Valedictorian Rejected From Almost Everywhere [admitted to UT Dallas and UT Austin for CS]

Applying to College
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Hello I’m Valedictorian of my high school of around 1100 people. And I got rejected from every college I applied to besides UTD and UT Austin- both which I was auto-admitted to since I’m a TX resident (although I did have to apply for the CS major in UT Austin). UMichigan, UW, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, MIT. All rejected.

I don’t know what to think, I know that colleges don’t define your worth but like, with each rejection it feels worse and worse. I can’t help but think that I feel like these last 4 years of my life were wasted just like that- like the colleges just decided my high school career wasn’t good enough. I even thought I had alright extracurriculars, I’m co-captain of the high school hockey team and part of a T2 hockey team, president of math club, coding/robotics club, outside mathematics and foreign language school, built my own videogame, coding projects, etc.

Seeing everybody else in my school get into these colleges that I got rejected from hurts even more, and for the past week I’ve been trying to figure out what they have that I don’t. Was it my essays? Did I not do enough UIL competitions? Should I have done more activities? I’m not sure. I know the competition is fierce for these top colleges, but in my head I thought I had a chance because I felt like I accomplished as much as I could during high school, grinding out AP classes daily. It feels like my dedication for the past 4 years wasn’t deemed worthy enough. IDK.

I know that UT Austin is a great school for CS but I really wanted to go somewhere East Coast for college and it’s not longer possible. It’s my fault for not applying to other colleges.

Sorry for the rant, just had to get all this off my chest.

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You are a highly accomplished student. This year was particularly crazy with admissions for high stat kids. Our salutatorian had the same thing happen to him. Please don’t let this define you. You have two amazing choices. Go rock those colleges, they are lucky to have you! If you are not happy after your first year, you can always apply for a transfer.

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I wish I knew what admissions officers were thinking during the process. My DD submitted WGPA 4.49…not valedictorian. But she had a Plan A, Plan B & Plan C when applying. Luckily Plan A worked out for her. Did you have plan in place? Also, you can go to a school you were accepted to with a plan to transfer elsewhere if that is dream/option for you. I’m sure you are aware of things, stay positive (easier said than done) but you need to!

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These are all either extremely low admit rate colleges or publics that are very selective for out of state CS (UW has a <2% admit rate for out of state CS). I expect they all reject the vast majority of valedictorians who reply. Just being valedictorian is not enough. That said, UT Austin is a great school. You have a great option.

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The college admissions process at times makes little sense. You seem well qualified to have gotten into any of these programs. However, as you mentioned, UT Austin is an awesome school! Since you are interested in living elsewhere, you could consider looking at grad schools out East, consider summer internships or jobs, or if you truly don’t enjoy your UT experience, consider transferring after the first year or two and apply to more target schools and a couple of safeties as well as those “reaches.” Depending on you and your family, you could consider a gap year or community college as well. There are many options. However, I’m sure when you step foot on UT’s campus, you will not only succeed but find your place there making friends and building wonderful experiences.

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Yea, my plan was always UT Austin but I never expected that I would actually end up there because I thought I would make one of the top colleges. I’m trying to stay positive but it’s definitely hard right now.

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You had me at “almost”.

So you have two schools, both excellent, that are affordable?

And one of the top in the country.

I don’t see an issue - in that sense. I get your frustration though.

Now you say you wanted to go to East Coast - and you applied to a whos who of big names - not all in the east. You got rejected but look at where you applied - so you had to know it was a possibility. I do applaud you for taking that chance - and yes rejection stinks - so I’m sorry. But you did try and I think it’s FANTASTIC that you did. And you’ll get through it - and it’s a great character set - resilience.

But here’s the thing - if you really want to go to the East Coast, there are schools still taking applications - so not sure of your budget situation, you can still go back East to school.

But the names won’t look as extravagant as those that said no.

I don’t know your overall portfolio - test scores, budget, etc. - but believe it or not, at some schools, there is still an opportunity.

UT and UTD are both OUTSTANDING - and life is long - and if you attend one of them, you might find yourself on the east coast in four years from now (or even sooner with a summer internship).

Best of luck.

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You applied to an all-reach list except for UT Dallas (UT Austin was a safety for campus admission, but reach for CS admission), so it looks like you got into your safety UT Dallas and one of your reaches (CS at UT Austin). Such a result is not outside the realm of likelihood.

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I understand it’s difficult to process the denials. BUT…UT Austin is one of the top CS colleges.

Take a bit more time to mourn the results if needed, but then move on and start seeing yourself succeeding at and enjoying all UT Austin has to offer. You can absolutely end up with a job at any company in any location from UT Austin. Good luck to you.

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So it appears you already know what happened. You only applied to non-Texas CS programs that were extremely hard to get into, because they are very popular and have far fewer slots than the number of highly-qualified people who want them. And then you didn’t get into any. This necessarily happens to many highly-qualified people, because again the slots available at this handful of programs are not nearly enough to satisfy all the highly-qualified applicants.

And you are right: if you really wanted to go to an East Coast college, you should have applied to a robust list of affordable Likely and Target colleges on the East Coast, not just hard Reaches. Instead you applied to Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and MIT, and that meant the odds of you getting into no East Coast college at all was high, which is what happened.

OK, so that’s the bad stuff, but here is the good stuff.

First, of course your actual options are excellent. In Texas, which you apparently didn’t want, but that doesn’t change their excellence. And no, not everyone gets those options, and nor for that matter is everyone who gets those options actually really prepared to do well with those opportunities. So, if your efforts to date got you those options AND also prepared you well for success, that is not a waste, that is a very good return on your investment of effort.

Second, life is long (hopefully). If you really want out of Texas ASAP, you can transfer–again understanding you might not be able to transfer to a CS program as good as the one in Texas. But you could just wait, and then leave Texas after college. Again, your effort to date has kept these options open, and you’ll have to keep it up, but those are attainable goals if you still want them.

OK, so, maybe you cost yourself a year out of Texas by not applying to Likelies and Targets on the East Coast. Maybe even four years, should you choose to finish out in a great CS program before looking elsewhere. But in the bigger scheme, none of that is actually a big deal, and you have in fact set yourself up well to make use of your efforts to date.

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Were your friends in school also applying for CS? If they were applying for a different major, that may be the answer to your question. It’s very hard to get admitted in CS at many colleges.

Even if your friends were also applying in CS, the admit rate for this major is so small at these colleges (and at many other colleges as well) that it can be very hard to predict who will be admitted.

I’m also going to guess that “everybody else getting into these colleges” doesn’t literally mean that everyone else in your school is getting into Harvard, Stanford, Princeton etc… but I do understand how it can feel that way! :mending_heart:

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I’m sorry that the college application results didn’t turn out how you wanted.

UTD has great CS programming, and UT-Austin is also extremely well-regarded, right up there with the admits that you didn’t get. Right now you have an admittance to UT, and there are thousands of kids who would love to have an admission there, even if they couldn’t get their desired major. But you have an admittance to UT (which is extraordinarily competitive for anyone in the country), AND a spot in its CS program. So you have super selective upon super selective admit.

As others have mentioned, apart from UTD, all the schools you applied to were reaches for CS. Not only do they get far more applicants than they can accept, but they get far more highly-qualified applicants than they can accept. Reading around the forum there are many examples with super high GPAs, super high test scores, lots of extracurricular involvement and leadership, and then a string of rejections at the highly selective (rejective) colleges. It seems unfortunate that you weren’t aware earlier in the process that when you see really low admit rates, it’s not as though most of the applicants had a 3.0 and an 1100 SAT. The vast majority of the applicants are top students like yourself, so by being such an incredible applicant, you were eligible to be added to the pool of applicants that could have credibly been accepted. Unfortunately, your name just wasn’t one of the ones selected.

You have terrific in-state options where you will receive an excellent education. If you really do want an option to go out of state and would like suggestions, just let us know. But if you’re just wanting to vent before selecting one of your terrific Texas options and settling in to have a fabulous four years at one of them, that’s totally okay, too.

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If it makes you feel better, there are probably hundreds of 4.0 GPA 1550+ SAT kids who got rejected from UT’s CS program that would trade places with you.

The admit rate for UT CS is extremely low.

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As someone from the East Coast (not Texas obviously, thus making it very difficult to get in) who wants to go to UTA, I have to say congratulations!!

While you’re not in the position that you want be, recognize that plenty of people would love to go to UTA and it’s even harder for OOS (me!).

You’re in one of the best public schools in the entire country, in one of the best CS programs, in one of the most booming places both economically and culturally, and you won’t have to endure painful cold :tada:

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Comparison is the thief of joy.

UTAustin is an incredible school for CS and, as an in-state student, many would call the price a steal. If you would have had to take loans at the OOS schools, celebrate the fact that you will now be able to start life in a much better financial position. You probably can’t appreciate now how much more freedom you will have without the anchor of huge debt. If your parents would have been able to pay for the $80K-$90K tuition, maybe you could talk to them about using some of the amount that they are savings for something else: a future home, grad school tuition, international travel, or something else.

Rejection is never fun, no matter how rational or understandable it is, but you are in an enviable position. Getting accepted into CS at UTAustin is a huge accomplishment. Once you are there, I think you will see how impressive your classmates are and will realize that you are in rare air.

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I’ll echo what others said - that you have two outstanding options, at in-state costs, no less. Congratulations.

Remember this – all of your hard work for the last four years was not just to get you into a top college (which it did). It was to make sure you have the strongest foundation possible so you can succeed at whatever college you attend. So consider yourself a tremendous success!

As for the East Coast – it’s not going anywhere. You might not attend college there, but there are internships, jobs, grad school … if you want to end up there, you can.

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Yes. 3 classmates I know got into Stanford CS, MIT CS, and Harvard & Princeton CS. I was kind of exaggerating about “everybody else” since they were all top 1% as well.

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I think I’m going to go to UT Austin. You’re right, I overestimated my chances and shouldn’t have expected as much as I did from reach schools. I expected a lot, and when the results didn’t go my way, I felt really depressed. High school student life… :slight_smile:

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Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT do not admit students based on prospective majors. So none of those students at your school that you mentioned were admitted based on a stated major. One is simply admitted and can major/concentrate in anything when the time comes to declare. Quite often what students declare is not what they would have said on their admission application. Those schools are looking for more than a narrow academic interest. You have landed somewhere great. You’ve landed at the dream school of so many other applicants. Be proud of that! And be proud that you took your shot at these East Coast name-brand schools. You are going to do great wherever you attend because it’s clear that you work hard and have goals. The admissions process is humbling. It’s humbling but not defining.

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Texas high school teacher here.
I have our 2024 valedictorian in my class. He is going to UT Austin, after receiving a streak of rejection.
The good news is that you and him will meet quite some kids like you guys in UT. There won’t be too many, but certainly a good number. I know because that’s what my former students reported. One of my class of 2020 students (graduating next month) had his hardest summer four years ago after being rejected everywhere. He went to UT, found like-minded people, poured his heart out in his work, and is now a founding member of a very promising start-up software company. There are kids like him in every class.

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