Yep, I dropped Georgetown because of the app too. Already wasn’t sure about the vibe of the school, and coupled with a whole different application (plus 3 subject tests) I just didn’t care enough to put the time in.
That is exactly why Georgetown has set up its application that way. Students who can’t be bothered likely wouldn’t attend even if admitted.
I dropped UPenn because of the 650 words why UPenn essay. I just didn’t have enough reasons to fill 650 words and didn’t think my chances at that school was very high anyway so I just didn’t apply.
Removed Rice because I wasn’t that interested, and it had way too much writing for what I was intending to do. I ended up doing Stanford and UChicago, both of which were some of the longest, so Rice just lost its appeal.
Also removed some state schools because they required as much if not more writing than some of the top colleges (these state schools weren’t even that good, and I had minimal interest in them).
As a transfer student I didn’t apply to FSU because their application process was too complex. Funny because UF’s rankings are higher and their application was much easier.
Have you seen the University of California ridiculousness? Enter each course and grade achieved. Hello, shouldn’t you be able to get that from my California High School, or allow me to send it through Parchment. I gave up on all UC schools because it just annoyed the crap out of me. Ohio State and Purdue are some state schools who embrace sanity in their application process.
I wrote the essays for Colorado College and had them proof read, I actually decided to not apply after losing interest in the sport team their and noticing a trend of cutting losing teams in the sport. I also saw that a student was expelled for an opinion on social media.
Decided against it after an interview and everything.
I decided against applying to Carnegie Mellon after I saw that I was required to take the TOEFL as an international student (from Canada) whose first language isn’t English even though I’d been speaking English for 14 years and scored 800 in CR on the SAT.
Can’t say that I blame you @OrchidBloom - that’s pretty lame. I would think an 800 on CR would be pretty self-explanatory.
In the beginning, I was planning to apply to MIT but not only their essays, but their whole application is a pain to fill.
Idk what it looks like since it joined the common app, but back in the day Columbia’s application really rubbed me the wrong way. It seemed to assume that everyone applying had these amazing cultural experiences that are realistically only available to a small minority of privileged kids around the world. I ended up filling out the application but when it came time to choose which school I would matriculate to, I felt that the questions they asked would lead to a certain type of student choosing to attend and that I wouldn’t really fit in there. Then during the admitted student days, my tour guide didn’t do much to change my mind… That being said, some of my friends who did choose to attend found the experience to be everything they hoped. To each her own, I suppose.
@SouthFloridaMom9 No kidding! Not only did I not want to pay and waste a day to take a test for just one school but the rigidity of their rules seemed a little out of touch with the realities of immigrant families and left a bad taste in my mouth.
Re U of Chicago, that is the only college that nearly persuaded my D to apply, because their unsolicited mailings were so clever. She loved the essay prompts too, but after doing some research decided she wasn’t really interested. One college that she loves had a prompt she really disliked…“what empowers you?” She found it vague and wishywashy, but ultimately came up with a great response.
My daughter picked her safety school because all they wanted was the common app, and she was sick of writing essays. Fortunately, she got into a school she actually wanted to attend, because this is a very, very bad way to pick a safety! (Don’t try this at home, kids!)
@OrchidBloom, I’m guessing the Carnegie Mellon TOEFL requirement was part of the backlash against the cheating that increasingly happens with international applications. They want multiple data points to ensure that you are really you, and that you didn’t hire someone to take the SAT for you. It’s a bummer for the vast majority of honest international applicants, though.
I was too lazy to apply to Rice or Uchicago
I almost didn’t apply to MIT because I didn’t like that they only had smaller essays and a fairly disorganized website. I neglected Cornell because the supplemental required some fairly specific knowledge of the university.
Absolutely. I was interested in a specific school for a while all the way up to junior year. This school required a “science lab” type project. That was the end of that fascination.
ALSO, I recently applied to a school that had me a whole bunch of random prompts like “what fictional character would you want to room with and why” knowing that there is about a 80% chance that the admissions rep will not know this character at all.
Reading through this thread I now understand the rationale for colleges having convoluted applications. It weeds out the Hail Mary applicants and those who have little interest in attending if admitted. They are the best way of :showing interest."