I'll add on to the chorus saying that in her circumstances, applying to UNC-CH was a super reach. By law, its OOS student population is limited to 18 per cent. Some of that will be recruited OOS athletes. UNC-CH is one of the few top public schools to give a preference to legacies, especially OOS legacies. It is common for OOS alums to donate in the hope of boosting their kids' chances of admission. (17 per cent of students are legacies; I don't know the break down for in and OOS.) Many of the remaining OOS admits applied early action. It's just an extremely difficult admit in the RD round if you're OOS.

Maybe I missed it but are you a full pay family? Did you apply for any aid or fill out financial aid forms just in case?

Federal funding for research is getting gutted. Literally billions of dollars in scientific research is not going to keep flowing to Universities. This is going to cost the Universities money so they are already pulling back Ph.D. offers.

BME is a really high stat competitive major. If lower stat kids at her school really got in then I would guess they are full pay families and you aren't. (Although you might think you know the other students are lower stat, you don't really know).

Anonymous wrote:I know of a national merit finalist this happened to. Now at a lowly regarded school for a highly rigorous STEM major. I'm guessing he got some kind of scholarship and will go to grad school somewhere nicer.

Lowly regarded school? Do tell which one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry.
Agree that it’s the major. My kid experienced this last year except did get in one of your kid’s WL schools. I’m surprised about the UVA WL with her stats. Did your daughter apply EA to UVA? What kind of high school does she attend?

VT, Pitt, Lehigh all were in the running for engineering for our kid. VT would be fantastic, Pitt too. Lehigh was in the running until the very end. Hopefully she can get excited at the admitted student days. Tough process for sure.

Yes, we were honestly shocked that she didn't get in - She applied RD. Many classmates with far lower stats + less impressive ECs got in. She attends a mid-sized public high school, pretty competitive. I know the cycle was very tough this year, but we definitely didn't see this coming.

Why wouldn't you use EA at UVA? Or really at ANY SCHOOL WHERE EA is avaialable?!?!

Using EA signals the university that your kid is serious about attending, organized and can get their applications in by Nov 1/15. It's a well known fact that you must do that at most schools that offer EA to gain admissions, but especially at highly competitive schools.

So if you are not a troll, then you didn't do basic homework

This is laughable. She spent a lot of time on her applications and some classmates that applied RD got in. UVA was not her top choice by any means but we were told by her counsellor that it was almost guaranteed with her stats.

Then those classmates had better applications than she did. There are many, many many very talented students out there, OP.

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins wants to have between 100-120 bio medical engineering majors entering as freshman. Their yield is about 50 percent.

It was the major.

The major didn't help. But in reality it's the simple MATH. Applying to 10-15+ REACHES ALL with Single digit acceptance rates (or close to it) does NOT increase your chances at any school. It's still only 3-9% chance
Most will be rejected or WL

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She was WL at UVA because she applied RD, it’s much more competitive in RD, especially from NOVA and since she didn’t apply Early Action (with all of her classmates who apply ED elsewhere) she was signaling that she wasn’t really that interested in UVA.

So much about this reads as a troll post---with a lot of energy to keep coming back with updates.

If a school has EA, you must do EA. It is not binding, it just means you get your application in by Nov1/15 and get a result typically by mid February/late February. It signals to a university that you have your act together and know you want to attend. If you wait until RD, well by then you are AFTER ED1/ED2 and EA. So the school has already picked the vast majority of their freshman class. You could have done EA, you chose not to. Not a smart choice

Because she wasn't interested in UVA, she preferred to go OOS. She thought that she had a high chance with RD and wanted to focus on the rest of her applications. JHU has been her dream school for a very long time - We know it's very competitive, but she still thought she had a chance. And yes, I'm definitely spending my Tuesday evening on here "trolling" instead of asking for advice/support from those of us in a similar situation - Please think of more original insults.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]That's tough, and I can see why you're upset. Having said that, Pitt is the clear choice. It's an amazing school, and your daughter would thrive there in the biomed program.[/quote]

Yeah, she's definitely leaning towards Pitt right now - Friends have told us that their BME program is great. We're planning to make a visit soon to get more of a feel (and we've never been to the city itself).[/quote]

Hi OP - I am the Pitt-Michigan PP from this recent thread. I have some sightseeing suggestions and thoughts about CMU on that thread. Maybe your daughter might be the rare student who wants to take a class up the street.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1266599.page

I would suggest that if your daughter is still very unsatisfied with her outcomes that you work the WL for Cornell and CMU as best you can. Several Cornell colleges offer sophomore transfer options to their WL people who hang on to the bitter end. And, if your daughter is at Pitt, she can move up the road to CMU and still keep her friends from first year at Pitt. Pitt and CMU are different social ecosystems mainly due to convenience but are not that far by free bus or walking if it is important to do so.

You might want to look at this Reddit thread about transferring to CMU for some general comments about the process in 3 schools (business but also engineering and architecture).

https://www.reddit.com/r/cmu/comments/13m2g6o/transfer_student_with_tons_of_questions/

The top kids from Pitt do very well at getting grad school placements and the really top ones do well in national and international fellowship competitions. So I would take into consideration whether your daughter might prefer to be a "big fish" at Pitt or a "small fish" elsewhere. Some people are internally motivated and some require the toughest peer competition possible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has to be fake. People cannot be this naive.

+100
How utterly ridiculous - she "thought she had it in the bag."

Right? Who thinks like this?

In her position, how would you not think that you had at least VT + UNC CH in the bag? I'm obviously not referring to the Ivies/higher-ranking schools...

She was accepted at VT. Chapel Hill has an 8 percent acceptance rate for OOS. It also sounds like she is at a NoVa public with grade inflation.

Yes, she does go to public but she is at the top percentile of her class.

Does NOT matter. She chose to apply to 10+ schools that are all basically SINGLE DIGIT acceptance rates. She has the resume for a lottery ticket, but nothing special beyond that. 90%+ of the applicants have the "resume for a lottery ticket", and 90-95% of them will get rejected. It's how the numbers work.

And if you actually cared, you would have done EA to UVA and greatly increased her chances

I’m sorry your kid’s college counselor said that UVA was almost guaranteed. We live in a different state with a competitive flagship, but it’s common knowledge that our state flagship is not a guarantee for anyone- OOS or in-state. Lots of kids with impressive grades and scores turned away. Your kid has great options. Celebrate those!

OK, I haven't read all the comments, but ...

I know someone who is in that program at JHU. His stats were pretty much the same.

But TBH, he was more of an "ordinary" kid. He didn't found a non-profit. He had more sports on the resume, but less volunteering. No research. Ordinary kid jobs in the summer.

It really is a crapshoot.

Anonymous wrote:She was WL at UVA because she applied RD, it’s much more competitive in RD, especially from NOVA and since she didn’t apply Early Action (with all of her classmates who apply ED elsewhere) she was signaling that she wasn’t really that interested in UVA.

So much about this reads as a troll post---with a lot of energy to keep coming back with updates.

If a school has EA, you must do EA. It is not binding, it just means you get your application in by Nov1/15 and get a result typically by mid February/late February. It signals to a university that you have your act together and know you want to attend. If you wait until RD, well by then you are AFTER ED1/ED2 and EA. So the school has already picked the vast majority of their freshman class. You could have done EA, you chose not to. Not a smart choice

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry.
Agree that it’s the major. My kid experienced this last year except did get in one of your kid’s WL schools. I’m surprised about the UVA WL with her stats. Did your daughter apply EA to UVA? What kind of high school does she attend?

VT, Pitt, Lehigh all were in the running for engineering for our kid. VT would be fantastic, Pitt too. Lehigh was in the running until the very end. Hopefully she can get excited at the admitted student days. Tough process for sure.

Yes, we were honestly shocked that she didn't get in - She applied RD. Many classmates with far lower stats + less impressive ECs got in. She attends a mid-sized public high school, pretty competitive. I know the cycle was very tough this year, but we definitely didn't see this coming.

Why wouldn't you use EA at UVA? Or really at ANY SCHOOL WHERE EA is avaialable?!?!

Using EA signals the university that your kid is serious about attending, organized and can get their applications in by Nov 1/15. It's a well known fact that you must do that at most schools that offer EA to gain admissions, but especially at highly competitive schools.

So if you are not a troll, then you didn't do basic homework

This is laughable. She spent a lot of time on her applications and some classmates that applied RD got in. UVA was not her top choice by any means but we were told by her counsellor that it was almost guaranteed with her stats.

No counselor would guarantee this. I call troll.

Well, I don't know what to tell you, because this is what we were told.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry.
Agree that it’s the major. My kid experienced this last year except did get in one of your kid’s WL schools. I’m surprised about the UVA WL with her stats. Did your daughter apply EA to UVA? What kind of high school does she attend?

VT, Pitt, Lehigh all were in the running for engineering for our kid. VT would be fantastic, Pitt too. Lehigh was in the running until the very end. Hopefully she can get excited at the admitted student days. Tough process for sure.

Yes, we were honestly shocked that she didn't get in - She applied RD. Many classmates with far lower stats + less impressive ECs got in. She attends a mid-sized public high school, pretty competitive. I know the cycle was very tough this year, but we definitely didn't see this coming.

Why wouldn't you use EA at UVA? Or really at ANY SCHOOL WHERE EA is avaialable?!?!

Using EA signals the university that your kid is serious about attending, organized and can get their applications in by Nov 1/15. It's a well known fact that you must do that at most schools that offer EA to gain admissions, but especially at highly competitive schools.

So if you are not a troll, then you didn't do basic homework

This is laughable. She spent a lot of time on her applications and some classmates that applied RD got in. UVA was not her top choice by any means but we were told by her counsellor that it was almost guaranteed with her stats.

No counselor would guarantee this. I call troll.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has to be fake. People cannot be this naive.

+100
How utterly ridiculous - she "thought she had it in the bag."

Right? Who thinks like this?

In her position, how would you not think that you had at least VT + UNC CH in the bag? I'm obviously not referring to the Ivies/higher-ranking schools...

She was accepted at VT. Chapel Hill has an 8 percent acceptance rate for OOS. It also sounds like she is at a NoVa public with grade inflation.

Again with the public grade inflation crap. I’m sure she had more 5s on APs than your kid.
So freaking over the assumptions!

It’s not a knock on your kid. Grad inflation buries the extraordinary kid among the ordinary kids because they all have the same gpas. I don’t understand why parents don’t complain more about this.

The point is YOU HAVE NO IDEA.
Bless your heart. Worried about our poor public school kids! Don’t worry - they distinguish themselves with activities, service, sports….gasp! Just like private school kiddies.

(Not OP)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry.
Agree that it’s the major. My kid experienced this last year except did get in one of your kid’s WL schools. I’m surprised about the UVA WL with her stats. Did your daughter apply EA to UVA? What kind of high school does she attend?

VT, Pitt, Lehigh all were in the running for engineering for our kid. VT would be fantastic, Pitt too. Lehigh was in the running until the very end. Hopefully she can get excited at the admitted student days. Tough process for sure.

Yes, we were honestly shocked that she didn't get in - She applied RD. Many classmates with far lower stats + less impressive ECs got in. She attends a mid-sized public high school, pretty competitive. I know the cycle was very tough this year, but we definitely didn't see this coming.

Why wouldn't you use EA at UVA? Or really at ANY SCHOOL WHERE EA is avaialable?!?!

Using EA signals the university that your kid is serious about attending, organized and can get their applications in by Nov 1/15. It's a well known fact that you must do that at most schools that offer EA to gain admissions, but especially at highly competitive schools.

So if you are not a troll, then you didn't do basic homework

This is laughable. She spent a lot of time on her applications and some classmates that applied RD got in. UVA was not her top choice by any means but we were told by her counsellor that it was almost guaranteed with her stats.

**counselor