Disappointment

[Anonymous]

Everyone knows biomed is the most popular. I thought mech wasn't as popular?

The MIT data is interesting as well:

https://registrar.mit.edu/stats-reports/majors-count

[Anonymous]

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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?

The former are rarely available to unaffiliated labs and often busy with their own work, the latter already have all the research they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you are still reading, my DC from a magnet had higher stats than your kid and was rejected almost everywhere they applied to - CMU, UIUC, GATech. Waitlisted at Mich. Granted, they are a CS major.

In the end, DC ended up at the state flagship, and you know what... they are happy there. They got a great internship with good pay where DC is at now for pretty much all of the summer, and they are having a blast.

DC just finished their second year and is a senior, thanks to those generous and numerous AP credits. They are doing great academically - 4.0 GPA so far, and there are definitely some very smart peers there. They will graduate in 3 years with two degrees. They also got merit aid, so we will be able to give them $20K, and a car when they graduate. All together, they will have $40K cash by 21. DC is also going to do a +1 masters. So, 4 years, 2 degrees for < $140K from a T50. Not too shabby.

So, tell your DC that there are pros to going in state - they will probably not struggle too much academically and be surrounded by other high achievers; there are lots of smart kids who end up at the state flagships due to cost, or being shut out of the T10 like your and my kid. The money you save can go towards their roth IRA or buy them a car, or gift them cash (check gift tax rule).

DC was not excited about going off to college until the week of when we started to go dorm shopping. They love living on their own, and being independent. They said they are very glad to have ended up at the state flagship. Things really worked out for DC.

It will be ok.

A state flagship (especially a T50!) is a fine outcome considering that many super high achieving but non-quirky students end up there and create a fairly large super high achieving social community necessary for these kids, but OP didn't even get into her state flagship. W&M isn't large enough to have a significant social group of super high achievers. Also, CS is an unusually school-agnostic major.

[Anonymous]

Biomedical engineering, on the other hand, is very school-dependent. Most schools are not very good at the undergrad level, hence why the general recommendation is to only major in BME at the grad level.

I would personally choose Pitt or VTech over WM for engineering.

[Anonymous]

Or Lehigh! They also have a fine engineering program. Very underrated, IMO. Pitt gives merit aid, so it might be cheaper than WM, but otherwise it makes the most sense to go to the cheapest school (VTech?) and then save your money for the expensive grad program necessary for BME.

[Anonymous]

The really shocking thing here to me is UVA. The list over all is shocking, because I would think with her profile she would get at least one or two if the ones that rejected or waitlisted her, but the only one individual school that shocks me is UVA. Ridiculous that she would not be accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The really shocking thing here to me is UVA. The list over all is shocking, because I would think with her profile she would get at least one or two if the ones that rejected or waitlisted her, but the only one individual school that shocks me is UVA. Ridiculous that she would not be accepted.

You don’t know how she compared to her HS peers though. They can’t admit everyone. Perhaps there were much “stronger” applicants from her HS.

Remember stronger is not about stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Ugh. This kid should be at a flagship unless they needed the merit aid.

But happens all the time. It’s almost always bc of the major. They aren’t as competitive for that major, but likely would have been for another.

Then post admission rates by major so kids know what to expect. I doubt it is all about the major but a bit more transparency will be helpful

Agree, but often you can ask when you go to info sessions? Here's a tip on how to examine the data online. You can do this for every school. Just research!

UVA Engineering's enrollment numbers are listed online: https://engineering.virginia.edu/undergraduate-study/current-undergrads/degree-information/undergraduate-enrollment-and-graduates#

From that link, it looks like applying to Materials Science—engineering, Engineering Science, or " Engineering—undeclared" is the way to go if you must apply to engineering.

To dig in further, go to the CDS. If you look at Section J of the school's CDS, you can see which colleges/majors are "oversubscribed" - have way too many people (it's the list of graduates who list their primary major) vs. those that are undersubscribed.
https://ira.virginia.edu/sites/g/files/jsddwu1106/files/2025-03/CDS_2024-2025_508.pdf

UVA:
Engineering 10.1%
Business: 8.9%
CS: 7.7%
Biological sciences: 6%
Physical sciences: 3.9%
Math: 3.3%
History: 2.7&
English 2.3%
Foreign lang. 1.4%

That is not particularly useful information without knowing how many applied to the major

UVA admits by school, not by major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Biomedical engineering probably makes it harder.

Absolutely. BME programs are in high demand and they tend to be smaller programs.

[Anonymous]

Too many foreign students

[Anonymous]

Lobby the heck out of Cornell--I think she will get in--then you will set up as a transfer--they take a lot. One year elsewhere and then end up at an Ivy--Cornell.

[Anonymous]

Is OP’s DD full pay? She was deferred at JHU, meaning she is well within range for acceptance but in the current Trump environment, colleges are looking to pad their revenues.

Also all the rejected schools are high reaches for an unconnected academic star from a public school. I see this every year among our peer group: high stat kids from non-feeder publics (or even privates) don’t do well with super reaches. They do best when EDing schools like Rice, U Chicago, sometimes Cornell (but not engineering).

Biomed engineering major was another strike. For this profile, if unconnected, chance at Princeton/Brown/Dartmouth is basically zero.

[Anonymous]

Why not just encourage OP’s child to give it a chance and take full advantage of the opportunities offered at the schools which have accepted her? The Ivy name is great but it doesn’t always translate into a great experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Too many foreign students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not just encourage OP’s child to give it a chance and take full advantage of the opportunities offered at the schools which have accepted her? The Ivy name is great but it doesn’t always translate into a great experience.

+1