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For those top students who are disappointed by rejections and probably experiencing academic "failure" for the first time, just keep a few things in mind:
1. Assuming you applied smartly (ie not just HYPSM) you will likely gain admittance to one of the top universities in the country.
2. Your college doesn't define you, it's what you make out of your opportunities, and believe me they are endless at any top school.
3. Even if you feel like you're "settling" by going to a "lesser" school than whatever your dream school was, chances are that you'll find a ton of people at that school that are more driven, more talented, and more intelligent than you. Don't underestimate the caliber of students at any of the top schools or else you'll suddenly find yourself an average or below average student.
4. Once you decide on a school to attend, forget about the rejections or other schools you turned down. Don't wallow in misery and bitterness that you aren't attending your dream school. If you give your school a fair chance, you'll probably end up loving wherever you attend. |
On March 17 2013 21:24 MCDayC wrote:
Well, its for a UK uni, and I found out 2 months ago, but I gotta brag somewhere on TL, so here goes:
I got an offer from Oxford, Merton College, for Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
I got accepted to do PPE at Exeter college Oxford as well! Great to see other TL kids there! (I'm taking a gap year and only entering in 2014 though)
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On March 17 2013 21:18 kafkaesque wrote:
Wow, the college application process seems to be really different than in Germany.
We just get in based on our performance at our equivalent to high school and sometimes have to take an extra exam.
If I understand it correctly, US universities seem to be mostly private, with ivy league being something like elite universities for people with exceptional SAT-scores?
I'm still not quite sure how it works, is high school a mandatory part of school?
In Germany, only about 50% of students go on to high school, while the rest just does an apprenticeship / trainee-program after 10th or 9th grade.
One of the big differences between US education and European education, I think, is that in the US test results are much less important. Good SAT scores help you get into the schools, but are far from being the most important part of the application. There are tons of people with perfect SAT scores that get rejected from Ivy League or Ivy equivalent (i.e. Stanford) schools. Having good grades, writing good essays, and doing interesting things with your time are probably more important than acing the SATs. It's important to have solid SATs, but they don't have to be the best in the world.
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United Kingdom14464 Posts
On March 17 2013 21:29 nekolux wrote:Show nested quote +On March 17 2013 21:24 MCDayC wrote:
Well, its for a UK uni, and I found out 2 months ago, but I gotta brag somewhere on TL, so here goes:
I got an offer from Oxford, Merton College, for Philosophy, Politics and Economics. I got accepted to do PPE at Exeter college Oxford as well! Great to see other TL kids there! (I'm taking a gap year and only entering in 2014 though)
In 2 years we need to meet up 
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On March 17 2013 22:37 Meadowlark wrote:Show nested quote +On March 17 2013 21:18 kafkaesque wrote:
Wow, the college application process seems to be really different than in Germany.
We just get in based on our performance at our equivalent to high school and sometimes have to take an extra exam.
If I understand it correctly, US universities seem to be mostly private, with ivy league being something like elite universities for people with exceptional SAT-scores?
I'm still not quite sure how it works, is high school a mandatory part of school?
In Germany, only about 50% of students go on to high school, while the rest just does an apprenticeship / trainee-program after 10th or 9th grade. One of the big differences between US education and European education, I think, is that in the US test results are much less important. Good SAT scores help you get into the schools, but are far from being the most important part of the application. There are tons of people with perfect SAT scores that get rejected from Ivy League or Ivy equivalent (i.e. Stanford) schools. Having good grades, writing good essays, and doing interesting things with your time are probably more important than acing the SATs. It's important to have solid SATs, but they don't have to be the best in the world.
The Ivy League is actually a bunch of schools that used to be part of some football league back in the day... they're all pretty good schools, but I'd also argue somewhat overrated and a lot of their reputation is based on name recognition. The majority of good US schools are private, though there are some really good public schools and systems (like UC and UT), along with places like Georgie Tech or UVA. Private school costs ridiculous amounts of money, public is better though attending one from out-of-state can be pretty expensive as well.
College admissions in the US is based on four things: high school GPA (with some emphasis on curriculum and school ranking), test scores (SAT/ACT, SAT II's, IB, AP), extra-curriculars (what you do outside of school) and life story (who you are).
Most colleges you apply through via the Common App. You basically put all your information in there along with a couple recommendations from teachers or other adults and write an essay, then submit it to schools you want. You might do a supplement (a couple extra essays, etc.) for some schools, but that is basically everything a college will see of you. Some state public school systems use their own systems, and I think there's a couple of other application networks floating around.
Then you wait, maybe some of the more selective places will interview you and that has an impact on your application depending on how important your interviewer is and how good/bad you did. Finally, you get acceptance letters and you pick where you want to go.
"High school" is the main route for education in the US. Some people do get a job or go to trade school, but most people go to high school-- its not quite as prestigious (is that the word?) as in European countries.
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Some guy that was in a lot of my high school classes went to Harvard. He wasn't even that smart. He made up for it because of his athleticism, personality, extra curricular activities, and life story.
So yeah you don't need perfect SAT scores to go to Ivy League schools, but you better stand out among the applicants.
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On March 17 2013 16:00 Kevinshi3 wrote:Saw this thread last year and I got super excited/ nervous to post it this year. It's a shame that there aren't more legitimate posts here and a lot of pessimists trying to rain on everybody's parades. We worked 4 years for this, it's a tradition on TL, and I'm sure everybody likes to get a little reward for their hard work. Stats: Rank: Um.. our school (International Academy Bloomfield Hills) doesn't rank students o.o. But it is the 5th best public school in the US, #1 open enrollment high school, #1 International Baccalaureate school in the US, has been ranked #1 public high school in the US before. Other than that I guess I take 8 classes, 6 taught at the IB HL level ... with an average of 3-4 hours a day (and a bit more depending on how much you like to study) GPA: 3.7 / 4.06 weighted (I've screwed up a lot of times in my high school career but I try my best at least) Subject Tests: 680 World History, 680 Math 2 (kinda didn't study for both but that's my fault) ACT: 33 / 34 superscore Extra-Curriculars: President of Asian Student Association, FIRST Robotics Team 469, NHS, and Peer Corps (mentors incoming freshmen and gets them accustomed) Awards: 2011 2nd place at the FRC (FIRST robotics competition) Detroit Regional, 2011 1st at FRC Troy Regional, and 2nd at World Championships Galileo Division (Losing out to the World Champion Team that year 2-1, Teams 254 and 111) 2012 1st at Waterford, Detroit, Troy, and Michigan State Championship, 2013 (so far) 1st at Detroit Regionals) Hooks: 15-25 hours a week at Robotics, and our high school is really hard I guess... Schools: University of Michigan (deferred and then accepted , probably where I am going so PM me if you go there or were accepted too!), Kettering University ($67,500 scholarship), Michigan State University Waiting (Probably Rejections): Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Yale-NUS, uPenn, Stanford Waiting: Kenyon College (I love History, like a lot lol) Rejected: Columbia (The interview went on for an hour and a half but it wasn't meant to be) Early Decision, uChicago (I wrote a bad essay but it was to get it done for my parents) Other stuff: I'm an Asian male, and ummm that's about it
Current student at Umich. You should totally come here. I don't exactly know what you want to do, but we have a ton of really strong programs and the fact that the school is so large means that there is a ton of money floating around for even smaller programs. Short of Ivy league schools with huge endowments we have some of the most money and other resources available to do whatever it is you do best.
EDIT: can't type
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Got (conditional) offers from:
University of Manchester
University of Birmingham
University of Bath
University of Reading
King's College London
All for Computer Science / Software Engineering.
Still don't know which to choose, if any of you have experience with the UK unis, advice would be appreciated.
^^
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Waitlisted at UC Davis and SD. Kind of upsetting when i have better/decent stats compared to some people I know that got in.
UC GPA 3.95 weighted
SAT:2070
And some people I know got in with much less. But it isn't even the statistics, its that i know for a fact they did not try in high school and had bullshit classes. FUCK.
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This thread fucking depresses me, I got denied from Wash U. I've gotten into other places, but I'm really scared I won't get into where I want now.
EDIT: I got accepted to Oglethorpe, Puget Sound (with 1/3 off my tuition), Christian brother's university for pretty much a full ride, Rhode College for idk how much off. I'm waiting to hear back from USC, Claremont Mckenna, Brown, Stanford, St. John's (if they ever get my stuff lol since its lost in the mail apparently), Hofstra, John's Hopkins, Tufts, and Columbia. I have a couple other school's I'm applying to I think, but nothing noteworthy. I've written so many fukin essays lol.
EDIT2: On March 18 2013 02:24 noobcakes wrote:
And some people I know got in with much less. But it isn't even the statistics, its that i know for a fact they did not try in high school and had bullshit classes. FUCK.
I know how you feel. I know a guy that got into columbia, he went to my old school and took bullshit classes. I'm talking like fake school where anything that goes wrong his parents come in and fix it up so he has all A's by threatening teacher's jobs with their money. He got decent ACT SAT scores I think, and then he got into columbia straight off his school work and the fact his parents know the Lieberman's (the New York Political family, lots of money). I was fucking pissed, but it's not what you know, its who youknow.
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On March 18 2013 02:27 docvoc wrote:
This thread fucking depresses me, I got denied from Wash U. I've gotten into other places, but I'm really scared I won't get into where I want now.
Eh, I saw a survey somewhere that said that the vast majority of people who didn't get into their any of their top choice schools still report having a positive experience. So don't worry.
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I knew I wanted to go to Purdue, I got accepted. Not very exciting.
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I only applied early action and early decision.
Accepted:
ED (binding) Cornell School of Arts and Sciences
Wait-listed:
EA (non binding) University of Chicago
Academic Stats:
SATs: 800 critical reading, 700 writing, 690 math
SAT 2s: 800 Math 2, 740 Physics
I only took the SATs and SAT 2s once.
Weighted GPA: 5.55/6.00
Unweighted GPA: 4.14/4.30
Extra curricular activities: Average
Important Awards: Eagle Scout
Send me a message if you are also going to Cornell, I would love to meet more people.
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wow your sat scores are pretty amazing. Obviously you're extremely smart, how'd you end up with a 3.9 gpa? What kind of classes are you taking? Not trying to say that SAT and GPA are the same thing but my SAT isnt near that high and i managed a 4.2 GPA last semester.
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I stick out a bit here because I didn't apply to usual universities.
I applied to Art Center College of Design, SCAD, School of Visual Arts, and RISD. Accepted to all, with a 2.8 GPA but strong portfolio.
I got 16,0000$ a year from ACCD, 5,000 from SCAD, nothing from SVA, and don't know how much from RISD yet. ACCD is my dream school, but still can't afford because Los Angeles rent is too expensive ;____________;.
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On March 17 2013 21:27 hns wrote:
Just a quick question from a german guy unaware of all details of/habits in the US education system: Seeing most posts in this thread, most of you guys apply for colleges nationwide, but there was also one guy who concentrated to California. So, how common is it to go "abroad" for a highschool graduate? Obviously, if you apply for the really big players (Harvard, Stanford, w/e), you probably will have to move, but what about the "standard" colleges? Is it considered normal or even mandatory to get out of your town, even if there is a pretty fine college around which you could perfectly apply to, or is it just you TL users here that strive out?
It's funny you mentioned the term "abroad" because there's a national program called "Study Abroad" where students can apply to basically trade places with an international student for a specific period of time; 1 semester, 1 quarter, or even a year (which I believe is the most common), although I'm not quite sure on that. This basically makes it unnecessary to attend a college abroad straight out of the high school because you can just study abroad and have the best of both worlds. It's a really cool program. You can even study in Africa. I had a friend do a summer quarter over there and he loved it.
As for how far HS graduates are willing to move? It depends. If they want to get as far away from their parents, they'll probably move cross state (lol), although there's two types of tuition, mainly; in-state and out-of-state, and if you're not considered a resident in the state of the college you wish to attend you'll be paying double or triple the amount of tuition that in-staters pay for the same education. So that definitely has a big impact on how far students are willing to move. And also the fact that housing can be expensive, so many choose to commute from home. A lot of the colleges offer some sort of free or vastly discounted public transportation passes.
But yeah, I feel a lot of the TLers value their education and move to the best colleges. And that's pretty much normal. Everyone likes going to the best colleges, not just TL.
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Last fall, I was in a community college. I only applied for the University of Washington and nothing else. I got accepted.
Don't worry, I had training for another job. *Sigh* Could be working right now, but instead I'm taking on more loans...
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On March 18 2013 02:37 theHubble wrote:
wow your sat scores are pretty amazing. Obviously you're extremely smart, how'd you end up with a 3.9 gpa? What kind of classes are you taking? Not trying to say that SAT and GPA are the same thing but my SAT isnt near that high and i managed a 4.2 GPA last semester.
GPA is out of 4 at my school, I think that's what you're looking for.
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I have conditional offers from:
University of Cambridge
University of Warwick
University of Manchester
Durham University
and University of Edinburgh
All to study Mathematics or Mathematics with Physics, I hope to go to Cambridge or Warwick but the grades I need are really quite difficult to get !
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How are you all finding out decisions so early?
ED: Columbia-deferred
Pepperdine-accepted
Santa Clara-???
Carnegie Mellon-???
I graduated from HS in 2010 with a pretty bad stats and extra-curriculars. I've been in the Singaporean army which is why I'm only enrolling this year.
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On March 18 2013 02:49 Spiffeh wrote:Show nested quote +On March 17 2013 21:27 hns wrote:
Just a quick question from a german guy unaware of all details of/habits in the US education system: Seeing most posts in this thread, most of you guys apply for colleges nationwide, but there was also one guy who concentrated to California. So, how common is it to go "abroad" for a highschool graduate? Obviously, if you apply for the really big players (Harvard, Stanford, w/e), you probably will have to move, but what about the "standard" colleges? Is it considered normal or even mandatory to get out of your town, even if there is a pretty fine college around which you could perfectly apply to, or is it just you TL users here that strive out? It's funny you mentioned the term "abroad" because there's a national program called "Study Abroad" where students can apply to basically trade places with an international student for a specific period of time; 1 semester, 1 quarter, or even a year (which I believe is the most common), although I'm not quite sure on that. This basically makes it unnecessary to attend a college abroad straight out of the high school because you can just study abroad and have the best of both worlds. It's a really cool program. You can even study in Africa. I had a friend do a summer quarter over there and he loved it. As for how far HS graduates are willing to move? It depends. If they want to get as far away from their parents, they'll probably move cross state (lol), although there's two types of tuition, mainly; in-state and out-of-state, and if you're not considered a resident in the state of the college you wish to attend you'll be paying double or triple the amount of tuition that in-staters pay for the same education. So that definitely has a big impact on how far students are willing to move. And also the fact that housing can be expensive, so many choose to commute from home. A lot of the colleges offer some sort of free or vastly discounted public transportation passes. But yeah, I feel a lot of the TLers value their education and move to the best colleges. And that's pretty much normal. Everyone likes going to the best colleges, not just TL.
Thanks for the reply. I was just wondering because I have the impression that most people here in Germany tend to stay in the vincinity of the place where they grew up, and if people choose to go away frome home, it's mostly for the adventure/growing up/getting out instead of choosing specific universities (but then again, we don't have really outstanding ones like Harvard etc. here).
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EPT
