I’m incredibly frustrated that I was waitlisted at northeastern, a school that was not a reach in my mind.
Here are my stats:
SAT: 2180 630 math 790 writing 760 reading
GPA: 4.0
Rank: 17/256
Extra curriculars:
Varsity soccer: 4 years
Varsity softball: 4 years
Science olympiad: 4 years
More than 100 hours volunteering at a therapeutic horse farm.
Tutored immigrants in ESL
Works at Kohl’s
Babysat
Member of my school’s Entrepreneurship program.
Rode horses compettitively.
Amazing letters of rec, very close to the writers of them.
Several people at my school with lower SAT scores and lower class ranks than I were accepted. I’m incredibly frustrated and confused! I’m almost ready to call them because this seems unjust!
their Common Data Set filing says they take demonstrated interest into account. Their checkbox is just 1 step above not considered, but still it may be a factor. Did you visit the school, attend a college fair they were at, accept an interview if offered, etc to show you were interested in them?
I’d start by seeing if you can have your GC contact them. Often colleges are more forthcoming with a 3rd party, and your GC may have contacts at the school that you don’t.
Your college advisor can be your best advocate if you are on a wait list. Assuming you would like to stay on the wait list, they can possibly get some feedback from the college and put in a strong word for you.
Your stats, though good, fall within the mid range for Northeastern (higher on verbal, lower on math) and college admissions, as you’ve learned, can be quirky. Perhaps your classmates had some hooks you didn’t?
I applied to Tufts, Yale, Boston University, Northeastern, Quinnpiac, and the University of New Hampshire.
Wow do I feel dumb for applying to those more competitive schools.
All I know is, my friend, ranked 36 and with a 2010 SAT, one extra curricular all of highschool, got in. She was nothing special. I was at least equal with everyone at my school accepted. This is unfair. @doschicos
I know it sucks when you’ve worked really hard in school. No need to feel dumb. Reaches are reaches for a reason and even with matches and safeties, there is no guarantee. The most important thing to have is a balanced list of reaches, matches, and safeties - you have that!
Like I said, admissions can be quirky. Maybe your friend had killer essays, maybe your application got read when the AO was in a bad mood, maybe your friend doesn’t need FA and you do. Life just isn’t fair sometimes. You can get a great education and be happy at any of the schools on your list.
It’s ok to vent and be bummed for a few days but don’t let it get in the way of your friendship and do talk to your guidance counselor after you’ve had time to process things. Let them advocate for you. In a week and a half, you will know know where you stand with all your schools, and you can strategize on whether you wish to pursue getting off the wait list at Northeastern or not.
@doschicos Northeastern didn’t have any supplements, and my essay was very good, i’m a very confident writer and teachers told me it was excellent. The other students definitely didn’t beat me with writing, at least not all of them. I don’t want to be cynical or spiteful and I am proud of my classmates, but this is just not fair. Thanks for the advice though.
Northeastern is a tough call when trying to predict acceptance. Every year it jumps in the rankings and becomes more selective than the year before. It is hard to predict their target stats for any given year, so you should assume the stats for next year’s class will be a few points higher than what is published on their website for last year’s class. This is different from schools that are more stagnant in the rankings.
I agree with what others have said. Admissions generally can be quirky. Don’t let it get you down. Your stats are still very good and you should have decent shots at the other schools you listed (BU,UNH, Quin). If you are dead-set on Northeastern, talk with your adviser about next steps. Being on the wait list does not mean you are out of the game.
@informative, I could accept that the stats get more selective each year, however; people with lower stats than I got in. I just find this flat out unjust.
Admission is holistic and not based solely on stats, contrary to what many claim. Also, some students will say they were accepted at a school to save face while in fact they were denied or waitlisted.
@tomsrofboston. I understand the process is holistic and I admire that, but I had great extra curriculars, better than alot of accepted students. I honestly think this is so phony, I bet several applications identical to mine were admitted.
Are you and your friend both full-pay? Northeastern has become much more aggressive about luring high-stats students with merit scholarships at the expense of meeting need for lower-income applicants. Do they claim to be need-blind in admissions? Northeastern’s recent evolution has been a shock to me, and to anyone who was familiar with the college in the 60s and 70s, when it was a commuter school. Its “Co-Op” system was devised to help working-class students afford an education, and especially appealed to Veterans on the GI Bill. I am astounded that you did not get in, nevertheless. Were you and your friend applying to different programs within the university? They might be more selective in some than in others.
Northeastern’s admissions are not need blind. Have you taken that into consideration?
Your ECS, quite honestly, are fine/good but not WOW. If you are not getting recruited for sports, the sports involvement doesn’t take you very far. Perhaps their recs were more glowing than yours. My point in bringing this up isn’t to make you feel bad, its to make you realize it could be a number of factors. Lick your wounds for the next 24 hours, then move on. Talk to your guidance counselor but wait until you’ve calmed down.
You can’t really say that they didn’t have a better essay unless you read them and were an admissions officer. You might have the vocabulary and syntax, but maybe you didn’t have the content admissions were looking for. Or maybe it was another completely different thing. Remember, a lot of these universities with holistic admissions as themselves “Do I see this student fit in our campus? Does he bring something interesting to the table?” Only a few people can answer that, of which you are not.
I want you to think about something, and I only mention this because you have said that this is “unfair” a number of times. Please don’t take it the wrong way. Here goes:
If you get into Yale, it will be ahead of many who are vastly more “qualified” by your own metrics. Will this be “unfair” to them?
Here is another question for you. If your inferior and/or “nothing special” friends had also been waitlisted, would you still be upset. I ask this because it seems like you are more upset about their getting in than you getting waitlisted.
Ok the idea of extra-curriculars or essays being the deciding factor is crazy in my case, because all my friend did was swim team every year and thats it. Another kid played baseball freshman and sophomore year and thats it, and he got in with a 2050 and ranked 22. I just think this is the epitome of a quirky admissions process and am so dissapointed.