<p>powerfuldog:</p>
<p>I hate to say it, but based on the writing style, quality of thought, knowledge base, and maturity reflected in your post, no one made a mistake in rejecting you. If you want to know what went wrong with your applications to HYP, you can start with wondering whether even a drop of any of your attitude leaked out. I don’t care what other accomplishments were on your resume, the things you put here are practically disqualifying.</p>
<p>Lucky for you, you have been accepted to four fabulous, world-class universities. Not that you deserve it; you don’t. What exultationsy said about Penn is completely true about all four of them: there is nowhere you can get to from Harvard that you can’t get to from Penn, Dartmouth, Cornell, or Brown. (Case in point: among my son’s HS class of 2007 friends, the one with the six-figure financial industry job is someone who turned down Stanford and Columbia to go to Brown. And majored in Sociology. Yes, the networking and what he did outside of class was far more important than anything else.)</p>
<p>You seem to have the impression that none of those colleges gives you half of what Harvard or Yale would have. In fact, every one of them offers 95%-plus of Harvard or Yale. Harvard might offer you 2,347,492 opportunities, of which you might have the time, inclination, and skill to pursue 3 or 4. Any of Penn, etc., could offer you 2,196,558 similar opportunities, of which you might have the time, inclination, and skill to pursue 3 or 4. What is going to hold you back there is the same thing that would have surely held you back at Harvard: your own ignorance, whininess, negativity, and inflated ego.</p>