First off, condolences on your loss. Hugs to you and your family! Very rough timing when you are already feeling low.
Lots of students actually CHOOSE Case over more prestigious schools because of their pre med supports and programs. The point being made wasn’t that it’s a place for “ivy rejects” but that you will find plenty of other high achieving peers at Case.
We lived in OH for many years and know many Case grads. One of the smartest young women I know went to Case for undergrad (she followed the scholarship money there) and then went on to get her graduate degree at Columbia. Another works for a FAANG company out west and had her choice of jobs out of school. Too many pre-meds to mention that are all in med school now.
Case has a BA/MD program which artificially inflates the number of Case undergrads attending the associated med school. But these are a result of a specialized undergrad admission process and not a result of the med school expressing a preference for its own undergrads.
The med school’s admission policy and internal document do not show any stated preference for accepting CWRU undergrad into the med school.
CWRU SOM has a relatively large class size: 170 MD students plus another 10 MD/PhD students and 32 additional students in the Lerner-Cleveland Clinic SOM (which is actually part of CWRU’s medical school).
One of my best friends in the world is a professor at CWRU, and my daughter-in-law attended there (and is now in a HYPSM graduate school).
I want to address the “surrounded by ivy rejects” concern. There will be some kind of chip-on-shoulder at every college. I went to MIT and there were people looking over their shoulder at Harvard. My son went to Princeton and there were people wondering why they didn’t get into Yale.
Ideally, love where you go, would be my main advice. I’m so glad you made this thread so you can be reassured.
I get you are hurting. Rejection stings. And your personal loss adds to it I’m sure. If you need to take a day or two to regroup and adjust your mindset that is fine. But in short order I’d suggest you take a deep breath, pick yourself up, and choose from the excellent affordable options you have in hand.
If Case is your top choice then go all in. If you decide to explore other acceptances, you can do that as well. Just start moving forward in a positive manner.
Your accomplishments have earned you merit scholarships that make a 4 year education at a number of excellent private colleges affordable. That is something to be proud of. Many people would love to be in your position right now.
Your college experience will be what YOU make of it. Wherever you end up, work to create friendships, get involved on campus, develop relationships with professors, etc. and you should be great.
I am sorry for the loss in your family and am wishing you peace and comfort during this time.
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I love hearing this; it is a fabulous attitude to have.
Guess what, you can do this at just about any 4-year college in the U.S. no matter what its admission rate. I could have graduated from college in two years due to the amount of AP and college credits I had taken in high school, but I chose to stay for four. Why? I loved college and taking a variety of classes in fields I had never had the chance to explore and just delving into all the wonderful things that makes college so special. And this was at a state flagship that accepts most applicants. Every acceptance you have is at a great school with interesting courses, dedicated professors, engaged students, and an abundance of opportunities to learn more, inside and outside the classroom. The attitude that you bring to the school will determine whether you have a wonderful time learning and indulging in what you love or whether you’re going to feel resentful and suspicious that your experience would have been better at a more rejective college.
Thank you for your honesty. I think it’s important for forum members to understand how some comments come across to students.
That said, I suspect that some of your current feelings are clouding your memory. Whenever high school students come on the board and express interest in med school or law school, they will almost always have multiple posters discussing how important it is to budget for 7 or 8 years and to save money on college because med/law school is expensive and people with strong standardized test scores and GPAs will be accepted to those grad schools whether they come from a Top X college or at a college that accepts most students and will cost far less. And all of this is before any applications are submitted, much less after students get their admission results.
Additionally, most posters will emphasize the importance of “fit” for a student. There are many examples of individuals who had acceptances to highly rejective colleges who chose to go elsewhere where they thought there was a better fit.
Moreover, someone has posted a study showing that 80% of college graduates were happy with their education or thought they had gone to the best school for them, or some highly positive end result. 80% of people did not attend an Ivy/highly-rejective college. Even people who sadly sent in their enrollment deposits end up having their emotions turn around and look back at their time in college very positively, if they open themselves to it.
If you walk into Case, or whichever college you choose, with an open mind and a willing heart, I strongly suspect that you will have a wonderful time in college.
I am actually in the exact same boat as you. Rejected/Waitlisted at 16 schools and I’m probably going to case at this point. It’s practically a meme that case western students never chose case as their first choice. Hopefully we’ll meet in the fall and we can stew in our bitterness together with other case students, lol
Lol, haha. Hopefully I won’t be bitter then. I do have a lot going for me at the end of the day. Im thin, healthy, tall, parents can pay, and I have a good mind when stuff like this doesn’t come up. All I need is a nice tan and a vacation.
I know a kid who was called “Einstein” in his high school and wanted to do pre-med. He only applied TWO schools, Harvard and Pitt, both are good for pre-med. He was deferred and then rejected by Harvard, so he went to Pitt. After graduation, he was accepted into Pitt medical school right away. I also know a kid graduated from Harvard but rejected by Pitt medical school.
Case is also surrounded by excellent hospitals and research institutions, similar to Pitt. So, Case is really a great choice if you plan to do pre-med.
PPSP? I didn’t get in. They only take 30 applicants its like 1%
I wasn’t responding to you.
I was responding to the poster who said that med school preferentially accept students who attend the undergrad associated with a med school. The data doesn’t back that up
Carnegie Mellon is ranked as high, or higher, than MIT in Computer Science undergraduate programs. Yet at least half of their incoming class every year is there because they were rejected by MIT.
Some applicants look at rankings, but even more apply to the places that they have heard about from peers. For many people, they are basing their opinions on reputations that were determined 30, 40, and 50 years ago. CWRU, like CMU, really only emerged in its present form in the late 1960s, after today’s Big Name Colleges had already become household names among families of college-bound kids.
The reason that places like CMU and CWRU are “second choice” for so many students has nothing to with the quality of education, faculty, or students. It is because they haven’t yet made their way into popular culture, and, as a result, have not yet become the sort of college which becomes a “dream college”. The first time that many highly accomplished applicants hear of these colleges is when they start making their college lists. These colleges are usually added on to the list based on advice from a more savvy GC, family member, or, say, a member of College Confidential community.
Thank you. I think its really easy to feel disillusioned and have a lack of trust in forum members here when people bring up stories on “choosing the cheaper school” or “getting opportunities everywhere” and “any school is what you make of it” but yet when someone has to chose between a “T10” school and one like case, the former is suggested more by a landslide without any mention of cost or fit. And as I said before, if school choice doesn’t mean anything without effort and admissions are random after a certain point, then why is it seen as such a big accomplishment and a ticket to a golden life when you get into such a school.
I talked about it today, and came to the conclusion that there is definitely some ego at play. But I also feel like something’s wrong with me. That I was handed a good set of cards (parents can pay, healthy, smart, driven) and i screwed it all up. People with lower gpas and test scores from my school were admitted, so its easy to feel like there must have been something wrong, since same school and demographics.
Combine all that, and its easy to feel like an inferior student and person.
All students like myself want here is honesty and advice on how to get the farthest, whether it be admissions or life. Its hard with all the mixed signaling on what getting into a “good school” actually means in the grande scheme of things: or what a “good school” even is.
Harvard or Hofstra - in the end, it will come down to you.
There is certainly no shortage of opportunities at any of the five schools you mentioned. Not sure why you chose Case amongst them - but it’s a great school as all are - and all will produce successes and all will produce non-successes - the same as Stanford.
It’s up to you which side you’ll be on!!
Case is a great school and as a bonus, it’s surrounded by great activities in a cool city. And you’ll be surrounded by really smart and creative people - moreso than other schools in many way, given the type of student it attracts.
And yes, you should be celebrated with Case. By your logic, 99.9% of kids in America get no celebration - and it’s just not true. I was in Scranton, PA in fact - and a family bought a billboard celebrating their kids acceptance and decision to attend - Hofstra.
Case, Lehigh, Providence - the others - awesome gets. Big congrats.
Now go crush it!!!
PS - reading your next comment - you say this:
explaining what a “Case Western” is.
Try explaining that a U Penn isn’t Penn State or what a Williams is or a Rice or Pomona or Carleton or Tufts or Washington & Lee or Welseyan or Colby is…or a Wash U in St. Louis - they had to add the city. Lots of schools suffer name recognition amongst the masses. Not Alabama or Florida or Georgia, etc. That’s a sports thing…trust me, you did well.
I guess this makes sense. Going to CWRU doesn’t make me less intelligent or driven than someone that goes to MIT. Its just a little disheartening to see people get celebrated and borderline worshipped for getting into MIT while getting into CWRU basically means nothing: no praise, no congratulations (unless I mention it as I did in my post), no nothing. My entire graduation party is gonna be explaining what a “Case Western” is and what ever happened to Cornell. Its easy to say “don’t care about what others think” but im just a kid at the end of the day and all I wanted was to feel like my years of hard work was recognized by someone and seen as worthwhile. And what about getting a job? Sure the name on your degree isn’t everything but its something. Im not entitled to being admitted to one school or other, but surely some recognition or praise is nice, especially when people here tell you how its “such a big achievement” but never act like it is unless people like me point it out
You have some previous long threads that included extensive discussion of your struggle with the idea of attending a non-elite school, including your state schools.
Do you think your feelings about this have improved at all since you started posting here?
Case is a fantastic school and it’s not easy to be admitted there. While your community might not be so familiar with it, I grew up in the western US and had heard of it favorably long ago as a teenager. A lot of kids from our local HS apply there and not many get in. The ones that do usually attend and love it.
If you are still struggling this much with the prestige problem, it might be good to explore this with someone who can talk to you about making sure that you develop a strong sense of self and can base your worth in things other than what you achieve academically.
