Why was I Waitlisted?

<p>So Boston College was one of my top choices for a potential university. I believe i was a very competitive applicant for admission. I applied to the business school and will post my stats below. can anyone give some insight to what may have been my weakness? In regards to school specifics, we had 10 people apply, 3 accept, 2 waitlist (one was me), 5 rejected. </p>

<p>Stats: 91.24 UW GPA (high rigor, upward trend), 2200 SAT (1470/1600 760 Math 710 CR)
SATIIs: 650 Math II, 700 Bio, 710 US history </p>

<p>Senior Year Grades 1st Semester:
French 5H - 98
Physics H - 92
Calculus AB AP - 87
AP English Lit. and Comp. - 95
AP Government - 90</p>

<p>achievements and leadership:
ap scholar with distinction
varsity track/cross country
Assistant Manager at coffee shop
peer drug educator
president of my community service organization </p>

<p>I’m guessing class rank is not in the top decile? (At BC, ~90% of matriculants are in the top decile…and that number includes recruited athletes.)</p>

<p>Also, low Calc score is a big negative to biz schools, since Calc is required.</p>

<p>@bluebayou our school does not rank…the only thing i can think of is my calc score. It’s not that I was struggling, but I applied to 16 schools(financial reasons) so I was always busy working on apps…some of my grades slipped. Unfortunately nothing I can do to fix that now, but thank you for the insight!</p>

<p>Your grades. My kids’ schools have a lot of applicants to BC and you would not make the cut, just glancing at the Naviance for them. Maybe, maybe the school of Arts and sciences since your test scores are good, but Carroll, is even more competitive. The business schools at a lot of colleges are becoming very popular and therefore more selective. </p>

<p>They’ve clearly become much more competitive than I anticipated and unfortunately, I fear my chances for georgetown are just as if not more slim than they were at BC. </p>

<p>closetohome, I’m just starting to look with my son at college lists, and the counselor at his school out and out told us that the Business school admissions has become very selective at any number of schools. There are a number of school where my son is a match for arts and sciences but a reach for the school of biz. That is the situation for BC for him. His grades are higher than yours thus far, but his test scores slightly lower. Don’t know if you are male or female, but males get a slight bump statistically at BC. But looking at his school Naviance clusters, you are on the brink anyways, with the grades.</p>

<p>@cptofthehouse, yeah I am a male, and through this whole process I have realized just how much more selective they were. In light of my upward trend (88 freshmen year, 90 soph, 95 junior year) I still was rejected/waitlisted from BC, UNC, Cornell. However, I was accepted at BU, Northeastern, Villanova, Case Western (which are impressive in of itself so I cant complain really) and waiting on NYU-Stern and Georgetown. Sometimes I wonder would I have gotten into my ED(cornell) or even BC and UNC if i applied CAS but I would have rather gotten into the business school honestly as a freshmen then apply to a program I had no true interest in(which is what many do). It just feels wrong to get in the backhanded way…if a school wants me they want me and if they dont…then oh well</p>

<p>It’s difficult for those who apply CAS, get in, and then try to transfer into the schools of Business as well. You have some great choices there. Wish my son will get such a spread. Villanova is high on his list right now. </p>

<p>well good luck to your son! i’m sure he’ll get in to some great schools!</p>

<p>Which essay did you do? Do you think it was compelling? </p>

<p>CSOM admit here, my GPA was below yours and my ACT was a bit higher, but my SATII for Math II was more than 100 pts more than yours. I hope you didn’t send it to CSOM, that may have been counter productive…</p>

<p>Also if your school doesn’t rank is it a prep school ie. How rigorous is the school as a whole? Would you say that you fall in the top quadrant or even top 10% of students? </p>

<p>@bayernmunich31 My essay was extremely compelling, i chose the one about service (which i am very passionate about). My GC advised i send Math II because although i didn’t do well it showed “initiative” hopefully that was not my undoing…</p>

<p>@closetohome1 I don’t think one element such as an SATII would be your undoing, but I don’t think it was worth sending. </p>

<p>I think that when I meant compelling, a better word would be authentic. A big part of an essay is revealing who you are, and the schools I have been rejected from I feel I didn’t reveal any aspect of myself. I never read your essay (obv.) but I think the best thing to do is just keep in contact with your reader. So many students are vying for the same spots.
Your extracurriculars sound a bit shady since I don’t really know what “peer drug educator” is. Everyone has CS these days and what I did (you should do it too) is email your rep all enthused about a recent CS project you completed with different figures ie. I emailed my reader about $6000 for charity X and $1000 for charity y and how planning these events were really worth while for both the charity and my schools community. Might give some more credibility to your leadership position. Feel free to talk about spring athletics or other clubs you are involved with. I think that is what helped me get in. </p>

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<p>Doesn’t matter. Your HS will include a copy of its Profile with the transcript. The profile usually indicates somehow/someway what a grade distribution is. But even if that doesn’t exists, in a typical HS, a 91 average would be a 3.5/3.6 (converted), which in most high schools, is not top decile.</p>

<p>Those grades with the low calc grade, is an immediate flag for b-school.</p>

<p>@bluebayou I understand that, I was hoping the upward trend + math score on SAT would neutralize it a bit, but obviously not at the best of the best which is understandable. I did not do myself any favors by choosing calclus as the class to slack in to get my apps in on time </p>

<p>yes, upward trends help, but think about all of the other applicants who had mostly A’s all four years. </p>

<p>And in addition to your lowish grade in Calc, your M2 was <700. So you really had two low scores for b-school. (Sure the SAT-M was strong, but that only measures Alg I + Geom and a handful of problems in Alg II.) </p>

<p>Just my guess, based on numbers alone. Good luck. (My D got off the WL at BC and it was well worth the wait.)</p>

<p>@Bluebayou yeah i totally get that so I can’t be too upset. On the bright side I was able to mature as a student before it was too late. At least i got into some other great schools, just also recently found out i got into emory!</p>