Hello, I am a senior in California. I have pretty decent stats with a 3.8 weighted gpa/ and a 4.0 uc gpa, along with a 1520 SAT score and 33 ACT score. I have pretty solid ECs, including Tennis, Guitar, Clubs, and tutoring. I applied to 6 UCs, UCD, UCI, UCSD, UCSB, UCB, and UCLA. For out of state schools, I mainly applied to reaches, doing so because I wanted to stay inside California. I was rejected from my early decision application to University of Chicago, and also denied from schools such as Boston College, Northwestern, Notre Dame, and NYU. On top of that, I was denied from every single uc and the only csu I applied to, which was Cal Poly SLO.
Now my last hope is left with the few waitlists I have: Cal Poly SLO, UCSB, UCI, and Lehigh University.
Do you think it was a mistake not to apply to easier schools? What are my chances of getting off the waitlist for these schools? I am about to submit appeals to all of my waitlists, but I know that has little to no impact on my application. Im extremely anxious right now, and immensely confused that people with stats far lower than mine are going to schools I was denied from. Is my only option now community college? Im just praying now to get off of one waitlist, but I don’t think its likely because of the low acceptance rates paired with the poor grades I have during my current semester (senioritis).
Well, obviously there is a concern or concerns about something in your application. Essays & teacher recs are the first place to look (assuming that there are no disciplinary/arrest/conviction issues).
Northwestern, Chicago, Notre Dame, Berkeley & UCLA are understandable for anyone to be denied. But a 1520 SAT & 33 ACT plus a solid GPA makes the other decisions worthy of further investigation.
If you PM an essay to me, I will offer a brief critique.
I would definitely express interest in the three California schools that you are waitlisted for. Hopefully you will get into one of them.
If you had asked six months ago I would have thought that UCB and UCLA were very unlikely, but I am surprised that you have not been accepted to UCSB or UCI. Good luck with these. Try to pull up your grades for the rest of this semester – this is likely to help down the road.
Your list included no safeties, and it looks like all of your UC campuses were high match or reach. Also, if you applied for CS or engineering as your desired major, they probably we’re all reaches.
Starting at community college is a common route in California, so you may want to register at one and sign up for classes as soon as possible to get the first choice. Use http://www.assist.org to help choose courses for your target major and UC and CSU campuses.
I’m assuming that for someone like you, based on ur stats, Community college doesn’t sound too appealing. maybe a gap year? That might help. I know some privates allow for appeals on denials, so you could try that.
Also there are some 4 year universities that are still accepting applications, that way you can kill the game there and then transfer to another school.
Your counselor should be able to tell you the benchmark GPA for ELC at your high school, which you can compare with your GPA (UC weighted capped GPAs).
What were your clubs? If you had no leadership roles, then those are not strong ECs. You have people who are Intel winners and people who are presidents of multiple clubs applying to the schools you listed. You applied to no safeties. So, yes, I think it was a mistake, but it is not the end. I agree with the other posters in that going to a CC, and then transferring would be the best option.
I look at your situation and on the forefront the scores the schools applied and the senioritis are/were fairly similar to my kid’s. And he got rejected / waitlisted to a lot of those same places. He actually was willing to go to community college and retry again if he hadn’t gotten into his top choices.
Some questions for you. 1) did you have any ECs with leadership? ie officer in a couple of clubs 2) Did you have any hooks that you would have expressed in your ECs or essays? not that that matters much at this point.
are you willing to go to places like Arizona or Utah? Both have late deadlines.
I’m sorry you find yourself in this situation. You have good stats, so, with nothing to go on but a hunch, I suspect your essay or your teacher recs were not what you expected them to be. Could also be that your unweighted GPA was a little low. I also don’t see any safeties. Read this, as you might recognize something that could help you figure out what might have happened: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/2067880-why-you-didnt-get-in-p1.html
I do not agree with post #2. In your shoes, I would take a gap year and try again next year, but with a more balanced list. You should consider schools that will offer you merit aid. Look at some LACs, maybe the South, PNW or Midwest.
The NACAC list on May 1 will have all the colleges that still have places available for this fall, but who have miscalculated yield for whatever reason, or maybe have built new dorms, etc…
I suspect you can get off a waitlist at one of the UCs. Email them, tell one of them they are your top choice and you will attend if accepted. You can also try that for Lehigh, but there won’t be any financial aid at that point, most likely. Good luck.
I definitely wouldn’t write out California community college, my time there has been amazing (and much better than my CSU!). I’m in classes with people who had higher GPAs than yours and they’re challenged here too.
I look at your situation and on the forefront the scores and the schools applied to were fairly similar to my kid’s. And he got rejected / waitlisted to a lot of those same places. He actually was willing to go to community college and retry again if he hadn’t gotten into his top choices.
Some questions for you. 1) are you in the top 10% of your class as far as class ranking? Not sure how true this is, but the top UCs take this heavily into consideration supposedly. 2) did you have any ECs with leadership? ie officer in a couple of clubs 3). Did you have any hooks that you would have expressed in your ECs or essays?
Unbelievable that people are saying that some of those UC schools are high matches for you. I would take every waitlist offer, and you’re bound to get at least one. I’d also contact an admissions officer and ask about any potential major flaws or mistakes in your application. It’s absolutely absurd that people think you aren’t good enough for those schools with a 1520 on your SAT and a 4.0. Definitely take every waitlist tho, and good luck with what happens next