My Dear Friends, Omg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Parents Forum
141

<p>overanxious mother~We could NEVER, EVER be bored with this kind of good news <em>lol</em>. I cannot stress to you how unexpected this was for both of us. We very humbly and graciously accept your beautifully offered congratulations! It is so difficult to explain what all of you who have shared this special time mean to us. We will be printing this entire thread and keeping it FOREVER!!</p>

<p>sybbie~Your kindness and unfaltering faith have both impressed and inspired me. Your daughter is so very lucky to have a mother such as yourself, so full of faith, hope and optimism. Thank you for your continuous support, and for sharing your deep faith with us.</p>

<p>twinmom~I’m still takin’ you to Vegas with me someday! <em>lol</em></p>

<p>cangel~Thanks for the congrats! We are still in the happily stunned stage. I just floated though Wal-Mart…</p>

<p>achat~Thank you SO much! I have greatly appreciated all of your kind thoughts and marvelous advice. You are an amazing person!</p>

<p>momofthree~What a beautiful post! I can certainly see why you would have so much trouble sleeping what with the unbelievable list of schools to which your son was admitted!!! How the heck did he get into WashU and Brown??? My son was waitlisted at both of those! You son is going to have some hard decisions to make, but what a wonderful dilemma! Again, a HUGE congrats to him!!</p>

<p>love, ~berurah</p>

142

<p>When I first posted the dream denied thread, so many of you made predictions for my son that, in fact, actually came true. I think that some of you may be wondering why I was so very convinced that my son didn’t stand a chance at any of his reach schools. I would like to explain something now that this admissions ordeal is mostly over for us (Stanford is still pending).</p>

<p>As many of you know, my son was rejected in the EA round at Yale. At this time, we had been full of hope and optimism, convinced that his intellectual curiosity and long-standing interest in epidemiology and infectious diseases would shine through on this special app. on which he spent countless hours. Well, it apparently didn’t, and without even so much as a deferral, the Yale bid was history.</p>

<p>Panic stricken and devastated from this first swift blow, I made an appeal on this forum for help and was so overwhelmed with the response. Many fantastic ideas were expressed, and my son picked himself up and proceeded on his trek.</p>

<p>But there were questions left unanswered. My son decided to write the regional rep at Yale to see if he could garner any feedback regarding his app. He had many other apps. to complete in such a short time, and from Yale’s response, he figured that he was on the wrong track entirely. So he emailed the rep. for some feedback.</p>

<p>I will never forget what he told my son. He basically said that my son’s app. was lacking in certain areas, and that whereas the hard numbers were fine, the essays, extracurriculars, and teacher recs were not up to snuff for an elite school. He told my son that Yale does not grant “polite deferrals”, and that Yale felt obligated to let my son know that he basically didn’t cut it. See for yourself…here is an excerpt from that letter:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>So, you see, he claimed to be speaking for Yale, AND for other elite institutions. </p>

<p>Despite this blow, my son persisted and…well, the rest is well-documented and highly celebrated history.</p>

<p>I just wanted you to know that our doubts had very firmly planted seeds, but we are ecstatic and so grateful that even an adcom at <strong>Yale</strong> can be wrong upon occasion!</p>

<p>~berurah</p>

143

<p>Ok, that would be intimidating, not to mention disheartening. Well, I can honestly say after reading many of the threads on here (parents forum) and some of the specific college threads, DS#2 is seriously reconsidering which colleges are going to be on his list next year.</p>

<p>He has done much thinking about what he wants from his college experience and he knows academically he will eventually succeed somewhere. But more importantly, he is getting a different feel from many of the schools he had once at the top of his list, but no more. </p>

<p>I am so glad Berurah your son made it into the school of his choice, Duke. Same son mentioned above had a summer internship at Duke’s comprehensive cancer center last summer. He was able to get a feel for the campus after spending 2 months there. PM me if you have any questions.</p>

<p>But after reading about the anxiety in many of the poster’s lives, my son is very torn. We shall see what comes application time next year.</p>

<p>Again congrats on Penn, Duke and JHS!!! Your son has many wonderful choices.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

144

<p>(Sour grapes with some honey) Who needs Bushie’s school anyway? S was deferred, then rejected, but accepted to Oxford and Harvard - so who can tell what Yale wanted to see in the app?</p>

145

<p>Berurah:</p>

<p>That letter was certainly very disheartening! It’s good, however, that the adcom considered your S’s transcript and board scores solid, since he could not have changed them. Your S’s experience is a good example of the importance of having good GCs, and teachers who know how to write effective recs. Did your S write a different essay, ask for different recs, emend his resume so as to better showcase his ECs? Or did he essentially submit the same application package to the colleges that eventually admitted him? I remember your mentioning that his GC had not been encouraging. I hope that your S’s success in getting admitted into UPenn, Duke and other great colleges will make your GC sit up and pay attention. You have other kiddos who will be going through the process!</p>

146

<p>I think that the way that letter was written (regarding the comments on other institutions) was out of line, and, since you really don’t care what Yale thinks anymore :), you or your son should write a letter expressing your complaints to the head of the Admissions Office there. It is not Yale’s business to second-guess what other colleges will think of a student’s application.</p>

147

<p>

</p>

<p>:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:</p>

<p>Unbelievable.That is so very arrogant and rude. Yale thought your son was “not up to snuff for an elite school”…well I think Yale is not up to snuff for an Elite School.</p>

<p>I agree that you should not only write a letter to Yale, about their complete lack of sense and sensibility, but also to the New York Times. But maybe that’s burning bridges??</p>

148

<p>wow. </p>

<p>I’m so glad your son persisted!</p>

149

<p>Or maybe to the Yale student newspaper :slight_smile: But you did say at one point that your son has visions of returning to Yale to give a lecture someday, I think, so maybe we should stop inciting you to take these dramatic measures. But they definitely deserve it!!!</p>

150

<p>Berurah: “Designated cyber-driver.” Love it! Congrats on all of the wonderful news.</p>

151

<p>Berurah. You are so warm and welcoming. Again, congratulations on your son’s dream and the supportive family you have managed to build.</p>

152

<p>Remember: “we” think of it as a lottery. We are looking at individual kids. From the school’s point of view, it is not a lottery AT ALL - they are admitting a “class”, not a bunch of individuals. They have this down to a science. The admissions officers take classes in yield management, statistical theory, , etc., and combined have decades of experiences ensuring that what they are doing is not a lottery at all.</p>

<p>The admissions officers know they have to please certain GCs at their historical feeder schools. They know that they will not (cannot!) have more than 45% of the class receiving financial aid. They know that they have to fill a certain number of spots on the football team, or the alumni will be unhappy. (They know they need fencers and track stars and etc. as well.) They know they need an English horn player, and two trombones. They better have some folks interested in Near Eastern archaeology, or the department will be p-i-s-s-e-d. They need to accept those developmental admits, and the daughters of Connecticut state senators. I haven’t even gotten to the legacies. Finally, it is important to have some darker faces on campuses, even (as a current student reported on this board), almost all of them come from fancy private schools.</p>

<p>There is nothing the least bit lotteryish about it. But they don’t mind us thinking of it as a lottery, for if we do, they don’t have to explain themselves.</p>

153

<p>I went to an AFL-CIO organized protest yesterday at lunchtime in front of the main DC office of Charles Schwab, topic - no privatization of Social Security. Elanor Holmes Norton was there, DC Congresswoman, and Sweeney (AFL-CIO Pres) - great speeches, lots of media. There were some stirring chants, so let me modify one for Yale:</p>

<p>“Yale U, Rich and Rude, We Don’t Like Your Attitude!!!”</p>

<p>(Think populistic righteous indignation, and say it loud).</p>

154

<p>"I will never forget what he told my son. He basically said that my son’s app. was lacking in certain areas, and that whereas the hard numbers were fine, the essays, extracurriculars, and teacher recs were not up to snuff for an elite school. "</p>

<p>Were your son’s other applications – essays, recommendations-- similar to what he submitted to Yale or did he make some major modifications after he submitted his Yale application?</p>

<p>I know that typically, students’ first application is their weakest one. Students usually learn a lot through the application process, and that means that their later applications may be much better. For instance, they may accidentally leave important ECs off their first application or they may forget to explain exactly what they did in their ECs. </p>

<p>They also may significantly revise their later essays. </p>

<p>Were these any things that your son did?</p>

<p>I actually prefer Yale’s way of rejecting lots of students ED instead of doing massive deferrals as Harvard does. I think that Harvard’s deferrals give false hope. I feel sorry for students who get rejections in April after applying to only one reach school, getting a deferral, and not applying to any other reach schools. Many such students would have gotten into a very competitive college if they had applied to more than one.</p>

155

<p>Talk about being snotty! You should write someone about it. Nothing to be lost, IMHO. If your S becomes prominent enough in his field, he’ll be invited to Yale to give a lecture whether or not you write now; if not; then likewise not.</p>

156

<p>What a tale of triumph; I’m sure it makes this that much sweeter.</p>

157

<p>Such an interesting thread–will have to come back and read it more carefully–Berurah, congratulations to your son for not letting the Yale rejection throw him off course. I keep thinking the process is so very like musical theatre auditions isn’t it, in a way? One director won’t cast a kid in a chorus, another takes the same kid and puts him in the lead. You just never know what quality is going to hit a particular director or an adcom in precisely the right or wrong way.</p>

158

<p>WOW! so sorry to hear about that terrible experience for your son. But very glad to hear about the good experiences elsewhere! My D’s g/f told her on the phone after being rejected "when you are famous and … decides to offer you an honorary degree you can say… you didn’t want ME then and I don’t want YOU now, LOL! This, at least, made her smile. Glad to see your son has (already) gotten his smile at Yale. Very happy for you and your son here in PA.</p>

159

<p>Berurah (and others): Yale’s input after your S’s SCEA app is gut-tearing, for sure…but at least you know what they thought…what’s tearing me apart (still–even after acceptances from Cornell (Horors), U VA (Honors), Georgetown and Northwestern) is not knowing anything at all about why…I would love to hear from Stanford about WHY they rejected my S…their “mealy-mouthed fluff” (to quote myself from another thread) is just plain annoying…we also tried to get input after we got the rejection–S’s GC called; the adcoms at Stanford blew her off just as they blew us off. (And my S’s school is one of those elite competitive HSs that are feeder schools for the elite colleges…many of the colleges–including, reportedly, Stanford, “worry” about angering the GCs and student body and my S’s HS)…</p>

<p>My S used pretty much exactly the same app (where the questions and/or info requested was transferrable) for his RD apps as he did for the SCEA app to Stanford…it’s a little scary to think that Stanford might have thought S’s essays or EC descriptions were not high enough quality for an elite school…but had we known, S could have rewritten/rethought/redone…</p>

<p>It’s water under the bridge for all of us now…and our kids’ efforts and accomplishments are well and appropriately rewarded…and our parental protectiveness means (at least in my case) that I’ll never think as highly of Stanford ever again…not because they said “no,” but because they couldn’t be bothered to provide even a tiny bit of information as to why…I give Yale (stupid tho they may be for not admitting our glitteringly accomplished kids) some points for providing some feedback…they should add one more course to their adcoms’ training–diplomacy/tact…but at least they tried to provide some useful feedback…</p>

160

<p>

</p>

<p>Great typo!! :slight_smile: … or was it an April Fools joke ;)</p>