Anonymous
03/19/2026 09:21
Subject: Surprising Results
Anonymous wrote:THIS is why you want to apply to a lot of colleges: because there's a lot of "noise" in the admissions process, such that students who are rejected at less selective colleges get accepted to more selective schools. When admissions are more like a lottery and less based on objective standards (GPA, SAT, etc), then it pays to have more tickets.
This isn't to say that SAT/GPA should be the only factors. Nor is it to say that colleges don't have their own specific needs.
But due to grade inflation, SAT/GPA provide colleges with much less usable information than they used to. Which means they're selecting more on subjective factors. That's not necessarily wrong, but to the applicant it's not predictable. You don't know if they need a flute player; you don't know whether your AO, out of all others, will like or dislike your essay. When it's not predictable, it pays to apply to more colleges.
This makes no sense. Wouldn’t SAT provide MORE usable information since GPA is inflated? High SAT/GPA confirms high grades. Curious why you think test scores do not provide usable information? Are you a California resident?
Anonymous
03/19/2026 00:59
Subject: Surprising Results
I'm in Seattle and I always write UW Seattle to make it clear when posting.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What is udub?
Washington
Just say UW.
Wisconsin is UW-Madison.
It’s called Udub. No one says UW.
No shit. It's been pronounced "u-dub" forever. But it's written UW.
Anonymous
03/18/2026 13:38
Subject: Surprising Results
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I am surprised to see some of the results among my senior kid and their friends and thought I would start a post to see if others have seen the same thing.
A student who was rejected ED Vanderbilt, but was accepted RD UChicago.
A student who was accepted ED UMich (after a 2 week deferral that released them from the ED) was waitlisted at Univ. of Washington.
Not surprising, Vandy no longer admits based primarily on stats, that’s why they take a huge percentage of class test without test scores.
This just means that Vandy is completely unpredictable. How do you cut down a huge applicant pool without considering stats? The qualitative measures are all going to be similar - everyone gets good teacher recs and has lots of ECs.
Anonymous
03/18/2026 13:36
Subject: Surprising Results
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Small point. But after getting ED Michigan, why didn't this kid pull all other apps as required?
Sounds like it was no longer binding and they got in because Michigan screwed up their early binding program and admitted them a week after the regular decision deadlines?
If so, I know lots of kids like this who got in then but had already submitted a ton more applications and were pissed at the way Michigan handled it - so they want to see where the RD cards land.
Yes, that is exactly what happened. UMich deferred a bunch of ED applicants and then accepted them on Jan. 5. However, once a student is deferred, they necessarily are released from the binding agreement (they have to be because there's no assurance they'll get in) so by that time, all RD applications were in. Addressing another point here, this kid got waitlisted from UW (non-CS) as an instate applicant and got into UMich OOS, which is quite difficult to do. Still loves UMich though and will likely commit to there.
Anonymous
03/18/2026 13:08
Subject: Surprising Results
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I would be mortified if I were a kid and parents of my classmates were this invested in my college results.
Welcome to this area, it's all they talk about for four years then they spend the next one stalking kids then when the kids start to find themselves and transfer, drop out, or stay away form the area they wonder what happened. This area is toxic.
You actually have no idea where the OP is from since people on this forum (specifically) are located all over, from NYC to CA ... so "welcome to this area" doesn't actually mean much. But maybe "welcome to this TOPIC area..."
Anonymous
03/18/2026 12:07
Subject: Surprising Results
Anonymous wrote:Small point. But after getting ED Michigan, why didn't this kid pull all other apps as required?
Sounds like it was no longer binding and they got in because Michigan screwed up their early binding program and admitted them a week after the regular decision deadlines?
If so, I know lots of kids like this who got in then but had already submitted a ton more applications and were pissed at the way Michigan handled it - so they want to see where the RD cards land.