How is it “dysfunctional”? I think you are overreacting. There are thousands of applicants who are all very qualified competing for very few spots.
More students are applying to more colleges, and the top colleges are receiving record numbers of applications. Every year it seems to get worse. Students can’t predict where they’ll get admitted. Colleges can’t predict their yield, and use their waitlist as a cushion, prolonging the frustration for applicants. Meanwhile, some perfectly good colleges are hurting for students.
Many countries have some kind of matching system, but that wouldn’t work with our hodgepodge of publics and privates
Rejection sucks, but you will get through it and you can succeed regardless of where you go. Just wait until you get into the workforce: you’ll be rejected by dozens of jobs for every one you get! It doesn’t mean you are unworthy, not going to succeed, or got screwed. It simply means you will going to be taking another road to success.
Both Northwestern University & the University of Pennsylvania admitted only 8.39% of all applicants this admissions cycle. NU received 40,425 apps & admitted 3,392.
Admissions Rate for Class of 2022:
Harvard–4.6%
Princeton–5.5%
Columbia–5.5%
Yale–6.3%
Pomona College–6.9%
MIT–7%
Brown–7.2%
Northwestern University–8.39%
Univ. of Pennsylvania–8.39%
Swarthmore–9%
Johns Hopkins Univ.–10%
Cornell University–10.3%
Rice–11%
Williams College–12%
USC (Southern Cal)–13%
Colby College–13%
Barnard–13.7%
WashUStL–15%
Tulane–17%
Middlebury College–18.4%
Davidson College–18.7%
Wellesley College–19%
Georgia Tech–22%
Boston University–22%
University of Virginia–26%
One CC poster was admitted to Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth College, Williams College, full scholarship to Vanderbilt University, but rejected by Northwestern & Chicago.
The point of my post above is that this was a brutal year for college admissions. I think that many others with incredible stats & achievements are baffled at rejections from some great schools.
Duke University–8.3% Hopefully this will help OP understand the NU decision as Northwestern & Ivy League Penn both admitted about the same percentage as did Duke (8.39% & 8.3%).
Because applicants to Duke, Penn & Northwestern are high stats individuals with significant accomplishments & goals, admissions officers may be looking for ways to deny applicants rather than ways to admit them. Just too many very well qualified applicants. Therefore, application essays & teacher recs have to be excellent, insightful & positive.
three points
(1) Congratulations you got accepted into college and an awesome one to boot. Celebrate all your hard work. Joby well done.
(2) do not over think those that did not accept you. They are each building their own freshman class their own way and each have different objectives and also sometimes things totally unrelated to you materially influence your application. You will have far more rejection in your life so embrace the process.
(3) If I could offer a superficial critique based on your opening post details it is that you are all over the place. Too many things can work against you. There is no such thing as too many things along a common thread but there can certainly be too many things across too many themes. It is unfortunate but colleges do not generally react well to someone driven but unfocused on a single theme. I dont like saying it because it seems to discourage exploration of topics to find the theme/topic you are most interested but unfortunately colleges just dont see it that way unless you explicitly spoon feed it to them. They dont want well rounded kids. they want to build a well rounded class.
In any event, all the best!
At our high school, college admissions for highly selective colleges was seemingly more “brutal” than it was 2 years ago. This is from observation for DS 16 and DD 18 who both went through the process. One takeaway is that the students this year who applied in the SCEA/ED1/ED2 rounds fared better than the students who waited for the RD round. 2 years ago, there were more acceptances to highly selective colleges in the ED round.
@SadStrong you are sad, but you are stronger than you know. You will get through the grief and come out on the other side. Pay your deposit at Michigan. If you still want to go to CWU, work the waitlist by sending in a very specific letter of continued interest. Have your school counselor call CW and see what they can find out and to help you most effectively emphasize your interest. If a wait list spot does not open, go to Michigan and kill it there. If you hate it, you can apply to transfer to a school you like better.
This year the top schools seem particularly focused on first generation students, students of color, students from QuestBridge etc., and international students.These are all admirable goals for the schools, but this focus narrows the window for unhooked applicants from overrepresented groups. If you did not apply to most of the schools on your list through early decision it is even harder to get in. Read through the Michigan waitlist thread to see how many kids would love to trade places with you. That might give you some closure.
Has this kid been sufficiently taken to the wood shed? I’m always surprised at the lack of compassion for a young person. You are entitled to all your feelings, shock, worry, disappointment, hurt. gratitude etc. This process is like a roller coaster full of unexpected ups and downs and twists and turns. Once you get off the roller coaster, you collect your stomach and try to stabilize back to equilibrium. I know OP you’ll take advantage of whatever opportunity you have been given. Up until now, you’ve worked hard and tried to put your best foot forward. There are too many factors in elite college admissions that lead to admission. Essentially, nowadays, top stats, ECs and GPA and essay aren’t always enough. You have to have a hook. When now 24% of the class is reserved for first gen and if you ain’t one, your chances are significantly cut down. Life is about making good on opportunities you are given and not pining for the ones that you haven’t. You can’t do anything about those, and you did nothing wrong. Don’t try to second guess yourself. It’s time to look for your next opportunity.
It appears to me that the OP came up against a lot of the misunderstandings inherent the process of applying to elite colleges in the US. Or should I call them hypocrisies?
Assumption: Colleges want to see that you challenged yourself.
Wrong. Colleges want to see As in challenging classes. If a student were to really challenge themselves, there would have to be a lot of Bs and Cs that ruined their GPAs. The „challenge“ has to be perfectly controlled to make sure the student still gets almost nothing but As - or the student has to be so bright that the „most challenging“ classes at a fairly high performing high school aren’t really challenging for them. I assume that this is true for most kids accepted to elite schools.
It looks like the OP didn’t manage the challenge well, biting off more than they could chew too early. The elite colleges, possibly with the exception of Caltech, aren’t interested in prodigies who take calc BC as a freshman but don’t have perfect grades and scores. Calc BC as a junior or senior works just fine - it’s more important to get that A.
Same thing goes for „risk taking“. Just a sound bite. If a student toook real risks, there would be as many failures as successes, and that doesn’t look good, especially about the bits you can’t just leave off the record, such as grades and exam results. So, you manage the „risks“ to make sure you don’t have any failures to report. The OP didn’t.
Assumption: Colleges want to see accomplishments at a state/national/international level.
Wrong. Not all accomplishments are created equal. Colleges protect their Brands. they want to see accomplishments that would be impressive in the real world if they were achieved by college graduates from high school students because it means that once they have graduated, chances are high that they will go on to be impressive and promote the brand. If it’s not impressive in the academic/business/not for profit world, it better be sports or performing arts. Something easily, understandably brag worthy. Not a total niche accomplishment. I know nothing about Magic the card game but have a hunch it does not translate well on television.
(See the book How to be a high school superstar, and ignore at your own peril that all the accomplishments these kids impressed with were real world accomplishments, facilitated by people who were already accomplished themselves, ie their high SES families and acquaintances).
Assumption: Colleges want you to be unique, true to yourself. Wrong. See above. If it’s so unique that your accomplishments are mildly puzzling or amusing, rather than real world bragworthy, it’s a risk to the brand,
Colleges are NOT risk takers - not with the majority of the class they accept.
Assumption: colleges want you to show passion. Wrong. See above. If your passion doesn’t translate into the easily understandable real world accomplishment, they’re not interested. No one needs to understand the app that makes you rich, or the research that won you the Nobel Prize, or to like the classical music that got you to Carnegie Hall - but it translates.
OP, it sounds like you took the classes you wanted to take because you had this academic hunger early in life, did the EC you wanted to do because it fascinated you, wrote about what YOU enjoyed about it, without strategising to “package” yourself to get the perfect application in, with the perfect grades, scores, and perfectly translatable skills for the business world. Your state school (elite state school!) was more objective about your actual talents than the elite privates were. There is a lesson in that, and it’s NOT what you did wrong, but about what you do well and where you will shine without packaging yourself, or twisting your personalty and identity into something you aren’t. Go on, you do you, wherever you go. And you will be fine.
Good luck.
Someone asserted above that colleges can’t predict their yield. Actually, they are much better at it than they were when we parents applied to college. There is software now that helps with yield prediction that many colleges used, and careful tracking of data from past years helps as well. Sure, there are hiccups. But I was in a forced triple in 1981 at a state flagship — yield estimation was no better in the “old days”.
I agree, this year was worse than the previous few years. Last year, my HS had ~15 kids get into Ivies, this year there was only one kid who got into an Ivy (and he won’t even say which one).
Yay on Michigan - great job OP.
To the OP, be glad there are still schools out there that value hard work and intellectual curiosity. So many schools are institutional social justice warriors these days. If you are truly the kind of student that you describe yourself to be, then you do not belong at the schools that rejected you. You just don’t. It’s not you, it’s them.
My niece was rejected by all of her top choices and is a Sophomore at Michigan. She loves it, even after applying for transfer and getting into more “prestigious” schools. She stay at UM.
I understand your pain, my D17 was rejected at 10 schools, she is at her safety. I told her to dive in like it was your first choice, get involved and believe you will make friendships for life. She has, and her rejections still sting, but they are not getting in the way of her success and happiness.
Go where you are wanted.
@Tigerle What you said. All. Day. Long.
One thing I’ll add to most interesting discussions:
@SadStrong it may be that you literally did everything right. It may be that your stats were stellar (and they truly are), your essays great, and your recommendations superb. Sometimes everything is done perfectly great…and that kid still doesn’t get in…after 4 years (and 2 kids) here, I see this over and over.
Its okay to be bummed out. I would be too. (though I’m glad that you have Michigan in your back pocket).
@cleoforshort That’s some serious sour grapes. Not nice or accurate.
For those who are saying CWRU was a match…Case has 26,000 well qualified applicants this year. Many may well qualified students were waitlisted and over on the Case board there are students with similar stats wondering how they didn’t get admitted. BTW Case took 500 students off the waitlist last year.