Congrats to @Calicash and a few other seniors here, whom I’ve seen on other threads and I know had other disappointments mixed in with the successes. Congrats for your strong attitude that will carry you far.
The volume of great kids from Texas applying to top schools is quite high. Many have gone beyond their own hs context and done a number of “good things” that matter. (And this is true for kids across the country.) That doesn’t mean somehow “spectacular,” some nano percentage of all kids. It means that, in their lives and through each segment of their apps, they show the vision, maturity and perspective that are sought after. Humility is part of that.
It’s dangerous (and quite limited thinking) to assume some category of applicants is actually less qualified. It’s stereotyping.
Best wishes to all. The admissions trial is just the beginning, the ring of fire everyone has to go through. You have many chances now to work toward your next goals. The best find ways to see the glass half full. Or more.
ps. Diversity does not just apply to URMs. Kids of all sorts can add different experiences, unique strengths, values, etc.
@CaliCash It bothers me how much you criticize people for being entitled. I remember your post about how you were trying to get money from your grandpa that was one of the most entitled things I’ve read on here. Anyone who gets into a top school has to really stick out but at the same time I feel like the only way to get into Northwestern with an extremely high income and a very low SAT is to have a hook. I don’t see them letting in a high income low SAT white or asian applicant unless they were famous, best in the world at something, etc. I’m sure your applicant stood out like most people who were accepted and many who weren’t. I also don’t disagree with affirmative action. I just feel it’s foolish to pretend race had no impact on your admission.
Excellent advice xiggi. Your short post about what’s required for “most competitive” college admissions is far more knowledgeable than what you get from the average HS guidance counselor.
@albert69, lots of rivalry and bad blood between Aggies and Longhorns in TX. Even folks who didn’t attend one or the other are often on one side of the fence or the other in TX. There was a recent post on here by a girl who’s Aggie dad didn’t want her to attend UT-Austin because he thinks it’s filled with “bad people”.
@Yofool@Jmbkyl There are many factors in admittance. Let’s start with need.@Yofool was looking for financial assistance and @CaliCash 's family makes almost a quarter of a million dollars a year. Colleges will view you very different based on need alone. The socioeconomic differences spill into many different areas which include ECs. Calicash’s family has had far more resources to fund her ECs which she has called extraordinary based on the opinions of a well respected private consultant. She would also more likely have had access to mentors who know how to play the game and get great students into top schools. Yofool wrote an essay on an ill-advised topic according to folks here. You simply might not have had the same college app prep resources. Calcash has SAT stats around the 25% mark for Northwestern. They are not particularly low. Her 1300 CR/W is not far from Yofool’s 1370. Her unweighted GPA which, Yofool called lackluster, includes AP courses. Her California school could frankly be more rigorous than Yofool’s underserved Texas school. So Yofool’s 4.0 means something different than Calicash’s 3.75 because school and rigor are factored in. There is so much more to admissions than race.
@gearmom The thing is a school like Northwestern that claims to be need blind should give preference to low income students with comparable stats. Of course high income families have advantages in ECs and preparation but that’s why having a below average SAT seems less acceptable. If you have a consultant you should have plenty of SAT tutoring and not end up with a 1970 if you are aiming for top schools. Low income students score hundreds of points higher with little to no prep. OP should have definitely applied to more schools like BC and he would have likely had better results because most of his choices were insanely tough. I don’t think Cali schools are in general better than Texas and If that’s the case I thought top schools are big on making use of what you are given. I guess my problem is why is a privileged minority given preference over a poor ORM. Also why do middle easterners not get URM status when they are likely more discriminated against than anyone. I mean countering discrimination seems to be the only logical reason for affirmative action.
So sad that the OP thinks that success in HS is only to get you into a highly selective college. It’s not. Just like getting a degree is all about graduation day and the job you get. It’s not. It’s about the education, the learning, the critical thinking, growing up, learning to contribute the world. I know you are disappointed. But I think you lost track of the why. In our competitive college admissions process, many people are forgetting about the education part of it all.
Just my 2 cents!
This is very dangerous advice. When people are communicating about an unjust situation there can be resolution and understanding. If you ignore the complaints then the complaints are replaced by prejudice and selfishness. The prejudices then go underground because no one is listening or willing to talk about the situation. Once the prejudice goes underground, the individual is lost to society forever. They then administer their own brand of discrimination against those that they perceive to have an advantage. They also stop listening. When neither party is willing to listen, feelings harden and progress stops. The result is extremism with potentially dangerous results. Search through history for plenty of examples. Wasn’t this country formed because someone didn’t want to listen?
OP your ECs were extremely generic. It’s unfortunate you did not get into any top schools. However, you shotgunned the admissions process ( you applied to all top schools, did you even visit any)? You should have applied to some target schools that YOU LIKE. And this has nothing to do with AA. NW probably wanted to have a certain amount of black students so they chose from the best of a (most likely smallish) group of applicants. And “best” is not always high test scores. It’s nice to see black people overcoming the persistent obstacle of discrimination and attending top tier universities. And this should be a reminder to everyone that ivies are never guaranteed.
@Jmbakh Colleges are businesses not charities. Even need blind colleges can judge wealth. They need people who can pay. OPs SAT scores are at the 25% which is good enough and only one part of her package. Her ECs might truly be extraordinary. I won’t even address why an underserved HS in Texas without even APs is not at the same as a school in CA where 240k a year is middle of the road.
OP was unsupported in the college process and unaware where he was ocompetitve as a candidate with financial need. The irony is that being Middle Eastern could have worked in his favor based on diversity had he been more knowledgeable. Of course he wouldn’t have complained then.
Some students and parents want to play the top school lottery, which is fine, whether there student has much of a chance of acceptance to any of the top schools, or not. Where it gets to be problematic is when they start really thinking they have a chance of “winning”. Reminds me of my kids when they were little and went to school raffles and actually expected to win something at them. I remember one of my little ones crying about the big toy basket that he had been convinced he’d win because he put all (5) of his tickets in that bag for that drawing.
UT Austin is a great school. My BIL and his family live there, and their kids were very strong academically, but neither got into UT Austin. I found that top 10% (or 7%, don’t quite get how it works) rule puzzling. Both of theirs are at selective colleges (one transferring to it after going to A&M initially), but they would have both preferred to go to their flagship school. GOing to a rigorous highschool full of high achievers made making that top percentage very difficult to achieve. So the parents are now paying for private college instead of the flagship.
It’s really unfair to shame yofool when your family income is greater than $200,000 a year while his is just barely treading above the federal poverty line.
And @Yofool , you should have applied to QuestBridge so colleges would recognize your extreme hardships and adversity you had to overcome due to the lack of resources that people like CaliCash obviously take for granted.
@0br0123 the OP’s stats are slightly better than CaliCash’s stats and his ECs are excellent given that his family’s income is barely over the federal poverty line
@gearmom I am aware that colleges are not charities but I think most colleges that claim to be need blind truely are. I could be wrong but their endowments are ridiculous at top colleges and it seems there is a push to increase socioeconomic driversity(except for Wash U). It seems that having a 15K income is better than a 150K income if you have the same stats at the majority of the very top colleges. There’s no shortage of very rich students with incredible scores and credentials but there is a bit of a shortage of poor students that are comparable. Also OP may be at the 25% but I’m pretty sure CaliCash isn’t. I’m not saying it’s a terrible thing but I’m just saying hooks like URM are a big deal. I agree that OP should have picked better but I think he would be competive at a lot of schools that are need blind but a little less selective. Are you saying he should have wrote about being Middle Eastern better or what? I was under the impression that middle easterners were generally grouped with Asians or Caucasians at least for statistics. Finally with the high schools I agree that in general a high income area will be better but I personally didn’t see where CaliCash commented about her school. OP did say his school wasn’t the best though. Neither states have a rep excellence in public education.
@Jmbakh CaliCash is at the 25% for CR and Writing. And a bit lower for math. Still at an acceptable range. And let’s talk about OPs biggest possible mistake. I think he applied RD. CaliCash applied EA. You HAVE to apply early with lower stats especially if you need money. You could be purple from Pluto and get in with lower stats IF you apply early. Lots of better stat kids not getting n RD. Colleges are businesses that don’t want to wait until the last minute to finalize classes.