- All Ivy League schools I applied to refuse me.
- My biggest mistake was not to fully understand Ivy League’s admissions.
- Now, as a first college student at another school, I understand that Ivy League is not everything.
I was so nervous that I couldn’t talk. All I could do was look at the words on my screen: University. View the status update.
I closed my eyes, tried to calm down and told myself it would be fine. I opened my eyes and clicked the button.
Immediately, I knew something was wrong. There was no confetti, no congratulations, no “we are pleased to inform you …”
I shattered it together quite quickly: Ivy League school rejected my request. Tears pulled to the corners of my eyes and began to fall.
This was December 2023. A couple of months later, in March 2024, I would be rejected by Uchicago, Harvard and Stanford. Dartmouth waited for tired, and I kept hope for admission until June. I was finally rejected there too.
The acceptance of these Ivy-plus schools It had been my ultimate goal, and the refusal let me ask what I had done wrong. How could I have failed when I worked so hard?
Was it mine Sat score? Should I have studied more for a 1500 instead of a 1490? Should I have written different essays? Were my themes too warm? Did I put my extracurricates on the wrong order?
With personal reflection and research, I realized that my biggest mistake was not the full photograph of Acceptance in college in consideration
The chances of getting into my dream schools were always few
After being refused, I began to do a lot Research in college admissions at Ivy League schools. What I learned was startling.
Of course, we all know that the heritage and athlete applicants have a foot up. What I didn’t conceive was just as far from my feet up. I learned that 11% of Yale class of 2027 were inheritance students. This is about 1 in every 10 students. In Brown, 8% of Grade of 2027 is the inheritance.
This may not sound too much, but the disadvantages for me did not end there.
Analyze Mirrors of opportunitiesA Harvard -based research group shows that students from 80 to 90Th The percentage of revenue has the lowest level of attendance of Ivy-Plus College slightly over 10%. These are very rich families to cope with SAT tutors, private college advisers, and perhaps even full education. But for universities, those families do not do enough to be considered potential donors.
These statistics put the whole process in perspective for me; It was no longer for me to work hard enough, but for universities that required factors I could not control.
Of course, I always knew that entering an Ivy League school was difficult, but I didn’t know before how the chances were accumulated against me. If I had known it, I could have made different choices during the admission process.
I’m slowly adapting to my college
I now participate McGill University in Montrealsometimes referred to as Harvard of Canada. Although it is not where I thought I would end, and sometimes I wonder if it was where I had to stay, I realized that no matter what, I have the duty to use as much as I am.
When I first arrived at my university non-forvy league, I felt loneliness, confusion and strong sadness. I missed the house and the feeling I knew what it would bring every day. I attributed this not to be at my dream university.
Eventually, however, I realized that these feelings were not specific to the country; I would have been an equally undecided student in Dartmouth as I am at my current university. I would have felt the same confusion in Cambridge, Massachusettsor Providence, Rhode Island, as did in Montreal.
So, today, I’m looking at the brightest side of things. It would be a lie to say where to go to college does not matter. But it would also be a lie to say it is only which matters. In reality, it is a bit of both.
What matters is the part where you go, but, in a substantially, what do you do when you are there.
Sophie Landis is a first -year student at McGill University in Montreal and a passionate writer and reader. Connect to him to LinkedIn here.