Why was I wait listed?

Colleges and Universities A-Z American University
1

Hi, everyone. I received a wait listed decision from American University and honestly I am a little confused. Here are my stats.

From Arkansas
White, Catholic, middle class
SAT: 1430 (13 Writing, 720 Reading, 710 Math)
GPA: UW 4.0/W 4.15
Class Rank: number 3 or 4
APs: Lang (5), US History (4). I am taking 4 this year: Gov Pol, Psych, Literature, and Statistics.
I would have taken more APs, but I only had the opportunity to start taking AP classes last year when I moved bc my old high school did not offer them.
I did take every honors class that was offered there though, which was like 4 or 5 classes.

Extra-circulars/awards:
MUN: Started my own club and ran it by myself this year. No one knew anything about it and by the time we went to conference we managed to win an award.
President of National Honor Society
Play french horn in the orchestra
Captain of Cross Country team. Several running awards for both track and cross country. Received an a leadership award from my school for my time on the team.
Member of the Ozark Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (an audition only orchestra for our region)
Peer Ambassadors Club: for welcoming new students and a source of a lot of volunteer hours
Won a first place regional award in 9th grade for Odyssey of the Mind
Went to Arkansas Girls State as a chosen delegate

Essays:
My main Common App was about this really awesome Godzilla show where I talked about overcoming my fears of a certain kind of music performance. Not related to my major, but very well written and showed a lot about my personal character.
For the one about a more open community it was not my greatest work. Like a 6/10.
I applied for the honors college and by essays for it were fantastic. Absolutely love them.

Major:
Went for International Studies.

Recommendations:
AP English Language teacher who is also my AP Psych teacher this year
My creative writing teacher of the past two years
High School Counselor
I trust that all of them wrote me fantastic essays.

Looking at American stats, I just do not know why I was not accepted. I would love to go this university because of its location and I have heard so much good feedback about it. Although, I have never been able to visit because I live all the way in Arkansas. That might have hurt my demonstrated interest in the school. Any clues to why I was wait listed would be super helpful and any tips on what to write for my letter of my continued interest would be helpful too. Thanks :slight_smile:

2

Don’t feel bad. You’d have been a great fit at AU. So would a ton of kids with “better” stats than you who also were turned down (as similar others were accepted). Lots of kids here saying “I was turned down and AU is my #1”. There is even a thread about the issue if you didn’t see it. Some people say American “yield protects” - they turn down kids who they think will get offers from other schools and will accept those and not AU. They believe AU and similar desirable but seemingly less competitive schools don’t want to be used as safety schools. I think AU and places like GW have been doing this a long time, know what they are looking for and make offers based on their best guesses as to what kind of student you are and if you will accept. They also know about how many offers will be accepted. My kid is in a similar position, SAT 200 points higher than the AU average, good package. Wait list, which we know is basically a rejection. She got into a school that has a acceptance rate in the teens. She got denied by schools with similiar acceptance rates. You really just never know. But NEVER take it as an objective statement on who you are as a person.