First child applied to college of his dreams ED. Mission accomplished. Crappy financial aid. But he got in. Second kid had the to die for stats. Near perfect SAT. High GPA. State band, state art awards, international design mention. Published illustrator. Yeah. We thought she would get in some place great. But it is all meaningless. At least for her. Union won’t even answer my emails to confirm she was NOT selected for their Scholars Program. UMASS Amherst would not take her in their honors college. She was rejected by colleges where her SATs were above the 75th percentile. She is simply not what colleges want. Are dancers considered aloof and vain? Are people from New England undesirable? What transgression is it that stands in her way? She tried very very hard and it is all for naught. So. That is my warning. When your kid gets that 1550 on the SAT and wins their third award, starts an after school program at a disadvantaged elementary school, don’t think they have a chance a at top 50 school. They might. But you never know. Because mine certainly didn’t. I would just love to be told why.
April is the cruelest month. T.S. Eliot likely wasn’t a regular here at college confidential but I think we all can agree on the sentiment.
What are the specifics of your daughter’s case? It sounds like she didn’t get into the colleges that she hoped for…and that the colleges she did get into aren’t offering her honors classes. Is that accurate? Are there still more colleges ahead or has she heard from all?
Correct. We researched it and based on scores and results from previous years, we thought she would get merit aid from Mt Holyoke (nope), would get in to CWRU (nope) would get Scholars Program at Union (nope), had a chance at Bowdoin and Vassar, and that ilk. Nope. All that lies ahead are places ranked at or above Vassar. So whatever is undesirable about my daughter to those below that bar will certainly offend above that bar. We just wish we knew what went wrong. She is not a kid with JUST strong grades and test scores. She is involved and passionate and successful. Something just put off the readers about her background or something. So my warning is: apply to 30 schools. Apply outside of your geographic area. Apply to schools in Canada.
Sigh. So sorry @GingerLand. Not that different from my D, but she has gotten into a few schools that are really good fits for her. She didn’t get in to honors at Pitt, but I don’t think that will make much of a difference for her (although I believe their new honors admissions policy has turned off some high scoring kids who were similarly rejected from attending), but got money there and at Rochester. She was deferred EA and then waitlisted at CWRU (which surprised me – I thought she’d get in there since they seemed thrilled to have her at Rochester, but we’re in Ohio so not very geographically interesting) and rejected by Tufts and WashU (I thought she had a shot at Tufts as it was ED2, but not even deferred).
I think part of the equation for your daughter is that kids now can fall in between the cracks – not stupendous enough for the tippy top schools, but too good for the level right below who think that they will end up somewhere else. That really makes life difficult for these students. Hopefully one of the schools ranked above Vassar will come through for her. Is she on the waitlist anywhere?
So she’s in at Union and Mt. Holyoke though, right?
She is on the waitlist at Case. And while she hates UMASS, she will likely end up there. UMASS is not a bad school. She just hates large schools with a frat/football culture. It will be a good life lesson. She feels kinda dissed over the Honors College thing, but life is not fair. Sometimes what you deserve is not what you get. She and I will get over it in a year or two 
We applied to 12 schools and only 1 acceptance. Crazy admissions and happy I get a break for four years before I have to deal with this mess again
Ugh, sorry. 
I hope there’s still a happy surprise coming from one of her reach schools.
You’re right, she will be okay and find her people at UMass; and she can even reapply to the Honors College in the spring of her first year if she wants to. But for sure, it’s a disappointment when that wasn’t the environment she wanted, and you both had every reason to believe she had a good shot at better-fit options. What does she want to study?
@GingerLand - 5 years ago my D was rejected by her one dream school (not much of a reach) and WL by 3 matches. Her only outright acceptances were her safeties. Happily, they were good schools and good fits because we picked them carefully. She graduates this year and she has absolutely rocked college. I won’t go into details but her college career has been exceptional. All that hard work in high school does NOT just lead up to acceptances. If she’s “all that” she will take all that with her where ever she goes and she will thrive - the schools that rejected her lost out.
Your daughter sounds quite smart and driven. It doesn’t matter where she goes to school. She will carry her talents beyond college.
But I don’t understand the obsession with “top” schools. That term is meaningless these days. It is the top schools that do everything they can to perpetuate the myth.
And what if she was the victim of diversity? Why would you even want her to go to such a place?
Your daughter will do great things!
College admissions can be really weird - it all comes down to fit, I think. And perhaps a little bit of luck. I was just recently rejected and waitlisted from schools that I thought were matches or even some schools where I was a little above average. After all my rejections and waitlists at these schools, all that was left were schools that were ranked way higher and were a lot more prestigious and I was defeated because I was sure I would be rejected from the rest. But it turns out, I was accepted into schools where I was in their bottom percentile, or in one case, below even their 25th percentile. So, you never know what will happen - she might be accepted into schools that are ranked above Vassar!
Gingerland- You should definitely have your daughter email her UMASS admission person and honors college Dean and let them know that she would love to be reconsidered for the honors program. I know many schools will respond to such a request positively. Be sure that she attaches her resume with SAT score and GPA included. That might get their attention!! It also shows her taking the initiative.
And if she wants to go to Case she should definitely call her admissions person and let them know. They just may take her off the waitlist! They used to accepted thousands more students but now they seem to accept fewer students that they predict would be more likely to attend.
I am so sorry that your daughter has been left so disappointed after all her hard work. Of course, in the end, it will all work out. But that doesn’t make this moment any less disappointing.
Sorry @GingerLand - it does seem to be shaping up to be a tough year and we’ve heard particularly for female applicants. So many schools get significantly more female applicants. Case seems to be practicing yield protection. In the past they would scoop up kids like your D with merit money to try and seal the deal and get high stats kids to enroll. But seems to have changed now. Perhaps have your counselor make a phone call to Case. Work that WL and it’s quite possible your D will get in that way.
That’s awful. The only sense I could possibly make about her not being invited to the honors college at UMass may have to do with dancing. They definitely focus on grouping students by interests in the honors college. Is it possible that they don’t have a focus in your child’s area of interest?
It happens that the Commonwealth College students I’ve known have been in the natural sciences. It might be worth calling the CC and asking one of the peer ambassadors if they have a RAP for dancers (or whatever else her interests are). I know it doesn’t help the pain, but it might help solve the mystery of why a child with such stellar statistics wouldn’t have been asked to attend.
Wow! When I vented a while ago I didn’t worry about hearing anything back. I just needed to vent. But folks here have had great, sound advice. I will tell her to speak up for herself with Case and UMASS. But I will also let her know these first four years (given that she wants to do research in psychology) are just the ground work. We aren’t obsessed with “top” schools, to answer that thought. But we did think, perhaps, she had a shot at a school with a well ranked psych program that would lead to a good grad school.
Long time lurker but don’t post often. Wanted to comment on Union Scholars. My son didn’t get into Scholars last year yet was accepted with the highest merit award they offered. When we inquired we were told “Scholars was Full”. It was a big, frustrating disappointment. But we went to accepted students day, met some great faculty and he decided to go anyway. Fast forward - two trimesters in and he LOVES it there. Found out yesterday he was awarded a summer research grant despite not being in Scholars. He has found his place and his people. (And his GPA far exceeds some of his friends who are in Scholars).
Sorry this is so long. But I understood your disappointment, but hind site being 20/20, it all worked out fine for him. Good luck with your daughter’s decision!
Did she get into Union? Great school! I know so many who love it. Is it just that you didn’t get the Scholars program?
Given what you’ve explained, I definitely think it would be worth contacting the CC at UMass and making it clear that she has high stats and would want to be with other high-achieving students who are interested in psychology.
It seems pretty likely that she will attend UMass, given that there will be an advanced degree to budget for in the future. And from what I’ve heard, the incoming CC orientations (overnights) are really formative. Since she is 100% an Honors kid, you know she’ll be in the honors college eventually. It would just be so much better if she could be there from the beginning!
@suzy100 she is in at Mt Holyoke and Union yes. We had just gotten our hopes up too high.
The important thing is that your daughter has some options and acceptances in hand. She sounds like an incredible student who is going to thrive wherever she goes to school. I totally get needing to vent and the feelings of disappointment, but she’s got the tools to be successful wherever she goes and that’s what is really most important.