College Acceptances / Discussion Thread

comatthew6

comatthew6

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Well, it's that time of the year again, and I'm betting you high school seniors are eager to share where you were accepted into college! All of your hard work has finally paid off, and it has come to this. Your blood, sweat, and tears (but mostly sweat) have finally yielded fruition, and you got in! In the words of Stephen Colbert, "You were deemed worthy, while your high school rival is going to his safety school."

I can't wait to see if some of you will be in my region!

I'll kick things off:

Cooper Union Class of 2016 (East Village Manhattan, NY).

EDIT: Sorry for a really lame OP

EDIT 2: This is funny and also true. Get ready to fill out some scholarships.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkrTa4RMpDw&feature=g-u-u&context=G2cffc6eFUAAAAHgABAA
 
Congrats dude, I'm a Junior right now and Cooper Union is on the list of colleges I really want to go to. And NY is super cool.
 
Mailman said:
Congrats dude, I'm a Junior right now and Cooper Union is on the list of colleges I really want to go to. And NY is super cool.
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Good luck! I'd love to see you there!


undisputed said:
hey im a high school junior, so ill be applying come the fall. itd be awesome if you guys could share any personal advice you have as well!
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Changed OP to a general discussion thread. Well, make sure that your SAT scores are up to par with the colleges of your dreams, that you continue to challenge yourself and excel in your classes, and to research essay topics so that you'll be prepared when applications come out! It's also never a bad idea to start visiting colleges to see what the campuses/life is like there!
 
Don't procrastinate! I waited so long to do my college shit and it ended up sucking way more as the deadlines approached.

Anyways I'm still waiting to hear back from Southern Connecticut State University, which is one of two schools that I applied to (Westfield State admissions filled up mad early :( ). It's pretty easy to get into and has an incredible up and coming music program so I'm pretty optimistic about it. Yeah I'm studying music; I'm in it for the big bucks yo.
 
Hawaii China International MBA Program~~~ (just got my acceptance)

From September, I'll be living in my hometown of Honolulu again for the first time in 7 years-- but only for 1 year, before going to Guag Zhou to study/work the following year.

Imma meet Fatecrashers there when he comes to China~ Fate-Chou-Con 2014-- be there!
 
General tips from when I applied:

1) Check your grammar on your essays. I've proofread many essays in my year, and the year after for many applying to America, and the amount of grammatical (and even spelling I don't even) mistakes I've found was astounding. When I read a paper, I don't want to have the voice in the back of my mind pointing out grammatical mistakes; that's distracting as fuck. That being said...

2) Don't ramble on your essays. When I wrote my U Chicago essay, one of the biggest problems in retrospect was that I rambled and digressed from the main point. U Chicago gives you a free rein on the last essay (at least in my year), and I took that opportunity to write a 2500 word essay on something that I could've shortened down to about 1500 words. When I read papers, I hate when people use unnecessary bullshit and accessory words; you try to sound too flowery and it just sounds bad most of the time, unless you really have a command of prose.

3) Have safeties, and reaches. Don't be *that* guy who's stuck with no school to go to because he didn't bother to apply to any schools that were either 1) not as expensive so you can afford it financially or 2) low enough that he's pretty much a shoo-in. I *almost* made this mistake because I realized I couldn't afford to go to the Eastern universities, and I didn't apply to the second closest school (which I've transferred to since). The only reason I had a home in 1st year was because I randomly applied to SFU on a whim, and that ended up being my ONLY option. Don't let this happen to you.

That being said, have about 3-5 (or more if you're ambitious) schools that are essentially your "dream" schools, that you'd love to attend, but are definitely not a shoo-in for. College acceptances are sometimes a toss-up; I've seen a few get into schools they definitely did not have stats for, and others who got rejected from schools while having stats that matched or were above em. You might get lucky.

4) Get your teacher recs ready. I would make good connections with your teachers as early as the middle of your junior year, if you're serious about the upper tier schools. The more the teacher knows you, the better of a recommendation letter they can write. Plus, you may potentially have to deal with the teacher retiring on you, and then taking a 2 year vacation traveling the world (personal experience), so have a list of teachers ready to write you a good recommendation letter.

Other than that, get your grades up, do well on SATs, save the world, blah blah blah, lots of crap I'm sure most of you Americans know by now.

Also if you can, visit the campus you're applying to. The first university I attended looks like a fucking prison, as Firestorm knows well (and it was designed by a prison maker so there you go), and I detested the place. The university I'm at now is a lot nicer, except for all the construction going on.
 
undisputed said:
hey im a high school junior, so ill be applying come the fall. itd be awesome if you guys could share any personal advice you have as well!
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The two most important things on your college applications are your transcript and your essay. Presumably you've been working hard and have gotten as high grades as you can get, so I won't ruminate much on that.

The essay is probably the most important part after grades. This is really the only time they get to see your PERSONALITY and it's what distinguishes John Smith, 4.0 GPA, Captain of the Football team from Jane Doe, 4.0 GPA, Captain of the Soccer team. Don't write about what you think they want to hear, write about what parts of YOU is important to you. When I met my regional application reader, she knew a lot about me, including not only what I did in High School but who I was as a person. You want an essay that conveys your essence to your reader and makes it seem like they are meeting you yourself.

Most schools have a supplemental application that (other than BS like Princeton's "Your favorite word") includes a "Why _______?" essay. Don't be vague. At all. The worst thing you can do is talk in generalizations. If you're applying to Columbia, don't talk about a science school in the city. That's NYU too. That's Rockefeller too. My "Why Columbia?" essay talked about the Core--it's what makes Columbia distinct from other schools. Doing your research helps exponentially here. I talked about the specific classes in the Core, and if you can somehow work your research (maybe you're interested in a specific program or a set of classes, or certain opportunities) into your essay without it seeming contrived, it makes it even better.

As a final note on the essay: they know when you're BSing. Don't do it.

In terms of extracurriculars (which is hard to change as a junior but not _impossible_), you don't need to be "that guy who does everything". They're looking for depth, not breadth. Sure, I have a great friend from High School who did debate, fencing, multiple levels of orchestra, different academic teams and clubs, etc, and he got into Harvard. On the other hand, I mainly did fencing (showing lots of commitment going from JV -> Varsity -> Captain), an academic team or two, and a research project, and I'm typing this from my Columbia dorm. Show COMMITMENT. They don't care if you sampled every club or not. They want people who will contribute to better their university society, as well as bring diversity to the incoming class; showing commitment and passions for specific things, and following through on those passions, tells them that you have goals and will be driven at college. Maybe you'll even follow those passions through university.

Most importantly though, keep one thing in mind: there are more schools out there. Yeah, if I didn't get into Columbia I would've been upset. There's no real way to sugarcoat not getting accepted into your favorite school. However, just keep in mind that there are many schools out there that you will be equally, if not more, happy at. You will not only survive, but flourish at and, most importantly, ENJOY, the school you end up going to, no matter whether it is your first, second, or seventh choice. I can almost guarantee it.


Side note: any new Smogoners coming to Columbia? :3
 
Adding to Eraddd, I have had a bunch of fun with my share of High School but sadly my family can't afford to send me to a 4 year college even with whatever salary / aid that I get; so I'm going to my local community college for my assoc. and then transferring 5 hours away to Virginia Tech.

Beyond what Eraddd has said:
-after school activities and groups look really good on your college app, but keep the numbers small because colleges will get turned off by looking at a wall of activity groups.
-Schools love Community Service, I had this pounded in my skull since day 1 in High School and it turns out it was true. Many of my friends and I, who all did our share of service and it paid off well. Shoot for anywhere around 30-60 hours because once again, too much can be a turn off. I myself had 140 and that actually cost me a bid to NorthEastern (like I was gonna go anyways...).
-SATs, don't take them more than three times (even three is pushing it...). After the first SAT, unless you decided to be a smartass and answer everything wrong, you likely won't improve that much no matter how many times you take it after. Schools generally accept your highest scores if you've taken the SATs more than once. Also, most schools only care about 1600 scores (which is math + critical reading) but doing well in English will give you a leg up. I can go on forever about this but one thing I can say is tutors and seminars are expensive as fuck (think 4 digits for two hour long seminars) and will probably only net you around 200 (out of 2400) points total.

Edit: damn bojangles you put the extra curriculars way better than me. I'll also put in more of my background because people seem to like that...
 
my college acceptance rate is worse than 1/2 of shaquille o'neal's career free throw percentage.

current senior, my experiences have really made me disillusioned with the college app process lol, really seems like a crapshoot for any of the better colleges. pretty much "qualified" for any college out there in terms of stats, had decent enough and genuine essays, good extracurriculars, p good recs but so far have only gotten in 3 state schools out of 13 total.

seems to me that all you can do is do your best in school and on the SAT and do a chock full of worthless but seemingly important extracurricular activities though, because those who really pour all their energy into those things seemed to have the closest thing to a sure acceptance for the elite colleges.

overall though, if you are motivated and are really interested in what you're doing though, undergrad is just a small step in your career. doesn't mean i'm not pissed about my results however, this is literally the gayest experience i've ever put so much effort into for so little reward. fuck mexicans
 
For my college essays, it took a very long time for me to come up with what I would want to write about. I didn't base what I wrote on what people wrote online (although some of them I did gain a bit of inspiration and direction from). I would just think about what defines you as a person, what events/people (whether it be in real life or literary) have shaped you, and what drives you to do the things you do, and the things you want to accomplish in life. From there, looking at the general topics the Common App gives, it's pretty easy to apply those to your writing. It's good that you're thinking of your college essays now, since it was honestly the biggest pain in the ass to write.

I haven't kept up with the college application process ever since I graduated, but from what I've heard, more schools are putting less emphasis on standardised testing, and more on personal grades, and recommendations. Don't quote me on that. Personally, I would think the recommendations as one of the bigger topics schools would look at, since there's a point where you can't differentiate between the 4.0 and 2250+ SAT scores most students will have when applying to the top tier schools. If you're applying to the lower ones, then standardised testing will be a greater factor.

I personally think the weighed vs unweighed GPA is bullshit (which I really don't want to go on about here...) and I'm actually not sure what the policy on them is for most schools (I think a lot of schools have different policies on them). I would just make sure your GPA is as high as possible when you apply.

The difference between the ACT and SAT is pretty slim. I know people in the Midwest tend to take the ACT more than the SAT, but other than that, either or is fine I think. I personally took the SATs and their subject tests.

@uraga: It seems bad now (I was pretty damn pissed during the process, especially as an international student), but I personally believe it's not where you go that defines you as a student, but what you make out of the school you attend. Even if you have to attend a state school, there are still plenty of opportunities awaiting you, and it's up to each person to make the best out of a not-so-great situation and do their best. I think that's what differentiates good students from great students.
 
I'm a high school senior with a 2310 SAT score and a 101.8 GPA with pretty good extracurriculars and a seven year involvement in music, and today I went 0.5 out of 5 for the five Ivy League schools I applied to. The 0.5 was a waitlist at Cornell.

So right now I'm stuck in a rather awkward spot because I basically only applied to those Ivys, UChicago, and MIT, along with my safety school, Rutgers. I'm pretty much in position number 3 that Eraddd described, since my family and I were pretty much clueless about the college procedure and I've always been raised under a gung-ho "get into the good schools" mindset.

So I ended up not applying to Duke or NYU or Boston or TCNJ and I'm suffering the repercussions now. It's between a waitlist at Cornell, one at UChicago, and a full ride to Rutgers.

I know Rutgers is still a pretty a good school, and that people would kill to have a full ride to it - and personally, I know if I end up having to go there, I'll be happy with my lot. But right now, it's hard not to feel devestated, to feel like I failed somehow.

If I were to give advice to current high school juniors, I'd say exactly what Eraddd said - don't overestimate yourself and make sure you apply in a comfortable range of schools, including several levels of safety. Always try to give yourself options, even if that means working harder on the applications.
 
I took the lazy way out and applied to the nearest community college, lol.

Though I do plan on transferring to a 4 year college in a couple years...
 
prefacing this by saying my on-campus job actually was in the admissions office, and during the winter i was actually in their "war room" filing applications and paperwork and got to read some of the admissions officers comments. note that I go to Tufts, and what I say goes for most top-tier schools.

undisputed said:
how much of an effect does the sat have vs. gpa? vs. essay? vs. recommendations?
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The SAT is unique in that everyone knows its a bullshit test but everyone in the country takes the same test. Recommendations rarely help unless its a personalized recommendation from a high-powered alumni/famous person, but they rarely hurt unless they're extremely obviously a form letter or not complementary. GPA is weird in that admissions people know every school is different, and generally people from your area know the schools in the area and know what certain gpas mean. Essay is totally subjective, you could have an essay that resonates with one person but is meh to another.

Overall: sat is the first cutoff, gpa is the second cutoff, essay is where they separate the people they like/don't like, recs are confirmation on their decision.

do colleges care more about weighted or unweighted gpa?
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doesn't matter really because again, at least one person that reads your app will be from your area and will know the schools in that area and how they generally grade.

oh! how important is the act?
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if you took the sat, dont bother with the act, and vice versa. most schools accept both and weight them equally.
 
Super Mario Bro said:
I took the lazy way out and applied to the nearest community college, lol.

Though I do plan on transferring to a 4 year college in a couple years...
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Nothing wrong with that. Saves you a bunch of money, and you get the same piece of paper that everyone else gets when you graduate. You might get shafted a bit for graduate school or professional schools, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Heh, reminds me of my own situation. The school I attended in first year pretty much gave me a scholarship that covered my entire tuition (I took about... 42 credits in my first year), and then transferred to a better institution who also gave me a scholarship. In a way, I saved about 7.5k dollars, which was really nice.
 
Getting into the top-tier schools is becoming more difficult with every passing year. For example, Stanford's acceptance rate for the class of 2014 was around ~7%, and last year, for the class of 2015, it was only about ~6%. Of course, not everyone is going to be applying to Stanford, but I was just making a point.

There isn't much to add to what the others have already said, but bojangles really hit the nail on the head. Anyone can have good SATs, good grades, and even extracurriculars and sports. The essay is what sets you apart from all the other applicants; it is really more important than you think. Make sure your essay is top-notch, get lots of people to edit it. The more people that can give you insight on your essay the better!

Good luck all :)
 
The UK system (UCAS) seems a lot easier. I'm a 'High school senior' as it were. I'm in Year 13, or Upper Sixth. I've applied to University, I got all of my offers. I picked firm and insurance. and I'm hopefully going to go to Lancaster Uni to study Physics.

UCAS requires a reference from the UCAS director of your school, usually the Head of 6th, which is written from a collection of references from each subject teacher. UCAS also requires 1 Personal Statement which has a limit of 4000 Characters (inc. spaces) Once you've submitted your Personal Statement. Your UCAS Director then adds his reference and sends it to UCAS where it sends that information to the 5 Universities/Colleges you've applied to.

You can pick up to 5 Universities. However you can only apply once to a course (applying more than once would be stupid). You can only submit one Application to Oxford or Cambridge. You can only apply to 4 Medicine offers maximum and however many you apply to, if you put medicine as a course choice, you must have a back up. These are all put in place to safeguard the applicants, and to stop them making decisions that could prevent them from going to University.

Having gone through the UCAS system. I can concur with the above that the Personal Statement (or Essays) are the most important parts of the application after your predicted grades. Some places will offer you a place as long as you're predicted the standard offer. Also. Make sure you apply long before the deadline. Some Places wait until the deadline to start looking through applications. Others (most) start to hand out offers as soon as possible to reduce workload. If you want an offer. You'll want to be at the top of the pile.

There is a deadline for Medicine and Oxbridge applicants before the standard deadline. If you get your application in before that deadline. The universities will think you've applied to Oxbridge (unless you're applying to medicine) and so are more likely to give you an offer. If they believe that you're Oxbridge Caliber, they'll happily take you if you don't get into Oxbridge (If you haven't applied you certainly won't get in, but Unis don't see the others you've applied to)

Back to the personal statement. You need to tell them that you're passionate about the subject you've applied to. You need to give a good reason why. You need to show that you take an outside of school interest in that subject, i.e research papers, books you've read, (scraping the bottom of the barrel) Documentaries you've watched. (Seriously though, it's a good idea to read a few books). You need to show them that you have a work-life balance. My school is big for Enrichment Activities. which are basically there to look good on your application. You mention these as well, and explain how they've benefited you. Also with Extra-Curricular activities. Mention how you hope you can contribute to the university, using those activities. All though British Unis aren't as competitively sports orientated as American ones are, The university needs to see what you can offer them.

Most of all, stand out. Be the person that makes the admissions tutor say "Wow, look at X, look at all the stuff they do," and "Wow, just look at that first sentence." Your first few sentences, and last few should tie together nicely, and leave an impact. You want your application to stand head and shoulders above the rest.

If you're applying for Medicine in UK, make sure that you do loads of preparation for the UKCAT, if the score isn't good enough, you may not even get interviews.

Best of all Good luck
 
I got accepted into University of Michigan at around Christmas time. Seeing as how I only had a 26 ACT (avg. 29) and a 3.9 GPA (avg. 3.85), I felt like my ACT was way too low to get accepted. However, I felt as though if I were somehow able to get accepted, it would be because I have excelled and practiced business throughout my entire life. Thus, I made all my essays aimed toward making myself stand out - focused on my passion for business.

Every time I tell one of my friends that I got accepted into University of Michigan with a 26, they definitely give me a double-take. I don't think I've known anyone with lower than a 27 get accepted there.

Moral of the story: ESSAYS MATTER! Show how you're unique from all your other peers.
 
I'm a high school senior with a good SAT (1550/1600, 2250/2400) but a mediocre GPA (3.5), and am currently trying to decide to which colleges I should apply. I will be taking a year off (possibly more) to study abroad, so I'll be applying for 2013.
I'm looking for Physics/engineering schools. I'm almost definitely applying to Cooper Union and NYUpoly, with Queens as a backup. I want to look into Columbia, but my dad is opposed to it (apparently, they're far too liberal).
What recommendations do you, as a community, have? To how many, and to which, colleges should I apply?

Also, I completed part of the application to Cooper, then decided to cancel (you can only apply for the following year, not two years in advance). I e-mailed them that I wanted to cancel my application, and they acknowledged that. Yesterday, they sent me an e-mail saying that I had not been accepted for 2012. Should I respond, and tell them that I cancelled? Is there any reason to do so? Is there any reason not to?
 
A view from someone in college (freshman): Don't stress if you don't get in anywhere. It's not the end of the world if you don't go to your dream school. Trust me, you will definitely find something you like about your suboptimal choice and come the first semester, it's likely that you won't even care about your dream school anymore.

Edit: fuck i am retarded tennisace is older than me
 
Any canadians (outside of Eradddd) with their personal experiences? I know that canadian universities tend to be a lot easier to get into unless you're going into a very specialized program.

I'll be attending the University of Toronto and their Engineering Science program with a specialization in Aerospace Engineering this upcoming fall, got my acceptance there early February!
 
I'm only a sophomore in high school, but I'm obviously always trying to do my best in school right now.

So, I have a question: do you guys think it is more important to have a higher GPA, or have a slightly lower GPA with a few AP classes? Personally, I'm thinking that having 1-2 AP classes then having around a 3.7 or so is about the best thing to plan for, but I would like your opinions on this.

I'm sure other things like being swim team captain will be important, etc etc, but when coming just down to grades / classes, what do you think is the best approach?

thanks for any help :)
 
I guess my main concern with the college process is finding this passion thing that all these top tier schools are concerned with. I'm going to go ahead and address the elephant in the room right now, since I think we were all thinking it- has ANYBODY used Pokemon to their benefit? I mean I can't really imagine how this would work but it could be something you right about in an essay, or if like you placed in VGC Nationals or Worlds you could write about that experience, or anything like that. It seems like somebody would just read "Pokemon" and stamp it REJECT, but I feel like its something you might be able to put a nice spin on and after all it IS rather unique. Beyond Pokemon, I honestly don't feel too "passionate" about anything so I'm really worried about the college process.
 
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