Right, and I need to keep in mind that I could likely find my place anywhere. I’ll keep Brown on the list.
For what it’s worth, my SAT came back as a 1520, this time a 770 in EBRW and 750 in Math. So no superscoring. I was hoping for a bit better, but it seems like a lot of people did worse than previous attempts so I’m happy for the improvement. A couple of my very math minded friends also took it and also ended up with 750s in math, so I feel like it wasn’t just in my head that the math section was difficult. I’m considering taking it one more time.
I am also heading to take a look at UVA and William and Mary in about a month, and I hope that will help me make a decision. I think UVA could end up high on my list.
You might be well suited to a major in data science, with which you could choose from a wide variety of more specific disciplines as your “applied domain.”
I got the chance to look at William and Mary and UVA this weekend. I loved UVA, and I think its now the top spot. William and Mary was also beautiful, but didn’t exactly seem like my type. I think it has more of an academic vibe than I am looking for.
I want to get down to see Duke and UNC, because I think those will also interest me. After a rough couple of months of weather in PA, I am much more interested in heading south to nicer weather.
I took a look at this and it really seems to align well with my interests. I think it would satisfy my desire for keeping some sort of stem field in my life. Do you think it would be practical to try to double major in econ and applied mathematics at schools that aren’t Brown?
It’s looking like I will apply early to Pitt and try to get it rolling, and then have the freedom to apply to a bunch of reaches.
I learned that I have been nominated for the UNC Morehead-Cain scholarship. It’s a very cool opportunity and it feels great to be recognized for it, even if it doesn’t end up amounting to anything. Hopefully I will be able to see UNC sometime this summer; considering how much I loved UVA, I expect that I would like it very much.
I got outright rejected from Duke, even with my legacy. On the same day that my best friend got in. It was a tough day. I was also rejected from the Morehead Cain earlier in the month. The lone bright spot was being awarded $5,000/year to Pitt.
I’m struggling a little bit to not worry about my application. I can’t help but feel like a flat-out rejection to Duke is a bad sign of things to come.
So far, I’ve applied to
UNC
UVA
USC
Northeastern
UCLA and UC Berkeley
Michigan
and I plan on applying to
Vanderbilt
WashU
Brown
Georgetown
Considering Emory, McGill, some others if I have time
I’m considering throwing in an ED2 to Vanderbilt or WashU. I liked Vanderbilt when I went, and though I’ve never been to WashU, I love everything I know about it. The thing I’m stuck on is the fact that I will get decisions back from some EA schools before an ED2 result comes back, and if I get any positive results from my EAs, I would no longer really want to be bound to the ED contract. All the remaining schools on my list are about even in terms of how I view them (with the possible exception of Northeastern, which I like but not as much as the others). I also feel like if I do take an ED2 shot and get in, it is likely that I would have gotten in to one of my EAs anyways.
Any words of advice? Suggestions on how to proceed? I’m definitely second guessing myself a bit now. Thanks again everyone for the help.
I’m sorry that ED didn’t go how you want, but congratulations on the Pitt acceptance with merit money!
Then don’t do ED2. Additionally, though you like what you’ve read about WashU, I would strongly advise against EDing to a school that you haven’t visited in-person, preferably while school is in session, if it’s at all a financially viable possibility.
In your first post, you wrote this:
In your most recent post, however, you wrote this:
Apart from McGill and Northeastern (if you’re open to not starting at the Boston campus), the odds of an acceptance to the remaining schools on your application list are low. As in less than 20%. It’s not due to any inherent weakness in your application but in the fact that those schools receive far more applications from strong candidates than they can accept, so the vast majority of strong applicants will be denied/waitlisted.
Many strong applicants have never really had to deal with rejection, or at least rejection based on their strength as students. With the rejection from Duke, you now have had a taste. I would strongly encourage you to think about how you feel and how you would feel if you get rejections from all the rest of the schools you’re considering (with the possible exceptions noted above).
Some people use rejections as a fuel that makes them want to be even more amazing where they land to show the rejectors how wrong they were in their decision. People like that can have a very reach-heavy list and be fine.
I find that most people, however, tend to do better with more acceptances than rejections. Getting too many rejections can be demoralizing and detrimental to their self-esteem, making them doubt other good things that have happened to them (like the quality of offers they have received).
I don’t know what kind of a person you are. But I would strongly recommend some introspection and thinking about how you would feel on April 1 if your only acceptances are Pitt, Penn State, McGill, and a non-Boston Northeastern campus. Depending on how you would feel, I would consider making adjustments to your application list to include more schools with higher acceptance rates.
Well, one piece of good news is that with a college that rejects so many people as Duke, it probably means absolutely nothing about your application strength, and indeed possibly you will get into other programs as selective as Duke. Or not, which is why you needed some less reachy schools (which you have). So if you want to carefully review your essays and activity descriptions and such, that’s fine, but odds are there really is nothing wrong, it just didn’t work out with Duke in particular.
I would personally advise against applying ED2 under the circumstances you described. But one thing you could consider is waiting until after your EA results come in, and then ask one of your RD schools to convert your application to ED2 if they are your remaining favorite option. They are often willing to do that as it is pretty much all to their advantage as long as they still have enough time to review you in the ED2 pool.
Finally, I do agree you could still consider adding some less reachy applications if you want to make sure you have more choices. On the other hand, I don’t want to make it sound like you should not be very happy, say, going to Pitt with a merit scholarship! That’s a great fit for you, lots of people really enjoy their experience there, so you truly do not NEED more choices. But maybe you would like having them, and you can make that very likely if you want to.
If are you genuinely happy with Pitt, your list is fine. You may well get no other acceptances with such a reach-heavy list, but you have Pitt.
If you would like an option that’s somewhere in between Pitt and your list in terms of selectivity, or just different than Pitt in some other way (size, location, setting), then you need a less reach-y list.
Did you apply to Penn State? What were those results? I don’t think either Pitt or Penn State has released any honors decisions to in-state students, but those outcomes might have been helpful. Did you apply to both Frederick and Schreyer?
