Waitlisted for CS. In state. SAT 1580. 3.94 gpa. 9 ap courses.
Rejected for Nursing:
30 ACT
3.71 GPA
Senior Captain
4 yrs varsity/boys state
7 yrs club swim
NHS
3 years honors band and pep
In state… Looking at some big college bills now
What stinks for those who were waitlisted for competitive majors (computer science, engineering, nursing, business) is UMass says as part of the waitlist FAQ that you can’t get off the waitlist and into one of these competitive majors. So unless you are happy to choose something else should you get off the waitlist, it is not much different than a rejection.
So many amazing stats!!! It just doesn’t make sense!! I’m curious to find out when were your applications submitted? My daughter’s was close to the deadline, which makes me believe if she had submitted it sooner, she probably would have been ok. Just a long, dragged out wait to learn your daughter has been waitlisted, with very little chance of being accepted off of that list. And those in competitive majors have virtually no chance of being accepted into the major they really want. Beyond sad!!
DS got rejected from CS and was given an option to waitlist for other majors.
He is an In-State student from a top 30 public school, with 1550+ SAT, 4.5+ GPA.
I’m very depressed because UMass is the top choice for us unless he hits the lottery with other better schools (which is not very promising given his Asian background).
I think UMass is totally being unfair to in-state students.
For one thing, they could have sent out rejection letters much earlier so at least he could have applied to other alternatives during the school vacation.
Also, as noted in the UMass website, the stats for this year’s freshman CS students is merely 1431 SAT and 4.15 GPA. See here: https://www.umass.edu/oir/sites/default/files/publications/admissions_enrollment_reports/fall19.pdf
So, for next year, UMass better show that the incoming CS class has a SAT of 1500+ and a GPA of 4.3+, otherwise, we probably should file a class action lawsuit against the school.
This is a public school and I just can’t believe it doesn’t treat its life long time residents fairly. (can you believe that the application actually asked how long the parents lived in the state?)
And for goodness sake, we didn’t even apply for financial aids…
@iparentMass so sorry for your son. His stats are amazing! I am sure he will find a great school to attend. My son also didn’t get into CS/waitlisted with stats above this year’s freshman class. It seems from what I have been piecing together that they just ran out of space. For whatever reason our son’s applications were looked at too late In the process and by then there was just no space left. I don’t understand still how they determined which applications to look at first. It seems like international and out of state applicants had an advantage which to me seems unfair.
But how can that be? It’s not rolling admissions. They should not be looking at applications until the early action application deadline. And how can they be out of room? They have all the regular decision candidates, who presumably, should be evaluated on the same criteria.
The system is broken.
@iParentMass
I feel really sorry that your DS got rejected by UMass Amherst, which was your first-choice college. But rather than criticizing the college and the admission process, it’s necessary to understand that the admission process is holistic. I have seen several students who have got admitted with high stats and several who have been rejected with high stats. Thus, it is understandable that UMass is not rejecting students for yield protect at least and just looking at that SAT/ACT average isn’t the right way of categorizing colleges as safety, match, or dream.
Moreover, it is true that UMass Amherst accepts a decent number of international applicants, but several top US universities do that. So, I don’t find anything new in it because accepting a fair amount of international and OOS students is quite common because every college needs to balance it out.
In addition, I totally agree with you on the fact that they must release all EA decisions before Jan so that every student can prepare their RD list well on time. Otherwise, there is no point of EA deadlines because every student who applies early wants to know their results before Jan.
However, UMass Amherst can’t be totally criticized for that because they receive a large amount of applications and it’s really tough for colleges I reckon. There are many colleges like UMD, UW Madison, Purdue, Georgia Tech, etc who also release all EA decision after December only. So, I think even this is quite usual.
All the best everyone for your college decisions and I am pretty sure you will get into your dream universities and will do well in future!
@ WaitingOnCollegeResponses
I don’t quite agree with you on that they rejected you because of no space left and considering your application quite late in the admission process. This is because one my friends had sent his UMass application on the last date and had also missed out on some documents. He was mailed by the university close to 15 December that he has to complete his missing documents as soon as possible to be considered for early action. He did complete it and got his acceptance letter probably one week after that. So, saying that your application was considered way too late is I think incorrect because there are several AOs looking at multiple applications at the same time. The reason why I think they send some decisions in Jan could be similar to a deferral system I suppose. Students who they are pretty certain of admitting are sent before Jan and the rest is considered in Jan I think.
@2024Mama I agree. My daughter submitted her application closer to the deadline, and I cannot think of any other way for her to be waitlisted other than they ran out of room. Top 15% of her class, unweighted gpa 3.95, all honors and AP classes, very active in ECs, captain of her sports teams, and the list goes on and on. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but the whole thing is crazy because they still have all of the RD applications to go through. People who apply RD CHOOSE to apply RD therefore, the EA people should be offered those spots first. Otherwise, just have rolling admissions for everyone. And, as others have mentioned, oos and international students should be considered AFTER in state people! But, as you said, the system is broken. VERY broken. My question to everyone is, did or are your kids going to choose to remain on the waitlist? Or are they going to let it go and move on?
Wow…its insane to see all those strong in-state students getting rejected/waitlisted. I am sure they will find great schools soon. FWIW - our instate DS submitted the EA app for CS major on the last day and received the admit in dec. Many of his friends with similar stats got in as well - there were no surprises AFAIK in his school.
I am not sure how the app processing is done but it may not be accurate to think that it goes International → OOS → In-state. They are releasing the results in that order but processing should be done in parallel.
Another relevant thing to mention is that the Commonwealth of MA (I live here) has been gutting funding more and more to the U-Mass system. That leads to over-reliance on full-pay OOS and international students.
Despite the “taxachusetts” moniker, we actually do not pay enough state taxes and we are not fully funding education (including higher education). No one is getting rich teaching at U-Mass, and there aren’t lazy rivers etc. on the campuses.
Aside from that, I am in agreement with @Theunknown28 that it’s a holistic process and there is no yield protection for in-state at this level. And, that it would be appropriate for EA decisions to return in time for RD applications to be sent out.
That said, anyone aware enough to be on CC should know how to pick something that is a real “safety” and not just wishful thinking.
There 2 reasons why I’m so upset over the rejection.
First is because I feel my son’s stats fit exactly into the school’s profile for an Asian candidate: someone who is on the 75 percentile with at least a 50% chance of enrolling. I don’t think his stats is in the too-good-for-umass category. And I don’t think their yield is better than 50%.
Second is that their admission behaves like your typical New England private school with this ‘holistic review’ thing. I agree that the school shouldn’t admit strictly on stats. But given it is a public school with tax payer funded money, it policy has to be transparent so everyone knows how to compete.
We’re going to stay on the waitlist without high hopes for moving off. He has been accepted to one school with almost a full ride and another that he really likes that is EXPEN$IVE, ugh. Finally, he has been accepted to his safety.
I’m going to try to convince him to apply to one more school with a late regular decision deadline, but I think he’s pretty much over it now, lol.
I disagree with the lack of public funding argument. If you look years back, the public had to support a system that never lived up to the state’s reputation. High achieving middle class students had to go to UConn/UVM for better deals. Now that the school is making progress, it starts rejecting the very same students.
I’m very curious about what the acceptance rate is for this year… seems way more competitive than than usual
I don’t believe all the “holistic” stuff. It’s just a buzz word. They spend maybe 10 mins per application. They aren’t sitting around a room talking about each candidate with a dedicated consistent admissions staff like say Holy Cross does.
It’s just not feasible with so many applicants.
I think the cost of college is driving many more people to consider UMass and that has driven up the quality of candidates. This leaves many impressive students without a slot.
I would like to better understand how they “batch” applications. Transparency in the process would go a long way to making a difficult process a bit less stressful for families.
I am most frustrated that they held rejections until Jan 13th. That and the fact that OOS and international students are admitted over highly qualified instate candidates.
Hope next years applicants learn from our experiences!
@iParentMass
What was the second major u had opted for other than CS?
Anyone who got rejected for CS, what was your second choice major?
Got in yesterday, College of Engineering
Instate
Gpa: 3.4 UW, 3.5 W
Very strong senior year stats: 4.0, Honors Organic chem, honors CS & physics
taking 8 classes second semester including 2 engineering courses
SAT: 1370 one sitting
SAT II: Bio-E 760
EC’s represent strong focuses 7/10
Essays 9/10
I come from a very competitive instate public high school.
general accepted yield going to UMASS is roughly 30%
Congrats, yeet. Turns out they weren’t all WL or denies yesterday!