So there is this girl in my grade who is super smart and everyone knows it. She has top test scores and grades and a bunch of activities to put on her resume as well. She applied to 17 different schools. I recently found out that she got waitlisted at the University of Chicago. I thought that maybe that was her reach school and she had a few other match and safety schools just incase she didn’t get in…but now I know that her “safety” school is Washington University which has an acceptance rate of about 15%.
I was just wondering what goes through people’s minds when they are choosing colleges to apply to. Why would someone take such a huge risk by not applying to a place where they would be guaranteed acceptance? I applied to two state schools even though statisticly speaking I should have no problem getting into top schools. I just find it unbelievable that someone who is so “smart” would jeopardize their chances of being admitted because they thought that grades and test scores would make the cut.
Anyway, I just want to hear other people’s opinions on this situation and if anyone has known anyone like this girl before. It almost makes me depressed because someone with so much talent and potential could be taking an unexpected gap year next year just because of a stupid decision…
There are a couple out here in the spring every year who use that strategy and whiff, or only have a safety they really don’t like. But you can really only worry about your own application strategy. And a gap year isn’t the end of the world.
I think that it’s due to an inflated ego. This girl has probably been told how smart she is her entire life by tons of people. She has top test scores, amazing ECs and good grades. To an 18 year-old, these 3 things equal a “perfect student”. She views herself as the perfect student and therefore applies to the “perfect schools”, which most high school students consider to be the Ivy League schools with very low acceptance rates. She probably didn’t consider that the Ivy League schools are a reach for everyone.
I knew a guy who went to my school last year who was ranked #1 in his class, got a 2290 on his SAT, president of 3 clubs, took every AP class our school had to offer. He applied to MIT, Princeton, Yale, Harvard and got rejected from them all. When people heard he was rejected, there was a small uproar of people who couldn’t believe he wasn’t accepted. Some even said he got rejected because he was white and “less qualified” black/hispanic students were accepted instead (this is a stupid argument). He ended up going to our state flagship school.
There’s also inevitably the people who only applied to “lottery” schools, but didn’t have the threshold stats for a decent chance at any of them; about this time last year a kid was worried that he might get rejected from JHU (his safety school), where his test scores were below the 25th percentile and his GPA was below-average.
It seems fairly common for kids at my son’s school to apply to some of the Top 20 schools plus the state flagship. Some are accepted to the HYPSM type schools, but many go to the flagship.
@ClarinetDad16 Schools ranked 1-20 overall in the U.S. based on various categories by US News and other ranking publications. They consist of schools such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton of the Ivy League and other highly acclaimed universities in the country such as UChicago, Stanford, Northwestern, and John Hopkins. Typically having the qualities of low acceptance rate, better than average financial aid, strong course rigor, high median scores, and large endowments.
Only applying to top schools is a deadly formula. I made sure to apply to a nice range.
i think it’s more lack of understanding rather than ego. People going through this the first time just don’t understand the ins and outs until after experiencing the entire admissions cycle. They can read about it, but it doesn’t set in until April, May and June. If this student does get shut out, she’ll have a helpful story to tell, that future applicants will probably ignore. There are tons of these stories already out here on CC, but some people still don’t ‘get it’ until it’s too late.
I know several people who think that since they applied to all/most of the Top 20 schools they will get accepted to at least one. One of my best friends has good, but not great, stats and applied to almost exclusively top 20 schools. I’m worried that she’ll end up unhappy with her options but it’s definitely not my place to mention anything. Another one of my friends said that UCLA and UC Berekely were his safeties! (Though, to be fair, he did get in to both with Regents).
I don’t understand the line of thinking at all, but I suppose that’s because I’ve been on CC since my freshman year. Reading the threads for the top 20 schools here definitely served as a reality check for me. The school counselors aren’t helpful and the college apps teachers are only really knowledgable about in-state publics. I can see how if people never really learned about the realities of the application process they would assume that “apply to as many top 20 schools as possible” was a valid strategy.
General CC wisdom is to make sure you have a safety or two on your list for which you are assured admission, can definitely afford it, and would be happy to attend.
If she gets shut out, and she does not live in a state where the community colleges are expensive and unsuitable for transfer preparation, then she can go to community college and then transfer to the state flagship to finish her bachelor’s degree. No need to take a gap year in that case.
Yeah I guess it’s true that many people have the mindset that if they apply to a bunch of top 20 schools then they will get into at least one. I wish it worked like that! I’m just glad that I have been reading CC posts about this type of stuff for a few year so I didn’t fall into that trap! It’s a shame that so many high schoolers are misinformed.
And in the event that she does get shut out like ucbalumnus said, she can take a gap year and then next year she’ll know how to apply to colleges in a safe and smart way.
Sometimes its buying into the myth that you can’t get a good education at the state flagship (if flagship isn’t UC, UNC, UVA type). We’re trying to narrow our list because I’m not sure you can even do justice to the school specific essays with even 7 schools. Not while in a rigorous HS schedule at least.
These people fail to understand the basic concept of independence of events in probability. Probability of getting into top schools are highly dependent. If you are rejected by Harvard, the probability of being rejected by Yale and such is extremely high.
If she’s really amazing, the odds are that she’ll get into one of those 17 schools – someone might need someone just like her. The problem is that even if she has a 95% chance of getting in, if she ends up in the 5% scenario, she’s in a very bad place indeed. I would guess that she did not get great advice about the college admissions landscape. Our CC was quite adamant about the need to find schools where you were likely to be admitted and you’d be happy to go. And they’re not that hard to find – there are a lot of great choices out there!
Shouldn’t it be “certain to be admitted and certain to be affordable” for it to be a safety?
A student with top-end stats should have an easier time finding a safety than most other students, since schools that may be reaches for other students may automatically admit a top-end stats student. Or schools which may otherwise be too expensive may have automatic-for-stats merit scholarships that make them affordable.
Granted, some students with top-end stats seem to think that only a reach-for-everyone school is one that they like. Such students will have no true safeties that they like.