student23832

As to your question as to whether you're alone in this - you're not. I haven't been accepted to any of my matches so far; I have a 4.02 GPA, 1st in my class, multiple APs (with 5s and one 4), 2220 SATs, over 750 on both of my SAT IIs....I am confused about it too. I'm wondering where I miscalculated.

vernontwg

a lot of people from my school with 4.0+ 2100+ were rejected from davis and irvine. it seems admission is crazy this year

hunter17

Admissions really are crazy. I have a friend who got rejected from Stanford with a 5.0 GPA and almost every extracurricular activity possible. They just don't make sense to me...hopefully everyone will get admitted to a school that'll be a good fit, though.
I had multiple honors classes both of those years because only honors versions of required courses were offered at my school. But almost all of those were UC approved. Most of my AP classes this year are counting as elective credit, actually.

born2dance94

@collegefailureha Did you apply to any safeties? Because applying to 6 extremely selective schools is not a great course of action.

CountMonteCristo

“In the letter, they told me they accepted 400 out of 7400, so I'm just going off of that. I figured the admissions committee would probably have a pretty good idea about that.”

A small point, but that’s not what is stated in the letter. The letter states, in part, “the challenge of selecting a class of 400 from the more than 7400 applications…”

I think that Pomona’s yield rate is 40-50%, so they probably sent out offers to 800-1000 applicants and their admission rate is much higher than 6%.

born2dance94

@CountMounteCristo thanks for mentioning that. earlier in the thread i suggested that that may be the case but never found out the answer.

enlightenedespot

I had a 4.85, 2340 ACT, 35 ACT, 11 APs, cured AIDS, won the Nobel Prize in physics, 3rd in the nation in Siemens, won many distinguished skydiving competitions, did groundbreaking research on the inter-species mating habits of squirrels and sea crabs, and was rejected from College of Western Idaho Community College.

That was the only school I applied to, and now it is too late to apply anywhere else.
What do I do??

laplatinum

I asked my son about your situation since his GPA was not as high as yours but his ACTs were between 33 and 36, depending on the subtest. One strategy we discussed was making sure he was clear on exactly what the culture of the school was, and in any Supplemental Application, he made certain to address their particular focus. For example, if you applied to a Jesuit university like Santa Clara, there should have been something in your answers somewhere that addressed your fit with the mission. This does not mean you have to be Catholic, but you should understand the social justice focus is common to all Jesuit universities. The second was to make sure he applied to enough safety schools--real safety schools--to make sure he had some back ups he could live with. The third strategy was making sure he actually had visited the schools and made personal contact with actual students and admissions people. (He did that over a two year period beginning in summer after sophomore year.) My concern from reading several of the postings is the seeming lack of counseling you have regarding what are reach, target, and safety schools for you all. I also wonder if there is conversation about not just shooting for highly selective schools only. There are so many wonderful schools who would go crazy to have someone with your profile and who might provide generous scholarships if you were a fit. (LMU is one example. They really want quality stats, but the fit with the Jesuit mission is huge. You only have to look at their supplemental app essays to understand that.) I think the highly insane number of students applying to each university tells us all it's a dog eat dog world and not likely to change any time soon. Keep your chin up. Tomorrow's Golden Bear Day and Ivy Day and Purple Cow Day (Williams!).

collegefailureha

lol yes i did but i was really hoping i wouldn't have to use my safeties.... ya feel me? haha and i more of a care free kinda kid so it's disappointing but i don't get hung up over things like this....i even went out and bought some mega millions tickets so in case all my colleges fall through i can win 500 mil on friday and not go anywhere!

collegefailureha

hahahahaha whoever this is is a genius....made me laugh super hard

mandypandy

My friend knows a guy who got accepted to Oxford University (yes, the one in England), but was rejected at the University of Washington at Seattle...and he lives in Washington. I don't get it...

alyssaz

when you said that they "accepted" 400 out of 7200, that actually means that they have 400 spots out of 7200. Most colleges will accept more because not everyone decides to attend so that college may accept about 800-900 applicants. However there are only 400 spots. Not every single person would reply back wanting to go in, hence they get their estimated 400 people.

hunter17

I apologize if my understanding of the letter was wrong. But considering that there average SAT score is in the 2200s, it makes sense why so many qualified people would get rejected from there. My main problem is getting rejected from schools that are accepting people with much lower stats than me and no other outstanding factors that would put them above me or other similar applicants.
I tried to make personal contact with admissions officers and coaches from all the schools I applied to, but I didn't get in all the interviews and tours that I should have. It's definitely a good strategy to raise the odds of getting in. But then again, I stayed overnight at Harvey Mudd, met professors, and spent several hours with the cross country coach and team, but it didn't help me much. So I guess it's pretty hit and miss.

born2dance94

sorry, this situation must stink for you. just cross your fingers that the next few days will yield better results. good luck. hope all turns out well.

hunter17

It's fine, I'll survive. I do like SLO, and they have pretty good programming. I'm mostly curious about their admissions process. I'd really like to be able to tell some of my younger friends what they need to get through it. But getting accepted to UC Berkeley and/or Claremont Mckenna would be nice, too.