1 Friend got into NYU (which was a shocker because he is a terrible student)
1 Friend got into Upenn (another shocker because she isn't that good)
3 Friends got into Stanford
1 Friend got deferred from Stanford (This floored me because she's the person I thought had the best shot. She's by far the smartest and most talented)
My friend getting deferred was tough. We were all hanging out last night when she found out, and that was tough. At the same time, another close friend found out that he got accepted, and it must have been hard for him because he had to show respect to her and not jump around and scream.
Her getting deferred brought me down from a wave of optimism. Below is a chart of my sentiments towards my chances of deferral or acceptance over time. When the red line is above the black line, I thought I held an optimistic point of view. When the red line is below the black line, I suspected that I will get deferred.
As you can see, I started out thinking that I had a good shot. That slowly eroded as Yale never contacted me for an interview, and then I basically accepted my deferral because Yale refused to contact me. Then, all my friends started getting accepted to college. People who were less qualified than I am were getting accepted at great schools, and this inspired me.
But then my brilliant best friend got deferred, and that crushed my optimism. It brought me down to earth, and I realized that I have a very solid chance of getting deferred. On the bright side, this means I won't be as disappointed when I get deferred because I'm already coming to terms with it.
13 comments:
Well, as I am a horrible student and not very educated at all I cannot say that I feel your pain... but chin up. You are a remarkably gifted person, and you seem very set on having a successful life so I am sure whatever happens you will make the utmost best of it!
Good luck!
Lots of love,
Ryan
My prayers and wishes for you, to get into a good school. Don't loose hope. You will definitely hear good news after the 15th of this month.
Of the 5 schools I applied to for undergrad, only Stanford rejected me. And that came some time between December and February.
Hang in there, you may still have a shot at wherever your want to go.
Btw, that graph is crap without X and Y axes (with units). :-P
I know it's a crap graph. Missing everything Not even to scale. The last part where it goes up and down occured in a span of about 3 days, but the whole graph represents about 6 weeks.
Let's say x axis is time (i wrote that in the post) and the y axis is outlook. Of course, how do you quantify outlook?
The Y-axis could be "probability of acceptance/deferral," where the line delineating acceptance and deferral is zero, and the further up you go towards acceptance is closer to 100% acceptance, and the same vice versa for deferral.
Life's full of contests. At least when you know you're in one, you know you're alive. I remain cautiously optimistic for you.
Like you, I'm waiting for the SCEA results for Yale.
I know I'll be disappointed if I don't end up getting that acceptance letter from Yale. But I realized that all I originally wanted is for people to recognize that I'm a stellar student with an acceptance from Yale.
And I realized that I won't really see any of the people anymore once I move into college. So I'm over worrying about it! =P If I get a rejection, I'll just read a good book and occupy myself on something other than college for this winter break. =]
The thing is that I don't measure myself or my friends by where they get accepted. Acceptances have nothing to do with how I view myself. I have a strong sense of identity, and college acceptances play no role in that.
However, there are schools that I believe have a culture that matches me better. Sure, every school is diverse, and I could probably find a group at any place, but I'd like to be somewhere that matches me best. I did not apply to Yale because it has the best name. I applied to Yale because I love the people and the school itself.
Jason--
Don't lose faith.
Also, a bit of constructive criticism (hope you don't mind)...
I was surprised to read of your opinions that some of your friends are "terrible students" or "not that good" (nyu and upenn)... and "people who were less qualified" than you are.
NYU and UPenn are both great colleges, and they definitely look at more than grades or sat/act scores. maybe your friends' personal statements were stellar and the breaking point to getting accepted.
To me, what you wrote comes off as arrogant and maybe even a little pretentious. I'm pretty sure you didn't mean for it to sound that way, but i just wanted to bring it up because that's how it came off as.
Just a thought, no harm meant.
The NYU acceptee used to be my best friend. Then he got into drugs and alcohole. He soon failed out of school and was expelled. He then continued to have poor grades and drink/do drugs.
I'm really happy that he got into NYU, but I was surprised because I heard that NYU was upping it's standards. I also hope he can straighten himself out while at college, but for some reason, I'm doubtful.
The girl who got into UPenn isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Isn't UPenn an Ivy? Also, she can be rather cruel to people, so maybe I'm grading her on personality rather than academic excellence.
That said, I think it is justifiable to say you were surprised that someone got accepted at a university because they don't appear up to standards. Of course, we don't know every part of every person, so there could be a hidden gem within them.
But I know those two kids that got into NYU and UPenn very well. Better than most people on this earth, I would say.
Back when I applied, Stanford chose students for diversity and leadership potential and not necessarily the highest SAT scores. There were all sorts of really cool people there. I don't know if you applied or not but if you did or plan to, they look heavily at extracurricular activities including community activities, clubs, hobbies, etc. [or at least they used to]. Schools like MIT and Cal Tech were more focused on scores.
I know that now, Stanford looks more at achievement within each extracurricular, and not at how many/what extra curriculars you do. This is unfortunate because I do not have any special achievement aside from some leadership. The problem is that I am employed, and this takes away time.
Oh, Yale, my dream uni :) lol... So where did you got accepted... Ok, maybe you mentioned in the next posts... *continue reading* :P
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