<p>amazing:</p>
<p>GPA: 4.72, (on the 4.0 scale, never got a B)
rank 1/740
SATs: 2190 reasoning, 800 M2, 780 Chem
APs: National AP scholar took 8 tests already
varsity tennis player for 3 years
from India (minority I guess)</p>
<p>and a cold hard rejection letter from Stanford.. what more could they want</p>
<p>are they freakin out of their minds?</p>
<p>I don't believe Indian is a URM. Stanford probably admitted 3 or 4 valedictorian all-american tennis playing Indians with 2400 SATs before they even got to his application.</p>
<p>Known HS....unknown HS.......geographic region? Indian isn't URM. As to the tennis...unless he was recruited it mattered not.</p>
<p>vagrant star, I checked your other posts and I understand it's you you're writing about, not your "son's valedictorian friend": no need to dissemble here, we console and advise distraught students as well as confounded parents.</p>
<p>I'm sorry to hear the Stanford rejection hurts so much, and I understand. Take a few days, then put your efforts into applying to other schools. You'll end up somewhere that's right for you. My son was rejected from Stanford last year. He is now a first-year student at MIT and totally in the right place. You'll find your right place.</p>
<p>Don't take the rejection letter personally. You have obviously achieved a lot and you will get into a great school.......keep your head up. This is not a slam against you.</p>
<h1>1 +Valedictorian and #2 student from DS's rigorous private prep school deferred from Yale. They are outstanding, wonderful kids and would be an asset to any college. Similar stats plus boatloads of EC's. I feel your pain. You will do well at another college though. Opportunities abound!</h1>
<p>yah i know how u feel. at my school a kid ranked one, 2270 SAT score, 4's and 5's on AP's, 800 on SAT II, 4.65 wighted GPA got rejected. its pretty harsh, he was also a varisty player for three years..azn.</p>
<p>Just shows that these "super-elite" schools can make their own rules. Every year they turn down tons of students who would have done great at their school--just way too many very qualified applicants. As has been said countless times, these schools are pretty much a reach for EVERYONE.
I'm sure you'll get into a school who will appreciate all your wonderful qualities--you sure do have a lot of them. Good luck!</p>
<p>Where else are u applying?</p>
<p>Did anyone see the kid on the Yale thread who got a 2400 SAT score and was not admitted? :( My goodness! What can you say to that!?! Yikes! Perfection is not enough....</p>
<p>and I wouldn't have made my flip comment had I known you were posting about yourself. I have a lot of empathy for the deferred and rejected. You are entitled to some time to grieve, but realistically with impending deadlines that time is about 2 days.</p>
<p>kyedor, seriously, thank goodness proficiency at selecting correct answers and filling in cirlces with a number 2 pencil is not enough.</p>
<p>vagrant star:</p>
<p>mootmom's son's experience may as well happen to you, forget about Stanford, keep up your hard work on applying other schools......and good luck to you.</p>
<p>ANY rejection hurts. It doesn't have to be from Stanford, or Yale, or Princeton. Everything happens for a reason. Thirty five years ago I applied ED to North Carolina. I don't know if UNC still has ED today. I was a great student from a top public Long Island high school and wanted to study journalism. I even flew down for an interview. REJECTED. I couldn't believe it.</p>
<p>I was accepted by five schools RD, and wound up at Northwestern. Three weeks after I moved into the dorm, I met my husband-to-be. There's a reason for everything. And I loved my four years in Evanston. How could I have even thought I'd be happy in North Carolina?</p>
<p>Hi, vagrant star. I'm really sorry to hear about that. I and some people I know went through the same experience as you last year - being qualified and still not getting into places. Now, your stats are quite good and I strongly suspect you'll get into some other good places. But expect more rejections as well. It's not because you're not qualified, it's because being qualified's no guarantee you'll get in. You'll see posts all around these forums from people asking why they were refected while someone with inferior stats was accepted (w/o legacies, etc). THere are just too many smart/talented people in the world today, and not enough schools with "prestigious" reps. Getting in depends in no small measure on luck. To one set on getting into a "prestigious" school, playing the odds by applying to a lot of them is probably the way to go.</p>
<p>I know of someone with a perfect ACT score and other wonderful credentials who was deferred from Stanford ED. We were all shocked. I know he will do great in the long run, but he's depressed now!</p>
<p>I usually avoid commenting on this type of post, addressing the utterly pointless "what are my chances." or trying to analyze admission results.</p>
<p>However, seeing the direction this thread is taking, I think it is worth clearing up a couple of things:</p>
<ol>
<li>Vagrant star is not the indian valedictorian in the first post and people do not need to feel too sorry for the OP in this regard. </li>
</ol>
<p>This is the OP "persona"</p>
<p>
[quote]
vagrant star
Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2005</p>
<h2>Posts: 111 chances? </h2>
<p>Just wanna c how I compare:
(I'm a Senior)</p>
<p>Major: Computer Science</p>
<p>GPA: 4.18, ranked 38 of about 730 at a public school (of course)
- statewide recognition
SAT Reasoning: 2000 (Math 740, CR 640, WR 620)
SAT 2: Math2C 800, Physics 750
APs: Comp Sci A- 5, Physics B- 4, Statistics- 4, European History- 3, Eng Language Comp- 3. (At the end of this year I will be taking Calc BC, Chemistry, Macro or Micro Econ haven't decided yet, Comparative Government, English Lit, and Psychology.)</p>
<p>Background:
Franco-American and immigrated at age 8, but I have dual citizenship. Also 1/4 Hispanic. Single mother w/ BA. She has 3 children and income < 20 000 a year (substitute teacher for 3 years and unemployed prior to that). Epilepsy.
[/quote]
</p>
<ol>
<li>As far as handling deception, I believe that the reaction of the OP leaves much to be desired.</li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
vagrant star
Junior Member</p>
<p>Join Date: Jun 2005</p>
<h2>Posts: 111 I swear I'm gonna get them.. </h2>
<p>This isn't a threat, it's just that when they rejected me I felt like crap: like all I have achieved in the past four years and the countless hours I spent in our school's career center revising Stanford essays...for nothing. The rejection felt like a cold knife almost..</p>
<p>Anyways as sad as I am I have tried to avert my sights to the University of Chicago. No way am I applying to Stanford for Graduate school, they have ****ed me off.</p>
<p>Someway somehow, I'm gonna get them.. I'm gonna win the Nobel prize, become the next Donald Trump, or something. Whatever I do I will flash the rejection letter in their faces nonstop. They think they're so hot rejecting me, well I'll show em..
[/quote]
</p>
<p>There's a reason those schools (Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, did I miss any?) are called heartbreak schools. Twice I saw top students at the toughest private school in my state, with perfect SAT scores and amazing tennis ability get rejected from Stanford. They just have way too many amazing applicants.</p>
<p>The point that people seem to miss in the world of elite admissions is that the stats are what gets the students into the running -- NOT what gets them in. </p>
<p>The question isn't the grades and test scores of the class Val -- the question is: "what makes this kid special?" </p>
<p>I don't see it in the OP. OK, great grades and test scores, which makes the student just like every other high achieving kid who applies. </p>
<p>"varsity tennis player"... well, "nationally ranked" tennis player might look better. What does the Stanford tennis coach think of this kid? If he isn't recruited, the athletics don't mean much. </p>
<p>And that's it. I think if I was on the Stanford ad com I would want more - presumeably that would be found in the essays and recs. Obviously that is the area that didn't succeed in making the case. </p>
<p>Elites don't want brilliant-but-boring. They want extra-special-amazing.</p>
<p>Last year a top student from our HS was flat out rejected ED from Stanford but went on to get in at Princeton, Yale, Penn, Pomona, CMC, and is currently a happy freshman at Harvard. Just depends who they want at a given time</p>
<p>My best friend in high school had a very difficult time dealing with her Princeton rejection. She ended up at our state university, miserable, after being rejected at the other elite schools she applied to. Multiple transfer apps and false starts followed. Eventually she completed community college and transferred back to the state university she started at, earning her degree at the age of 25. This was in the early 80's when things were much saner than they are now. She had stellar grades, stats, recs, but suffered from being just a run of the mill nice and smart girl. I cringe a bit when I see posts telling the rejected and defered that they'll probably get multiple acceptances from elite schools in the RD round. It's wonderful if it happens, but it's just as likely that they could be rejected at all the "name" schools. It's so important to find likely schools where a student will feel happy and ready to move on with life. If a kid was looking to spend four years at a smallish elite college, the big in state university is probably not an appropriate back-up. It's vitally important that students are reminded that chances are very much against their admission at the elites. There's no fairness involved, like life.</p>