OP- not sure why you are “challenging me” to produce cases of students with “as strong an application as mine” yadda, yadda, but for comparison, IIRC, the average # of APs taken at one HS by students accepted to our state Tech school is around 13. This isn’t a contest. Enjoy your U Mich acceptance. You are very fortunate!
@SadStrong I am so sorry that despite being a kid with strong accomplishments, you have these kind of results. I have no way to console you but to say chin up and work hard at Michigan.
“I did visit each of these schools before apps except Michigan ironically.”
Then you are in for a good surprise for a change. U Mich Ann Arbor was one of the absolute nicest colleges and towns we visited out of all our college tours. Seriously, both DS and I loved, loved, loved UMich. If we’d been in state we both agree he wouldn’t have even applied to any other schools but UMich. With in-state tuition it’s the deal of the century.
Go visit. You will like it. And good luck.
I now realize that my post number references are horribly inaccurate. Hopefully, the meaning is still clear.
(@jym626 my point was simply that I’d rather not be grouped with a crowd of mourning Ivy league victims.)
@SadStrong I am assuming that you did not receive any good news tonight from any of the IVYs. i am so sorry this happened to you. At least you have a very good school to go to.
Why don’t you want to be grouped with other posters disappointed with their elite denials? That’s what this thread seems to be about.
@sadstrong, Perhaps you have me confused with someone else. I called you neither entitled nor egotistical. What I did say is that your counselors had no business telling you that they expected you to be accepted to an Ivy. They can’t know the outcomes of such selective schools. Enjoy whichever college you decide to attend.
OP- it really sucks to not get what you want/ feel you deserve. If nothing else just know that everything happens for a reason, even the most painful life experiences bring us something valuable. No one can really answer “why” this is happening to you, or any kid who is experiencing similar disappointments, but sometimes when the universe acts this crazy (you not getting into schools you deserve/want) maybe it’s trying to tell you THIS IS WHERE WE WANT YOU TO BE. It’s shouting at you, and eventhough it makes no sense now, in the near future you may come to really understand why this is happening. For all you know some fantastically amazing person or opportunity is waiting for you at Michigan, and if you go someplace else you’d miss it. Try to see this as a good thing, and be open to all the good things that come your way because of it. Best of luck to you.
Your list of accomplishments is incredibly impressive, so it’s certain that your application made it past the first round of cuts. The admissions officers who made the final decision definitely took a really good look at you, and they still said “No.” The usual advice to any student with a big pile of rejections is “Don’t take it personally.” It sure seems like this stings more because it most certainly is personal.
Good points, @Data10. Just because we don’t know why a decision came out as it did doesn’t mean the decision was random. There are the known unknowns, such as the actual assessed quality of the essays and LORs—by definition these will be 5/10 on average, but on CC they seem to be subjectively 9/10 on average. And then there are the unknown unknowns, such as whether something in the essays turned off the AOs. OP can of course check whether he spelled the school “NorthWestern,” but I’m inclined to think he used a spellchecker and had another set or three of eyes check his writing (he also wrote “payed” and nobody thought that was an issue).
So I’d rather focus on the known knowns as possible issues. The grades and SAT scores are as good as maxed out, but an AP average of 4 seems a bit on the low side for an unhooked high-SES RD applicant to NU. There will be many other applicants with similar maxed-out GPAs and SATs, but bolstered by four, five, or more “mostly 5’s” on the more highly regarded AP tests. OP’s weakish (relative to the competition) AP scores cast some doubt on the rigor of the school he attended. While it is not possible to be ranked higher than number one at your school, it is possible to make that ranking seem not as impressive if you don’t back it up with top AP scores.
OP’s involvement with MTG at a high level sounds super-cool, but from his post, it sounds like he peaked at age 15, and he’s probably 17 or 18 now. Perhaps that’s just the way he wrote his post, but if he did in fact become less involved after the paid trip to Canada, then AOs may not be so impressed. Ideally you would hope for some follow-through. The other activities sound pretty run of the mill. Also, while OP showed tremendous initiative in dual-enrolling for advanced math and science classes, he is competing against kids who have taken similar classes and also expanded on their academic interests through some of their ECs.
Question to the OP:
For the colleges that waitlisted and rejected you, what in your application can be construed as you being one who will contributes to their community other than being a good student>
Percussion: Did you submit a performing arts portfolio/recordings/resume? Did you contact the band/jazz band/orchestra heads on campus and arrange to meet with them?
Did you make a connection in your Magic essay that would point to ways that experience would help the school’s community?
I think you think your application is unique. I don’t think your Magic experience has much use to colleges and the rest of your application appears to be high achieving but not so unique. :-??
They also appear “random” to outsiders because a typical outsider cannot compare a given applicant’s application (including the subjectively graded stuff like essays, recommendations, extracurriculars) with those of other applicant’s in the college’s entire applicant pool. Outsiders typically tend to exaggerate the value of stats and (what they perceive as) hooks, because those are the applicant characteristics that are easily visible and comparable to other applicants, even if the subjectively graded characteristics override the visible differences in stats and hooks.
So what did you see in the posts that helped you predict the outcomes?
CC decision thread posters are a unique group that tends to have exceptional stats. However, out of classroom activities are more variable, so the decisions largely followed out of classroom activities, rather than stats. For out of classroom activities, I believe I used a 0-5 rating with 5 being impressive on a national level, 4 being state, 3 being regional, 2 being school, etc. I did the same for some other criteria including academic, then did a weighted sum, and set an admit threshold. The threshold varied slightly for certain hooks.
@SadStrong Yes, your post sounds like you sat and thought it out…perhaps your first was just a knee jerk response to the disappointment. I’m sorry if I misjudged you.
Honestly, the CWRU could just be yield protection bc you are qualified for sure. Puzzling. I’m glad you are now aware how brutal those accepted student percentages can be, bc it’s not a personal indictment. It’s just math: too many butts, not enough seats.
Whatever your results today, it doesn’t change the you that you were 6 months ago when this all began. Don’t let it hurt you for more than a few days. If UMich is your school, go and enjoy. Tell my son hello if you see him.
I’m guessing Ivy Day wasn’t good 
Anyways everything works out in the end and you should consider transferring your first or second year. Or consider doing Honors at UMich then apply to graduate school. You can only look to the future and it looks bright! 
Ivy day was indeed full of bad news.
@Peanutbowow:
“Anyways everything works out in the end and you should consider transferring your first or second year.”
It’s probably even tougher to get in to Northwestern and Ivies as a transfer than out of HS. Have you seen their transfer admit rates?
Anyway, as I said, UMich is a terrific school. A Near-Ivy that will have a ton of top students and offer a lot of opportunities.
@PurpleTitan can we be happy for once on this god-forsaken site