More like 61-39, but you make a good point.
My son chose Yale over Princeton at the very last moment and it was so close it may as well have been a coin toss.
Wow, thank you to everyone for the kind words and advice. I did not expect such positive responses, but I am incredibly grateful.
I was able to get in contact with the Undergraduate Dean at Princeton, and I was surprised to get a very quick answer. I doubt my email was even read, as she simply told me to take it up with admissions. Not one person at Princeton has addressed my situation beyond saying âOur Class of 2024 is full, good luck in your future academic endeavorsâ or the sort. Thanks to you all for truly listening to me and making me feel human (unlike every single person in charge at Princeton)!
Iâm not sure what âsituationâ you expected them to âaddress.â You turned them down, and in the meantime they filled the class. Last yearâs freshman class was too large, forcing the university to take special measures (like building new temporary dorm rooms), so Iâm sure they arenât eager to add extra students to the class of 2024.
I agree with the folks who have already said donât look back. Youâll almost certainly love Yale. If it makes you feel better, boo Princeton extra loudly at the next Yale-Princeton football game (when that eventually takes place).
@Gojira02 I hope you find peace with your decision. @TigerInWinter , in support of OP concerns, I must add Princetonâs handling of the situation surrounding the pandemic has been horrific in my opinion. There was zero opportunity to actually call admissions to ask questions, emails were responded to in very slow fashion, offered zoom meeting were very limited and already booked with no more added.
Our son was accepted and then one week before the May 1 deadline he watched a zoom meeting for accepted students. On that meeting the dean of admissions said something pertaining to this yearâs policy on AP scores. It prompted an important question for him which he very much wanted clarity on. He email, tried calling, email department heads. No one responded. The May 1 deadline came and he was forced to make a decision. He turned down Princeton. A week later they answered him. Turned out the dean misspoke. They offered no apology.
Now this is the leading institution in the country and they canât figure out how to use call forwarding? They can not be available to answer phone calls or emails when the rest of the country is able to pivot on a dime and work remotely.
I mean in the pandemic Amazon kept delivering my packages, Papa Johns figured out how to get me pizza, but these aloof academic people canât figure out how to answer a kids email?
I feel if you give them a pass on this you are simply saying their time and work are more valuable then yours or mine. Iâm pretty sure they put their pants on same way we do. Not being understanding to a 17-18 year old kid in the middle of a world crisis seems a bit much. Dare I say even in Stark contrast to the supposed " values" of their ivory tower institution.
@PAdude, Iâm sorry to hear of your experience. Princeton should have done better. That said, the situation wasnât all that different at the two public flagships that my son interacted with this spring as he tried to pick a school â long delays to get information, mistakes, and so forth. So I donât think itâs a matter of aloofness so much as schools being overwhelmed by the pandemic; the challenges they faced were more complex than those of delivering pizza (though no doubt some schools handled it better than others).
There likely were thousands of admitted students with questions at all schools so I would expect delays in answering questions.
Yes, I do believe the administratorsâ time and work is both more important, and more complicated in balancing the needs of the incoming class, current students, and the institution, than any one applicantâs questions.
The changed policy on AP scores likely had to have faculty approval, so the Dean should have clarified that. Princeton always is clear about not awarding much AP credit and not counting it for distribution requirements.
@roycroftmom to your point
âYes, I do believe the administratorsâ time and work is both more important, and more complicated in balancing the needs of the incoming class, current students, and the institution, than any one applicantâs questions.â
I respectfully agree to disagree with this statement. As a full pay family @ $77k/ yr I feel the courtesy of an email response isnât unreasonable. As a physician working and caring for patients during this same time I still made the time to answer phone calls and messages into my office and in a timely manner. I maintained the staff to do so and the expectation of that staff to carry on as usual. And as an added point I was able to do that without an annual assessment of $77,000 per patient nor the backing of a 25 billion dollar endowment. So really their time is of more value? Come on stop drinking the Kool aid of aristocracy.
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Some doors will close, and others will open. Fate will decide which path you will take in life. The grass always seems greener on the other side. But let me honestly tell you, in a few years you wonât even remember about this. I know it is heartbreaking now, but most kids would kill to be in your shoes.
Yale is amazing, incredible!!! Congrats and full steam ahead. The residential college system is one you will remember forever.
But screw those folks on financial aid â itâs fine to leave them hanging, right?
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@TigerInWinter Iâm not sure of the intent of your reply, if itâs to insinuate that I champion a different level of service based on ability to pay then your grossly wrong. Perhaps your interpretation of my post is not entirely accurate to my intention. My point was that we all deserve the respect of a response. I am further saying as a consumer who is paying for something if I am not given that respect I am inclined to spend my money somewhere else.
@PAdude, your comment about being a full-pay family sounded to me like something akin to âWeâre well-off, so we deserve special treatment.â Obviously I read too much into it (and indeed, your put-down of aristocracy should have clued me in). Thank you for the explanation, and I apologize for my snarkiness.
@Gojira02 : Congratulation for such a lesson learned at this young age. Welcome to the real world! Trust me, you will be fine. This âunpleasant eventâ will be a driver of achievement and success later.
They addressed your situation. You rejected their school after accepting Yale, got cold feet and wondered if there were still open seats at Princeton. Every person you contacted told you as nicely as they could that there arenât. They canât really comment on your interactions with Yale interviewers.
Yale hasnât done anything to you. They appear to have an overzealous alumni, who really should be reported, but I would try to give the college, faculty, and other students a fair shot. You have a great opportunity. Itâs better than commuting to a cc or 4 year school while working full time and struggling to come up with tuition money. Itâs better than working and taking classes one at a time as you can afford them. Go with an open heart and take advantage of everything they have to offer.
Sorry but this makes no sense to meâŠ
You sour on Yale because one alum didnât deliver some verbally-offered perk which you know must have been unrealistic and/or unethical (hence you wonât even disclose it here.)
Then you sour on Princeton because they wonât bend the rules for you after you decline?!?
You are one of the most fortunate teenagers in the country. You need to swallow some pride and move forward without such a sense of entitlement. IMO. You will still have a great life.
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I sympathize with your situation. When I was 18, I had to decide between Amherst and Yale. It seemed like an existential situation at the time. I ultimately decided to attend Amherst, and had an excellent educational experience there and career afterwards. On rare occasions, I have wondered would my life have been any different had I attended Yale? I will never know. Certainly, I would have had a different group of friends and known different professors. Perhaps I would have chosen a different field for my career. On the other hand, I feel that my college experience was an important contributor to the person who I am today. The key is to make a wise choice for yourself, and then make the most of the opportunities ahead. Donât look back or have regrets. Focus on your upcoming college experience and the life ahead. When I have talked with some young adults who have to make difficult life decisions, I refer them to Robert Frostâs poem âThe Road Not Takenâ. It ends with, âTwo roads diverged in a wood, and Iâ
I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.â
Your are blessed to have so many wonderful choices for college. However, you only can choose one. Now follow the path you have chosen and make the most of it. Ultimately, your experiences in college and in life will be colored mostly by your attitudes towards them. It is up to you to write the next chapters in your life. I am confident that once you are at Yale and make friends there, you will not be looking back.
i donât understand the OP.
H heard the acceptance of Princeton in December. Mean it was binding offer. How could he wait for the dust to settle and pick Yale? He was supposed to withdraw from other schools once accepted by Princeton as it was binding.
^Offers from Princeton arenât binding.
Early Action is non-binding. Harvard, Yale and Princeton offer it. I think the other 5 Ivies use Early Decision that is binding.
@NascarFedex, Columbia is Early Action as well.