Disappointment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else facing a lot of disappointment during this cycle? DD got into a couple target schools + most of her safeties... Rejected or WL from the rest. She was (imo and told to us by many others) a great applicant - High stats, great ECs + essays, LORs... Her interviews all went very well, especially JHU. She applied to JHU EA and the rest RD, and we're from NOVA. Intended major is BME (biomed engineering).

Stats:
4.0 UW/4.7 W GPA
1570 SAT (800 M, 770 R&W)
14 APs, all 5s

ECs:
- A few regional awards (STEM)
- 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
- Founder of non-profit
- Research w/ prof at T30
- Competitive summer program for BME
- Lots of community service

Results:
JHU EA - Deferred -> Rejected
Princeton - Rejected
Brown - Rejected
Dartmouth - Rejected
Columbia - Rejected
Duke - Rejected
UVA - WL
Cornell - WL
CMU - WL
UNC CH - WL
VT - Accepted
W&M - Accepted
Lehigh - Accepted
UPitt - Accepted

DD is incredibly upset and so are we... JHU was her dream school but she relied on UVA + CMU as well. Anyone here confused and facing a similar situation?We all were convinced that DD had it in the bag - Worst of all is that many of her classmates w/ lower stats and worse ECs have gotten into a few of these schools.

Hey OP, how does reading this post by an AO from a too school make you feel?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1l2fzob/take_the_road_less_traveled/

Do you have any idea how many applications I saw with Chess Club listed? Me either, it would be like asking me how many stars I saw in the sky last night. Model UN, Quiz Team, DECA, band? All great. But I promise you, they don't cause you to stand out.

I read lots of applications from kids who liked to scuba dive, and put a lot of effort into it. I read essays about how life-changing it was to dive the Great Barrier Reef, and comparing and contrasting the Blue Hole and the San Juan in Cozumel. I read enough of them that while it was more interesting than reading about Chess Club and those three Saturdays you volunteered at a soup kitchen, it still wasn't very interesting.

Solo sailing across the Atlantic is more interesting than a coding competition. Fighting fires on your small town volunteer fire department can absolutely be more interesting than an expensive summer program at a local university.

I remember one [admitted] kid who had grades and test scores in the bottom quartile, and had just a single EC, which was mowing lawns.

[Anonymous]

*top school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else facing a lot of disappointment during this cycle? DD got into a couple target schools + most of her safeties... Rejected or WL from the rest. She was (imo and told to us by many others) a great applicant - High stats, great ECs + essays, LORs... Her interviews all went very well, especially JHU. She applied to JHU EA and the rest RD, and we're from NOVA. Intended major is BME (biomed engineering).

Stats:
4.0 UW/4.7 W GPA
1570 SAT (800 M, 770 R&W)
14 APs, all 5s

ECs:
- A few regional awards (STEM)
- 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
- Founder of non-profit
- Research w/ prof at T30
- Competitive summer program for BME
- Lots of community service

Results:
JHU EA - Deferred -> Rejected
Princeton - Rejected
Brown - Rejected
Dartmouth - Rejected
Columbia - Rejected
Duke - Rejected
UVA - WL
Cornell - WL
CMU - WL
UNC CH - WL
VT - Accepted
W&M - Accepted
Lehigh - Accepted
UPitt - Accepted

DD is incredibly upset and so are we... JHU was her dream school but she relied on UVA + CMU as well. Anyone here confused and facing a similar situation?We all were convinced that DD had it in the bag - Worst of all is that many of her classmates w/ lower stats and worse ECs have gotten into a few of these schools.

Hey OP, how does reading this post by an AO from a too school make you feel?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1l2fzob/take_the_road_less_traveled/

Do you have any idea how many applications I saw with Chess Club listed? Me either, it would be like asking me how many stars I saw in the sky last night. Model UN, Quiz Team, DECA, band? All great. But I promise you, they don't cause you to stand out.

I read lots of applications from kids who liked to scuba dive, and put a lot of effort into it. I read essays about how life-changing it was to dive the Great Barrier Reef, and comparing and contrasting the Blue Hole and the San Juan in Cozumel. I read enough of them that while it was more interesting than reading about Chess Club and those three Saturdays you volunteered at a soup kitchen, it still wasn't very interesting.

Solo sailing across the Atlantic is more interesting than a coding competition. Fighting fires on your small town volunteer fire department can absolutely be more interesting than an expensive summer program at a local university.

I remember one [admitted] kid who had grades and test scores in the bottom quartile, and had just a single EC, which was mowing lawns.

Not OP, but that link has been debated to death.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else facing a lot of disappointment during this cycle? DD got into a couple target schools + most of her safeties... Rejected or WL from the rest. She was (imo and told to us by many others) a great applicant - High stats, great ECs + essays, LORs... Her interviews all went very well, especially JHU. She applied to JHU EA and the rest RD, and we're from NOVA. Intended major is BME (biomed engineering).

Stats:
4.0 UW/4.7 W GPA
1570 SAT (800 M, 770 R&W)
14 APs, all 5s

ECs:
- A few regional awards (STEM)
- 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
- Founder of non-profit
- Research w/ prof at T30
- Competitive summer program for BME
- Lots of community service

Results:
JHU EA - Deferred -> Rejected
Princeton - Rejected
Brown - Rejected
Dartmouth - Rejected
Columbia - Rejected
Duke - Rejected
UVA - WL
Cornell - WL
CMU - WL
UNC CH - WL
VT - Accepted
W&M - Accepted
Lehigh - Accepted
UPitt - Accepted

DD is incredibly upset and so are we... JHU was her dream school but she relied on UVA + CMU as well. Anyone here confused and facing a similar situation?We all were convinced that DD had it in the bag - Worst of all is that many of her classmates w/ lower stats and worse ECs have gotten into a few of these schools.

It stinks. Hopkins legacy kid here rejected at 1560, perfect grades, ECs, bilingual, etc. Did not expect as many rejections as we got. But lived where they ended up.

I would say just look forward. Make the most of where they will be. No sense going in bitter.

Also, admissions seeing through these “nonprofits.” Maybe yours was impressive and noble, but WSJ and WaPo both have written about this “founded nonprofit” thing can be a bit of a bogus resume padder

Agree.

Plus, the OP surely emphasized her daughter doing “ -Research with Prof at T3O” when she wrote her daughter’s essays filled out her daughter’s common app.

But the whole “wrote a peer-reviewed research paper” gimmick is also getting tired.

It’s a red-flag to universities now.

+1. I have actual researchers in my family. They aren't clamoring to supervise summer high school students. Also, what were the hospital volunteer hours? It's impossible to get volunteer hours in a NOVA hospital unless there is a connection or you work in the gift shop. Everyone knows the non-profit stuff is BS. OP DD's application seems entirely manufactured and boring.

+1, undergrads are hardly useful in a lab, so why do we think high schoolers would get anything productive done.

high schoolers can bring unique skills, such as CS skills in a bio lab. I know of an MIT student with a Nature coauthorship she got in highschool. Even when the researchers have a superior set of skills, a high schooler can still contribute thanks to the principle of comparative advantage.

[Anonymous]

Any post starting with "Hey OP" is pretty much guaranteed to be in bad faith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else facing a lot of disappointment during this cycle? DD got into a couple target schools + most of her safeties... Rejected or WL from the rest. She was (imo and told to us by many others) a great applicant - High stats, great ECs + essays, LORs... Her interviews all went very well, especially JHU. She applied to JHU EA and the rest RD, and we're from NOVA. Intended major is BME (biomed engineering).

Stats:
4.0 UW/4.7 W GPA
1570 SAT (800 M, 770 R&W)
14 APs, all 5s

ECs:
- A few regional awards (STEM)
- 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
- Founder of non-profit
- Research w/ prof at T30
- Competitive summer program for BME
- Lots of community service

Results:
JHU EA - Deferred -> Rejected
Princeton - Rejected
Brown - Rejected
Dartmouth - Rejected
Columbia - Rejected
Duke - Rejected
UVA - WL
Cornell - WL
CMU - WL
UNC CH - WL
VT - Accepted
W&M - Accepted
Lehigh - Accepted
UPitt - Accepted

DD is incredibly upset and so are we... JHU was her dream school but she relied on UVA + CMU as well. Anyone here confused and facing a similar situation?We all were convinced that DD had it in the bag - Worst of all is that many of her classmates w/ lower stats and worse ECs have gotten into a few of these schools.

It stinks. Hopkins legacy kid here rejected at 1560, perfect grades, ECs, bilingual, etc. Did not expect as many rejections as we got. But lived where they ended up.

I would say just look forward. Make the most of where they will be. No sense going in bitter.

Also, admissions seeing through these “nonprofits.” Maybe yours was impressive and noble, but WSJ and WaPo both have written about this “founded nonprofit” thing can be a bit of a bogus resume padder

Agree.

Plus, the OP surely emphasized her daughter doing “ -Research with Prof at T3O” when she wrote her daughter’s essays filled out her daughter’s common app.

But the whole “wrote a peer-reviewed research paper” gimmick is also getting tired.

It’s a red-flag to universities now.

+1. I have actual researchers in my family. They aren't clamoring to supervise summer high school students. Also, what were the hospital volunteer hours? It's impossible to get volunteer hours in a NOVA hospital unless there is a connection or you work in the gift shop. Everyone knows the non-profit stuff is BS. OP DD's application seems entirely manufactured and boring.

+1, undergrads are hardly useful in a lab, so why do we think high schoolers would get anything productive done.

high schoolers can bring unique skills, such as CS skills in a bio lab. I know of an MIT student with a Nature coauthorship she got in highschool. Even when the researchers have a superior set of skills, a high schooler can still contribute thanks to the principle of comparative advantage.

Yeah, but they could just bring in a computer scientist? Or a bio-cs major? What are you on about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else facing a lot of disappointment during this cycle? DD got into a couple target schools + most of her safeties... Rejected or WL from the rest. She was (imo and told to us by many others) a great applicant - High stats, great ECs + essays, LORs... Her interviews all went very well, especially JHU. She applied to JHU EA and the rest RD, and we're from NOVA. Intended major is BME (biomed engineering).

Stats:
4.0 UW/4.7 W GPA
1570 SAT (800 M, 770 R&W)
14 APs, all 5s

ECs:
- A few regional awards (STEM)
- 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
- Founder of non-profit
- Research w/ prof at T30
- Competitive summer program for BME
- Lots of community service

Results:
JHU EA - Deferred -> Rejected
Princeton - Rejected
Brown - Rejected
Dartmouth - Rejected
Columbia - Rejected
Duke - Rejected
UVA - WL
Cornell - WL
CMU - WL
UNC CH - WL
VT - Accepted
W&M - Accepted
Lehigh - Accepted
UPitt - Accepted

DD is incredibly upset and so are we... JHU was her dream school but she relied on UVA + CMU as well. Anyone here confused and facing a similar situation?We all were convinced that DD had it in the bag - Worst of all is that many of her classmates w/ lower stats and worse ECs have gotten into a few of these schools.

It stinks. Hopkins legacy kid here rejected at 1560, perfect grades, ECs, bilingual, etc. Did not expect as many rejections as we got. But lived where they ended up.

I would say just look forward. Make the most of where they will be. No sense going in bitter.

Also, admissions seeing through these “nonprofits.” Maybe yours was impressive and noble, but WSJ and WaPo both have written about this “founded nonprofit” thing can be a bit of a bogus resume padder

Agree.

Plus, the OP surely emphasized her daughter doing “ -Research with Prof at T3O” when she wrote her daughter’s essays filled out her daughter’s common app.

But the whole “wrote a peer-reviewed research paper” gimmick is also getting tired.

It’s a red-flag to universities now.

+1. I have actual researchers in my family. They aren't clamoring to supervise summer high school students. Also, what were the hospital volunteer hours? It's impossible to get volunteer hours in a NOVA hospital unless there is a connection or you work in the gift shop. Everyone knows the non-profit stuff is BS. OP DD's application seems entirely manufactured and boring.

This is the heart of it. I am out of the game now, one out of college, one in college now. We lived this disappointment too with our first one. It opened my eyes to the fact that this profile of the OP is like thousands of other top students.

Graded are great, but so are others. Test scores are great. Princeton rejects hundreds of kids with perfect SATs.

Something else has to make a kid shine, and “founding nonprofit” is absolutely not it these days. Something else in that application, whether the essay, something specific in a letter of recommendation, a lived experience, passion project that shows drivers and commitment, etc., has to make the admissions officer sit up and *notice.* OP profile doesn’t

Agree. I saw this on reddit today and it reminded me of this thread (btw A2C is a black hole):
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1leq8pb/does_anyone_feel_like_aos_set_future_applicants/

"I think she’s trying to tell you that what A2C thinks is a good EC and what really is a good EC are not the same. They don’t need a class full of the same cookie cutter kids who did research with a T5 professor, interned with a start-up, and did science fairs/olympiad/etc. The AOs remember the kids that are interesting. Not just the ones that are super cracked academically.

A Stanford AO once told me that they don’t just look for leaders. They need followers too, since a class full of leaders won’t get anything done, as everyone wants to lead in different directions.

You need to remember that the AOs are building a class. Not just picking the top academic students available."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, I can relate, unhooked kid with similar stats didn’t get into her top choices. Settled for Stern, NYU, which is great but lots of similarly stats peers ended up at T15.

Was confused, disappointed but have moved on.

For us, DC essays weren't strong and major was competitive...

What major? Business?

How did you know the essays weren’t strong?

Stern is their business school

[Anonymous]

My kid did the traditional high school club activities that are seen too common and boring by AO’s. Some of their best memories from high school. It’s not just about getting state or national recognition in something. Those traditional clubs (MUN, quiz bowl, science Olympiad, yearbook, chess, NHS) can be good social outlets for kids who aren’t in sports or with a “popular” crowd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:W&M is the top choice of her choices. Great school.

W&M is a a very good school and a great option for Virginians. However, OP’s daughter with her stats and APs will be in the top 1% of W&M students, which is not ideal. You want to have peers who are similar or slightly better than you academically to be reasonably challenged and motivated. It was stupid and frankly outrageous for UVA to waitlist her. State university funded by tax payers should have transparent admissions criteria and should be held accountable for cases like OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M is the top choice of her choices. Great school.

W&M is a a very good school and a great option for Virginians. However, OP’s daughter with her stats and APs will be in the top 1% of W&M students, which is not ideal. You want to have peers who are similar or slightly better than you academically to be reasonably challenged and motivated. It was stupid and frankly outrageous for UVA to waitlist her. State university funded by tax payers should have transparent admissions criteria and should be held accountable for cases like OP.

There are many more kids with those stats at W&M than 1%! Why would that be different at UVA (given stats are the same)?
And my kid chose UVA over W&M. This was just dumb.

[Anonymous]

Meanwhile, BIPOC gets in with 1150 SAT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else facing a lot of disappointment during this cycle? DD got into a couple target schools + most of her safeties... Rejected or WL from the rest. She was (imo and told to us by many others) a great applicant - High stats, great ECs + essays, LORs... Her interviews all went very well, especially JHU. She applied to JHU EA and the rest RD, and we're from NOVA. Intended major is BME (biomed engineering).

Stats:
4.0 UW/4.7 W GPA
1570 SAT (800 M, 770 R&W)
14 APs, all 5s

ECs:
- A few regional awards (STEM)
- 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
- Founder of non-profit
- Research w/ prof at T30
- Competitive summer program for BME
- Lots of community service

Results:
JHU EA - Deferred -> Rejected
Princeton - Rejected
Brown - Rejected
Dartmouth - Rejected
Columbia - Rejected
Duke - Rejected
UVA - WL
Cornell - WL
CMU - WL
UNC CH - WL
VT - Accepted
W&M - Accepted
Lehigh - Accepted
UPitt - Accepted

DD is incredibly upset and so are we... JHU was her dream school but she relied on UVA + CMU as well. Anyone here confused and facing a similar situation?We all were convinced that DD had it in the bag - Worst of all is that many of her classmates w/ lower stats and worse ECs have gotten into a few of these schools.

Hey OP, how does reading this post by an AO from a too school make you feel?

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1l2fzob/take_the_road_less_traveled/

Do you have any idea how many applications I saw with Chess Club listed? Me either, it would be like asking me how many stars I saw in the sky last night. Model UN, Quiz Team, DECA, band? All great. But I promise you, they don't cause you to stand out.

I read lots of applications from kids who liked to scuba dive, and put a lot of effort into it. I read essays about how life-changing it was to dive the Great Barrier Reef, and comparing and contrasting the Blue Hole and the San Juan in Cozumel. I read enough of them that while it was more interesting than reading about Chess Club and those three Saturdays you volunteered at a soup kitchen, it still wasn't very interesting.

Solo sailing across the Atlantic is more interesting than a coding competition. Fighting fires on your small town volunteer fire department can absolutely be more interesting than an expensive summer program at a local university.

I remember one [admitted] kid who had grades and test scores in the bottom quartile, and had just a single EC, which was mowing lawns.

I have a 5 year old so no dog in this fight yet… but college admissions is badly broken if it takes solo sailing across the Atlantic to get your application noticed.

[Anonymous]

And full need

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile, BIPOC gets in with 1150 SAT.

A 1150 SAT wouldn't get submitted.

Dummy.