Waitlisted, 3.7 UW GPA, 4.2 W GPA, didn’t send in test scores, had OK ECs and great LOCs, showed little interest though and the test score thing didn’t help me much. Won’t take my spot on the waitlist, in fact, I am shocked I wasn’t rejected tbh, Good luck everyone!!!
Wait do the students that got accepted into the spring of 2018 get no aid all four years at AU?
Just curious, what is yield protection?
@cloudysmom a college’s yield rate is the amount of students who are offered acceptances that accept choose to accept versus choosing another college on May 1st. Yield protection is the idea that a college would want most people they offer acceptances to accept so that the school looks good.
It is evident American uses yield protection. I got in with a 1210 SAT scores, 3.1 unweighted, 3.7 weighted. Showed absolutely no interest. Will probably not attend because I got no scholarship money
@sossenior Thank you!
Me neither! And I cannot help but feel guilty knowing I probably won’t be able to attend, and all these overqualied waitlisters who really wanted to attend will no longer be able to even consider as they won’t get any merit based money.
I got waitlisted with a 4.3 gpa on a 4.0 scale, a 34 ACT and 11 AP courses, and good extracurriculars. Im really shocked. I thought i was in competition for the honors college. Congrats to everyone who got in. It seems like the admissions group waitlisted a lot of overqualified applicants hoping that they could weed out the uninterested ones and take the interested ones. The problem with this is that the kids with exceptional test scores are getting decent merit money at other comparable schools and are likely to not go to a school that waitlisted them. They probably won’t get merit money from American (since they’re coming off the waitlist) and will go to the schools that gave them money. american just shot themselves in the foot by waitlisting kids that have plenty of other comparable options and the test scores to get money elsewhere. They sacrificed a drop in their accepted students’ test scores to raise their admit yield without recognizing the consequences of turning away some really good students. Bad move.
I was waitlisted with a 3.8 unweighted gpa, 4.0 weighted. Lots of ecs and community service. Did not submit test scores. Essay was good, writing is one of my strong suits. Really thought I could get in, but demonstrated little interest. Congrats to everyone who was accepted! I wish you the best of luck in your college search!
Waitlisted as well - 4.1 gpa, 33 ACT, 1460 SAT. Congrats to those accepted and good luck to everyone waitlisted!
Another thing I want to add is that having safety schools is a must in building our college lists. We are told to choose the safety schools that we like, that we can see ourselves happy there, and that we will be challenged academically and all around. If we were waitlisted for having American as a safety school, I don’t see a point in telling kids to have a safety school at all. Plus, not all who have good records stand a chance in getting into ‘at least’ one ivies. I’m not trying to look down on American or others but ivy admissions is especially something not a single excellent test score can guarantee. When those kids got rejected from all match and reach schools, And also waitlisted from safeties for having too high records for them, where are these kids gonna go? Even if you get lucky among these overqualified pool and get off the waitlist, most cannot attend the school because they can’t afford it, waitlists get no merit money. I know American does holistic review of the application so it is not fair to say anyone who had much higher scores than American’s average and still got rejected must be the victim of yield protection. However, as someone who did have American as safety, showed lots of interests in the school, and have no any solid option for the next year so far, the idea that having too high scores for American might have got me waitlisted makes me so helpless. I just want this crazy college admissions game to end.
Did anyone here not get a decision yet?! The portal says nothing!
Wait listed as well, 4.5 weighted GPA, 34 ACT, National Merit scholar, lots of volunteer hours, part time job, lot’s of activities and a few leadership positions as well as a foreign exchange trip.
My recommendations were good, my essays might have been a little cheesy (aren’t everyone’s), but they were still good, and certainly didn’t have anything that would be a red flag to an admissions officer. I don’t want to claim that I should have gotten in, there could be another reason, but if this has happened to other people they might be turning some people down because they don’t think we’ll come. I have friends from my high school who got in with much weaker stats and fewer activities, though their essays could have been better I didn’t read them.
I don’t know if they’re waitlisting some of their top applicants, but if they are, it’s an awful thing to do, they’re punishing hard work. American was actually one of my top choices, even if it wasn’t one of the higher ranked schools I applied to, and I was hoping to be a candidate for honors. Maybe they aren’t truly need blind as they say (I would need a significant scholarship to be able to go, but not to the degree of getting need based aid, so merit aid was going to be my ticket in). I doubt they’ll give any merit aid to people from the waitlist, so that pretty much ruins my chances of going there.
Reading this thread makes me feel better about getting waitlisted… wasn’t too sure that I buy into the “overqualified” conspiracy but it seems like lots of amazing candidates were put on the waitlist.
Wait listed here as well. 3.73/4.00 GPA, 32 ACT, 1430 SAT with 800s on SAT IIs, great ECs and Rec letters with pretty good essays I thought. Visited campus twice and actually sat in on a class one of the visits. I also didn’t need any aid, but they say they are need blind. I was really interested in AU but I guess they don’t take demonstrated interest as seriously as they say. I have friends that got in with lower stats and it sucks when you actually wanted to go but didnt get in for yield protection (I believe). It makes having safety schools useless and puts those of us who cant quite get into ivies in a bad situation. On top of that, the way American rolled out decisions was truly shameful, from the buggy portal to emailing things out when they said it would be over mail. On the whole, this left a bad taste in my mouth about American. Lets hope GW doesn’t pull something like this…
So for the high stats people who did not get in for for Fall 2017, as a parent and former academic I agree wtih you that it is an unfair and rather irrational strategy. If I were you, i would write directly to the admissions office with my thoughts on the matter, including all the reasons (delineated in this thread) why it is a bad policy. For the last 3-4 years AU has been eliminating the highest stats people – that pattern is entirely clear from the RD results threads. I warned my son that he could be waitlisted at AU for just this reason, but I guess his subpar grades freshman year of HS were his saving grace. I don’t have any direct evidence for this, but I suspect you may be given the opportunity to appeal your status if you write a cogent and compelling letter.
17,000 applicants and you’re going to draw significant conclusions from the <1% here on College Confidential? College Confidential is like reviews on a consumer product website: those who had a bad experience are more likely to post. It does make for a nice echo chamber, though.
I was waitlisted too…
I applied for international studies and thought I was a good candidate. Moved to the US this summer. I have lived in 3 different countries, and speak fluently 4 languages ( Russian, Spanish, English and French). I applied test optional and managed to get a 4.0 UW gpa and 4.53 W gpa. I have ECs that include clubs and fencing. In France I had a moyenne of 14.5/20 (I was number 1 in my class, the grading system is different).
AU was in my top 3 college choices… I was very sad to be waitlisted. I never had the chance to visit AU because I just did not have the money or the car to go there on my own and my parents told me that it is stupid to visit a university before you are accepted.
@KHRUNF Sounds to me you have better schools to go to then.
To all those who have high stats and were waitlisted:
If you have not been admitted to another school that you would like to attend equally to or more so than American, and would attend American if they let you off the waitlist:
- Email the admissions folks and tell them that you really want to go and definitely will do so if they admit you.
- Maybe have your guidance counselor contact them and tell them the same thing.
Might as well try: nothing ventured, nothing gained! And there are stories on CC all the time about successful lobbying off a waitlist.
If, however, you got in somewhere else you are equally happy to attend, laugh it off, celebrate your other successful admission, and move on with your life.
(I especially admire the people who were respectful of other applicants who got into American with possibly lower stats than they did, by acknowledging that a holistic practice may mean that those applicants have other attributes that made them strong candidates. It is thoughtless to state that you should have gotten in and someone else should not have gotten in based on their own merits. What do you know about their merits?)