I don’t mean to be arrogant at all, but I was really expecting to end up at a better school than North Carolina State University. I was wondering if there was a particular weakness in my application or something else that I can work on if I plan on transferring.
I am a white male and attended a college preparatory charter school.
34 ACT (36S,34M,33R,33E,10W)
2100 SAT but didn’t submit(770M,640R,690W)
GPA: 4.99W 3.86UW
3rd in my class of 86
7 AP classes, haven’t gotten all scores back yet
All other classes were honors except PE and Spanish
Varsity basketball, varsity baseball, varsity soccer(captain of all, all-conf and all-region soccer)
Attended summer ventures
5 clubs including NHS, started Ecology club and was president
I applied to 5 schools:
Harvard(denied)
Duke(denied)
Columbia(waitlisted)
Boston University(accepted)
NCSU(will attend)
I’m definitely not implying I’m too good for NC State or better than any of the students that got into those other schools, but what can I do to improve myself for grad school/transferring? Thanks a lot!
Were you surprised? You applied to 5 schools, 3 of which are reaches for almost everyone, and got in to the other 2. I don’t see anything shocking there. And you got in to a “better” school than NCSU but you decided not to go there.
As for grad school (I assume in your discipline). Get A’s and impress profs. Get recs.
Why would you want to transfer? What goals do you have?
You were rejected because you applied to a couple of extreme reaches. Your ACT of 34, although good wasn’t good enough for those schools. Your UW GPA was 3.86 and wasn’t a 4.0. Nothing “outstanding” was in your “resumé”.
You applied to very competitive schools such as Harvard, Duke and Columbia. Typically, when students apply to these colleges they are counted as “Reach” in which students are aware of the competition and apply to these Universities with the knowledge that its likely they may be denied. Ivy leagues are known for their selectivity, as thousands of qualified applicants apply and only a handful are selected due to space limitations or other (plentiful) factors. Some students are bred for Ivy League from birth and still get denied despite the 4.0, 2400 SAT, recommendation from the mayor and awards. You shouldn’t be too confident when applying to these schools, many students are “better” than you in terms of statistics. I’d be proud enough to get as close as “waitlisted” at Columbia University but you and I have different standards clearly.
As for your qualities, your GPA and ACT are Ivy-League worthy as is the quantity of AP classes. You are certainly “up there” but other factors come into consideration aside from solely statistics. Your essay and recommendations are vital. I’m not implying that you did something wrong in the application. You are an outstanding candidate but not everyone that is eligible for Ivy league will get accepted. I’m sorry to hear you got rejected, I recommend you continue to succeed and perhaps greater options will come in your way. Ivy Leagues are special but they aren’t everything, many institutions offer great education and I’m sure they’d be more than happy to accept you.
Edit: As for advice, I’m sure you already know but I didn’t include it because eh. Another student may learn from this.
-Do not procrastinate you application(Overall)
-Take the toughest courses possible(GPA)
-Ask recommendations from teachers who love you and know you (PQ)
-Involve yourself with things you’re passionate about such as Research, Clubs. Be a leader!(EC)
-Don’t stress too much on the prestige of these Universities (PQ)
-Study intensively in your courses. 3.86 is still Ivy-league worthy, not all Ivy students retain a 4.0…
Yeh, you needed to apply to somewhere between the top 3 you applied to and the bottom 2 you were accepted at. That was the main problem. You should be able to transfer up, or you may like NC State. You don’t mention SAT IIs. Harvard requires 3 of them, and they are important to most top schools.
Your college list was incredibly skewed. You had chances at Ivy’s with your stats, but they are reaches for everyone no matter what. You should have applied to schools in between (2nd tier) such as Vanderbilt, Boston College, USC etc. type schools. The discrepancy is huge, which is a bad thing.
In a sense your list is fine, because though small, you had a safety and a match. It’s probably why your GC approved it. But with such a small list, the safety has to be one that a student is very enthusiastic about attending. In your other thread, you indicated BU was your dream school, but it appears the aid wasn’t enough for your family to make it work. Especially when finances are a factor, applicants need to make sure they have a list that will assure them several choices in March or April.
NC State has an honors college. Hopefully you will be part of that, and you may find that you enjoy your experience very much. Good luck.
Your academics are in the ball park, but your ECs were strictly ordinary by the standards of the top schools. Basically, a strong athlete and a couple of clubs w/ some ordinary leadership. Moreover, you were a big fish in a very small pond, which probably contributed to an illusion that you were more competitive than is probably the case. 3d in a class of 86 is good, but many applicants are first in a class of 500, president of clubs in schools of 2,000 or more students, captain of the team for one sport because there is no possible way to be captain of three when there are so many excellent athletes at one school, etc…
This isn’t meant to diminish your excellent high school record - but just to give you some perspective on who the competition is. You’ll run up against this again when you apply to grad school.
You didn’t understand probability. You cannot fight the odds. The odds of acceptance to a highly selective school are now spread over 3 - 4 times as many schools as 15 years ago because applications per student have risen so much.
Your problem was that you did not come up with a good list of colleges to apply to that included reaches, matches and safety schools. Your top 3 are reaches/crapshoots for anyone and I didn’t see anything that made you particularly stand out. BU is expensive and I guess it was not a school you wanted to spend the money to attend. There are tons of schools between your reaches and safetys which are excellent schools where you would have had a reasonable chance for admission (just a couple offhand URochester, Johns Hopkins and there are tons more).
They say life in unfair, however that does not apply in your case. You present solid grades and scores, but nothing that would jump out at admissions staff. In hindsight, which unfortunately is always clairvoyant, a larger list with a greater diverdity of schools would have been well advised.
As for transferring, I would submit this piece of counsel, be careful not to expose yourself to additional disappointment. Admission rates for elite institutions are beyond the competive sphere of even freshmen admissions. H, Y and S, by way of example, hover around 2%. Further, you would need to make a lucid statement on the basis of your transfer, e.g. a major or degree, not offered at your current school. My earnest suggestion – make the most of your current situation and enjoy your time at NCSU.
Had you come here sooner to ask for advice on your college list, you likely would have been advised to add more low reaches and high matches - you clearly had a quality safety in NC State, which sufficed in that department.
I would have recommended apps at schools like Vanderbilt, Rice, Georgetown, WUSTL, Emory, Boston College, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, USC, Tufts… schools in between the level of Harvard/Columbia/Duke and NC State. You probably would have gotten into at least one of those, and they are all known for giving good need-based aid.
But NC State holds plenty of promise for you, and if you want an elite-level challenge, see if you can get into the honors college. Your future could be quite bright: a solid degree from a Research Triangle school. Good luck!
Were you first gen? How many students did your GC work with? Weren’t advised to apply to other schools, such as UNC-CH (and where you can probably transfer depending on the major you choose)? Did you apply for a specific major - if NCSU is an indication, did you apply for engineering, or for CS or for Math (as this makes a difference, too)? Could your teachers say something like “the best student I’ve had in years”? Did yu get into NCSU’s Honors College?
Thank you so much everyone! Everyone responded with the constructive criticism that I needed, and specifically the posts that put me into perspective when coming from such a small school were really helpful. Even application fees were an issue for my family so that’s why I only applied to 5 schools. I didn’t apply to UNC because both of my parents went there and I wanted to carve a different path. Boston University gave me enough aid for it to be attainable, but I got cold feet about living in Boston after I’ve spent my whole life in such a small town. I know Harvard and Columbia are both in really large cities but I was prepared to make the transition if it was for an Ivy League. I will be majoring in computer science, but not in the Honors College. Thanks again everyone, I’ll try to improve extra-curriculars and will be prepared for rejection if I attempt a transfer!