@rhandco I got interviews from Brown and Yale, but they both cancelled and did not email me back after my multiple attempts of trying to communicate with them. My SAT written portion was an 11/12 so I believe I did well on my essays, and I was also helped by the strongest English teacher at our school who thought it was great by the end of our revisions. While I will never know what went wrong, I very much do appreciate my acceptance to UT.
Then why the doom and gloom? You have to feel entitled to something if you resent not having been given it.
@bodangles I feel that it is very appropriate to be upset about failing to achieve what you have hoped to do for 4 years. That does not imply a sense of entitlement.
@bodangles I am not mad at the schools at all. Yes, I am resentful of the fact that I was made to wait so long and spend so much time and effort, but entitlement comes to play when an applicant is upset in a “Well THEY got in, why didn’t I?” type of way.
The whole rat race is a “game.” The game is easier if your parents went through it in the 80s or 90s and know how to navigate the way and groom you from age 13 on. The game is easier if you’re in a school where everybody else is playing the game. The game is easier if you have money to play it. At least you’re in a state with a solid public U. Crush it freshman year and transfer. Select easier courses/profs and prop up your GPA first semester. Look at your freshman year as another year of the game.
@Yofool Disappointment is just part of life. It doesn’t mean you never try. It doesn’t mean you just don’t bother. When you look back at your life, it is the risks that you didn’t take that you will regret.
@Yofool If you don’t feel that way (“Well, they got in, why didn’t I”) then why the remarks about CaliCash’s race?
MODERATOR’S NOTE: This thread is NOT the place to discuss Affirmative Action. There is ONE thread on CC where that is allowed.
(I just deleted one post regarding AA.)
@lax202 That is very uplifting, thanks for the comment. @gearmom I agree in that you should always try your hardest but, looking back, I wish someone would have given me a wakeup call. @albert69 I believe that URM status is a powerful tool, but I also believe that URM status does nothing for you if you are not already good candidate. I am sorry that CaliCash took my comments the wrong way, but I pointed it out to show that she can add to the diversity of a campus which is highly sought after. To students who believe they can show ADCOMS that they are able to do the same, I highly encourage applying.
@Yofool You don’t know anything about @CaliCash 's app but you’ve boxed her into “adds diversity” which undermines her actual achievements. As a woman in a nontraditional field, I know you always have to work twice as hard to prove yourself. That you are not just there to add diversity. It’s actually a bit insulting.
Personally, I’m in the same boat. I went to a public magnet here in TX, I feel like it’s the same one lol, that has six schools in one building… Either way, I was rejected from Harvard, Stanford, Rice, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Princeton and UPenn. Waitlisted at my number one school Vanderbilt. As a result of all of my rejections my choices are Tulane, Cal-Berkeley, UCLA, UNC-Chapel Hill, South Carolina, and the University of Texas.
Next fall I will be attending Texas with you and saving my money for a prestigious MBA. But for now, I’m stoked to be headed to Austin. I feel so lucky to live in a state with a flagship as great as UT. I’ll be studying business at one of the top public business schools and living in one of the fastest growing and most active cities in the U.S. I know you’re disappointed, but I assure you all will be well. Beats the hell out of having to go to Texas A&M!
I am frustrated that my comments are constantly being taken out of context, in fact, I have said multiple times that I believe she deserves to be at Northwestern. I have never said that she was a weak candidate, only that URM does play a part- saying that it does not is ignorant. URM does not make a weak applicant strong but it does nudge a strong applicant in the right direction because admissions want to add diversity to their campus, and, in their eyes, the question of race matters in this regard. Also, to say that it is insulting to be regarded as someone who adds diversity to a campus is very weird and you may be a person who is offended easily. If someone accepted me because they thought I could “add diversity,” I would take it as a huge compliment. Anyway, I am not going to comment on URM anymore because that is completely off-topic with my thread and I don’t feel the need to defend myself regarding a subject that I did not even mention in my original post.
OP, the message people are trying to send to you (and to rising seniors reading this thread who will be applying to the most selective colleges next year) is that your expectations were unrealistic from the get go if your results are so disappointing to you. Hind sight is 20/20 but honestly your strategy was flawed from the beginning in that you applied to one safe school, perhaps one match (which are 50/50 at best) and all reaches. Hundreds of thousands of other similar students applying to those top schools have been rejected this year (many applicants with higher stats than yours). This is not shocking, this is the new normal. You did hit a home run with UT so congrats on that and good job that you did have at least one safe school you are happy with. That is excellent news!
Rising seniors- go ahead and dream a little and apply to a few reaches IF you and the school are a good fit and if you think you have as good a chance as any. Meanwhile, look for those target/match schools that excite you so that your chances will be more realistic and so that you won’t be disappointed like OP at the end of the process. Match schools are still 50/50, they are by no means safe, but if you show them the love and show them how you will make a positive impact on their community you become a more compelling candidate for admissions. There are SO MANY schools out there, many with great FA and merit aid, and if you spend time focusing on schools that are truly a fit and not a crapshoot you will find opportunity with interesting choices.
@Pikidikitiki Congrats on becoming a Longhorn! I’m also excited to attend and hope that I can make the most out of my experience just as you are planning on. Good luck on your journey through the next four years and suffice to say you got that last part spot on! 
Yofool, your situation is very common in Texas. The reality is that your entire HS career was built around an admission to a flagship in Texas. You accomplished that with the 6/120 rank by two spots for Texas, and would have been in a TAMU through the SAT even if you dropped to 13th in the rank.
Why is it common in Texas? Because the in-state process blinds what would be “needed” for competitive OOS. You are indeed in the top 10 percent and have 700 SAT down the line. That “qualifies” you for many OOS schools but mostly in the middle of the pack. What makes differences are angular accomplishments, and unfortunately for you, those are RARELY taking place inside the confines of your high school. Clubs are fine but they do not amount to much in a competitive environment. Anyone who spends much time looking at what is typically listed in the Common App under activity simply emits a big yawn. Were you told that four years ago? Nope. Did your GC tell you that the typical HS activities will not help you much to land a spot at a competitive OOS school? Nope? Did she or he encourage you to “reach for the stars” and go for Ivy League schools? More than probably as most of those folks are clueless about anything else than what comes on the Texas application.
All in all, it is normal for you to feel disappointed, but this comes mainly from having had no REAL advice in the past years. You were – just as million of kids-- misled about the real chances and … what you needed to do to emerge from the commonality of a Texas high school.
What someone should have asked you is … what if the automatic admission in Texas did NOT exist … what would you do? And what someone should have said regarding your essay about being in Lebanon almost a decade ago is … so what! Please tell me something about you at 15 or 18 years old. Chances are that the essay you thought was superlative was viewed as one of the “I survived XYZ and learned about life or I came back to score the winning goal in the state championship” Your list might have included a couple of high reaches, but it should also have been built around schools that fall just a notch below.
It is what it is. Blame the people around you for the lack of proper advice, and lick your wounds. Prepare yourself for Austin and enroll with the strong notion that you are attending a school that matches your profile … very well. Many will in fact envy you!
Comment for people who are not necessarily aware of Texas’ admissions, the admission to McCombs business is not tied to the 7 Percent automatic rule, and is usually filled with students with high SAT and rankings in the top 3 percent of the Texas high schools.
And yes, it beats to have to have to spend time in College Station! 
Race CAN play a part. It does not always play a part. The black male who has a 4.3 in IB or 2250 SATs is qualified on his own merit but he knows his achievements will be dismissed because of his skin color.
It so happens that this issue surfaces with regularity every December and March/April. In a way it is understandable for students to feel that way. Further you cannot blame them when the legitimacy of the question is poisoning our courts all the way to the Supreme Court.
One can expect dozens of threads to raise their ugly heads in the next weeks. The best reply is to ignore those comments as venting that does not elicit responses becomes old. Let them blow steam but do not fuel a debate that has not gotten anywhere for more than a decade on CC.
@Yofool You did mention it in both your OP and second post and your definition of a favorable candidate that these schools want was a URM.