Rejected almost everywhere. Gap year/transfer?

blankman
Sun, 16 Apr 2006 12:12:54 +0000

Paul-

I’m sorry if I came across as harsh, but it is the reality that you were severely underqualified compared to other applicants at those schools. You still had every right to apply, but then to end up surprised at the rejection is rather ridiculous. You aren’t even in the top ten percent of your class- essentially everyone at Brown, MIT, and Dartmouth is. Even the majority of the people at BU are.

Your SAT scores only hurt you at the top schools, placing you in the bottom 25% of applicants. You SAT II scores are weak as well.

So the top schools were completely unrealistic. NYU and CMU were big reaches too. Why? At CMU, for example, about 3 of 4 were in the top 10 percent of their class. Your SAT scores are below their average too. To consider them a match shows a lack of judgement.

Don’t blame me or call me “negative.” I’m a realistic, a pragmatist. In reality you thought you were a far more competitive applicant than you really were. Don’t blame the colleges for screwing you over when you think you were qualified. Just because you consider them a match doesn’t mean they really are a match or that you deserve to be accepted. Good luck at Fordham.