Why do you even try?

Colleges & Universities Princeton University
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<p>[Number</a> of Students in the Class of 2013 by Geographic Region](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/map.htm]Number”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/map.htm)</p>

<p>This map is absolutely devastating. My state of Texas has many millions of residents. I know that not everyone in the state applies but there are at least a couple of thousand. What are the chances that one would be part of the 48 that are accepted? And this would most likely apply to other ivies as well, some being even worse with lower acceptance rates than Princeton. And, in the coming years, I see acceptance rates only going lower. Colleges will make no efforts to make more room. The students will only get more elite. More parents will raise their children as workhorses. You see where I am going with this…</p>

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<p>Again, I am troubled by the hopelessness of your posts’ tone. Try to stay positive; set ambitious but attainable (i.e., no chance admissions involved) goals for yourself; and just work as hard as you can, being open-minded about where you’ll end up in life.</p>

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<p>Once again, the Ivy League is a sports association, nothing more. They are not the 8 best universities in the country by any means. Stop fixating on them and you’ll be a lot happier.</p>

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<p>At least you don’t live in Montana.</p>

<p>And 48 refers to the number of students who matriculated, not the number of students who were accepted.</p>

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<p>My opinion is that if you come from an underrepresented state, your chances are better. So cheer up! Your chances are possibly better than kids applying from CA or NY (if your grades and other stats are good, of course).</p>

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<p>SheenR, whenever I get caught up in that kind of thought, I just pose this to myself: there are actual students making up that 48 who matriculated, so why can’t it be me? It has to be someone, after all… It might seem elementary, but I’ve just adopted a “If they can do it, so can I” mantra, and it hasn’t failed me yet! Good luck!</p>

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<p>If you don’t think you can be one of the 48 brightest in your state in any given year, maybe Princeton isn’t for you.</p>

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<p>Jersey13,</p>

<p>1) I am not egotistical enough to make said assumption.</p>

<p>2) No matter where you are, there will always exist someone that is better than you.</p>

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<p>If youre not excellent, youre not getting in. I dont know why everyone dances around saying this to you. If youre pretty smart but not THAT smart, pretty involved but not THAT involved, youre not going to an Ivy League school.</p>

<p>Thats the bottom line. If youre depressed because youre not good enough to get into an Ivy, then youre still not good enough no matter how many “oh no! Its hopeless!” threads you start.</p>

<p>My advice, if you are an underclassman and it is clear to you that you wont have a chance at an Ivy, give up now and pursue other things. Because the 7, 8, 9, percent chances people claim you have to get into these schools are disingenuous numbers. If youre an excellent candidate, your chances are going to be 30-40 percent. If youre not a good candidate, theyre going to be less than .1 percent. So either get working on it or get to work on something else.</p>

<p>Either way stop complaining.</p>

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<p>^^^^^
One of the most brilliant posts I’ve read here on CC.</p>

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<p>^^^^ Brilliant, but it also makes me depressed. I am not Ivy material, now I want to curl up into a ball and die.</p>

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You’re not egotistical at all, you’re just plain defeatist. I see no relevance in your second point.</p>

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<p>come on, we’ve been through this before! Seriously, first of all, the Ivies aren’t even all in the top 10 schools list, you DON’T have to go to an “Ivy” school to be successful, happy, and whatever else you want to be.
so:

  1. Everyone knows that it’s neear impossible to get into an “Ivy” school
  2. most of them still accept around 2,000 ppl each year
  3. there will be less peopl in your year than in mine actually (guess it’s some sort of a break)
  4. give it your best shot and pray (no one has better chances than you do, Valedictorians with heavy resumes and 2400’s still get rejected)</p>
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<p>oh, and I tried because I knew I was qualified and if the lottery didn’t pick me, there were still plenty of other schools I’d have been happy to go to. I just felt that I owed it to myself to aim for the best college possible.</p>

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<p>I for one get exhausted looking at these complaining, complacent, and defeatist posts. The title “Why do you even try?” is ridiculous and self explanatory. You try because if you don’t, your chances aren’t 7,8,9%–they shrink to 0. I can see that you feel dejected about your situation, as we all do sometimes, but you need to learn to pick yourself up, give your best shot at the college app, and if things don’t work out–have no regrets because you know you tried your best.</p>

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<p>Lies. That is such bull that I cannot believe anyone would waste time typing it.</p>

<p>If you think that the Ivy League is only a sports association, you do not operate in the real world, or in the academic world for that matter.</p>

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<p>Baelor - of course said poster recognizes that the Ivy League is more than just a sports association. However, he was exaggerating to make the point that not every top school is in the Ivy League and that you shouldn’t pick a college solely because it is in the Ivy League.</p>

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<p>Schools are not SOLELY successful bc of their ivy association. However, I firmly believe that having the Ivy name gives these 8 schools a HUGE boost. For example, if you are a law firm, it sounds alot better to say you have X number of ivy grads than X number of duke/northwestern/uchicago grads.</p>

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<p>Why try? Because you like to aim high. And everyone should have a reach or two, because (if for no other reason) the admissions process is notoriously anomalous and you may be pleasantly surprised one day. </p>

<p>About increasing access: at least a couple of Ivy League universities are in fact in expansion mode at this very moment. <a href=“http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_10711.shtml[/url]”>http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_10711.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Convenient that Yale’s expansion will be complete one year after my graduation from high school.</p>