Rejected Everywhere Except for the Honors at Safeties? How to Deal With It? Should I Transfer?

Applying to College
1

So, over the course of 4 years, I saw my academic growth and role in extracurriculars expand at high degrees. As I was looking at colleges to add to the application list last year, I saw the SAT scores, class ranking, and extracurricular involvement typical of students admitted the universities I applied to; I made sure that I got my scores to the 75th percentile in admitted students and thought I was doing things correctly to get to a preferred school.

EC Types: Board Positions as Treasury and VP in some clubs, Fed Challenge, Team Challenge
SAT I: 1530 (Math 800, English 730)
SAT Subject II: Math II (800), History (750)
Class Rank: Top 6%

According to the research I did, I felt I had 4 safeties, 5 reaches, and 10 match level schools. But the result was a whopping surprise.

Even the schools that had SAT averages 100+ points below mine, admitted students in a lower class rank than mine, and/or had GPA averages below mine all rejected me. I did NOT MAKE A SINGLE MATCH SCHOOL, let alone the reaches.

So now, I’ve recently just accepted the invite Honors RBS Program at Rutgers University (because I guess I wasn’t even talented enough to at least get an Honors College invite) and am just sitting in this gigantic cesspool of failure.
A handful of students who achieved big in HS are in a similar situation as me.

I just felt my resume qualified for a number of the high-end colleges given their averages and made a great mistake costing me everything I have worked towards at this point.

WHAT MAKES IT WORSE is that I am watching some people with less EC’s and lower scoring getting into PRETTY PRESTIGIOUS universities with moderate aid simply because they didn’t apply to insane schools and correctly knew that a match school isn’t all about scores and EC’s.

2019 has landed in Rutgers Honors and I honestly wished I at least shifted my application list to save myself from wasting $1500+ and 50 hours on supplements.

So I’m still a senior and am currently making plans to transfer out of RU after a year or two (so I’m avoiding senioritis since it could hurt my transfer rate, but it still infuriates to see VNova and Mich kids put half the effort as I do).

----------Does transferring give you a much higher probability of admissions? Because I know the percentages were higher but I feel like that’s only because only talented ambitious applicants would attempt a transfer mid-college.

----------Would attending RU SASHP harm or make finding an entry level job more difficult?

----------Should I stay in RU to save money on undergraduate and make Graduate School the prestigious one?

----------Would people or family judge my academic capability because of this year’s results?

(I appreciate any support regarding this plan).

2

I understand your frustration and disappointment. My daughter went through exactly the same situation this time last year.

She had a 4.0 GPA UW/4.98W, 1550 SAT, 720+ on 3 SAT Subject Tests, was in all honors and 6 AP classes (and our school doesn’t rank).

She applied to Georgetown Early Action (her top choice), UVA, Tufts, Penn, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Bucknell, Lehigh and Ohio State. I “made” her apply to University of Maryland and Penn State (our in-state flagship).

Her results were:
Accepted: Ohio State, Penn State and Univ of Maryland (Honors College)
Deferred then rejected: Georgetown
Rejected: UVA, Tufts, Penn, Cornell, Johns Hopkins
Waitlisted: Bucknell, Lehigh (which is my alma mater)

She just could not figure out what went wrong. While she certainly didn’t expect to get into ALL of these schools she also didn’t expect to be “left with” only Ohio State, Penn State and Maryland. And truthfully neither did I. After visiting Maryland in early April she begrudgingly decided to commit there. She did get off the waitlist at Lehigh but as parents we decided the cost differential between Lehigh and UMd ($140k over the 4 years) just couldn’t be justified.

She spent the rest of the summer trying to convince herself it would be okay but she never could. Move-in day was not the fun, exciting day we hoped it would be because she was at a place she didn’t want to be and/or thought she didn’t “deserve” to be at.

Literally within 2 days she was having fun, within a few weeks she was having a blast. She is now gloriously happy there and couldn’t see herself anywhere else. In fact she says she is happier than everyone from her high school friend group.

So I encourage you to allow for the possibility that Rutgers can turn out to be a place where you can be gloriously happy. And if you are not, then you certainly can pursue a transfer somewhere else. So many people say it and I know it’s so hard to truly believe but college is what you make of it. Your future success will not be limited because you went to Rutgers. Your future success will very much be determined by what you do while you are at Rutgers.

3

Rutgers is a great school. Only in NJ do people treat it as a consolation prize.

4

Honestly, I had no idea that Rutgers was not considered all that until I came to CC. I think you could do far worse than gain an eduction from Rutgers. I cannot answer your other questions; I do not have that level of knowledge or experience. As a mom, I will say to you ‘embrace your opportunities, make the best of them; work hard and do well’
Treat this as another opportunity to rise above and shine. You’ll find your feet and will soar.

ETA one more thing - if you are really that unhappy, you can take a gap year, do something truly meaningful (or work) and reapply, that’s what two of my kids did (one reapplied and was successful, and one deferred)

5

You’ve said nothing about what your goals are or why you would have a compelling reason to transfer.

“Because I know the percentages were higher”

Actually, generally, that’s not true. It would still be exceedingly hard to transfer in to an elite school. Except for Vandy.

Did you apply to only Ivies/equivalents with single digit admit rates in the RD round and a few safeties you have zero desire to attend? You didn’t think that single-digit admit schools are insanely difficult to get in to and guarantees for no one?

Remember that at the Ivies/equivalents, half or more of the class are hooked (and stats-wise, they would make up most of the bottom half of the class), which means you have to be pretty amazing to get in unhooked (generally nationally ranked in something for HYPSM).

6

Presumably, you chose safeties that you like. So it should be no problem to attend one of them.

7

@TheSkeptic888 the experience you and @adlgel described above is becoming more and more common. Bottom line is that there is nothing close to a magic formula anymore where you can plug your stats, plus a list of EC’s into an equation and figure out with any degree of certainty what will happen after you submit an application.

Between the every increasing numbers of applications, large and growing proportion of students admitted through binding ED, grade inflation, yield protection, diversity and “holistic” admissions, it is becoming increasingly common for high stats students to be shut out at programs where admissions would have been nearly assured not that many years ago.

Regardless, Rutgers is a very solid school, You might be surprised to learn that Rutgers offers some of the most prestigious programs in the country, (for example ranking considerably higher than Harvard in Philosophy).

I wouldn’t go there with the assumption you will, or need to, transfer. You may find yourself quite happy there.

8

@TheSkeptic888 - My heart really goes out to you. My son has a similar profile as you. Had my ex husband and I not required him to apply to a number of financial and academic safeties in December, right now he would be left with our state flagship and two somewhat competitive admits that are above budget and he’s really not terribly thrilled about. Unless he gets off a wait-list, he’s probably going to end up at a school that is nothing like what he was originally looking for, that he just threw on his list in December, and one of the schools in contention he hasn’t even visited yet. So, while he’ll end up at a good school and get a great education, we’re not where we expected to be right now either.

This has been such a whacky, stressful, unpredictable process. I think my advice to you would be to try to embrace the option that you have. My grandfather, who was a Pacific front cargo pilot during WWII always used to say, “things have a way of working themselves out.” Trust that this is what life has planned for you. You can either choose to embrace it, or change course completely. But if you do enroll at Rutgers, at least give it a chance. Don’t go in with the plan to transfer. If you really don’t like it, that’s one thing. But give it a month or two and just let yourself embrace where you are and take advantage of the opportunities presented to you before you make a decision.

This is an exciting time. You’re starting a new chapter of your life. No, it’s not how you pictured it, but that doesn’t mean that beautiful things aren’t in store for you. And it’s good to learn this lesson earlier rather than later - life has a way of throwing curve-balls at us. How you respond is up to you.

9

If it makes you feel better, Rutgers was a candidate a long time ago to fill in the last spot among the “Ivy Leagues” - in fact, they were INVITED. That’s right - instead of Cornell, Rutgers could’ve been an Ivy League. Also, Rutgers is a GREAT school. Why?

  1. The research rivals Penn's; very academically and intellectually driven university.
  2. Rutgers kicks Princeton's a** at sports.
  3. A big (public) school with great funding in a great area - especially for STEM majors.

You are not alone. It’s not a handful, but the vast majority of high achieving high school students are in a similar situation as you. It honestly sucks, but hey, if you can afford Rutgers and be in the Honor school, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to go there. You’re put up right next to Princeton and all they can clout about is “Oh we’re an Ivy League” - respond: “We were invited, but we declined the offer because we didn’t need to be in the IL to kick your rear”.

Do well at Rutgers, and I don’t see why you won’t be at a fabulous graduate school. I know you probably hear that “undergraduate isn’t really all that important as a graduate school” a lot, and I understand it may be cliche, but as someone in similar shoes as you, I guarantee you, it doesn’t matter. You start to appreciate the fact that you CAN and are able to afford to go to University. Prestige really doesn’t matter after that, the first couple months of Summer break?

10

OP may have only looked into part of what it takes, stats and hs standing. But any top holistic college is looking for much more. And you’ve got an application to present, not just a resume.

Holistics look for qualities, in addition to stats. Each section shows your understanding of your match. Or not. That’s your match to what they seek, not just what you want or how favorably you think your stats compare.

11

OP, can you articulate exactly what you find so objectionable about Rutgers University? It is one of the oldest universities in the USA, it has a wonderful array of academic and social opportunities, it’s a pretty campus in a nice campus town, and only a short train ride away from New York (I lived next to Rutgers for a while). The Rutgers Business School is very well regarded nationally, and the Honors Program there is definitely well regarded.

You problem is that you are looking at your college selection and at your acceptances in a very skewed way. You are asking “does this college have enough prestige for me?” The question that you should be asking is: “can this college provide me an education that will challenge me, interest me, and provide me with the tools I need for the rest of my life?” There are thousands of student at Rutgers with stats that are similar or better than yours, so it’s not as though you will not find academic peers there. Rutgers will provide you an education that will challenge you and interest you. It will provide everything you need in a college if you let it.

From your post, and previous posts, you do not seem to have focused on much else in the schools to which you applied other than basics and prestige. You did not pose a single question about any of the colleges on your list regarding the student body, the college culture, or the geographical location. The only questions were “will my profile get me into a college with high prestige”, or basic technical points for high prestige colleges. As far as I can tell, there is no reason to suppose that any of your matches or reaches would have been a better fit for you than Rutgers. In fact, based on other posts, I would actually say that the opposite is true. You seem that you are not sure exactly of where you want to go, or what your interests and passions are. A place like Rutgers has many more opportunities for exploration and a false start or two than many of the more “prestigious” colleges.

What were your other safety schools, BTW?

12

@TheSkeptic888 :blush: RBS is well respected and the honors program offers some additional opportunities. The Rutgers Honors college has a median SAT score of 1530. And admission is holistic. I read that out loud last week to my high stats NJ kid, and he was so surprised. The kids have this notion in their heads that RU is some backwater place . Could not be more wrong. The students I know attending RBS or Engineering or CS say it’s rigorous and they’re working hard to keep up.They too were high stats and rejected from the usual list of t20 universities.

It may be that you applied to a competitive major in the universities. And/or you underestimated the holistic process. For example , if a university has a 28% acceptance rate, and you are in the top quartile for their SAT scores, this does not imply a match school. I know kids who misinterpret the stats this way.

13

For an unknown reason, we in NJ don’t have the respect we should for Rutgers. It is a state school as good as any other.

Go to Rutgers and if you are the star you think you are, you will shine!

14

@bopper: With the increased revenue received as a Big 10 Conference member, I suspect that Rutgers national prominence will rise.

15

Your “match” schools may have seen you as using them as safeties and thus denied you That likely came across in your essays. Your “reach” schools look for a special something that they judged that you did not offer them. In your essays for these reach schools you may have come across as entitled to admission which is a negative.

16

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I went to Rutgers because I could not afford the reaches that accepted me and they were good ones. NMF, Valedictorian, etc. The Honors Program was amazing then and it is even better now. Rutgers’ reputation overall has improved. New Brunswick is vastly nicer than the sketchy town it was in the 80s. It’s pretty easy to get into NYC and Philly via public transportation.

I got into top 20 grad schools with full fellowships with my Rutgers diploma. So can you. Know how much I paid for tuition through the PhD? Nada. Some day, you might be able to say the same.

Also maybe this post will provide some perspective?

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/admissions-hindsight-lessons-learned/2138936-attending-a-safety-other-hindsight.html#latest

17

I don’t know about that.

A 1530 is well above the 99% percentile nationwide so kudos to the OP. But he then lists his class ranking as 94% so that might suggest to adcoms he is underperforming. I’m guessing he’s not at one of the top HS in NJ because if so he would been talking too savvy GCs about where to apply, so that 94th percentile might not be against the strongest competition. His ECs are board positions “in some clubs”; every HS has enough clubs that any kid who wants can get a board position somewhere. Add to that we have no idea how good his essays were, or what his teachers say about him in confidential recs. The point is that aside from SAT the OP may have way overestimated how strong a candidate he was.

At this point the best the OP can do it consider the advice given in the Fall time and again. Pick safeties that you’d actually want to attend if worst comes to worst in admissions. From what others have said Rutgers is a fine school and if the OP really is so over-matched for it then he should do well there.

18

Also back in Sept the OP posted about dropping AP Chem to which @skieurope replied

The OP kept arguing with parents in the thread saying he was making excuses, and perhaps this attitude also comes across in school. So other issues affecting the strength of his application may have included rigor of his schedule and what the teachers writing recs said.

19

^ And the 1530 on the SAT probably came after several tries.

20

@PurpleTitan The OP described three previous SAT attempts with lower scores (below 1500), so presumably that was the score from the fourth time this past August. I’m also not sure whether that 1530 was the superscored score. I also do not know whether taking the SAT four times makes a difference.