons for rejections particularly if the reason is something like a problem with the content of a recommendation.</p>
<p>It gives admission information by school. As you can see, it is a misconception that Elliot is more competitive that CCAS, at least by Admit Rate. For 2005, the admit rate to CCAS was 34.4 %, while to Elliot it was 46.1%.</p>
<p>Harding, I am typically very skeptical of complaints from applicants whom were denied admission to a college that has a VERY competitive admissions process. Neverthess, I acknowledge your PM and your initiative in following up promptly with the Office of Admissions. What I'll offer you in advice is that there are many excellent colleges out there that may provide significant financial aid to you, if you broaden your choices. There's still time to submit an application and have an opportunity to be admitted to such an institution. Good luck.</p>
<p>I think the admittance rates disparge between because the Elliot School of International Affairs' applicant pool is self-selected. The majority of applicants are those with higher SAT scores and GPA's than those of applicants applying to CCAS or the School of Business. This would also explain the mere 2,500 applying to Elliot, as opposed to the 13,000 applying to CAS. Ultimately, I believe the Elliot School is more competitive, but on a case by case basis, more are admitted.</p>
<p>Assuming this was binding ED, they may have felt they were doing you a favor by not holding you to what would have been insufficient aid. Considering the transportation costs from CA to DC and perhaps some instability in the family, they may have felt this wasn't the best match for you financially. Why they would reject instead of defer I don't know. Could there have been something negative in recommendations?</p>
<p>I'm not sure why so many assume that GW denied this applicant for financial reasons. GW accepts about 37% of the applicants, so clearly even though they're only ranked about 52 or so, GW is still pretty selective, with 63% of all the applicants are rejected.</p>
<p>I'm sure harding will end up at a fine school, but it's not really as puzzling that he was denied if you look at the raw numbers (realizing there are other significant considerations). </p>
<p>He is in the top 40% of his class, while 92% of the GW class is in the top 25% of their hs class. He makes a good case for overlooking his freshman year, but GW is not one of the schools that ignores the freshman year.</p>
<p>For SAT's, Harding got 1830. But only 25% of GW's class got less than 1860.</p>
<p>I appreciate the quality of Harding's application, and as I said, I'm sure he will find a great school for his next 4 years. But just looking at the raw statistics, financial need just doesn't jump out as the only reason he could have been rejected.</p>
<p>As I said before, Harding, good luck. You've had a lot of obstacles to overcome, and I wish you well. What other schools will you be applying to?</p>
<p>GW told me that I was rejected when listed under Columbia College as well. They told me I can write an appeal letter...probably completely worthless.</p>
<p>My EA will call them tomorrow however.</p>
<p>I read the recommendations and the essays are very very good (I can PM you). I'll try to get some reasons tomorrow as well...</p>
<p>Hayden, I was looking at Georgetown as well but I have NO chance to get into there now. I am still applying to almost all the UCs. I'm not sure where else to look this late.</p>
<p>Harding292-Perhaps you can look into American U. You might get a scholarship and then you could transfer to GW or GU the next year if you weren't satisfied with American. You would already be acclimated to D.C. and the move would be easier.</p>