Similar situation here: Asian female. 4.0 unweighted, (7 AP and 8 honors courses), SAT 1510, ACT 33, highly competitive and challenging public high school, ASB president, class officer, 3 years, FBLA President, competed at Nationals two years, state all four, several clubs, Music: voice, guitar & piano, Great letters of rec, 800 plus hours community service (Stem Camp counselor, among others). Tennis team. Accepted @ 3 safety schools, all of which offered $100K in merit aid, accepted into UW Honors, waitlisted at Williams, rejected at UCLA, USC & CMC. Did not realize how much it would hurt to be rejected even though I did not expect to be accepted at all. I know I will feel better about this in a few days but wish I had done ED at my top choice.
You have so much going for you and.both of those schools are great options. I know it’s disappointing now because things didn’t turn out like you expected, but you will be successful. This year has been very challenging for most applicants, with what I’m guessing are historically low acceptamce rates and colleges overly-reliant on ED applicants.
This response is more for future students than the OP since his/her bed is already made. Remember why they are considered “reach” schools. The applicant is either below the average in stats or the applicant pool is filled with high stat/quality students. In the case of the OP I think it was a mostly the second but their GPA was a bit low for all of the schools they were denied admission to. Most of the schools they applied to have between several hundred and a couple of thousand slots to fill and tens of thousands of applicants. The applicants will all be high quality applicants. When looking at college selection the tendency is to compare ourselves to the group we are most familiar with. There are 10s of thousands of HSs with students of similar caliber all having similar expectations. In the past when students applied to fewer schools and more locally it was a bit easier to predict where one might get accepted to. It would have been rare for a student to apply to all the schools you applied to. The OP has two good options and their choice is to make the most of the opportunities they will be afforded. Remember college is not the destination it’s the vehicle. It’s up to you where you take it. Good luck.
Thank you for the comments everyone. I was worried throughout high school that my gpa would be a bit rough for college admissions, but I knew several kids who made up for their lackluster gpa with strong ec’s and test scores. I had a friend two years ago with a 3.0 gpa but managed to get into Brown and UC Berkeley thanks to his perfect SAT and astonishing ec’s. I had friends last year who got into Northeastern, Emory and BU with 3.4’s due to their better essays and ec’s. I guess that competition this year was so tough that gpa mattered way more than it did when my friends were applying. I suppose I had a bit of tough luck, but I will just have to learn from my mistakes and try harder in college to hopefully land in a good grad school.
You’re credentials are exceptional, and I see no reason why you’d be rejected from your top schools. The only reasion I can think of is the competitiveness for admissions at the schools you listed above. The University of North Carolina has several applicants every year, and while I’m sure they’d like to admit more, they just don’t have the space. How early did you apply? You sometimes have an advantage by applying early because the university isn’t as concerned with numbers early into their application season.
I’d advise you to move forward. There is nothing you can do to be admitted by your favorite colleges now, but if you have your heart set on attending a university like Washington, you still can. To do this, you need to either enroll in a college you were accepted to or a community college. This will allow you to complete general education requirements which you’d have to do anyone. You can then re-apply to your favorite universities once again as a transfer student. There’s no guarantee they’ll admit you then either, but I believe you can do it. See it as your mission to prove the admission committees wrong, and make them regret they didn’t admit you the first.
You are going to college, so you aren’t a failure. Given that you applied to almost all reach schools, I’m not at all surprised. Grades are nearly ALWAYS more important than test scores. Being brutally honest, your GPA is low for all of your top choices. Your recs might not have been great. Did you choose the teachers who like you the most, and who you like the most in return? Far more important than choosing them based on subject. Your essays might have been not as interesting as you thought. Who reviewed them for you? And your demographic might have come into play as well.
Your post is similar to many we will be reading in the next few weeks. I’m going to paste what I wrote on another thread yesterday:
"Your odds do not improve by applying to more extremely selective colleges. They will reject the vast majority of applicants.
If you like the school you are accepted to and can afford it, you are not ‘screwed.’ There will be posts in early April from all kinds of students who haven’t been accepted to a single school they like or can afford (moral: don’t apply if you don’t like it and can’t afford it.) There will be students who will be rejected from every school, even their “safety”, because they didn’t show interest. There will be students who didn’t get into any school at all, because they though their stats and applying to a bunch of top schools would improve their chances of getting into a least one. There will be students who will get into only their safeties, because they didn’t apply to any matches, or they assumed that a match is the same as a safety. And there will also be students who will get into several tippy top schools, and there won’t seem to be any clear reason why."
Hope for the best, but expect the worst. Any other acceptance you get from now on is just a bonus.
My reaction is similar to all of the above posters. Your GPA & a lukewarm or less than positive recommendation most likely affected your applications at Brandeis, BU & Northeastern.
Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University, Rice University & WashUStL are all Ivy League equivalents. No shame & no mystery about getting rejected from any of these stellar institutions. UNC is difficult for non-resident freshman applicants. Rejections from Emory & Michigan indicate, in my opinion, that you had less than enthusiastic recommendations–even with a low GPA-- for these incredible universities.
The good news is that you tried & should be respected for respecting your efforts, ability & ambition. Now it is up to you to prove them wrong !
@200iqgamer : Now that you have seen the results, to which other colleges & universities would you have applied with this knowledge ?
University of Rochester ? Some LACs ? Carleton College ? Davidson College ?
You are NOT a failure. You’ll end up where you’re meant to be, and next year none of this will even matter <3.
You can’t underestimate the power of hooks. 17 - 20% of classes now in elite colleges reserve spots for first gen. When I was first gen it was the other way around; it hurt more than helped; now everyone wants one. College admissions is a moving target, but nowadays, you have to have a hook. Fantastic GPA, ECs and stats is not enough.
Another question is how much Interest did you show these schools. Did you meet with your AI or visit the schools?
“learn from my mistakes and try harder in college to hopefully land in a good grad school.“
I applaud this attitude. I hope you do your very best and if you decide on grad school, the lesson is to research your options given your stats and relationships with professors (recs).
It is possible to get in with a low GPA, but that requires a hook of some sort, (or a ridiculous story/invention/accomplishment). The last few years have been harder and harder for kids with even perfect stats to get accepted. The colleges are getting more apps, They are widening their scope for choosing applicants. In some ways it is a zero sum game for those spots. But not for success or failure.
You will be fine. Don’t sweat it.
“Rejections from Emory & Michigan indicate, in my opinion, that you had less than enthusiastic recommendations–even with a low GPA-- for these incredible universities.”
For the future students reading: disagree. You would need a much higher GPA. Even with hooked students, student athletes, and a lower GPA “soft requirement” for in state kids, UMich average GPA is still 3.8. And they value that. The recommendation is not likely the issue. And Emory is ranked even higher.
Be aware of your true place in the crowd so you can plan a good list. If you only have reaches and safeties, you will likely only have safeties to choose from. And like this candidate, even with a few high targets on the list, it was still hard.
Good luck OP! I went to nowhere state U, and all the kids who went to fancy schools now work for me! Chin up:)
@pdwm56, you were WL’d at Williams because a 1510 wasn’t even the median of accepted students, and so without any hooks your chances were less than 10% like all other similar applicants. Chances at UCLA, USC and CMC were only marginally better.
Class of 2023 applicants, make sure you have matches and safeties - schools with acceptances rates below 20% are likely Denials, and yes most unhooked applicants will have 1500+ SAT / 34+ ACT
TCNJ is awesome! Esp if you got in for Biology which is very competitive! WHat a great value school.
TCNJ is no safety.
@200iqgamer Did you sign up for Accepted Student Days? My sons are going to Rutgers on 4/14, they might not be able to go to TCNJ on 4/06. I bet both days will be helpful!
Being an ORM (my kids are ORM, so I’m sympathetic) is tough. And as so many pointed out, your UW GPA is not really in line with other aspects of your app.
What your case illustrates to me is the importance of having safeties you are excited to attend. Both schools can offer you a great education…just very different in their vibe. I’d recommend going to an accepted students day to see which one you feel seems more like home.
I agree. I was optimistic but it didn’t come through. I’m disappointed but I know it’s going to be ok.
I am a little surprised that you didn’t get in Brandeis even with that low unweighted GPA. I am so sorry
But do not worry. It is not the end of the world. You still will hve chance to go to great graduate school if you get good GPA and supple research experiences.
Grad school admissions is not like undergrad admissions. The places that will be important for your potential grad work could easily be places you have not yet heard of. Grad admissions will depend on your GPA, your letters of recommendation, your statement of purpose, your GRE scores, and internship/publications/research/work experience related to the field of study.