<p>My son just received a rejection from Bucknell. This after receiving disappointing rejections earlier from UNC-Chapel Hill, UVA. We are surprised, as he’s got a 4.5 weighted GPA in full IB program, 1920 SAT, good ec’s, captain HS soccer team, school recycling chair, chorus, and good essays. We at least thought he’d get waitlisted at some of these school. Do you think there might be a problem with his application? Will schools ever walk you through why you were rejected? He was admitted early action to University of Michigan before any of the rejections.</p>
<p>What is your home state. UVA and UNC are harder for OOS. Did your son apply to a major that would perhaps need higher SAT scores. What is the breakdown of the SAT scores?
That’s all I can think of, other than recommendations/counselor updates.
Yes, personal statement is another subjective stuff. Sorry to hear this…hope it works out for you.</p>
<p>likely it is the SAT Score. There are more than a few applicants to the schools you mention that are being rejected with 2200 SATs or higher. Anyway, UMich would be my first choice of all the schools you cited.</p>
<p>Thanks for response. Yes, he’s from Maryland and in an area where a lot of kids apply to these same schools. Probably would have helped if SAT score higher but figured he had a shot … and am just surprised he did not get a deferral from at least one school.</p>
<p>To be honest, your son had a pretty small chance to get into UNC. They reserve about ~20% of the class for OOS students meaning that it is like getting into Cornell as an OOS applicant. UVA is also more competitive for OOS applicants although not as much as UNC. And yes, it would have helped if his SAT was higher. Would probably need to be about 2200 or higher to be competitive at UNC. </p>
<p>Congrats on Michigan though! Great option.</p>
<p>Michigan is a great school! The SAT score is likely to be the issue for the other schools’ responses, plus that they are all regional schools to MD and have their pick on who to take from there.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^</p>
<p>Hit the nail on the head…and, yeah, Michigan is a great school!!!</p>
<p>Well, the first thing is to be thankful that your son got into an Excellent school.</p>
<p>Bucknell is one of those schools that are tough to predict. I certainly think your son should have been a competitive candidate there. Probably just comes down to numbers.</p>
<p>Since he got into Michigan, I would think his common app was fine. However, when you come down to it, the reason people apply to many schools is that the process is really not predictable, right.</p>