Third college decision rolled in today. The first was a rejection from MIT. The second, another rejection, this time from UCLA. The third, was a waitlisting from Vanderbilt, the college that I thought was realistic and academically sound. What did I do wrong? I have more decisions coming in of course, but how did I screw up? My stats are good. My essays are nearly perfect.
Class Rank: 1/~120
Total GPA (9-12) Weighted: 4.1818
Total GPA (9-12) Unweighted: 4.0
ACT: 34(superscore), 33 composite
SAT: not taken
SAT II’s:
Math II: 750
Chemistry: 700
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Other:
-National Tech Support Champion
-2nd in State in FBLA event
-Started my own sole proprietorship
Leadership:
President and Founder of Engineering club
FBLA Treasurer
Student Class Officer : Treasurer
Student Council : VP
Science Club : President
Webmaster at Car Dealership since I was 15
I applied to the engineering schools
Other schools I applied to:
-Berkeley
-Johns Hopkins
-Yale
-Stanford
-U Michigan Ann Arbor
The looming issue is the fact that I wasn’t able to take physics. My school had scheduling issues and I missed out. I’ve notified colleges of this, but I’m worried it will put me behind in the running for admission.
What do you think my chances are? Will I need to default to my state school?
Only three decisions came out so far – no need to rethink your entire life, but remain hopeful.
With your stats, you should be able to get into some top schools or match schools with generous financial aid. Keep us posted with the decisions in the next two weeks.
You need a safety school. I am sure you are smart enough to realize that all of the schools you listed are extremely selective. The VAST majority of applicants do not receive an acceptance.
Did you apply to business/economics? I think of MIT, Stanford, and Vanderbilt as engineering schools and see your ECs as highlighting business. Are you applying to Haas Berkeley?
Engineering is probably the hardest program to get into at any school I wouldn’t be discouraged. Maybe it might have helped to ED somewhere but it’s to late now and I wouldn’t regret it. Chances are, you’ll get in somewhere on that list even though those are all really hard schools because I don’t really see anything wrong with your stats except your weighted GPA maybe could be higher if your school offers more accelerated/AP classes. But you have great ECs and a perfect GPA so I don’t see anything for colleges to tear you apart on. If for some odd reason you don’t get in anywhere besides your state’s school you could always attempt to transfer next year with a strong college GPA if your not happy. I wouldn’t worry about chances though it’s not worth stressing about because soon you’ll find a place you’ll get into. Good luck
Thank you for your kind words Heisenberg. I agree on the GPA problem you brought up. The problem is that my school offers very few, and I have taken or am taking all but one of them. However, the looming issue that I forgot to mention in my post is the fact that I haven’t taken physics. I sent extra information to each college about how I wasn’t able to because of the stellar (sarcasm) scheduling at my high school.
I’m sure that U of Arkansas has a respectable Engineering school. The OP undoubtedly realizes that he or she should have included more “matches,” instead of only applying to highly-selective schools along with the safeties. Most aspiring engineers would have included Purdue, Pitt, Temple, Texas A & M, RPI, WPI, Northeastern, et al.
See, here’s the thing about the school having a scheduling conflict. These schools will see kids who were in the same position regarding small school scheduling challenges. The difference will be that some of those kids chose to self study rather than just say, “oh well, I guess I just missed out.” I just don’t see top schools giving you a pass on that as a potential engineering student. School isn’t the only way to learn. They’ll take the kids who made their own educational opportunities because they were hungry for them.
I’m sorry if I’m coming across as harsh. It’s just that you sounded so flippant about it and seem really eager to blame your school.
You obviously did well in your school and showed amazing initiative and entrepreneurship outside of school. Maybe one of the other schools will see and value that. If they don’t, remember that you are in charge of your destiny, not your school. This is especially true in computer schtuffs. So even if you end up at your state school, as long as you don’t limit yourself to what other people are there to teach you, you’ll be fine. Actually, I have a feeling you’ll be more than fine.
Good luck this week!
Edit: To answer your question, no, you don’t suck at life.
Thank you neatoburrito. I agree completely with you and I don’t think you came across as harsh. My philosophy on life is based on the ‘create your own destiny’ ideal. My essays were all based around that and my want to learn outside of the classroom. I didn’t mean to come across as blaming my school in my post, I was attempting to be concise for the sake of my post. Here is what I sent to the colleges:
“The school I come from is a working class school. I desire for vertical mobility to overcome this. However, I wasn’t in the school when they decided who was GT(Gifted and Talented). Because of this, when Icame back I wasn’t put on a track for success. This is exemplified by the track I was put on in High School. After my freshman year, I was ready for a challenge. My counselor during that time was Mrs. REDACTED . When I went to build my schedule, I asked for more of a challenge. I tried to sign up for an AP class because my classes were too easy. I had decided on one I wanted to take and during the conference, she told me “Honey, you just can’t handle that.”. She refused to allow me to take it. The next year, when building my schedule for my Junior year, I had a different counselor who advised me to take physics because I wanted to be an Engineer. When we were building the schedules, she wasn’t there. It was only Mrs REDACTED who promptly told me that I had to take Chemistry. Now, I am applying to be an Engineer without Physics. It is a bad situation. One may ask why I didn’t take it this year. I need to prepare myself for a rigorous college experience. I took the most advanced classes that I had interest in. I filled my schedule with all AP courses, save for EAST which has given me a challenge above what AP could ever do. I decided to self study physics and prepare myself for Engineering. Please keep this in mind when you review my application. I would gladly comply with stipulations to prove my ability.”
