<p>First off, sorry if this is the wrong forum, I don’t know where else to post this. I’m a rising senior about to start my college apps in the Fall this year. One of my friends, who I’ll call Sam, was a senior last year, and applied to a whole bunch of god-tier/high-tier colleges. From what he told me at the time, the posters on this website specifically had suggested that he would at least make one if not many of his college applications successful. So, here’s what I got:</p>
<p>Grade wise he was an straight A student, maybe 2 B’s over the entire course of high school, in advanced classes
He took AP Calc AB (3), USH (5), Lit (4), Comp Sci (Cancelled, would’ve gotten < 2)
His EC’s were B.P.A President and Robotics Team Participant primarily
SAT - Super score 2180, Regular Highest 2120
ACT - 33
Home state of Indiana
Applied primarily for Computer Science or Business or Physics in his applications</p>
<p>I also have access to some of his essays, though I’m not sure if you’d need them. He applied to:</p>
<p>Of these, every single one rejected/deferred him bar IU, Purdue, and UIUC. He claims this was because his school was not necessarily the greatest in our state (not ghetto, but not on the level as some of the bigger ones), and that if he was to wait out the deferral, he would’ve gotten in. </p>
<p>To what extent is his failure due to his school’s name? What else caused his failure? Is this even possible or am I being lied to (he has a tendency to make up things on the spot)? What should I watch out for (I go to a much better school than his, nationally recognized even)?</p>
<p>I do not see anything to doubt his story. And this story did not have a tragic ending, as he got into 3 places. IU, Purdue and UIUC, which did seem like safeties or at least low-matches. </p>
<p>As long as he only applied to places he wanted to go, and that he could afford to go to, he had 3 places from which to choose. This is to be expected. All A’s from a non-competitive HS means nothing. There are more than 35,000 HS in the US and if each one graduates about 50 kids with mostly A’s, that is 1.75 MILLION kids. His SAT of 2120 and ACT 33 are very good, but most of the kids who get into the schools that denied him have those scores or higher. His EC’s seem weak. Unless he had a hook (URM, 1st gen college, recruited athlete, legacy) I would have been shocked if he got into any of the ones that rejected him. </p>
<p>I am not sure what to tell you as far as your chances. It is all about fit, affordability, and applying to some safeties that you can afford and that you would be happy going to. Applying early to a place with rolling admissions that meets these criteria might alleviate some of your own (natural!) anxiety. </p>
<p>These are exactly the schools I would have expected him to be accepted to given the info you provided. Maybe U of Washington was a match, too. His test scores are good but not great, ECs are quite light, there is nothing to make him stand out in the terrific applicants pools the rest of those schools draw. The state schools (Michigan, UCLA) are generally harder for OOS students to get into, so while his stats may have looked on par, it is harder than it looks. Don’t know if he is full pay or not, but that could have hurt him at OOS publics, too.</p>
<p>My guess is that this had nothing to do with the high school he went to and everything to do with him not understanding how competitive the applicant pools are at most of the schools he applied to and how he stacked up against the other applicants.</p>
<p>I would agree with the two previous posters. You friend applied to a lot of reach schools, so a lot of rejections were to be expected. </p>
<p>Putting myself in the place of an admissions officer I would have noted a few weaknesses in his application that have nothing to do with his high school. The first would be his scant extracurricular activities. The second, and to my mind more important weakness is the mismatch between his intended major and his AP scores. Your friend wants to major in a quantitative field but his AB Calc score was an unexciting 3 and he did not submit his Comp Sci score, which would lead me to believe that he either didn’t take the test or didn’t do well. Neither option would give me confidence that he would excel as a CS major at my university.</p>
<p>Ohh ok, so these are indeed reach schools for him. Personally, I was glad he got shot down by so many. In fact, he was so certain that he’d make MIT, he actually got a copy of the dorm blueprint and student regulations to figure out the best way to get his own wife in his dorm. Frankly he had it coming. Follow-up question, he argued that there was a large influx of students who applied to every college, and that therefore he was rejected by so many. I looked into this and didn’t see any significant change in acceptance rates. It’s fair to assume he’s bsing this on the spot then?</p>
<p>On a side note, does the high school’s name matter if it is actually very competitive? The one I’m from pretty much dominates Indiana in both athletics and academics, and at least in state, it’s well known that the standards at this school are much higher than nearly every other. I don’t want to turn this into a chance-me thread without finding out what I got on my SAT’s, but I’m still curious about the reputation thing. Honestly I want to get into MIT just to spite my buddy. We have an… interesting relationship. </p>
<p>High schools don’t reject students because they didn’t go to a highly ranked high school. They reject them because they didn’t perform well enough within that school, there were certain character traits lacking, not enough space, bad interview, not good enough… </p>
<p>Good to know, he never made the interview stage so that essentially means he underperformed in one way or another. I just hope I don’t end up like him.</p>
<p>I thought he was your friend… would hate to see how you talk about your enemies.</p>
<p>If you want to check his claim on a few school about the number of applications, go look at the Common Data Set for those schools (Google “<school name=”“> common data set” and look at the last couple of years. You can see if there is a major difference. </school></p>
<p>Looking at birth rates in the US, in 1995 there were 3,892,000 babies born in the US and 3,899,000 in 1996 (most likely years of birth for students competing for admissions year before this one and this year, I think). So 7000 more in that age group nationwide, and a high % of them not applying to top colleges… so he can’t really blame population growth.</p>
<p>Even if students applied to more schools than the previous year, in the end they can only attend one school. Maybe more students end up on waitlists, but also more students get off waitlists because pretty much the same number of students are chasing the same number of spots.</p>
<p>So yes, he is BSing. But he wants to save face, so you will likely never convince him otherwise. I wouldn’t bother trying, just take a lesson for your own applications.</p>
<p>Speaking of that lesson, what exactly should I bear in mind going into my own applications? I mean, I think I should learn from this that I can’t reasonably expect everything to fall out perfectly into place. Though at this point my grades are all done, score results pending, I guess all I can do is wait. Unless I’m forgetting something huge.</p>
<p>Well… don’t forget what he forgot. Apply to more match schools and fewer reaches. Pay more attention to fit and colleges that are likely to want to accept you than those that turn away almost everyone. Ignore the sirens of prestige and pay a lot of attention to fit.</p>