<p>I didn’t think I’d take rejection so hard, but I honestly felt I would be accepted into two of my top five. I had a 2040, 3.8, attending top public hs, plenty of APs(4 credits), volunteering, work experiance and sports and felt I had strong essays, but I must have been too optimistic. Got into 3 safties(Pitt, Duquesne honors, Marquette honors) and 1 match (Case Western), but turned down by Bard, WLU and Swarthmore(my #1) and waitlisted at two other safties. Still waiting on Penn and William and Mary, but chances are slim now.
Anyone else feel a little shocked at rejections? Maybe I was too optimstic or not 'unique" enough, but this whole thing really got me down. I was prepared to be rejecte dby my 3 reaches, but not anyone else Anyone else feel disapointed by unfavourable decisions at safties/good fits?</p>
<p>Well, I have a 95/100 GPA, top 10%, a SAT1 of 2150, a SAT2 of 2400, ACT 33, and some 500 odd hours of volunteer work and ECs.</p>
<p>Rejected from Duke, Chicago, Stanford, MIT. Waitlisted at Grinnell, Colby and WUSTL. Waiting on Upenn, Princeton, Columbia. I thought id get into at least one. :(</p>
<p>But then, im international.</p>
<p>tiff - 2 years ago my son got waitlisted at Swat, his #1 choice, with better stats than yours. He was quite disappointed but looking at the numbers helped. Out of over 5000 applicants, they accepted about 900. 55% were minorities. Swat usually splits pretty evenly between males and females. So the bottom line is that less than 225 white males were accepted. Swats numbers are even tighter this year with only a 15% acceptance rate. The year he was waitlisted he knew of 2 others who were denied outright but accepted at MIT. </p>
<p>It is very hard to not take all of this personally, but the fact is, it isn’t. Each school only has so many slots. The fact that students apply to so many schools just makes the problem worse. And since the problem is worse, students apply to more schools so things have begun to spiral out of control. </p>
<p>You have some nice choices. Ultimately, you will can attend one of the schools to which you have been accepted and get an excellent college education and have a wonderful experience. Don’t get too tied up in the rankings. The schools that have accepted you have a lot going for them.</p>