Qualified Applicant Rejected from All Schools

Applying to College
1

<p>Qualified Applicant Rejected from All Schools</p>

<p>I meant to post this thread back in early May, but I didn’t get around to it until now. Also, I’m sorry if parts of this feel like a speech, I just thought it was important to express everything that I had to say.</p>

<p>As I’ve been reading the forums, I’ve come across numerous threads detailing how many applicants (many of whom are much more qualified than myself) have been unilaterally rejected from every school that they applied to. However, I think that my case is quite different from the other situations I’ve read of. I believe that my application was severely compromised and that this can be traced back to a single factor that was not my fault. Therefore, this issue would call into question the validity of my rejections. It seems to me that I was rejected because my college counselor recommended that I omit some vital information about my school record from my essays and that that lack of information caused colleges to assume the worst and reject my application.</p>

<p>Before I get to the crux of the matter, I’ll give you a feel for my application process and my scores.</p>

<p>In November, I applied to IU Bloomington and was accepted. I never really wanted to attend the school, but since it’s my state school there was no reason not to apply to it.</p>

<p>Before I even applied to IU, I had already begun getting together a list of colleges I wanted to look into. I decided to apply to many of the most competitive schools because I thought that I had great SAT scores and an extremely compelling life story. I also had a college recommendation from a recent Yale graduate who had taught me in high school for two years and will be entering Columbia’s School of Medicine next year. I never really narrowed down my list much because the Common App makes it convenient to apply to many schools. I also thought that it would be hard to predict how colleges would react to my application (I was sure some admissions officer somewhere would be inspired to fight for my application after reading about my personal experiences). And so I applied to 15 private universities through the Common App.</p>

<p>I have realized now that it was an awful decision to apply to so many colleges (please don’t only read which colleges I applied to and disparage me for being so naïve to apply to them) and I also regret not taking advantage of early decision/action, but I thought that I had a good shot at many of the schools that I applied to. There were about three schools I was absolutely sure that I would get into and two others that I considered safeties (and I am still completely dumbfounded that these schools rejected me, but I’ll get to that later). The rest of the colleges ranged from complete reaches to schools that I considered reasonably within reach.</p>

<p>Basically, I was prepared to be rejected by the majority of the schools and I would’ve been more than happy to have gotten just three or four acceptances, but as it stands I have no choice about where I will attend next year and it’s not a school I’m very enthusiastic about (and I’m probably going to make an academic plan to stick to in case I decide that I want to transfer after my freshman year).</p>

<p>Here’s the list… Again, all are rejections unless noted otherwise.</p>

<p>Safeties (ranging from most safe to less safe)</p>

<p>American University
NYU * – Waitlist
USC
Cornell
Notre Dame – Acceptance with full ride (all needs aid and no loans)</p>

<p>Reaches (in no order)</p>

<p>Columbia
Dartmouth
Duke *
Harvard *
Northwestern
Princeton *
Stanford
UChicago * – Waitlist
UPenn
Yale</p>

<ul>
<li>Notes</li>
</ul>

<p>Duke’s interviewer was unprofessional and argumentative. In the end, I didn’t think it was worth it to complain to the school.</p>

<p>Harvard’s interview went brilliantly.</p>

<p>Princeton’s interview went wonderfully as well.</p>

<p>In my UChicago application I wrote a spectacular creative essay for the supplement (I tackled the Plato/Play-Doh question by comparing it to some specific mythological stories and alluded to the Nietzschean Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy) and I sent in an additional letter of recommendation and a letter of commitment after receiving the waitlist notification (I even cited articles from professors at the school in the letter and copied them when I sent the email). I was rejected on the first Friday of May.</p>

<p>I haven’t heard anything from NYU since the waitlist notice was sent out. They haven’t even emailed me.</p>

<p>I’ve settled for Notre Dame.</p>

<p>SAT I: 2140</p>

<p>Reading: 800
Math: 670
Writing: 670</p>

<p>SAT II</p>

<p>US History: 710
Math II: 640 (though I didn’t have time to finish the last 15 questions and guessed on them, I’m confident that I missed very few of the questions I answered)
English: 610 (awful; I wonder if it made my perfect reading score on the SAT I look like a fluke)</p>

<p>GPA: 4.85 weighted with AP and honors / 3.85 unweighted</p>

<p>AP Government: 4 (I was sure that I’d get a 5; it must have been close)
AP English Composition: 3 (though I only wrote two out of three essays; I write slowly)
AP Chemistry: 2
AP Calculus AB: 1 (I have always been terrible at calculus tests, but great at homework)</p>

<p>I would’ve taken many more AP classes, especially in the social sciences, if I had not transferred schools and had to restart two times.</p>

<p>Achievements (I’ll include 8th grade as well)</p>

<p>Class President – 8th grade
Valedictorian – 8th grade</p>

<p>I graduated high school with an Academic Honors diploma.</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities</p>

<p>Speech Team – 8th grade
Soccer – 8th/9th grade
Math Workshop – 9th grade
Key Club – 10th grade
Workstudy – 10th grade
Starfish Initiative (mentorship program) – 9th/10th grade
National Honors Society – 12th grade</p>

<p>Personal Story</p>

<p>Now, if you’re still reading, I will get to the heart of the matter and explain my personal experiences and academic record. This passage takes up several pages, so if you want to skip right to the part where I talk about the circumstances that I believe led to my rejections, just jump to the end.</p>

<p>More than anything else, I expected my life story to captivate college admissions officers. There are some shortcomings in my application in terms of my grades, AP scores, involvement in extracurriculars, and lack of achievements, but I have faced constant struggles throughout my high school years and my life and I’ve done what I could to overcome them. For the most part, the struggles had little to do with academics and I largely excelled in school, but the personal turmoil I endured bled into my academics and hindered me from reaching my full potential.</p>

<p>I don’t have some national science award and I haven’t spent my life doing humanitarian missions and teaching English to children living in war-torn nations, though those are things I would dearly have wanted to participate in. I feel that the way that elite colleges have attempted to become more open and accept a wider array of students creates unintended consequences in that it compels students to be excessively and artificially overachieving and to acquire a list of extraordinary life stories and personal experiences, much of which is still predicated on students being able to have the opportunity to participate in those kinds of experiences which are more readily accessible to students from families of greater means.</p>

<p>I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to be in a position where I have to compete with students who have perfect applications and have had their whole lives tailored around getting accepted to an elite college. I don’t want to sound like I’m being dismissive towards students who have truly worked hard to get where they are, but the truth is that life can be unremittingly ugly and harsh. All too often I feel that people like college admissions officers have some myopic belief that those who have faced tragedy can persevere no matter what and that there is always redemption found through suffering.</p>

<p>My mother passed away from Guillain-Barré Syndrome after over a year and a half of being confined to a wheelchair and spending months away from our family in rehabilitation centers and hospitals as she endured relapses and nerve damage. I was only eight then and it goes without saying that my mother’s death was a devastating loss for my family. My mother’s death also created a financial hardship for my family and only a few years later, when I was in fifth grade, my dad lost his job. My dad embarked on an extensive job search and application process, but seeing as though he was in his mid-fifties during that time and he was overqualified, he couldn’t find a job due to ageism and the unscrupulous nature of white-collar business, which would rather hire young unskilled workers than pay qualified adults who demand decent wages. The only way my dad and my brother and I have managed to get by is through social security.</p>

<p>It’s exceedingly difficult to convey the magnitude of the impact of my mother’s death and my family’s financial hardship on my life in college applications. These experiences have made me an incredibly thoughtful and mature person and I can say with confidence that few people my age will have the depth of character that I have. I really can’t tell you how hard it was for me to work on my applications because I felt like my entire application depended on communicating my strong character traits and I was worried that colleges would not bother to read my essays thoroughly or that they would misinterpret them.</p>

<p>There are so many things I wanted to express that I couldn’t find a place to fit into my essays. For example, because of my family’s financial situation I’ve become very passionate about economic debates in politics. I wonder what percentage of incoming college students going to elite colleges know anything about Dodd-Frank, the Volcker Rule, or the Simpson-Bowles commission, or any other important economic policy decisions that have been debated over the last few years?</p>

<p>During my 8th grade year, I decided that I would work as hard as I could to achieve the best grades possible and get into a great high school. This year was easily the best period of my life so far and the one time where I really lived up to my potential. I participated in speech club, I swam competitively, and I played soccer competitively for the entire year. I became the valedictorian of my 8th grade class and won a small scholarship to one of the best private high schools in the state.</p>

<p>The first semester of my freshman year went just about as well as my 8th grade year. My financial situation was the biggest challenge I faced throughout my freshman year. It turns out that my dad had not properly applied for financial aid and though I had a small scholarship, most of my tuition wasn’t covered and my dad didn’t have the money to pay for my school. For the entire year I didn’t know whether I would be able to continue attending or not and it contributed to a depression that would overshadow the next few years of my life.</p>

<p>My depression cut deeply into my academics and I felt that no matter how hard I tried in school I would never succeed as easily as the rest of the students at my school. The other students nearly all had wealthy families that were profoundly involved in their children’s lives and did whatever they could to help their children succeed. By contrast, my dad was poor and not socially connected with any of the other families at my school and was hardly involved at all in my education. My dad spent all of his time working with my dyslexic younger brother on his homework and left me to fend for myself.</p>

<p>The school’s financial office was very unprofessional with regards to my situation; we had numerous conferences and tried to correct the situation, but they were never clear or decisive when they communicated with us and left us hanging the entire year. When it came time to apply for financial aid for my sophomore year, I gave my dad the forms he needed to fill out and gave him plenty of time to return them on time (the aid was first-come, first-serve and there was no guarantee that there would be aid for everyone who needed it). I was too busy with schoolwork to pressure my dad to get the forms sent in and he was so uninvolved that he basically blew them off until the deadline. This created a conflict that bled into my academics and I ended the second semester barely passing most of my classes.</p>

<p>The financial aid office told my dad and I that they would not be able to know how much financial aid I would get, if any, but that they would look for outside scholarships to cover my tuition. So I spent my entire summer doing work-study at school under the impression that I would return in the fall. However, I got more and more concerned after not hearing anything from the financial aid office over the summer. When my dad went in for a conference the day before school started, the head of the financial aid office said that they couldn’t find any aid for me. However, when my dad pressured her to find out if there was any way I could still attend, she gave a very nebulous response and would not confirm that I could stay or tell me if I would be forced to leave. I still don’t know now whether or not the school would have let me attend my sophomore year there without paying tuition as it had essentially allowed me to do during my freshman year, but my dad and I were so crushed and angry at the school that we withdrew (though I still largely blamed my dad for not turning the financial aid application in on time).</p>

<p>My dad sought out other schools that I could transfer to, but none would be able to cover my tuition since it was late August and they had no aid left. I was forced to attend Broad Ripple High School to begin my sophomore year. To put it mildly, I was dismayed at the environment I was thrown into; few students took learning seriously. Those that did found it difficult to fit in. Some of my teachers were talented and considerate, but they were overwhelmed by a woefully underachieving administration – from the principal on down to the security guards. The administration, in turn, was overwhelmed by a generally unprepared and unmotivated student body. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that my father received weekly robo calls notifying him of bomb threats.</p>

<p>Sensing my growing frustration, one of my teachers suggested that I talk to a school counselor. My reluctance to see a school counselor to deal with the stress I encountered at Broad Ripple turned out to be warranted. The counselor – not a psychologist – was unsympathetic and berated me for what she perceived as arrogance on my part for being upset at the school environment I had been thrown into. I asked to talk to another counselor. This time I met with a psychologist who proved sympathetic and professional. Unfortunately, my new psychologist was removed. Of course, the school did not inform me until I asked. Even then, the school would not tell me why he left or was removed. In short, I was left with yet another loss and returned to square one.</p>

<p>In addition, I was struggling with my membership in an organization called the Starfish Initiative. I had joined it after grade school. Its mission is to help promising but economically disadvantaged students through high school and into college. To that end, it offers many valuable programs and opportunities. However, students were assigned a “mentor” who was supposed to offer guidance and counseling. Unfortunately, my mentor seemed to be more of a proselytizer for the Libertarian Party than anything else. I reluctantly agreed to try to work with him after the program director agreed to have a word with my mentor. Long story short, my mentor would not or could not let his libertarianism lie and our conversations were strained and uncomfortable. I felt that the only way I could make it end was to quit the organization, so I did. Yet another opportunity lost.</p>

<p>Slowly but surely, each one of these events deepened my depression. Unfortunately, I really did not know what was going on. I only knew that I wanted to escape Broad Ripple. At one point, I considered dropping out entirely, but I decided to try classes with a tutor. It was a disaster. The tutor was a college student majoring in elementary education and, to be honest, I found that he did not know as much about my subjects as I did and he did little but check my work for completion.</p>

<p>Eventually, I had lost all hope of soldiering on at Broad Ripple and I left school entirely. My father enrolled me with a psychiatrist after I left school. She was a wonderful, compassionate person and prescribed medication that helped somewhat. However, she only saw me about once every six weeks. Most of my interim counseling was taken up by a series of counselors – I believe there were five or six over the next 18 months. Some were helpful. Some, frankly, were terrible. However, the constant change of personnel made progress difficult. In reality, the only meetings I looked forward to were those with my psychiatrist.</p>

<p>Slowly but surely, my depression faded. However, I had gone without any enrollment in school for over a year and I was daunted by the prospect of being faced with another two years at Broad Ripple. My dad and I found a new charter school for me to enroll in for my junior year. The school’s curriculum emphasized a classical education and the school had many bright, young teachers. The transition was not as smooth as I would have liked, and my depression still lingered for a while, but I was able to excel again. As it turns out, the newly created charter school I attended went on to rank very highly in two esteemed high school rankings. In 2010, Newsweek ranked it 27th nationally on its list of America’s Best High Schools and in 2012, US News and World Report ranked it the 4th best high school in my state.</p>

<p>My junior and senior years went very well, but during my senior year I decided that I wanted to take a gap year before applying to college. After having such a tumultuous high school education, I wanted to take a year to prepare myself for college and get my life in order. I spent the year reading many books I’ve wanted to read, learning Chinese, exercising, and doing many other productive things. However, there was also another reason I took a gap year. My brother has always struggled with his schoolwork and I didn’t want him to fall into a depression like I experienced and fall behind his classmates. So I spent a great deal of time every night with my brother to help him with homework in subjects where he was struggling. In a way, helping my brother was the most satisfying reason to take a gap year because it allowed him to live up to his potential in school (for the first time since he started high school, my brother passed all of his classes during the fall semester).</p>

<p>College Rejections</p>

<p>Now I will talk about the circumstances that led me to post this thread about my rejections. I have not contacted any colleges about my rejections yet (by this point it might be too late). My college counselor promised to contact at least one of the colleges on my behalf, but she never got around to it.</p>

<p>As I said, I believe that my application was severely compromised and that this can be traced back to a single factor that was not my fault. Therefore, this issue would call into question the validity of my rejections.</p>

<p>When I was writing my essays for the Common App I decided that because of my personal background and the turmoil of my high school years, I needed to write an extended personal essay to explain my story in full detail. I ended up writing a very long personal essay and submitted it under the additional information section of my Common App.</p>

<p>Now here’s the crux of the matter. I suffered a long depression and for the duration of over a year I was out of school. I left sometime during February of my sophomore year, though I was taking some online classes and received tutoring until roughly the end of that school year and then I formally dropped out. I spent the entire next year (which would’ve been my junior year) going to counseling for depression weekly. I returned to school after that at a new school and completed high school without any more interruptions. Then I took a gap year and I consulted with my college counselor from high school all throughout the application process.</p>

<p>My college counselor advised me on several occasions during long conversations about the matter that I should not include the story of my depression anywhere in my college application. She thought that colleges would look down on it as a liability and would discriminate against me because of it. Her advice went against my strongest instincts. However, in the end I decided to follow her advice. She is a professional counselor with a PhD who has helped hundreds of kids apply to college and if she is reluctant to include the story of my depression for fear of it hurting my application, then I should trust her judgment.</p>

<p>When the Common App asked me to fill out the dates of my high school attendance, I filled them out honestly. It was clear from the dates that I had filled in that there was a year’s gap between my sophomore year and my junior year. When the Common App provided a list of things to check off about my high school years, I checked the three appropriate boxes that indicated that there was an interruption between my high school years. The Common App then provided a place to attach a document explaining the interruptions, and I attached a document that dealt only with my gap year.</p>

<p>The personal essay that I submitted under the additional information section of the Common App tells a longer version of the life story I wrote above (though much of what I wrote here was personalized for this thread). In the essay, when I came to the part about losing my financial aid and being forced to leave school right before my sophomore year, I skipped entirely over Broad Ripple, my counseling, and my depression, and continued with my transition to the charter school in my junior year. I ran the essay by my counselor and she again affirmed that omitting my depression was the right way to handle my application.</p>

<p>I’m concerned that the only reason why I was even accepted to Notre Dame at all was because a representative of theirs contacted my school and my counselor told me about it afterwards and said that I could send my essay about depression to them if I wanted to, which I did (though she still advised me not to forward the letter to any other colleges unless they asked me about it).</p>

<p>Again, I don’t know if this is the reason why I was rejected from almost all of the colleges I applied to since I haven’t contacted them about it yet. I spent the entire month of April working on an essay and getting an extra recommendation to try and get off of the UChicago waitlsit. So by May I was exhausted and crushed by the college applications process and I didn’t have the energy to pursue the matter further at that point.</p>

<p>Even though I can’t prove my rejections are due to the omission of my story about depression, I am absolutely sure that it is reason why I was rejected. I cannot find any other reason that would explain how I could be rejected by schools like American University, USC, and NYU – schools where my SATs are above the 75th percentile (which means my scores are better than 75% of the students they accepted) – yet waitlisted at a university as competitive as UChicago. A UChicago representative on these forums has said that the students that it waitlisted could’ve just as easily been interchanged with the class that it ended up admitting. I think that that confirms that something went very wrong with my applications.</p>

<p>I suppose another possible reason would be that since I submitted my personal essay under additional information on the Common App that the college admissions officers didn’t do anything more than glance over it without reading it completely anyways, but I doubt that.</p>

<p>This whole experience is frustrating. When I apply to colleges and pay them excessive fees to even have my application considered, I expect the highest standards of professionalism, and quite frankly, colleges don’t live up to them. I am seriously cynical about the college applications process now. The admissions officers must have noticed that there was a gap between my school years that wasn’t accounted for anywhere in my essays. I know colleges can’t chase down information from everyone that applies to them, but can’t they even bother to consult me when they notice that something’s conspicuously missing from my application? What did they do when they noticed the gap between my high school years? Did they just look at it and decide to throw out my application for being incomplete without even notifying me? Did they just look at it as a way to get rid of one extra application to narrow down the pile? It seems like colleges take every shortcut that they can to make their jobs easier and don’t have any concern for the integrity of the applications process.</p>

<p>Like I said, if a professional college advisor is unsure whether I’m better off sending in an essay about my depression and taking the discrimination that might come with that or whether I should just omit that from my essay entirely and hope that that conspicuous absence doesn’t make an even greater liability for my application, what am I supposed to do? I know that my college counselor has my best interests at heart and that she truly believed that omitting my depression would be for the greater good, so I can’t blame her. But what am I supposed to do if that turns out to be the tragic flaw of my application and the reason why I was rejected?</p>

<p>Other Explanations for Rejections</p>

<p>There are a few more issues that came up with my application process that might also be to blame for the rejections.</p>

<p>One is the matter of the using fee waivers for application fees. Since I’m out of high school and taking a gap year, I’m ineligible to use the College Board and NACAC fee waivers. So I clicked the option on the Common App that said “other fee waiver.” In fact, the only reason I didn’t apply to Brown was because they didn’t have an other fee waiver option and I was running out of time to send in my applications. At the time I sent out my Common App, I had no idea what I was supposed to do for the “other fee waiver.” Every college’s website directed me to send in either a College Board or NACAC fee waiver.</p>

<p>I sent my college counselor an email in early January asking her what I should do and whether she could write all my colleges a short note asking for a waiver. She didn’t respond at all to that email. Finally, I got an email from Stanford in early February on a Tuesday saying that if I didn’t pay the fee or use a waiver, they would throw out my application by Friday. That day, I wrote my counselor again and asked her what to do. On either Thursday or Friday, she sent out an explanation of my situation and asked for my application fee to be waived. She got confirmations from about four or five colleges that they had waived my fee. However, I don’t know what happened with the ones that didn’t confirm that my fee was waived. What if they just threw out my application without even telling me?</p>

<p>There’s one more alternative explanation of my rejections. Since I transferred to my final high school during my junior year, my college counselor sent out my transcript with a, “credit received,” showing up for the grades I received at my previous high schools. She said that if any colleges asked about my grades, she would send them a complete transcript, but that otherwise it was a school policy to send out credit received for credits students attained at other high schools. So how do I know if colleges even bothered to go out of their way and ask for my full transcript? From everything I’ve experienced, it just seems that colleges would be inclined to just throw away an application if it appears that there’s anything missing and use it as an opportunity to narrow down the amount of applications they have to sort through, rather than do the right thing and investigate the situation.</p>

<p>One final explanation would be that colleges are not really needs-blind. A student like me who has no means at all to pay for any part of his education (hence why I applied to full-needs schools) would be the least likely to be accepted if colleges didn’t swear that they were needs-blind. But who has the oversight to determine whether colleges actually follow through with this policy? Since the schools I applied to are private institutions, there’s no way for them to held accountable if, in fact, they are needs-blind in name only. So how do college applicants like myself know if we’re being misled; are we just supposed to take it on faith that colleges are needs-blind?</p>

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<p>I read through all of it. Every little bit. And sorry, but if this is how you came across to adcoms - I can see why they rejected you. Sorry, really, because I know you’re not doing this on purpose. Your last paragraph especially troubles me because of how you seem to be skeptical of the very schools you were supposedly eager to go to. The world is, surprisingly, not out to get you all the time.</p>

<p>Word on the CC streets is that interviews mean next to nothing (except I presume for borderline applicants) and with your scores your reaches could have all either accepted or rejected you. You were also about right in the middle for Cornell, SAT-wise (won’t go into the GPA/ECs debate).</p>

<p>You got a full ride to Notre Dame. That’s AMAZING. Congratulations!! Most people in your position, with your life story, would be jumping up and down that they got into a school that is well-known worldwide and that you won’t have to pay a penny for it. I know you’ve struggled with depression, you’re not the only one, but you come across as being unable to be happy with the things you get out of life.</p>

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<p>…You’re REALLY overthinking things. I’m sorry, I couldn’t read the whole thing, but I can almost guarantee you that adcoms spent <em>maybe</em> as much time looking over your app as I did reading your post.</p>

<p>You do realize these schools have teeny tiny acceptance rates, and that you had no true safeties (hate the term, but it’s accurate), right? I agree that it may have benefited you <em>slightly</em> had you included a description of your depression. However, were you even half so long-winded as in your explanation here, it probably would have hurt you far more than it would have helped. </p>

<p>I think you expect far too much of admission committees for the fee you paid. In Canada, we pay similar fees, and adcoms don’t typically need to read through essays and resumes and such. They see our grades (maybe, I think it may be processed by computers), and we’re admitted based on those, barring a short essay or two explaining extenuating circumstances.</p>

<p>I’m sorry for your experience, but I believe you’re making this out to be much more personal than it actually is. Adcoms simply don’t have the time to chase after missing bits of information, and the onus is on you. Whether you were misled or not is not their responsibility nor their concern.</p>

<p>I do hope you enjoy your time at Notre Dame (settling? I’ve heard nothing but good things about that school), and that you don’t dwell on these perceived slights.</p>

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<p>I read through the entire post as well.
First off, Notre Dame is a tremendous school, you have no reason to sulk or lower your head. Especially since you will be paying next to nothing to go there.
Out of all the schools listed, I am only suprised that you didn’t get into American(perhaps NYU as well).
Some weaknesses I see are: SAT II scores, GPA with regard to # of AP classes taken(small weakness), and you seem to lack any EC’s which tell the adcoms anything about you. You are competing against the creme of the crop, many of whom have near perfect applications. One glaring mistake is often enough to be rejected.</p>

<p>Also to address the rest of the post:
To be perfectly frank you come off a little bit elitist and whiney. I attend a public school that has a milieu similar to the one you “endured”. The experience is what you make it, and our school is sending students to Harvard ,Stanford, Princeton, among other top schools. There is no reason you can’t suceed in a public school environment.</p>

<p>I don’t think any school rejected you because of the “tragic flaw” in your application. I personally don’t understand how that explanation would have much bearing on your admission. You applied to some of the best schools in the nation and thus you were rejected, along with thousands of other hopefuls like yourself.</p>

<p>Lastly, you seem to be a very bright individual who has overcome some real obstacles. Don’t think being rejected is somehow an indictment of your intelligence or anything. Adcoms consist of people. People make mistakes. Prove them wrong and suceed wherever your end up going. I wish you the best in your future endeavors.</p>

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<p>You did not get rejected everywhere – you got into Notre Dame with a full ride and IU Bloomington.</p>

<p>Of course, in hindsight, your “safeties” that rejected you were not really safeties.</p>

<p>All except American are competitive enough that no one should treat them as a safety, and American considers “level of interest” to be “very important” – meaning that they probably do not want to be used as a safety and reject “overqualified” applicants who will probably go elsewhere. In addition, if you are needy enough to get a full ride of need-based aid to Notre Dame, then NYU was a super-reach since you would need one of the few large merit scholarships to be able to afford it (NYU gives poor need-based financial aid).</p>

<p>Go to Notre Dame and enjoy your studies there.</p>

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<p>OP, I’m really sorry about everything that’s happened to you. Sounds like you really should have explained your depression situations in your apps, and that you got one bad piece of advice. Just realize that admissions comittees have to go through tens of thousands of applications in a matter of a few months and that they’re not miracle workers. It’s over now, and you’re going to a top university with no cost, so the admissions process should now all be water under the bridge. Just please enjoy your college. I’m sure you’ll feel much better in less than a month. Good luck in ND!</p>

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<p>I also read the entire post. I’m very sorry about your family and financial situations. Unfortunately, with lack of better phrasing/diction, reality is harsh. The top schools can only admit so many people from 50 states and other countries, so they need to find the most qualified applicants, in terms of potential to succeed.</p>

<p>I think one of the main reasons you may have been rejected was that you didn’t really explain how you <em>overcame</em> your hardships. You briefly mentioned that your depression “slowly faded” but in a sort of pessimistic way (by mentioning your brother’s depression). You should have gone less in-depth about your hardships, and a little more in-depth about how you overcame your adversity and what you learned from it.</p>

<p>Also, in terms of objective data (grades, scores, EC’s), your grades and SAT score are decent (not outstanding, but well within the range for these schools) but your subject tests are quite low. Your EC’s are pretty weak compared to the vast majority of applicants (they don’t show enough “commitment”), but the colleges should know what you’ve been through.</p>

<p>On the bright side, you’ve been accepted to Notre Dame with a full ride! I would definitely go for it. Sometimes it doesn’t really matter where you go for under-graduate studies, as long as you pursue your passions. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, wherever you may go.</p>

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<p>Notre Dame is a great school and you should be glad to go there without paying! Many would love to be in your situation. If you didn’t feel that you’d be happy attending the school, you shouldn’t have applied.</p>

<p>The only school that could be considered a safety on your list is American. The others were all reaches. Ivies reject 9/10 “qualified” applicants. Applying to so many competitive schools doesn’t help this fact. You shouldn’t be surprised at any of the other rejections. 2400s and 4.0s get rejected from Ivies. You had neither nor a list of impressive ECs or hook. </p>

<p>I’m sorry about your situation and what you went through, but blaming the world for every bad thing isn’t the right way to go about things. If this attitude came across at all in your college apps I can only think that it wouldv’e hurt you. People go through hardships, depression, etc. Maybe mentioning more of your situation would’ve been better, but you have a really negative take on it all. If that had come across it would’ve hurt your application. The bit about being miserable at a public high school honestly made you seem a little elitist. The way you talk about high school ranks and rank in general. It almost seems as if you feel you were too good for that public school. I’m not trying to be mean, but just honest. Some of the attitude on here would’ve hurt you if you attached it as an explanation. </p>

<p>Congrats on getting accepted to a great school. Life is what you make of it. It will be meaningless, depressing, and “second rate” only if you make it so. Notre Dames a great school, you got a full ride, and you should be thankful and enjoy the experience.</p>

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<p>American considers “level of interest” to be “very important” in admissions, so it should not be considered a safety.</p>

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<p>True, but OP met the other “very important” criteria. I think OP had a decent shot at American. And if not, I could see how academically OP would consider American a safety. However, all of the others were big reaches.</p>

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<p>

That’s probably the longest post I’ve ever read. </p>

<p>That said, I agree with posters above that Notre Dame is a great place, and you have a chance to go and make a great start for yourself there. I realize that you may feel like you have a unique experience that somehow sets you apart/above your peers, but you would be amazed (and probably humbled) at what some of us went through as children ourselves (speaking as a parent here).</p>

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<p>I’m sorry about what you’ve had to go through, and you should understand that the fact that admissions officers did not appreciate the gravity of your situation should not diminish it or invalidate your hard work. Besides for the ND adcoms, they must have not done the job for the other schools- likely they must have not done enough. </p>

<p>Here’s the problem though- you applied to a dozen schools with under 15% acceptance rates, most of which were single digit for RD! And you applied to seven of the eight Ivy league schools?! Did you honestly expect that it guaranteed acceptance to at least one? USC had a massive drop in acceptance rate, NYU is a terrible school to apply to if you need financial aid, and other are assuming you didn’t show a whole lot of interest in American. Also in regards to the UChicago waitlist… it’s a very cruel fate and I wish they didn’t waitlist so many- thousands of applicants but only a tiny handful were accepted. Think of it more as a light rejection; all top schools have enough desirable students to fill several classes but there just aren’t enough spaces. </p>

<p>You got one acceptance to be very proud of, take it for what it’s worth. Many people would like to be in your situation. Regardless, it’s time to move on because it’s best not to dwell on these things. Go to ND, have fun, and don’t worry about the harsh and seemingly random process that is college admissions.</p>

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<p>First, a few superficial (and rather useless) points (useless because it’s the past, and you have to look forwards now):</p>

<p>

I think you missed the point of the essay. They are not testing your ability to cite mythology and complicated philosophical theories. They are not “testing” anything, really.</p>

<p>

It certainly would make someone second-guess your CR score, but that’s a minor quibble.</p>

<p>

No college will consider these, since those were in middle school.</p>

<p>

It is too late.

You need to bug people every day if you want something that is time-sensitive to get done.</p>

<p>I’m not trying to be critical, and I do empathize with many of the feelings you express - I’ve felt some of them before. I do feel like your personal story is genuine and a very good one.</p>

<p>

Her judgment was wrong. You yourself admit to having gone against your own personal instincts. At least you’re learning this now: if something someone tells you goes against your deepest instincts, they’re probably wrong. Just because someone with a PhD tells you something doesn’t mean they’re right. (They might be right, but you need to do your own research in that case).
No admissions officer will “look down” on someone with depression, as long as the essay is sincere (if it is full of self-pity, some people <em>might</em> look down on it, but that is doubtful).</p>

<p>

Don’t worry about this. They actually read it.</p>

<p>

It seems that Notre Dame did pay attention. However, while college adcoms WILL contact you if you are missing any required information, they are not obligated to contact you if you are missing optional information. I mean, imagine a candidate that doesn’t list any ECs in the activities section. Do you expect the adcoms to contact that person to make sure they didn’t omit any ECs? No.</p>

<p>

Maybe. This is why you can’t just let your college counselor do everything for you. You have to email colleges yourself and explain why you need a waiver. There’s no reason why it has to come from your counselor. They trust you’re telling the truth. Again, for time-sensitive tasks, you need to remind people every day.</p>

<p>If there’s anything missing in terms of transcripts, colleges WILL contact you, usually by email, no doubt. Things get lost in the mail, and colleges are flexible about things not arriving.</p>

<p>Colleges say whether they are needs-blind. If a college says they are, they are. Some colleges aren’t needs-blind. Such colleges will explicitly have such a policy on their website.</p>

<p>

Not true. An essay about overcoming depression does not count against you. I think the OP’s explanations were fine in terms of length. Canadian admissions work extremely differently than US admissions.</p>

<p>I do think you come off as someone who puts too much blame on others (the therapists, the schools). But those are entirely plausible situations, and are thus extremely minor flaws and your overall story I felt was compelling.</p>

<p>I agree with rspence in that colleges like it if you explain <em>how</em> you overcame hardship. HOWEVER, that is not to say that your essays were undercut by this absence - it’s implicit that you overcame those obstacles.</p>

<p>I also noticed you mentioned how you spent the gap year tutoring and mentoring your brother in order that he wouldn’t have to go through what you went through. That IS a very compelling story, probably more compelling than even your explanation of the hardships you went through - it shows a deep sense of empathy.</p>

<p>To be honest. I’m not sure what you’re looking for by posting this thread. Is it consolation? Is it advice?
Nonetheless, I’m very, very sorry about everything you had to go through. While I don’t think there is anything wrong with your story, I think it is also understandable (from the adcom’s point of view) that you got rejected by many of the colleges you listed.</p>

<p>I think that, however cliched and or harsh this might unintentionally sound, there are some things you are lucky to learn now, rather than later. Namely, that if you want to make sure something gets done, you have got to step up and own up to making sure it gets done (constantly bugging the person who is doing it, or doing it yourself). That you have got to trust your own instincts, rather than the often contradicting advice you will hear from “authority” figures - and trust me, this is something you will face in the future.</p>

<p>You need to look to the future. Ruminating on the past is absolutely deadly for your self-esteem. Go ahead and write down all of your sentiments in a journal or something. Try to think of what you want to do in the future. Try to look forward to college life, and “remaking” yourself. Notre Dame is a great school.</p>

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<p>Yeah Notre Dame is a fine school, and you aren’t paying a dime for it. Nothing much else to reiterate except some of those safeties you chose definitely aren’t safeties.</p>

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<p>I agree with the others…Notre Dame is an excellent school and you should be thrilled especially with a full ride!</p>

<p>Go and excel your first year. If you want to transfer, remember they primarily look at your college GPA.</p>

<p>I also agree with your counselor. Depression is not a topice that should be used in an application. You have to remember that colleges are looking for students that fit well into their environment they are trying to create. </p>

<p>The reason for the rejections probably are due to the competitiveness of the schools. I remember The University of Chicago representative once saying during a college visit that they could reject/wait list everyone that was accepted and still fill the class from others that had applied. The level of applications was just that strong. The determining factor sometimes is the essay. She then talked about some of her best essays she had read and how they were written in such a way that you truly got to know the applicate and you wanted them at your university. </p>

<p>Good luck and congratulations again on the incredible school you got into.</p>

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<p>Get over yourself. You were very fortunately admitted into an amazing school like Notre Dame with relatively below-par scores. That all the ivies and many highly selective schools you applied to rejected your application should not have been surprising.</p>

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<p>Today is the first day of the rest of your life. The only importance gathered from past experience it to learn from your mistakes so you don’t make the same one twice. Everything else is just a boat anchor around your ankle. It will serve no purpose except drag you down.</p>

<p>Embrace ND, you are truly fortunate to get into a great school expense free. It is an exciting new beginning for you.</p>

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<p>Get over yourself"; you’re pathetic. It seems like you’ve been expecting to get at least one ‘superb’ college than the one you are attending. You’re sorely mistaken. They don’t owe you anything, and yes, your circumstances are surely something to look at, they don’t account for all of your failures.</p>

<p>I can also see a sense that you are making excuses for every single mistake you’ve made (see AP scores and Duke interview ). </p>

<p>And you’re complaining about getting into a GREAT college with a a full ride. Youve probably spent your whole life dreaming of an ivy or high rank school, which is clearly reflected in your application choice. However, as many others have stated, you have sub par academics, scores, and extracurriculars. You should be grateful for a notre dame acceptance, not grovelling for an acceptance from an online community or college. The fact that you listed several top schools as a safety (cornell?!?!?!) shows your skewed perspective. As I already mentioned, you barely fit into their minimum reccomendations. Don’t complain about your poor college choice if you didn’t do the research necessary. Also, your opinion of the interview doesn’t matter, it’s the interviewer’s opinion that matters. Long story short? You shouldn’t be surprised at your rejections. </p>

<p>Life doesn’t owe you anything; you state multiple times that life isn’t fair and you should accept that. Well you know what? You’ve been dealt with a bad hand, deal with it.</p>

<p>I understand that you’ve had some hard times, but this post is atrocious and I could rant about several more flaws. Keep moving forward.</p>

<p>Sent from my LG-P999 using CC</p>

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<p>Sorry, terenc, I think I was combining the “essay topic” talked about on here with a separate personal essay, since it’s always recommended to avoid topics about obstacles unless it details how they were overcome, for the former. I apologize for making that assumption, though I do believe the OP could have condensed their story somewhat, both to facilitate reading and to strengthen their case by focusing on key points.</p>