I applied to Princeton at the regular decision deadline and withdrew my application about a week later due to pressure from my family and guidance counselor to attend a school I had already been admitted to early action. I have been feeling regret about this for some time, and decided I wanted to reactivate my application. I contacted the undergraduate office of admissions today and they confirmed that my application had been reactivated. What impact do you think this will have on my admissions decision?
Looking over your post history, you indicated that you were accepted EA to UChicago (congratulations) and then withdrew your RD applications to Yale and Princeton.
When you reactived your RD applications to Yale and Princeton, did you tell Yale Admissions and Princeton Admissions that you had been accepted to UChicago Early Action?
No, as they did not ask. When I contacted admissions reps at both schools, they acted as if it were not too out of the ordinary for students to reactivate applications, and didn’t inquire as to the specific circumstances. I did, however, talk to Chicago about the consequences of reactivating other applications, as I had spoken to the admissions rep for my region at the time of applying EA and indicated it was my first choice during that conversation. They told me they had no concerns about my doing so.
I called to reactivate at both Princeton and Yale yesterday (March 7). I had called to check in with Chicago about a week prior to that, and after that conversation was still debating whether or not I should actually reactivate, due to fears about how the late date would affect my application, my parents and guidance counselor’s concerns, etc. I decided yesterday that I didn’t really have that much to lose, other than disappointment at not getting in, of course.
UChicago, Yale and Princeton all have Early Action (EA), which means that students admitted in the early round do NOT have to notify the school of their decision until May 1st. Therefore, IMHO your guidance counselor and parents made a huge mistake advising you to withdraw your applications to Princeton and Yale, but that’s already been done.
At this late date, I would NOT expect to be offered an interview at either Yale or Princeton as both Admissions Departments are in the midst of having meetings with their full committees and many decisions have already been made.
FWIW: Most Admissions Committees finish up around the 3rd week of March, as all accepted students who applied for financial aid need to have their financial aid packages calculated and sent along with the acceptance letter in the “fat envelope.” The process of calculating financial aid for RD applications takes about a week. So, you’ve only given Admissions Officers 2 weeks notice to act on your application. As such, unless your application is a “mind blower” I wouldn’t hold your breath, especially as Yale and Princeton will probably have less than a 4% acceptance rate in the RD round.
My guidance counselor/parents weren’t advising me based on the presumption that I was somehow bound to Chicago, but their strong feeling that Chicago is the best fit for me. This may be true, but I have been feeling that it was a mistake to decide prematurely based on “fit” without having the opportunity to reevaluate schools from the perspective of an admitted student. Of course, I understand now that my chances of admission are significantly lower than they would have been had I not withdrawn and resubmitted, but like you said, that’s already been done. So, to clarify, you are saying it would not be productive to email alumni school committee volunteers to see if interviews are possible at this late a date?
You can certainly try contact an alumni schools committee and get an interview, but as you only have about 2 weeks before all decisions are made, I don’t realistically see how you can be interviewed and an interview report submitted prior to the end of committee meetings.
I agree that acceptance is statistically unlikely and that the interview ship has probably already sailed, but I also believe that lack of an interview will be a non-factor in the admissions decision.
@wonderingwhatnot, the clarity of your writing tells me you’ll have a successful college career, wherever you end up. Best of luck to you.