Dealing With "Unfair" College Rejection - UCLA

HRSMom
Sat, 25 Mar 2017 15:47:49 +0000

Objectively, using only objective measures, you win. But objective measures are only one of 3 things they look at.

To get ahead in life, you need to show that you are objectively qualified. You also need to show that you communicate well. And you need to show that you can work in a team, and sometimes lead a team. Obviously, there are other things that are important too: you must present as pleasant, look the part and seem eager to learn and do the job at hand.

So on objective scoring: you win.
Communication is you essay and what teachers say: ?
Teamwork/leadership: ECs and teacher recs ?
Presenation/eagerness: teacher recs/ GC recs. ?

So you don’t really have enough info to know if you were more qualified than your classmate. That is what “holistic” means. Most people assume the objective standard is the most important. It is in order to be considered (a cutoff is used even if they say not). After that, all the factors are equal, or not, depending of what the school is trying to acheive. Maybe she got a boost for being a girl in STEM? Or maybe you got a little boost for being a boy in Humanities (just an example). Who knows.

Likely she is a very personable kids that shows a lot of great qualities that make her shine through essays, ECs and recs.

You have great choices. Do yourself a favor and swallow the disappointment and move on. This is just the first of many times you will feel this way in your life. You can’t get upset every time it happens! Good luck!

PS: if you get into Stanford and don’t “deserve it”, will you decline? Of couse not! You’d be a fool to. If you are accepted, it just means thet saw something in you that UCLA either didn’t, or was not looking for.