yeah. i did that. i'm looking at you notre dame. you went from 270k to 270k, but you lost me. good luck getting that instagram like.

Almost heaven, Hanover

The White Mountains, Connecticut River

Life is old there, older than the trees

Younger than the mountains, growing like a breeze

Country roads, take me home

To the place I belong

Hanover, mountain mama

TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROOOOOAAAAADDDDDSSSS

​

Edit: Thanks for the awards!!!

right? hopefully

Yeah, just slide it in bro Up vote if you got rejected too 😩🥀💔

I committed to UChicago after getting offers from Penn and Columbia

My parents are lowkey mad and my friends are shocked which I think is 100% overreacting cause 1. I’m going for physics and I plan to work in academia that’s why I didn’t really think of Penn

1. I don’t wanna go to NYC

2. I really like everything about Chicago

Frankly I don’t really think the ivies are all that especially for stem (MY PERSONAL OPINION DON’T COME AFTER ME) and I kinda got forced to apply

HOWEVER that’s your reminder that it’s completely ok to choose fit over prestige and what people think is best for you

EDIT: just to clarify, I’m an international student, in my country, the 'Ivy League' brand is all people know. My parents hadn't even heard of UChicago

He shared his college essay with everyone at our school by putting it on a website he made. Turns out he wanted many people to read it cause he thought it was quirky and funny.

The topic? His childhood dilemma on having a crush on Velma from Scooby-Doo. He had paragraphs talking about how he would become really shy around images of Velma at stores or toys that contained Velma.

The moral of his essay? He claimed his attraction to Velma was significant because she was one of the least-liked characters in the show (he sourced a random website) and it showed that he would appreciate things/hobbies regardless of other people’s opinions.

He ended his essay with something like “Velma was my gateway to the outside world and she will always be my first love. She extended her beauty to allow me to thrive while those around me locked me out. I doubt I will ever find a Velma, but I will drive my Mystery Van until I find the right path for me” (not a direct quote but very similar to his own words).

It’s easy to understand why he got rejected. He had a decent moral to his story, but I think the part where he said he would blush and feel attracted to Velma toys was weird asf. Not to mention he had other things in his essay that were creepy and slightly gross.

Future college applicants, do not write about being attracted to a cartoon thanks

I am a student from international school and majority of students there go to so-called “T50 World” universities in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Canada, and UK. The best acceptances that these guys usually get from the U.S. are UC Davis and UC San Diego.

Make sure you like the colors of the school. There is no way in hell that I want to wear ugly colors for the next 4 years (we all know that red and blue reign supreme)

edit: don't cry over getting rejected from a school with ugly colors

Craziest one I've heard was ucla over harvard for his girlfriend. Broke up a year later.

• 3.0 GPA
• 1050 SAT
• 1/2 Clubs
• Casual, genuine hobbies

NOT

• 4.0 UW/4.5 W GPA
• 1550 SAT (yikes, might wanna retake for top schools)
• Founded company listed on NASDAQ
• Been on Shark Tank
• Solved world hunger

Please refer to this helpful guide for any further usage of the word “average” on this sub!! 😁

UPDATE HERE

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/mpy48k/update_i_am_going_to_ask_him_out_we_got_into_the/

​

okay, so this is a huge FLUFF

I literally had a crush on ONE single person my entire high school life and that is my best friend. We met in Honors English class when we were both in 9th grade. He is one of that god-accidentally-poured-too-much-talent kind of guy. He immigrated here from South Korea when he was 11, and he works super hard on everything. He absolutely HATES Asians-are good at math stereotypes because math is actually his least favorite subject (still got 5s in AP Cal and Stat 😖) and he wants to major in English Literature.

I fell for him harder and harder over the years because not only is so SMARt and well put together but also super nice??? But I kind of felt like he was out of my league.

Now I had two options: Either give up on him or work hard enough so that I don't feel so ˢᵐᵃˡˡ around him. Basically, I always studied when he did, worked when he did. I took all the AP classes he took (I assure you we are friends so it didn't feel like, stalking or anything).

We both applied for T20 schools, and he kind of jokingly talked about how nice it would be to go to the same school and spend more time together on campus???

And WE WILL?

And I will ASK HIM OUT!!!!

WISH ME LUCK

im from ny but upstate and seeing your applications get rejected year after year despite doing the most insane things makes me feel so bad 😭😭 yall are really cool dont let this process get u down fr

He's one of the smartest kids ive ever met tbh but 🤷‍♂️ couldn't help but think he made a mistake.

Do any of these decisions ever work out for people?

OKAY SO UPDATE for this

FLUFF TIME

​

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/moqnve/i_am_going_to_ask_him_out_we_got_into_the_same/

HEre's what happened.

It took me 3 days to come up with enough courage to even talk to him after I posted it. Only after I upload the original post did I realize that maybe he might also be part of this subreddit too and I PANICKED instantly when this thought crossed my mind. The post blew up and I was being a bit too specific with the detail for him to not notice it was him. Luckily for me, he doesn't even have a reddit account.

SO

Knowing how he has a big thing for Shakespeare, I tried to make things as Shakespearean as possible to somehow better my chances? Dunno.

So naturally, I scheduled to watch The King with him via zoom (thanks to covid).

I was so nervous I kid you not I had to turn off the camera several times to wipe droplets off my nose. Anyway, The movie was almost ending, and when Chalamet kills the old guy with the beard and goes talk to his ex gf (Lily Rose Depp) I thought about how awkward it must have been for chalamet to act with his (then) gf, and how awkward it must be for them to act together again now they have broken up.

I got sooooo nervous. You gotta understand he was a huge part of my high school, and the thought of losing him even as a friend really made me panic.

Like for real, do you guys know how it feels like to swallow a throbbing beehive. I only felt like that when I was opening my letter of acceptance but now the threat was more existential.

The movie ended and he started to talk about the movie and I couldn't really listen to what he was saying cause my ears were ringing. He realized something was wrong cause I was too silent.

He asked me if I was okay and I kinda mumbled yes.

And there was this long stretch of silence.

Like for an entire MINUTE.

Certainly, he read my mind and hated me already, I thought and then he said something like:

"You know how I once told you about WB Yeats and how him getting heartbroken by his crush made him a great artist?"

"I would like to write a poem like Yeats too, but I would rather be happy with the person I really like than to write a really good poem. You know what I mean? So you are either gonna make me a really good poet or really happy. But honestly, I would rather prefer the latter"

GUYS

IM DEAD.

I asked him if he was asking me out and he said, "obviously" in a way that he always says it.

ANd I THINK I SQUEAKED something like YES and then he wished me goodnight

NOW I AM WRITING THIS AND I KID YOU NOT EITHER THIS IS A DREAM OR IT HAPPENED

WTF is wrong with him. did he prepare an entire speech for me?

I WONT" BBE ABLE TO SLEEP TONIGHT AGHH

​

*for those who asked, we are both going to T20 school in NH. HE is going to study Creative Writing and I am gonna study social science.

​

HELP I wont ever sleep ver

UCs just dropped test requirements and will go test blind in a few years. Many schools including MIT and Caltech went subject test blind. This year's APs will carry almost no weight in admissions, even less than before. We are finally stepping in the right direction!

Edit: I'm personally not against standardized tests. It's the only thing keeping people from bullshitting their way into top schools. I am just glad that the power is being taken off of collegeboard's hands.

Ive been on a couple tours recently, and it felt like on every single one there was a parent who at every opportunity would ask the most google able question ever. I understand asking a bunch of questions about student life or more subjective stuff. But do we really need to stop the tour guide to ask about ap credit policy? Do we need to hold this up to ask about whether or not you need to submit tests? Please stop

She technically is going into first year of med school

Undergrad at a UC out-of-state
Year 1: 75k
Year 2: 75k
Year 3: 75k
Year 4: 75k

Med school at Vanderbilt
Year 5: ~100k
Year 6: ~100k
Year 7: ~ 100k
Year 8: ~100k

Total costs: $700k 😍😍😍😍 (my grandmas house doesn’t even cost this much)

Me: Caltech '26!

(i think)

drop ur manifestations in the chat below we got this yall. TRUST this subreddit gonna be the next harvard class of 30 or wherever you wanna go

edit: im skipping the morning off school cause im sick today but seeing all these manifestations really cheered me up and I hope it cheers you up too! regardless of the final result, im glad to have been here :)

i got an email about a high school alumni meetup in my area, and on a whim looked up some of my classmates from two years back. obviously the names you remember first are the extremes: the best and the worst people you know.

every jerk/asshole i remember got into a top college. the kids who never pulled their weight in group projects, bad-talked others and even harmed others, and were just generally very unpleasant and selfish. i'm talking t10, t5. but most of the best people i know, who i thought "man they're going to change the world", didn't.

i admit thinking "how did the admissions committee not see through that?" obviously college is just the start, but it was a good reminder that college admissions are not the ultimate judge of character. it also reminded me that you don't need to have a t10 label to do good in the world, one of those best people was doing a really cool project on helping disadvantaged youths.

mandatory disclaimer that i'm not speaking for everyone, i know there are talented and good people at top colleges, this is just one case study, i too go to a t10 so this isn't out of bitterness as some people have said, etc. etc.

Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave

Well y'all wanted an update to my previous post .

and this is to say that I got in. I got fucking in.

Today's the day my mom passed away 9 years ago and I cried when I woke up and remembered that fact but now someone in the Harvard admissions committee (def my mom haunted them lol) modified the significance of this day in my life. It will always be the day I was robbed of my mom but it will also be the day I was given a gift.

Thank you so much for your kind words on that post.

Amma, I love you where ever you are.

fuck. my t shirt is drenched from all the tears.

Edit-thanks to everyone for your kind words<33

Edit 2- The number of awards on this post are exhilarating. Thank you so much and I'm surprised you guys found ME...ME inspiring. Love y'all<3

Edit 3- Thanks for all the love guys. Its past mn for me so I won't be able to reply to your comments/awards, if any so just wanted to say thanks. Byee

Or engineering. I feel for you all tho

1. Harvard
2. Stanford
3. Princeton
4. MIT
5. Yale
6. Duke
7. Columbia
8. UPenn
9. Caltech
10. Cornell
11. Dartmouth
12. Brown
13. UChicago
14. Berkeley
15. Northwestern
16. Hopkins
17. Vanderbilt
18. Carnegie Mellon
19. UCLA
20. Rice
21. WashU
22. Notre dame
23. Georgetown
24. NYU
25. Emory
26. UMich
27. UVA
28. Tufts
29. USC
30. UNC
31. Georgia Tech
32. UT Austin
33. Boston College
34. UW-Madison
35. UF
36. Boston University
37. UIUC
38. UCSD
39. Case Western
40. UC Davis
41. Lehigh
42. Wake Forest
43. UDub
44. UMD
45. Northeastern
46. William and Mary (ik it’s not a T50)
47. UC Irvine
48. Villanova
49. Ohio State
50. Rutgers

HMs (Roughly in order): Virginia Tech, URochester, UCSB, Purdue, UGA

Just my opinion, lmk if you disagree. This is purely a prestige based ranking I did cuz I’m bored, solely based on US + Global recognition over the years, how the average person perceives it, and etc. Don’t need to explain what prestige is.

I didn’t include top LACs, would be really hard to rate them. They suffer from not being as recognizable as the top 30 by your average person, but obviously if they do they’d think very highly. I’d estimate Williams around 10-20, Amherst 15-25, others bit lower. Obviously phenomenal schools just not as well known by the average public.

Before I get hated on:

- For MIT at 4: Among the average folk in developing countries the top 3 are probably better recognized by name. Basically everybody knows them. If you disagree that’s totally fair the top 5 are kinda impossible to rank.

- For self-ranking: I didn’t self-rank (I’m in college and put my school around 30-40, u can try and guess which one if u think I self-ranked. Hint: It’s not case lmao).

- For wasting my time: I made this in 30 mins (15 of them on the toilet) so don’t attack me I was just bored 👍

Pretty much whenever someone asks "is x college bad" the answer will always be something along the lines of "it's really good" or "it's pretty good"
Anyways, just for fun: Does anyone know some BAD colleges they can speak of?