There’s this guy at my school, white, who is hella good at rowing (like sub 6:30 good). I’ so frustrated because he and I are applying REA to the same school, and we both have 4.0 GPA and he got 1500 on PSAT and 1590 on SAT, where I only had 1530 on the sat.
I do have a compelling and very unusual extracurricular focused in two specific academic areas (so not random leadership positions), but I think colleges will definitely prioritize recruiting.
My school is like a top school in the nation, everyone there is rich (medium income 200k+) and has legacies at HYPS, whereas I am an immigrant from Korea who moved there five years ago, so basically no connections at all.
So the question is: Should I consider switching my early school?
You’re not competing with him. You’re competing with the rest of the country. Every school wants a balanced freshman class. It’s entirely possible that your number one school will accept both-- or either one of you.
Say for instance you and he are applying to Harvard. You are competing against the 40K other applicants for the ~1460 spots not reserved for athletes. He however, is competing against the 1 or 2 other people competing for an admissions spot based on his sport and position. It’s a different pool.
If you get rejected, the reason will not be because he was admitted. Good luck.
Focus on yourself and what you need to do and not what others are doing. Talk to your counselors. Stop comparing and sharing tests scores also. This will just make things worse for senior year. Concentrate on what makes you unique not him. Congratulate him on his times if you know him. There is always someone that will be smarter or not. Someone that will get into the college you want or not etc. This is life. Control what you can control not what you can’t.
The most important question - is he being recruited as a rower? If he is, then don’t worry about him. It is actually to your advantage if he is a recruited athlete, because he WON’T be competing against you.
If he is NOT being recruited for some reason, then yes he is competing against you, but that is true of anyone else with better stats. Being a top rower might make him more interesting, but it might not - particularly if this college has a stellar rowing team, yet he isn’t being recruited (you can read several threads here about students who were told the coach wouldn’t be “supporting” their applications, because they didn’t “need” the support. That just means another prospect was more important to them, and they can only officially support so many applicants.
Think about how you would feel about someone similar to him from another school. Would that make you reconsider your REA choice? If not, then keep your choice. If it would, then consider whether this school is really your first choice anyway. There is no disadvantage to applying REA, except that you can’t apply elsewhere EA (based on their specific restrictions, obviously) REA is about allowing you the opportunity to signal that one school is your first choice, any advantage you might gain (I don’t honestly think anyone really gains an advantage) is balanced by waiting to apply elsewhere.
A few comments:
–Worry about things in your control, not things outside of your control.
–Your only focus should be on making your application as strong as it can be.
–You are competing for a spot with way more people than the one applying from your HS. Do not change your application based on someone else’s decision.
–Very few people have legacies/hooks. Stop feeling disadvantaged because you are like most other applicants.
–Be grateful that you are attending a top HS – take advantage of your guidance officer’s advice.
–There are no quotas by HS so your applications will each be reviewed on their own merits.
– If he is a recruited athlete, his application will basically be put into a different pile than yours. If he is not a recruited athlete then the crew will count as a good EC – nothing more and nothing less.