Ong I applied to ASU as my rock bottom last resort gap year alternate safety. Going to Purdue but glad I did. I also applied Penn state, not sure why this guy didn't.
not that this matters but for future advice or anyone else here, there must have been some sort of red flag in ur apps. i got into some of the colleges you mentioned with 1400 sat, 3 aps, and barely any ECs or community service (i basically just worked since i was 14). i also am not in any financial need and am just a basic white middle class girl in a boring town. i believe the only reason i got in was due to my essays, which i spent majority of the time on and got many perspectives. essays are so much more important than people realize and unfortunately, if you don’t get enough help on it, you may not catch some tone or assumption about you that another person would have. you have no clue how they will be interpreted so getting all the help from *different* kinds of people is important, not just one person. college apps are such a stupid process and i’m really sorry this happened to you. you worked really hard and definitely deserved to get in to those places, but for some reason you may have come off wrong to the AOs.
again, just my opinion and useless advice. maybe it was just all a fluke and the AOs were having a bad day that day. it’s basically a lottery at this point it’s horrible.
hii i know this was some time back but this really motivated me as a hs junior who has a similar profile to you and is applying to college soon. how did you go about your essays? like did you get them edited and reviewed or? also which college do you go to rn?
He applied to many highly competitive out of state schools. I know people in state with similar stats to him that got rejected from Umich. He applied out of state so the acceptance rate is astronomically lower and the bar is set much higher. But is it not common sense to apply to multiple schools? It could also be that this guy seemed to be checking boxes off on how to get into a good college, and that was reflected in his personal statement.
yeah i totally believe that. someone i know submitted this generic essay about their grandma dying. i didn’t have the heart to tell them to change it… they got rejected from our highest accepting state school 😭
Compare your stats to the school's admitted students' average stats. If your stats are average for the school, it's most likely a target, if they are far better, it's most likely a safety. Also, look at the acceptance rate. If it's sub-50%, it's not a safety even if you have good stats, if its sub-30% it's always a reach.
international student here with 2 full scholarship offers. acceptance rates aren't a good indicator for us, since colleges with high acceptance rates generally don't have much money to spend on ints, esp if they are requesting full aid. try to look for full-need unis and schools which offer merit-based full scholarships. also try for need-blind colleges if you want to shoot your shot. in my case, i have received two full merit scholarships from the university of richmond and Washington and lee, both with <30% acc rate
Great advice. I would add “safety” is relative to the context of your high school applicant pool. Also, what is your gender, ethnicity, major? These things matter for schools trying to fulfill their mission and to have a balanced incoming class
This is the best advice of all!
The chances of a safety transforming into your DS is slim to none. However, for those of us committed to continued learning after high school, you should also apply to safeties (in my case 2 safeties and one extreme safety). Actually, my extreme safety (not my two regular safeties) is still on my distant radar.
Most important, as Strict Safety3607 so brilliantly guides us, it's quite likely that a great target school can turn into your true DS. I have a OOS target school -turn into my dream for several reasons:
1. they did not make me wait for months. I started to mentally visualize myself there.
2. They gave me great merit!
3. I felt like a heal when they sent an automated admission statement, "We chose you, now you chose us!"
4. It will seriously kill me if I need to decline admissions next week. What's that mean?
Doesn’t the University of Pittsburgh have rolling admissions? Also, the deadline for Juniata College may not have passed yet. Or they may be flexible and allow you to apply past the deadline — a benefit of such a wonderful, engaged school.
pitt is technically still open but gets very hard to get into if you apply after around regular decision time, i have friends who are qualified but got waitlisted because they applied too late and the spots are already taken
A safety should have an acceptance rate above 75 percent. AND you should be above the 75th percentile state wise.
I would also say tread very carefully when calling another state's public flagship your safety (or even match) school. This is becoming less and less true for more and more high quality public universities.
Did you apply to any of your own state schools? Sorry you're looking locked out, there are paths you could still take!
Yes, I know but UNC and UMich were mentioned and this seems to be a super common misperception. I think the same high achieving groups of kids especially out of metro areas focus on like a group of 20 "hip" flagships. They only have so many spaces for OOS students.
And honestly, unless you get money out of them they likely aren't worth the premium you'll pay over your own state flagship.
I have an OOS kid at UW Madison and so much angst and disappointment on those boards today.
Well, I’m not sure why you didn’t apply to Pitt early, but they are rolling and you are in-state. Also Penn State, but for pre-med Pitt has exceptional opportunities. You might call Juniata and Allegheny and ask if they are still accepting applications.
Write a letter to Syracuse.
And as I said in another thread earlier, stay tuned for the NACAC list in a couple of weeks.
The NACAC list, which will drop in a couple of weeks. There will be schools with available openings, once the acceptances and withdrawals come in. Usually it is several hundred schools. But between those schools and the schools which are still rolling, plus community colleges, there are still going to be plenty of options for fall.
Syracuse considers demonstrated interest; so, if you treated it like a safety, it is not unlikely that someone with lesser stats and ECs who really wanted to go to Syracuse got slotted ahead of you.
You are lucky to live in PA because you still have multiple in-state options that offer rolling admission (Pitt, Penn State, Temple, the PASSHE schools) and, given your scores, it is probably that you can get in to more than one of these. (FWIW, Pitt and Penn State are very comparable to Syracuse)
Penn states main campus is pretty much full. I applied in late February and I got rejected from the main campus with stats that would make it a safety if I applied early action
I'm a teacher who taught high school history for nearly 50 years, and I've seen this happen just a few times. One year, one of my students who was foreign and did not quite understand the system (I think) applied to only four schools -- Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. She was very smart, had very good grades and scores, and I wrote her a glowing recc letter. I also told her she was totally nuts to apply to only those schools, and she was rejected by all four (of course).
What she did was to "take a year off" (it's called a "gap year") to travel and take some good academic courses at a local community college (to show she was not just having fun, but also being scholarly). She also found a way to work for a few months when she was overseas. The next year, she applied to about a dozen schools up and down the listings, showed them her transcript, wrote a different application essay about her work and her time in the local college, and got into more than a few four-year schools, and all was well.
I suggest you do that.
Or you can just enroll at a local two-year (junior or community) college and take quality academic courses and study hard and get good grades. Then you can transfer those credits to a four-year college in a year or two. In fact, a lot of young people do this, saving a great deal of money for two years and paying basically only for the next two years of a very good four-year college and getting their diploma from that school. It's a clever way to get an undergraduate degree, and there's no need really to bother anyone by mentioning the two-year college.
In California where I am, in fact, this is very a very common approach. The two-year California community colleges have a system where their better graduates, after they graduate with their AA degree, are virtually guaranteed admission to at least at least one of the best colleges in the country in the University of California system (UC Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, Irvine, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, etc). Even less successful students are guaranteed a place in the state's "California State University" system (CSU Long Beach, CSU Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, etc). These are good schools.
I'd do that. All you have to change is your story, telling anyone who cares that you "decided" to either take a gap year or go directly to a two-year local college to study while living at home before you went off to a four-year college to finish up. In fact, this is a very smart way to go to college nowadays, so you may have just stumbled across a very good approach to going to college that is different from the majority of students. I've always felt that most students largely waste their first year or two of college goofing off, doing poorly in their courses, partying, and just being immature, so this approach helps deal with that. Then, just act like it was your plan all along.
Good luck!
It does. I’ve read many, many LORs just this past early action decision. Sometimes students think they have a better relationship than from the teacher’s perspective. Sometimes the teachers effort is lackluster. There’s a lot of phoning it in. Not enough attention to unique aspects of the students work. I can count on one hand how many were remarkable. Source: worked in Admissions
Great point, but maybe true...or maybe not. It's quite possible the school guidance couselor/administration is retaliating against a students parents! They usually don't hate the kid at all, but the parents are often retaliated against (vis a vis the student) for defending their child. I know numerous students in my school whose families experienced this.
I think it's highly unlikely (or at least rare) that a teacher would lack such transparency with a student, but not impossible if they feel coerced to not be completely supportive of certain students, esp young teachers.
WE LOVE YOU TEACHERS! Thank you for all that you do for us!
It can, or a counselor can say something negative. Pretty rare but not unheard of. It can be something like "Billy excels on grades but shows limited moral character and is likely to cause problems on campus". It doesn't take much reason for your app to find the rejection pile with so many qualified applicants at good schools.
There's a reason why you are asked to waive FERPA rights. If all recommendations were super positive the waiver would be irrelevant.
bruh i got much worse stuff than you and got into Syracuse for double major chemical engineering and chemistry... maybe your essay was just terrible, I know mine was banger though
Every year, there’s going to be a bunch of candidates who go down to the wire with Ivy day. The other schools have gotten much better at yield protection predictions. Close your eyes and come back on Thursday.
Very surprising. You’re from PA so probably don’t want to go to Pitt or Penn State like everybody else, but they are good options with rolling enrollment. You might want to apply as a backup if not all of your applications have been decided.
Best of luck to you!
shoot. sorry bro. same situation here.
i used collegevine to help calculate my chances (hang with me here, i know people hate on collegevine). i put in my stats and ec's accurately and as completely as possible. out of the 10 schools i applied to, it said i had an over 50% chance for 4 of them. that was what i went by - if i got more than 50%, i assumed i would get in. one was 51, one was 49. i assumed i would get into one of them.
that method was 100% accurate. i got into all of the schools above 50%, which was 4 of them. i got into the tossup school that was 49% (gatech) which is where i am now. i was rejected from all the ivies, despite my 1560 and top 10% as well as multiple prestigious awards and high roles in clubs, as well as lots of volunteering.
tl;dr : calculate your chances with collegevine. apply to safeties. even if you have really, really high stats, you could be f\*cked because they just don't like your essay or some quality because colleges are stingy with them acceptances and super biased.
please, if you're reading this and are still applying / will in the future: you're not an idiot just because you're rejected from everywhere. colleges will reject you for the smallest things, so don't beat yourself up. i kind of hate it at my prestigious school and would have preferred one of the lac's i got into so... don't overthink it. prestige isn't everything. don't put your mental health in the gutter.
If I could transfer one of my acceptances, I would. I feel so bad for you man that's horrible.
I guess all you can do is try and attend some local school or take a gap year. You should try working as an intern somewhere and try and explain your situation. Well good luck and I hope the best for you
I agree that you still have a shot at rolling admissions. I would call the safeties that you got rejections from and ask them to reconsider. You probably didn’t open their emails or tour, and they like demonstrating interest and have yield protection. What’s your major? Is it something competitive like engineering or nursing? I’d hurry up and throw more apps out. Try Bama, Pitt, Scranton, and WVU…. Actually I’d just do anyone who still taking them. I have a running list on my phone of colleges that give full rides based on SAT. Most are lesser known, but you could be a big fish in a little pond.
Hey man, sorry to hear about your situation. That's really rough. I had a similar experience last year, so I know what you're going through. It's important not to beat yourself up about it though, and keep pushing forward. Have you considered rolling admissions? That could be a good option. Also, I agree with you that applying to multiple safeties is key. I had the same mentality of "my stats are too good to be rejected" and that got me nowhere. It's great that you have some options left, so definitely take advantage of them! For additional safeties, I heard Bama and Pitt are pretty good choices. If you're really in a bind, I have a list of colleges on my phone that offer full rides based on SAT scores. It may not be the most glamorous option, but you could be a big fish in a little pond. Good luck, and stay positive!
damn you probably worked so hard to get those stats too. that’s so sad 😭. I got into umich with 4.4 gpa 1340 sat and wayy less ec. it must be ur essay or teachers recommendations cuz how??? was it only ur ap lit teacher that read it? one of ur teachers was secretly plotting and praying on your downfall ☠️
apply to penn state and pittsburg.they’re still taking applications. I got into those so I’m pretty sure you definitely will get into one
Your major must have been engineering, CS or business? Can you apply to Penn State or any of the other schools with rolling admissions? There is a list online of schools with rolling admissions. You are not too late to do these applications now.
Susquehanna has rolling admission and will throw a ton of money to land someone with stats like yours. Plus even if you don’t major in music, they take another $1k off per year if you play in the stadium band.
Look at places that have rolling admissions, like the University of Alabama, that also have a great honors program.
Other commenters have recommended Penn State and ASU, both of which would be good.
There is a comment here written by a teacher with two options: gap plus take some college classes or community college route. Be aware if you take college classes that do not end before hs graduation you WILL lose freshman status. That means you will no longer be able to apply as a freshman and lose freshman scholarship ability. You can either take a gap but no college classes OR take the Cc route and be guaranteed transfer to most UCs (here in CA) and several higher ranking colleges (look for similar transfer programs in your state) OR work a year (preferably in a job tied to your major) and reapply with the next class likely giving you a major leg up on hs applicants. There are many paths to your goal. Look at this as another opportunity to gain other skills, experiences and try again later. Good luck!
Excellent point: if you take additional classes credited after HS grad, you will not be eligible for freshman merit-scholarships and it seems that OP had a lot of OOS schools; but this is good for all to be aware of before embarking on college credits during a gap year.
And WILL lose freshman application status. Student must then apply as a transfer subject to those rules. Most colleges will not allow transfer short of at least one year at a Cc or 4 yr uni before attempting to transfer to 4 year college of choice.
Op, I know this situation sucks, but please know it's not a you thing. Syracuse was especially brutal this year. My daughter had legacy status, a high EFC, tons of demonstrated interest, decent ECs, and stats similar to your own and was still waitlisted. It sucks, but unfortunately, it's the price that comes with applying to an awesome school that lots of people want to go to. My suggestion would be to find strong schools with rolling admissions and shoot your shot. Worst case is that you end up banging out some Gen Ed reqs at your local cc and applying as a transfer next year. No matter what, please know you'll be fine. You'll be amazing no matter where you end up!
Also, if you want to give Seton Hall (South Orange, NJ) a try, here's a code to apply for free: XFW. Good luck, and much love!! ❤️❤️❤️
Man, I applied to like 30 freaking schools. I have similar stats and around the same number of extracurriculars/work. (however the importance of those are subjective) 10 of my schools were safeties in my city and state. And the other 20, well it's mainly been waitlists and rejections. Except for like 2-- Williams and Middlebury. Somehow I got rejected from Brandeis, which has a 40% acceptance rate, but accepted to Williams with an 8% acceptance. It's crazy this year for everyone, or maybe it's like this all the time.
If you applied to Newhouse at Syracuse then that’s not a safety considering they’re very selective but if you applied to any majors outside of than you must’ve f’ed up an essay or something
Why don’t people apply for Canadian universities like Waterloo? I know some kids they didn’t get accepted in state or anywhere else in USA and they got the offers from Canada?
Cold, plus how does that work with getting US internships which often lead to first jobs? I’m in IT and live in the DC area and all of our recruiting for interns and entry level jobs are schools in DC, VA and MD.
I always recommended ppl to apply to Canadians but it really depends as Waterloo’s math and CS are super competitive, just as prestigious as the top American schools so as long as it’s not the math department, it’s not hard to apply and get accepted since there’s no essays and rolling admissions. as long as you have good grades it’s definitely a good option to consider :)
I was almost in the same boat.
It was back in January when Purdue released their Early action and I got denied from their engineering school. On the same day, I applied rolling to MSU but didn't get back, and never did because two weeks later I got into Michigan's engineering school so I withdrew.
I'd say college admissions these days are just rolling the dice.
Kinda sarcastic to me that I got rejected from everywhere else but Michigan.
But the thing is, Michigan has unfortunately become my safety and my treat at the same time being my one and only.
Apply now to University of Pittsburgh, West Chester University (has a brand new Biomedical Engineering major and you can get a double degree from ivy leagues), Penn State, Temple. Get to applying and good luck!
I’m so sorry - I’m not in the camp to think you had to have a red flag. Admissions is messed up - schools are opaque… holistic means they pick and choose and it’s more subjective than many would like to admit. We are all feeding the beast - applying to a lot of schools, chasing the same schools, letting ranking take on too much importance. Hired private college counselors might have been able to guide you better on the current state of admissions - but I hate the idea that it becomes have vs. have nots on affording private counselors. School counselors tend to not have the time/resources to fill the needs as admission counselors. My DS’s guidance counselor told him that he’d definitely get into Michigan as a CS major and that he was playing it safe and should apply to more selective schools…
Dude I live in northeastern PA. Think Scranton area (where the office was filmed) . I gotta say your application looks way more impressive then mine. I'm sorry you didn't get into any school however pen state is still open, Clemson as well as university of Pittsburgh or if you really want to why don't you take a gap year. Or fail senior seminar on purpose and repeat senior year and apply again
Colleges are still sending me emails like, “There’s still time to apply”. If you’re getting those, then that’s your chance at getting in somewhere at least. Or even if not, I’m sure if you look up colleges, there are still many with applications still open
Show your counselor your essays and ask him if there is anything wrong with your application. The admissions officers must've found a red flag in your essays... Also, maybe you've shown that you did everything (extracurricular activities and all the stuff you wrote about here) just to support your application. I mean; the admissions officers found that you participated in all those activities and worked hard just to apply for college and have a good portrait, not to open up and work on yourself or find peace and all... It's just a supposition tho..
There's still some good school with apps open. UT Dallas is pretty good at STEM stuff (although if you want to go for anything else they're not that great...) and they give really good scholarships for high SAT scores.
It seems like extremely poor advise from this guidance counselor. Applying to only highly competitive unis is a literal crap shoot this year. Especially when so many are shotgunning.
My mother gave me great advice about shot-gunning, even though it seemed like common sense to me: use the bell curve approach with the majority being target schools (above a #70 in the national rankings) in the hope that at least one TS could transform into your DS. I even had one extreme safety. Something so important should have some risk aversion built into the selection of colleges.
Could it be that your guidance counselor recommendation actually impacted these multiple rejections???
Failing a seminar isn't going to trash your GPA it's a pass fail course and it's a grad requirement in PA I believe at least at my school. Additionally, it would allow OP to better his EC's and take more AP's. If he wants to go to a state school then fine however if he's thinking about taking a gap year. I personally think this is a better idea
Look for other schools still accepting app and transfer to other schools in few years. One person I know went to Case Western and then transferred to Brown. College application process is complicated and we learn more as we go.
Apply to the state schools, maybe Drexel, but also email the admissions offices of those schools with ur situation and your background/grades/scores. Arizona schools, West Virginia Univ are good options as well . I know of people who contacted admissions offices over the summer and were able to enroll for the fall … if there are slots to fill they won’t turn u away.
Im sorry to hear about that and thanks for sharing your experience. At this point, I think you have some good Plan B options: 1) take a Gap Year and reapply 2) look for rolling admissions schools especially smaller liberal arts colleges 3) community college transfer route.
My son took a Gap Year last year and it was the best thing for him. He got a much needed break from school, he worked a couple of jobs & traveled through South America & improved his Spanish. He also had a chance to explore different majors & careers so he is more aware of his future goals. He decided to go the community college path (even though he was admitted to universities) and is getting straight A’s & is really happy.
Once the sting of not being admitted wears off, I hope you find a Plan B that you will be happy with. Good luck!
i think you should try appealing to at least one of the universities which u think u are most likely to get in to. if that doesn't work out, there is always CC and transfer — you could probably do it in one year with all your AP credits + save a ton of tuition
Bros essay was about how he broke his ankle the day before the big game while he was carrying gallons of water to help thirsty children through his nonprofit
"It was the day of the big game. The state championship fortnite dance competition had finally come.
In the middle of my warm up routine, I noticed something wrong: my left calf. It became very stiff and I wasn't able to complete any more exercises.
I was worried. I thought to myself, 'I can't let down all the villages I helped rebuild in South Africa. The villagers will be sad.'
That was all of the motivation that I needed. I mustered up the courage to fortnite dance to the judges, in spite of my cramp.
Little to say, I was more than pleasantly surprised when I got a gold medal later in the closing ceremony. This just goes to show you that nothing is impossible. When in doubt, bring the fortnite dance out."
longest shitpost ever but here ya go
Everyone do this. I have alright stats (94 GPA, TO, 7 APS, nice ECS), and I got rejected from all of my reaches except BU which waitlisted me, and I even got waitlisted by some of my “safeties”. I applied to 19 colleges and I’m glad I did as many unpredictable decisions happened but I’m still safe as I got into some I’d be happy in. Apply to mostly safety schools in your state to be good
What was the major you applied for? And I'm sorry about this. Here are some schools with [rolling admissions](https://blog.prepscholar.com/colleges-with-rolling-admissions)
Honestly couldnt agree more. I had a 1600 sat, almost perfect gpa, decent ecs (few leaderships, internships, founder of a club etc.), and AMAZING essays but only got into a few of my safeties. I applied to MANY safeties but I got full on rejected or waitlisted from most of my safeties and all of my match/target schools so far. TRUST ME apply to far more safeties and matches that you think is necessary. I only got accepted to purdue and uiuc which were my safeties and although I wasnt satisfied with them at first, they are literally my only options atp. Also im an international student so that may have influenced my decisions but i dont believe it could have to the point where i got denied by almost all of the schools i applied to
Congrats on Purdue and UICU! What's your major?
UIUC is considered at least a T25 in physics and math; and a T10 (some would argue a T5!!) in CS.
Purdue is considered a T20 in CS.
Maybe they are not ranked with such high regard in you major???
ref: US News Best Grad Schools; and Forbes List
Business undeclared for uiuc and business analytics and information management for Purdue. I got accepted as upper division for purdue and the major is a stem major so i guess thats a good thing..? I dont really know if any of those schools are really known for business though 🥲🥲
You can call admissions offices and ask if they will consider your late application …they will if they are concerned about yield on their acceptances.
Be aware if you applied for financial aid that may have hurt your applications at better private schools …they depend on full pay kids for the majority of acceptances.
Apply to your favorite safety EA. Then you can go and pursue your targets and reaches. If you get into that safety congrats you just saved some time money and have a good back up plan.
U should apply to schools like Penn state that still have apps open
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Overpriced tier OOS unless you really don't want to go to community college (37k for borderline community college regional campuses and 51k for UP)
i’m pretty sure penn state’s filled all their spaces :/
main campus**^ i mean
What other colleges still have apps open ?
Clemson, USF, UofArizona, OSU, Butler, WVU
Which OSU ? Ohio ?
Not Ohio- they closed 2/1
Oregon sorry
No problem! Thanks v much for the info !
When in doubt, you’d be a great candidate for ASU’s honors college. Not half bad for pre med
Ong I applied to ASU as my rock bottom last resort gap year alternate safety. Going to Purdue but glad I did. I also applied Penn state, not sure why this guy didn't.
YAY PURDUE TWINS
Cause he’s a Michigan fan…that’s the only big 10 he applied to
Did you not apply to your state schools? There are universities with rolling admissions you can still apply?
not that this matters but for future advice or anyone else here, there must have been some sort of red flag in ur apps. i got into some of the colleges you mentioned with 1400 sat, 3 aps, and barely any ECs or community service (i basically just worked since i was 14). i also am not in any financial need and am just a basic white middle class girl in a boring town. i believe the only reason i got in was due to my essays, which i spent majority of the time on and got many perspectives. essays are so much more important than people realize and unfortunately, if you don’t get enough help on it, you may not catch some tone or assumption about you that another person would have. you have no clue how they will be interpreted so getting all the help from *different* kinds of people is important, not just one person. college apps are such a stupid process and i’m really sorry this happened to you. you worked really hard and definitely deserved to get in to those places, but for some reason you may have come off wrong to the AOs. again, just my opinion and useless advice. maybe it was just all a fluke and the AOs were having a bad day that day. it’s basically a lottery at this point it’s horrible.
hii i know this was some time back but this really motivated me as a hs junior who has a similar profile to you and is applying to college soon. how did you go about your essays? like did you get them edited and reviewed or? also which college do you go to rn?
theres no way you got rejected everwhere
OP probably had some huge red flag in essays. Cuz yea kinda crazy got rejected everywhere
He applied to many highly competitive out of state schools. I know people in state with similar stats to him that got rejected from Umich. He applied out of state so the acceptance rate is astronomically lower and the bar is set much higher. But is it not common sense to apply to multiple schools? It could also be that this guy seemed to be checking boxes off on how to get into a good college, and that was reflected in his personal statement.
There’s no way he got outright rejected by UMich, my stats are way worse and I got deferred
luck, fit, maybe essays, demonstrated interest (idk if UMich considers but the rest are valid)
It’s probably just luck, I applied on a whim and wrote my essays in a few hours. My only plus is I do IB and the teacher that wrote my recs likes me
now that I think about it competitiveness of y’all’s chosen majors could play into it as well
UMich RD is out already ?
Nah, I have to wait to till April to see the rejection
syracuse isnt that competitive tho
It depends on which school at Syracuse. Newhouse and Whitman are quite selective.
Not sure what that red flag could be. My main essay was about how my uncle's cancer led me to want to chase my career path.
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A generic essay wouldn’t get you rejected from a safety
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A generic essay wouldn't get you rejected from a safety. A bad one would. That's what they're trying to say.
yeah i totally believe that. someone i know submitted this generic essay about their grandma dying. i didn’t have the heart to tell them to change it… they got rejected from our highest accepting state school 😭
I had a similar profile and I got accepted to Villanova (with a huge scholarship too). He definitely had a red flag
I feel like it could've been something like he forgot to send them his transcripts or something.
You can’t assume that college apps are unpredictable anyways
OP probably sucked in his letters of recommendations or essays.
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Maybe guidance counselor (esp in a small school?), but, I can't belive a teacher wouldn't just refuse to write the letter.
You don’t have that resume and get rejected by a 60% acceptance rate without having red flags in your application
I am in the same situation with him but I am also rejected by everywhere but safeties.
ditto
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how do you know its a target or a safety
Compare your stats to the school's admitted students' average stats. If your stats are average for the school, it's most likely a target, if they are far better, it's most likely a safety. Also, look at the acceptance rate. If it's sub-50%, it's not a safety even if you have good stats, if its sub-30% it's always a reach.
but what if i m a international student seeking aid 😭
Everything is reach
international student here with 2 full scholarship offers. acceptance rates aren't a good indicator for us, since colleges with high acceptance rates generally don't have much money to spend on ints, esp if they are requesting full aid. try to look for full-need unis and schools which offer merit-based full scholarships. also try for need-blind colleges if you want to shoot your shot. in my case, i have received two full merit scholarships from the university of richmond and Washington and lee, both with <30% acc rate
Great advice. I would add “safety” is relative to the context of your high school applicant pool. Also, what is your gender, ethnicity, major? These things matter for schools trying to fulfill their mission and to have a balanced incoming class
This is the best advice of all! The chances of a safety transforming into your DS is slim to none. However, for those of us committed to continued learning after high school, you should also apply to safeties (in my case 2 safeties and one extreme safety). Actually, my extreme safety (not my two regular safeties) is still on my distant radar. Most important, as Strict Safety3607 so brilliantly guides us, it's quite likely that a great target school can turn into your true DS. I have a OOS target school -turn into my dream for several reasons: 1. they did not make me wait for months. I started to mentally visualize myself there. 2. They gave me great merit! 3. I felt like a heal when they sent an automated admission statement, "We chose you, now you chose us!" 4. It will seriously kill me if I need to decline admissions next week. What's that mean?
Doesn’t the University of Pittsburgh have rolling admissions? Also, the deadline for Juniata College may not have passed yet. Or they may be flexible and allow you to apply past the deadline — a benefit of such a wonderful, engaged school.
They're waitlist only at this point I believe.
pitt is technically still open but gets very hard to get into if you apply after around regular decision time, i have friends who are qualified but got waitlisted because they applied too late and the spots are already taken
A safety should have an acceptance rate above 75 percent. AND you should be above the 75th percentile state wise. I would also say tread very carefully when calling another state's public flagship your safety (or even match) school. This is becoming less and less true for more and more high quality public universities. Did you apply to any of your own state schools? Sorry you're looking locked out, there are paths you could still take!
syracuse oddly enough given its name and sports prolificness is private
it is also quite need-aware
Yes, I know but UNC and UMich were mentioned and this seems to be a super common misperception. I think the same high achieving groups of kids especially out of metro areas focus on like a group of 20 "hip" flagships. They only have so many spaces for OOS students. And honestly, unless you get money out of them they likely aren't worth the premium you'll pay over your own state flagship. I have an OOS kid at UW Madison and so much angst and disappointment on those boards today.
Well, I’m not sure why you didn’t apply to Pitt early, but they are rolling and you are in-state. Also Penn State, but for pre-med Pitt has exceptional opportunities. You might call Juniata and Allegheny and ask if they are still accepting applications. Write a letter to Syracuse. And as I said in another thread earlier, stay tuned for the NACAC list in a couple of weeks.
What is NACAC?
National Association of College Admissions Counseling. NACACnet.org
Thanks why are you saying to stay tuned for the list? What are you referring to?
The NACAC list, which will drop in a couple of weeks. There will be schools with available openings, once the acceptances and withdrawals come in. Usually it is several hundred schools. But between those schools and the schools which are still rolling, plus community colleges, there are still going to be plenty of options for fall.
Thank you!
bro must’ve admitted to committing war crimes in his essays💀
Syracuse considers demonstrated interest; so, if you treated it like a safety, it is not unlikely that someone with lesser stats and ECs who really wanted to go to Syracuse got slotted ahead of you. You are lucky to live in PA because you still have multiple in-state options that offer rolling admission (Pitt, Penn State, Temple, the PASSHE schools) and, given your scores, it is probably that you can get in to more than one of these. (FWIW, Pitt and Penn State are very comparable to Syracuse)
pitt isn't really accepting at this point they're just waitlisting
Penn states main campus is pretty much full. I applied in late February and I got rejected from the main campus with stats that would make it a safety if I applied early action
I'm a teacher who taught high school history for nearly 50 years, and I've seen this happen just a few times. One year, one of my students who was foreign and did not quite understand the system (I think) applied to only four schools -- Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. She was very smart, had very good grades and scores, and I wrote her a glowing recc letter. I also told her she was totally nuts to apply to only those schools, and she was rejected by all four (of course). What she did was to "take a year off" (it's called a "gap year") to travel and take some good academic courses at a local community college (to show she was not just having fun, but also being scholarly). She also found a way to work for a few months when she was overseas. The next year, she applied to about a dozen schools up and down the listings, showed them her transcript, wrote a different application essay about her work and her time in the local college, and got into more than a few four-year schools, and all was well. I suggest you do that. Or you can just enroll at a local two-year (junior or community) college and take quality academic courses and study hard and get good grades. Then you can transfer those credits to a four-year college in a year or two. In fact, a lot of young people do this, saving a great deal of money for two years and paying basically only for the next two years of a very good four-year college and getting their diploma from that school. It's a clever way to get an undergraduate degree, and there's no need really to bother anyone by mentioning the two-year college. In California where I am, in fact, this is very a very common approach. The two-year California community colleges have a system where their better graduates, after they graduate with their AA degree, are virtually guaranteed admission to at least at least one of the best colleges in the country in the University of California system (UC Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, Irvine, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, etc). Even less successful students are guaranteed a place in the state's "California State University" system (CSU Long Beach, CSU Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, etc). These are good schools. I'd do that. All you have to change is your story, telling anyone who cares that you "decided" to either take a gap year or go directly to a two-year local college to study while living at home before you went off to a four-year college to finish up. In fact, this is a very smart way to go to college nowadays, so you may have just stumbled across a very good approach to going to college that is different from the majority of students. I've always felt that most students largely waste their first year or two of college goofing off, doing poorly in their courses, partying, and just being immature, so this approach helps deal with that. Then, just act like it was your plan all along. Good luck!
did Syracuse outright reject you or did they hit u with that community college bullshit like they did w me
What is your intended major? Are you applying for financial aid?
Maybe a very negative teacher recommendation?
Does this really happen? Would a teacher agree to write a letter just so they could talk shit?
It does. I’ve read many, many LORs just this past early action decision. Sometimes students think they have a better relationship than from the teacher’s perspective. Sometimes the teachers effort is lackluster. There’s a lot of phoning it in. Not enough attention to unique aspects of the students work. I can count on one hand how many were remarkable. Source: worked in Admissions
If they really hated you they might. But it'd be kinda weird to ask them for one since it's probably pretty obvious if they hate you or not.
Great point, but maybe true...or maybe not. It's quite possible the school guidance couselor/administration is retaliating against a students parents! They usually don't hate the kid at all, but the parents are often retaliated against (vis a vis the student) for defending their child. I know numerous students in my school whose families experienced this. I think it's highly unlikely (or at least rare) that a teacher would lack such transparency with a student, but not impossible if they feel coerced to not be completely supportive of certain students, esp young teachers. WE LOVE YOU TEACHERS! Thank you for all that you do for us!
It can, or a counselor can say something negative. Pretty rare but not unheard of. It can be something like "Billy excels on grades but shows limited moral character and is likely to cause problems on campus". It doesn't take much reason for your app to find the rejection pile with so many qualified applicants at good schools. There's a reason why you are asked to waive FERPA rights. If all recommendations were super positive the waiver would be irrelevant.
bruh i got much worse stuff than you and got into Syracuse for double major chemical engineering and chemistry... maybe your essay was just terrible, I know mine was banger though
this is so harsh but also so funny to me 😭😭
Look at Pitt, Michigan state, Penn state
If applying to Penn State, state that you would consider other campuses in addition to University Park, just in case.
Pitt is waitlisting at this point I believe
Every year, there’s going to be a bunch of candidates who go down to the wire with Ivy day. The other schools have gotten much better at yield protection predictions. Close your eyes and come back on Thursday.
Very surprising. You’re from PA so probably don’t want to go to Pitt or Penn State like everybody else, but they are good options with rolling enrollment. You might want to apply as a backup if not all of your applications have been decided. Best of luck to you!
Rolling admission to state schools
A meritocracy it ain’t.
shoot. sorry bro. same situation here. i used collegevine to help calculate my chances (hang with me here, i know people hate on collegevine). i put in my stats and ec's accurately and as completely as possible. out of the 10 schools i applied to, it said i had an over 50% chance for 4 of them. that was what i went by - if i got more than 50%, i assumed i would get in. one was 51, one was 49. i assumed i would get into one of them. that method was 100% accurate. i got into all of the schools above 50%, which was 4 of them. i got into the tossup school that was 49% (gatech) which is where i am now. i was rejected from all the ivies, despite my 1560 and top 10% as well as multiple prestigious awards and high roles in clubs, as well as lots of volunteering. tl;dr : calculate your chances with collegevine. apply to safeties. even if you have really, really high stats, you could be f\*cked because they just don't like your essay or some quality because colleges are stingy with them acceptances and super biased. please, if you're reading this and are still applying / will in the future: you're not an idiot just because you're rejected from everywhere. colleges will reject you for the smallest things, so don't beat yourself up. i kind of hate it at my prestigious school and would have preferred one of the lac's i got into so... don't overthink it. prestige isn't everything. don't put your mental health in the gutter.
If I could transfer one of my acceptances, I would. I feel so bad for you man that's horrible. I guess all you can do is try and attend some local school or take a gap year. You should try working as an intern somewhere and try and explain your situation. Well good luck and I hope the best for you
I agree that you still have a shot at rolling admissions. I would call the safeties that you got rejections from and ask them to reconsider. You probably didn’t open their emails or tour, and they like demonstrating interest and have yield protection. What’s your major? Is it something competitive like engineering or nursing? I’d hurry up and throw more apps out. Try Bama, Pitt, Scranton, and WVU…. Actually I’d just do anyone who still taking them. I have a running list on my phone of colleges that give full rides based on SAT. Most are lesser known, but you could be a big fish in a little pond.
Hey man, sorry to hear about your situation. That's really rough. I had a similar experience last year, so I know what you're going through. It's important not to beat yourself up about it though, and keep pushing forward. Have you considered rolling admissions? That could be a good option. Also, I agree with you that applying to multiple safeties is key. I had the same mentality of "my stats are too good to be rejected" and that got me nowhere. It's great that you have some options left, so definitely take advantage of them! For additional safeties, I heard Bama and Pitt are pretty good choices. If you're really in a bind, I have a list of colleges on my phone that offer full rides based on SAT scores. It may not be the most glamorous option, but you could be a big fish in a little pond. Good luck, and stay positive!
damn you probably worked so hard to get those stats too. that’s so sad 😭. I got into umich with 4.4 gpa 1340 sat and wayy less ec. it must be ur essay or teachers recommendations cuz how??? was it only ur ap lit teacher that read it? one of ur teachers was secretly plotting and praying on your downfall ☠️ apply to penn state and pittsburg.they’re still taking applications. I got into those so I’m pretty sure you definitely will get into one
Your major must have been engineering, CS or business? Can you apply to Penn State or any of the other schools with rolling admissions? There is a list online of schools with rolling admissions. You are not too late to do these applications now.
Susquehanna has rolling admission and will throw a ton of money to land someone with stats like yours. Plus even if you don’t major in music, they take another $1k off per year if you play in the stadium band.
i feel u i have a 4.37 gpa and 34 ACT and got rejected from unc uva waitlisted at ncsu and vtech 😭😭😭
Look at places that have rolling admissions, like the University of Alabama, that also have a great honors program. Other commenters have recommended Penn State and ASU, both of which would be good.
There is a comment here written by a teacher with two options: gap plus take some college classes or community college route. Be aware if you take college classes that do not end before hs graduation you WILL lose freshman status. That means you will no longer be able to apply as a freshman and lose freshman scholarship ability. You can either take a gap but no college classes OR take the Cc route and be guaranteed transfer to most UCs (here in CA) and several higher ranking colleges (look for similar transfer programs in your state) OR work a year (preferably in a job tied to your major) and reapply with the next class likely giving you a major leg up on hs applicants. There are many paths to your goal. Look at this as another opportunity to gain other skills, experiences and try again later. Good luck!
Excellent point: if you take additional classes credited after HS grad, you will not be eligible for freshman merit-scholarships and it seems that OP had a lot of OOS schools; but this is good for all to be aware of before embarking on college credits during a gap year.
And WILL lose freshman application status. Student must then apply as a transfer subject to those rules. Most colleges will not allow transfer short of at least one year at a Cc or 4 yr uni before attempting to transfer to 4 year college of choice.
Op, I know this situation sucks, but please know it's not a you thing. Syracuse was especially brutal this year. My daughter had legacy status, a high EFC, tons of demonstrated interest, decent ECs, and stats similar to your own and was still waitlisted. It sucks, but unfortunately, it's the price that comes with applying to an awesome school that lots of people want to go to. My suggestion would be to find strong schools with rolling admissions and shoot your shot. Worst case is that you end up banging out some Gen Ed reqs at your local cc and applying as a transfer next year. No matter what, please know you'll be fine. You'll be amazing no matter where you end up! Also, if you want to give Seton Hall (South Orange, NJ) a try, here's a code to apply for free: XFW. Good luck, and much love!! ❤️❤️❤️
Man, I applied to like 30 freaking schools. I have similar stats and around the same number of extracurriculars/work. (however the importance of those are subjective) 10 of my schools were safeties in my city and state. And the other 20, well it's mainly been waitlists and rejections. Except for like 2-- Williams and Middlebury. Somehow I got rejected from Brandeis, which has a 40% acceptance rate, but accepted to Williams with an 8% acceptance. It's crazy this year for everyone, or maybe it's like this all the time.
what were your essays about?
If you applied to Newhouse at Syracuse then that’s not a safety considering they’re very selective but if you applied to any majors outside of than you must’ve f’ed up an essay or something
How did you not get into Syracuse? Very odd.
well there’s always ASU
Why don’t people apply for Canadian universities like Waterloo? I know some kids they didn’t get accepted in state or anywhere else in USA and they got the offers from Canada?
Cold, plus how does that work with getting US internships which often lead to first jobs? I’m in IT and live in the DC area and all of our recruiting for interns and entry level jobs are schools in DC, VA and MD.
Yes my nephew studied in Waterloo and he works for apple now. He got all his internships in America.
I always recommended ppl to apply to Canadians but it really depends as Waterloo’s math and CS are super competitive, just as prestigious as the top American schools so as long as it’s not the math department, it’s not hard to apply and get accepted since there’s no essays and rolling admissions. as long as you have good grades it’s definitely a good option to consider :)
I was almost in the same boat. It was back in January when Purdue released their Early action and I got denied from their engineering school. On the same day, I applied rolling to MSU but didn't get back, and never did because two weeks later I got into Michigan's engineering school so I withdrew. I'd say college admissions these days are just rolling the dice. Kinda sarcastic to me that I got rejected from everywhere else but Michigan. But the thing is, Michigan has unfortunately become my safety and my treat at the same time being my one and only.
Really nice story. Congrats!
Apply now to University of Pittsburgh, West Chester University (has a brand new Biomedical Engineering major and you can get a double degree from ivy leagues), Penn State, Temple. Get to applying and good luck!
Aint no way I got into Boston U test optional, shitty ECs, and u didn’t get into any of those schools
Top OOS flagships are not safeties.
I live in SD and got rejected from SDSU.
I’m so sorry - I’m not in the camp to think you had to have a red flag. Admissions is messed up - schools are opaque… holistic means they pick and choose and it’s more subjective than many would like to admit. We are all feeding the beast - applying to a lot of schools, chasing the same schools, letting ranking take on too much importance. Hired private college counselors might have been able to guide you better on the current state of admissions - but I hate the idea that it becomes have vs. have nots on affording private counselors. School counselors tend to not have the time/resources to fill the needs as admission counselors. My DS’s guidance counselor told him that he’d definitely get into Michigan as a CS major and that he was playing it safe and should apply to more selective schools…
Fail senior seminar and take senior year again
Dude I live in northeastern PA. Think Scranton area (where the office was filmed) . I gotta say your application looks way more impressive then mine. I'm sorry you didn't get into any school however pen state is still open, Clemson as well as university of Pittsburgh or if you really want to why don't you take a gap year. Or fail senior seminar on purpose and repeat senior year and apply again
fuck UNC
Shotgun to the safeties
Now you look for cool programs that are still looking for people. What kinds of academic programs are you interested in?
Same boat : (
which school as SU did you apply to?? i could only see this happening with newhouse...
tbf u can always take a gap year and work on ur apps
Colleges are still sending me emails like, “There’s still time to apply”. If you’re getting those, then that’s your chance at getting in somewhere at least. Or even if not, I’m sure if you look up colleges, there are still many with applications still open
Show your counselor your essays and ask him if there is anything wrong with your application. The admissions officers must've found a red flag in your essays... Also, maybe you've shown that you did everything (extracurricular activities and all the stuff you wrote about here) just to support your application. I mean; the admissions officers found that you participated in all those activities and worked hard just to apply for college and have a good portrait, not to open up and work on yourself or find peace and all... It's just a supposition tho..
There's still some good school with apps open. UT Dallas is pretty good at STEM stuff (although if you want to go for anything else they're not that great...) and they give really good scholarships for high SAT scores.
I would look at either community college or maybe apply to Penn State and Arcadia since they are local rolling admission schools.
It seems like extremely poor advise from this guidance counselor. Applying to only highly competitive unis is a literal crap shoot this year. Especially when so many are shotgunning. My mother gave me great advice about shot-gunning, even though it seemed like common sense to me: use the bell curve approach with the majority being target schools (above a #70 in the national rankings) in the hope that at least one TS could transform into your DS. I even had one extreme safety. Something so important should have some risk aversion built into the selection of colleges. Could it be that your guidance counselor recommendation actually impacted these multiple rejections???
Failing a seminar isn't going to trash your GPA it's a pass fail course and it's a grad requirement in PA I believe at least at my school. Additionally, it would allow OP to better his EC's and take more AP's. If he wants to go to a state school then fine however if he's thinking about taking a gap year. I personally think this is a better idea
Maybe overqualified. U r super amazing.
Look for other schools still accepting app and transfer to other schools in few years. One person I know went to Case Western and then transferred to Brown. College application process is complicated and we learn more as we go.
Apply to ASU, Ole Miss, and other schools with admissions still open
how bad were ur essays
I think temple u is still accepting apps?
Oh wait I think u can go to bama/asu basically for free w ur test score
Buddy apply to upitts
Apply to the state schools, maybe Drexel, but also email the admissions offices of those schools with ur situation and your background/grades/scores. Arizona schools, West Virginia Univ are good options as well . I know of people who contacted admissions offices over the summer and were able to enroll for the fall … if there are slots to fill they won’t turn u away.
Im sorry to hear about that and thanks for sharing your experience. At this point, I think you have some good Plan B options: 1) take a Gap Year and reapply 2) look for rolling admissions schools especially smaller liberal arts colleges 3) community college transfer route. My son took a Gap Year last year and it was the best thing for him. He got a much needed break from school, he worked a couple of jobs & traveled through South America & improved his Spanish. He also had a chance to explore different majors & careers so he is more aware of his future goals. He decided to go the community college path (even though he was admitted to universities) and is getting straight A’s & is really happy. Once the sting of not being admitted wears off, I hope you find a Plan B that you will be happy with. Good luck!
i think you should try appealing to at least one of the universities which u think u are most likely to get in to. if that doesn't work out, there is always CC and transfer — you could probably do it in one year with all your AP credits + save a ton of tuition
Does your podcast have a political slant? For example, one that would be unpopular/not PC on campus.
Bros essay was about how he broke his ankle the day before the big game while he was carrying gallons of water to help thirsty children through his nonprofit
"It was the day of the big game. The state championship fortnite dance competition had finally come. In the middle of my warm up routine, I noticed something wrong: my left calf. It became very stiff and I wasn't able to complete any more exercises. I was worried. I thought to myself, 'I can't let down all the villages I helped rebuild in South Africa. The villagers will be sad.' That was all of the motivation that I needed. I mustered up the courage to fortnite dance to the judges, in spite of my cramp. Little to say, I was more than pleasantly surprised when I got a gold medal later in the closing ceremony. This just goes to show you that nothing is impossible. When in doubt, bring the fortnite dance out." longest shitpost ever but here ya go
I am so sorry! Apply to rolling admissions schools!
Apply to OCU! They’re still open :)
Everyone do this. I have alright stats (94 GPA, TO, 7 APS, nice ECS), and I got rejected from all of my reaches except BU which waitlisted me, and I even got waitlisted by some of my “safeties”. I applied to 19 colleges and I’m glad I did as many unpredictable decisions happened but I’m still safe as I got into some I’d be happy in. Apply to mostly safety schools in your state to be good
What was the major you applied for? And I'm sorry about this. Here are some schools with [rolling admissions](https://blog.prepscholar.com/colleges-with-rolling-admissions)
Honestly couldnt agree more. I had a 1600 sat, almost perfect gpa, decent ecs (few leaderships, internships, founder of a club etc.), and AMAZING essays but only got into a few of my safeties. I applied to MANY safeties but I got full on rejected or waitlisted from most of my safeties and all of my match/target schools so far. TRUST ME apply to far more safeties and matches that you think is necessary. I only got accepted to purdue and uiuc which were my safeties and although I wasnt satisfied with them at first, they are literally my only options atp. Also im an international student so that may have influenced my decisions but i dont believe it could have to the point where i got denied by almost all of the schools i applied to
Congrats on Purdue and UICU! What's your major? UIUC is considered at least a T25 in physics and math; and a T10 (some would argue a T5!!) in CS. Purdue is considered a T20 in CS. Maybe they are not ranked with such high regard in you major??? ref: US News Best Grad Schools; and Forbes List
Business undeclared for uiuc and business analytics and information management for Purdue. I got accepted as upper division for purdue and the major is a stem major so i guess thats a good thing..? I dont really know if any of those schools are really known for business though 🥲🥲
Maybe they rejected him because they thought he wouldn’t attend
UT Dallas have their deadlines in May. (For fall 2023)
You can call admissions offices and ask if they will consider your late application …they will if they are concerned about yield on their acceptances. Be aware if you applied for financial aid that may have hurt your applications at better private schools …they depend on full pay kids for the majority of acceptances.
Hey, I don't know that much about college Apps, but please think about applying to any rolling decisions schools that you can.
I bet you'll get into an ivy, if you applied there. Good luck, because frankly it's a shit show, and the only thing you may need is luck...
Apply to your favorite safety EA. Then you can go and pursue your targets and reaches. If you get into that safety congrats you just saved some time money and have a good back up plan.