@critter My school has a lot of transfer students, who tend to transfer in with higher GPA’s from easier schools and take the top spots; I hope my guidance counselor explained that in her rec as I asked her to. It is very hard to be in the top 25% at my school. I agree that my classes this year are not very academic in nature for the most part, but my school has a set schedule so there is nothing that I can do about that.
@Wje9164be Very wise guess indeed about Gilbert Classical Academy! I will definitely talk to my guidance counselor as soon as possible.
@jman457 One of the biggest disadvantages about my school is that despite its being very highly ranked is that other students can transfer in until up to 11th grade from easier schools and take the higher spots. I know my class rank is low, but at a school like mine, where there are only 50 people in my graduating class, it is very hard to rank highly.
Which is why a lot of schools don’t rank at all… especially when there are only 50 students.
Wise words from @Ruby789: “My last point, as a mom, I sure hate the stress caused by college admissions these days. You kids have more opportunities than I did, but it is really terrible what the process requires of you. You’re not alone in feeling overwhelmed and depressed by this.”
I concur about east coast private schools not ranking for this reason. They do give a GPA distribution (W and/or UW) so that adcoms know where you fall compared to your classmates but it doesn’t distract from the competitive students’ success.
Update: I got into UCLA today for Pre-Business Economics! So I haven’t been rejected everywhere! I feel like I can remain hopeful now, given that UCLA’s acceptance rate was 6.5% this year!Thank you all so much for all your constructive criticism and support!
Congrats on UCLA! I am sorry to read about your rejection by NU. If this was any consolation, my sister has a 2400 SAT (one and only sitting), and ranked 1% in her class, with many leadership positions including the president of her schools student government, and many other EC’s, also got rejected by NU.
Congrats on getting into UCLA! Just FYI though, the acceptance rate at UCLA was not 6.5%, that was someone’s misunderstanding of accepted vs. class size. I’ve seen that with a few other schools in how they word things. Doesn’t matter now though, you got in! Best of luck with the rest of your apps!
Congratulations on UCLA! Honestly, your case just reiterates the fact that admissions are subjective. I personally, would of thought that you would have gotten into a lot more schools. However, that’s the crapshoot for you.
@cheerleader16 It kind of sucks, as I also go to a small public high school (72 in graduating class) but there is so many kids that get good grades which kills my ranking (14th) despite having high test scores and a highish Gpa
The ugly truth is that you are an Asian female with outstanding statistics in a pool with many people similar to you. Because you are in an over represented group at nearly all of the colleges you have applied to , you will be discriminated against. UCLA (congrats!) , all UCs , Caltech, Michigan, etc. do not use race as a factor in admissions, that is why UCLA and the others listed have a higher percentage of Asians then their counterparts with similar applicant pools.
Lottery schools do not have equal chances for admission. Given equal statistics athletes, big donor’s kids, legacies URMs, and a few other categories (like males for LACs) have a greater chance. ORMs like you have a lesser chance.
Fortunately you have a really great school in UCLA and any others are just more good news.
OP, I don’t think I saw an answer from you about whether you are using the faculty exchange option that may be available to you? My friends who teach have used it for their children, but you have to start early in the process.
As others have reported, you applied to too many reach schools. I always advise my students to have a mix of reaches, matches and safeties. Every year on CC around this time we see posts of high grade and test score students getting into a small amount of colleges because their lists are so reach heavy (in fact I recall at least once a high achieving poster not being accepted to any college because their list was only reaches). Nothing takes the sting off of a rejection from a reach school like a nice merit award from a match or safety. In addition to Alabama, you could have received nice merit from Ohio State to name just one option for you.
There are match schools which are generous with financial aid, Occidental College is one that comes to mind and they meet 100% of need.
Also a safety is not truly a safety unless you are willing to attend (frankly in my mind you need to be excited to attend), with over 3K universities in the US I am sure there would have been more safety options.
I know this is an anxious time for high school students. Do not give up hope and know you could always take a gap year to reorganize and apply with a better list next year. Good luck.
I think people forget how competitive schools have gotten. Unfortunately, IMO, it looks like a arms race among students.
If you check OP’s previous posts, you’ll find that she had less-than-stellar SAT Subject Tests, being a 730 in Math her highest. She applied to MIT. I wonder which major she applied to at Northwestern.
These days, many, many, many of the same kids who apply to MIT, schools of that level, apply to Northwestern as well. My S included. He had 800/M, 770/CR, 720/W; 800/ML2, 790/Physics; 9 AP test with 4 and 5 (National AP Scholar) + currently taking 6AP, making 16 APs in HS. National Merit Finalist. Valedictorian in a class of ~480. Make no mistake, those kids are sending ALL their resume to those schools, including multiple Subject Tests and reporting AP scores.
We need to stop deluding ourselves into ignoring the caliber of the pool that is applying to those schools. It’s beyond crazy, if you ask me. I think that’s the main force behind the randomness, everyone is so accomplished and with stellar numbers.
Northwestern definitely gives a bump to legacies in ED. Not so much in RD.
There’s a recent push at NU to fill the incoming classes with kids who really want to be there and have NU as their first choice. And with the quality of the applicant pools being as high as they are, NU probably can fill almost their entire class with ED admits these days without seeing a drop-off in student body quality.
In any case, if finances are a concern, I would have looked at some schools where big merit scholarships are possible (some of them, like Emory and USC, are rather well-regarded as well).
I wouldn’t rag on the OP’s academics, but without an edge (recruited athlete, URM, some really special skill/accomplishment, etc.), you’d have to expect that your odds to lottery schools are low (as in, near zero).
I will definitely talk to my guidance counselor as soon as possible.