Not Admitted by Decisions
Open thread for denied students.
Admitting such a small percentage of the applicant pool means that we unfortunately have to turn away many, many incredible students. For those of you who fall into this category, this is an open forum for you to talk.
What did I do wrong? My four years of high school have gone to waste!
Here’s where you say, “Just kidding.”
just kidding
I failed.
which one is more selective? being accepted or deferred?
which one is more selective? being accepted or rejected?
Oh well i guess thats just how it goes lol
mrrph.
Seriously… I built my own watch. I folded 1000 paper boats as a prank. I got a 35 on the ACT. I led my school’s debate team in its first year; we sent two squads, got 1st and 2nd place. I won my school’s history fair my sophomore year. I got a 5 on AP Calc BC, independently studied. I recorded three CDs of experimental music. I was the third highest scorer in the city in Academic Decathlon, and the highest in math, economics, and essay. I’m currently leading Chicago’s CCML (City of Chicago Math League) senior standings by 7 full points. I went to the Ross mathematics camp. I even snuck into MIT’s freshman orientation for the class of ’12 and pretended to be a freshman.
WHERE DID I GO WRONG?!?!?
@LSK
ACT
Attitude?
Ah, crap.
Oh well. Maybe I can transfer here for my graduate degree later on.
@LSK:
Colleges don’t like to see that you can’t accept a little bit of failure.
The admish process is so shrouded in mystery.
so if you get rejected you can’t apply again?
Oh, and I’m in NHS, have a GPA above 4, scored 6 on IB Math Studies, got 1st and 2nd place in several Magic: the Gathering tournaments, designed several board and card games, got 4th place in an invite-only debate tournament, was in school plays (elementary, middle-school, and high school) for eight years, have a textbook collection spanning three shelves, showed up early to school every day my junior year to help the librarian set up the library, and a member of the Tri-M music honor society.
@LSK
too nerdy. clearly.
I don’t know where I went wrong either – I just want to crawl into a ball and cry.
It seems like all of my high school career was for nothing… I don’t know what I could’ve done better or differently?
if you applied early action, can you apply normal action also?and if so, how?
“1st and 2nd place in several Magic: the Gathering tournaments”
This is relevant.
Further, I got 2nd place in a PTA art contest, played french horn in my school’s marching band, took two college courses at Northwestern in my spare time, and APPLIED TO MIT MY JUNIOR YEAR BECAUSE I WAS BORED WITH MY CURRENT SCHOOL.
Now we get to learn about failure, the hardest and most worthwhile lesson MIT can teach us.
can you apply again if you got rejected
@LSK – How was your essay and Interview? I got deferred( :( ), but I feel for you man. Seems you are more intelligent than me, but it might have been the essay or interview. Anyway I’m sorry for you, hopefully you get into the rest of your colleges. Wish me luck in Regular Decision.
@Anonymous Magic Player
[trolling censored]
Whoops accidentally put this on admitted… anyways:
I got rejected!
This means no huge undergraduate loan!
I WILL HAVE MONEY!
@ LSK:
You couldn’t even get FIRST in the PTA art contest? FAIL!
@Helping
gl
(The anonymous ranting was me, I forgot to add my name.)
@Helping: My interviewer said that she thought I was an exceptionally strong candidate. My essay discussed my hometown at various levels of “zoom”, from my room to my house to my street to my neighborhood to the surrounding suburbs.
Woah man it’s like powers of ten…but an essay.
I suppose the point to all this ranting is – I don’t know where I went wrong, or at least what made me outright rejected instead of deferred. U of C rejected me today as well, again instead of a deferral, and I’m just distraught.
Wait, how do you know if you were “deferred” or not? I’m assuming since my admission didn’t specifically state “deferred” that I got rejected. Yes?
… probably yeah.
“‘zoom’,”
Blame the commas and quotes!
@LSK
yeah, suburbs, fascinating stuff.
That looks an awful lot like one of the UChicago prompts. How was that decision?
@ LSK:
Apply next year. You got denied. They didn’t like you. Cry. Scream. Talk about all you did. No one will read it and you will only suffer more.
Go on.
MIT is not trying to judge you individually. They are just building a good enough class. http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html
so if you got rejected can you apply again
Best of luck to everyone in their future endeavors…everything happens for a reason
guys.. just remember that this really isn’t the end. Think of all the times when you thought that you couldn’t bear losing something, but did it anyways and learned from it. remember “the end of the world” essay?
I really truly hope that through this experience, maybe you’ve gotten to know what MIT is really about and that at least you haven’t come out empty handed. There’s always something else in the future.
so cry now and wake up again tomorrow knowing that there was a reason you were not accepted. happiness is elsewhere for you.
good luck ^_^
So I got rejected….:[
To everyone else who got this news:
We still have grad school
Anyways, I believe everything happens for a reason so I guess it wasn’t meant to be :'[
… and get over it.
@LSK
THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. Your world. Any world.
Also, I think that posting your stats on the “not admitted” forum not only tells a lot about yourself, but will change nothing.
You’re obviously a smart kid–you will succeed in life. You will. Pick yourself up from this; you will move on.
“THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. Your world. Any world.”
WHAT IF HE’S HARUHI
AHHHHH
Oh well. My future, tainted by my past. It was so predictable, how did I not see it?
The one rose in the manure here- one dream dying means I can focus on the others all the more.
glhf
LSK I don’t know if you’ve ever listened to Justice but they have some real words of wisdom for you.
Sometimes you work day and night, getting better all the time, and you’re still rejected. All you can do is a little dance.
I just wish colleges can look at what you can become rather than what you have done.
think your life sucks? at least you’re not here right now studying for finals…
@Anon talking to LSK
Sorry, but the name of the college matters so much to many employers. I’m sorry they didn’t like the two pages they got to read about you and your essay. Must suck, I feel for you :(
Hey, you kids,
please feel proud of your accomplishments to date. You are only 17 or 18 years of age and your lives are far from over. You have many years to prove how fabulous you all are, and I know that you will avail yourselves of all opportunities that present themselves. Good luck to you all, and go easy on yourselves.
LSK, MIT is looking for people who are well rounded. You don’t have to be one of the top 5 pianists in the world either. That helps but its not necessary. Your math/academic creditials sound awesome, but the problem is that somebody else might be just as good as you at math and they also do sports/community service/boy scouts/student government too. Being a prodigy in one area will not get you in.
Good Luck.
ok so if you got rejected can you still apply
You’ve got to be kidding me. Straight A’s, 5’s on all my AP tests, dirty SAT’s plus signifigant medical experience in Africa. I performed cleft pallete surgery, without anesthesia, on 16 child soldier refugees in Congo. This is total shivako
@LSK
I wouldn’t tell too many people about that debate team…That’s just embarassing…
@answer my question please
You cannot apply for RD, but you can next year. Luck!
No, if you get rejected you can’t apply to MIT again.
If you get deferred, you get automatically reconsidered, though.
“got 1st and 2nd place in several Magic: the Gathering tournaments”
How is this relevant at all to anything that is academic?
@LSK
Wait, so you’re a Junior now?
If you’re a Junior now you can always stay at High School a year longer and apply next year, can’t you?
And if not, it’s all right. MIT isn’t the only good place in the Universe, and if they rejected you it’s probably because you wouldn’t have been happy there anyway. If you’re really in love with MIT you can always apply for Grad school, which is even better on a job application.
I don’t think a lot of people understand what goes into this admissions process.
It’s not necessarily whether you’re “better” than the next guy, or even more “well-rounded”. Literally (and every college I’ve ever visited says this), they just are trying to make a well-rounded CLASS.
Maybe they need a good musician. They get to your application, and music is the one thing you don’t do. So they defer you, and accept the guy with worse grades but who is also a musical prodigy.
Also, remember that if you’re Caucasian (this might even apply to Asians), the Affirmative Action program might have been the reason you got denied; whether you think it’s “ethical” is a discussion for a different time, but just know that MIT does promote its Affirmative Action program and so that could very well have been a factor.
The point is, there are so many factors that go into admissions. It literally is the luck of the draw. Everyone who was smart enough to apply to MIT in the first place will get accepted to another top-tier school. Maybe Harvard or Princeton isn’t looking for that musician right now, so you’re the next great candidate. You weren’t denied because you weren’t smarter or more well-rounded than the other guy. You were denied because you probably just weren’t what they still had a need for when they read your application.
Wonderful, this is what being caucasian has given me – joy….
I don’t even know what to do now, I was set on MIT :-(
To everyone else, just keep your heads high.
I’m sure you’ll all find your calling and get into another great uni.
Best of luck.
Ah well. Ambition comes to an end. I’m not sure whether to feel completely disappointed since I was anticipating this but it’s still a little bit upsetting.
*sigh* alas, friends, it was not meant to be. Like all of you, I’d tried my hardest at everything, taken the most demanding classes offered at my school (which is rated one of the best in the country), led the robotics team, worked with college professors on experiments I designed to learn about microbiology, etc. etc. etc…
I’m applying to Caltech, too, so if somehow I get in there you can bet your soul I’ll prank the Dome off of this impossibly selective school.
Peace out, my fellow forlorn rejectees.
To those above: I’m a senior now. I applied last year as well.
rejection is a part of life. some of you need to calm down and chill instead of ranting on about how your “4 years of hg have been a waste” because thats simply not true.
Although I always knew that i had a high chance of not getting in, it really was a surprise to see the outright rejection. I was hoping for at least a deferral.
Like derek, although I’m not a Caucasian male, I feel at a loss of what to do now. MIT was pretty much the only school I really considered and truly wanted to go to.
I’m Native American. I have my own photography business. I’m captain of my school’s scholastic bowl team. What is this?
Wow… academiclly you guys have more things than me and I got deffered. Did you do community service LSK?
Also, remember that if you’re Caucasian (this might even apply to Asians), the Affirmative Action program might have been the reason you got denied; whether you think it’s “ethical” is a discussion for a different time, but just know that MIT does promote its Affirmative Action program and so that could very well have been a factor.
Untrue.
I’m not saying that MIT doesn’t have policies in place for minority admissions, but Affirmative Action is not one of them. Even if it were, that wouldn’t mean that a less-qualified minority candidate were accepted in your place; at colleges practicing Affirmative Action, given the choice between two candicates with near-identical credentials in their application – one of whom is a minority – you accept the minority candidate.
Don’t play the race card. It doesn’t get you anywhere.
Jerry — if I get into Caltech, I’ll join you.
@ LSK
maybe it has something o do with that fact that you don’t do any sports/are too focused on typical “nerd” stuff, if you plan on applying for grad school i would suggest a couple sports to round you off, anyone who actually put a magic the gathering card tournament on their application probably doesn’t go outside very much…
@LSK: one of my best friends applied as a junior in HS and was flat-out rejected. he got in early the next year.
calm down.
@Anon: You performed surgery? That’s not even legal.
@LSK:
‘6 on IB Math Studies’
Maths Studies? Why did you take that class? That was pretty much the cop-out maths course. You should have taken SL, if not HL or Advanced, or at least gotten a 7 in Studies.
From a deferred student right here…
A lot of you are listing your achievements and all, which are very impressive but…
I think a huge part of what MIT is looking for is also your personality. Not saying that you don’t have a good personality, but if you dont show it on paper or in your interview, they will even deny 2400s.
Guys… stop trying to game it. All the things you’re telling are wrong with LSK’s application… well, they were wrong with mine as well. I really don’t know what to tell you. There’s no formula to getting in. They didn’t look at his app and be like “oh, no sport, not in” or “oh, too geeky, not in”. I have no idea what it was, and the admissions officers or anyone probably couldn’t pinpoint a reason either. I’m really sorry it didn’t work out. I hope you all find amazing places that you will grow to love over the next 4 years. Good luck, everyone.
“MIT is not trying to judge you individually. They are just building a good enough class. http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html“
That’s one of the worst things I’ve ever read. If the judging has to occur like that, isn’t it blatantly obvious that something is wrong with the system?
Oh Asher Ö
LSK…Read your BLOGs and that will explain why you did not get in…
@ lsk
at northwestern, did you do advance perchance?
“I’m not saying that MIT doesn’t have policies in place for minority admissions, but Affirmative Action is not one of them.”
https://mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/affirmative_action/index.shtml
Also, Affirmative Action is whatever a school wants it to be. Usually, for college, there is a set percentage range of certain minorities that they hope to accept, and they try to fit those guidelines. I’m not complaining or whining or anything, this is just a fact which is true of most high-end colleges.
@LSK
You tried too hard to be a person that MIT wanted, instead of being yourself-who they actually want. And you do a TON of activities, sometimes you just gotta relax, man.
lsk, one of the places where you could have gone wrong is that you seem to be missing an important piece of the puzzle. you see you dont seem to have a life, and that counts for something.
best wishes, and please email me when you gain some apparation of a normal life so i may respond with a slow clap.
sincerely,
someone who has a life
“I just wish colleges can look at what you can become rather than what you have done.”
>> believe me, they do.
I don’t get it, I’ve published a paper done well on the ACT play an exotic instrument which I composed a piece of my own and sent it for admissions and it was critiqued by one of the greatest musicians on the planet. And to make the admissions even worse, their are people that were above me in class rank and below me in class rank that got into MIT or got differed. I did everything I could and even wrote essays on diverse topics and for what? Nothing, to be rejected not even differed. I hate this!
I don’t get it, I’ve published a paper done well on the ACT play an exotic instrument which I composed a piece of my own and sent it for admissions and it was critiqued by one of the greatest musicians on the planet. And to make the admissions even worse, their are people that were above me in class rank and below me in class rank that got into MIT or got differed. I did everything I could and even wrote essays on diverse topics and for what? Nothing, to be rejected not even differed. I hate this!
Hey guys,
Ok. I am applying RD, and haven’t failed yet. I don’t expect to get in…But I’m not letting that stop me.
My friend Brit last year was dead-set on going to Georgetown. She had spent her whole childhood dreaming of that school– When we met, it was at a GU summer program. Last year she applied ED and got rejected. She is amazing; she has braces on her legs, but is the most independent and loving person I know. She is an amazing poet and has won many national contests, in addition to perfect grades. Safe to say, she was heartbroken. Then she gor accepted to Howard RD, and got a full-ride scholarship. She is so happy now, and relieved that she is where she should be. She knows that.
So, this probably feels like the end of the world, but you know what? Everything works out for the best (Voltaire would have a hay-day right now
). When you resign yourself to accepting the things you can’t change, and pick yourself up, good things happen and you find yourself where you should be. Call it karma, Fate, God, whatever.
I know you’ll all find yourselves somewhere, even if it isn’t at MIT.
My heart goes out to you guys. In another year, I’ll probably be in your place.. I know it sucks. No denying it. But it’s not the end of the world. And in another year there will be someone telling me that. That’s just how it is.
Vivi: How?
All of you talking about your accomplishments:
Hopefully you did those things not because you wanted to get into MIT, but because you enjoyed doing all of those things, and hopefully they should all be good enough in and of themselves. I know it’s not much consolation now, but you’ll go on to other perfectly good colleges and do extraordinary things (I can tell by all of your accomplishments). And anyway, you will always have the journey to remember. Because if it were only about the destination, the end would be anticlimactic, wouldn’t it?
well this sucks… I really wanted to blog for the admissions page, looked like fun…
Reading about your guys’ accomplishments and the lack of acceptance depresses me and makes me second guess submitting my RD application. o.o
@LSK
Which ap tests did you take and what scores did you get?
I don’t know why I managed to venture into here–maybe I miss the excitement of college admissions–but either way, this makes me think of what Sadoway of 3.091 told us in his last lecture right before finals–
“What’s the worst that can happen? You fail one class, you fail two, three classes, you fail ten classes, and then you leave this place. It’s no big deal. I went to the University of Toronto, and look at me–I’m still here.”
(btw, Sadoway is a super accomplished materials scientist. Look him up.)
I wouldn’t have wanted to hear this, but after being here a semester, this place is NOT the best place in the world, it’s NOT candyland for knowledge and nerds, and it’s certainly NOT what I thought it would be. There are tons of good schools, even better than here. I love MIT, but don’t sweat it. (Also, there’s always grad school!)
The thing about being rejected that disapoints me the most is that they told us about the size of the applicant pool as if it were a comfort. That just makes us all feel medeocre. But, to whoever writes those things, rejected applicants would much rather here what made them an inadequit fit for MIT. I want to know the real reason why. I want to know why I wasn’t good enough to at least get deffered. I don’t want to be told that MIT is sorry, I just want an answer as to why I got rejected.
To all of you talking about you’re accomplishments. I bet you’ll do great things. If you got rejected, their loss.
Hey, guys…..c’mon….there’s nothing like one single point or two got you rejected…i understand your emotions but…..it was you as an integration of the infinitesimally small qualities you possess and MiT didn’t think you’d fit on the campus….that’s it! accepting it has a beauty of it’s own…..I’m RA and I know deep inside that when I get rejected, I’m just gonna wink at the screen and say “See you back at Grad, MiT”….
@LSK: I may be biased but your achievements don’t really stand out from the crowd. You have plenty of them, but remember that you’re going against many people with many accomplishments too.
My friend got accepted because she’s one of the best pianists in the world (won 5 international compos this year). Now that’s something that truly stands out.
No offense to some of you guys who have listed your laundry lists of “accomplishments”, but MIT IS a competitive school to get admitted into; however, that doesn’t mean you guys are competing against each other. You are competing against yourself. And I’m pretty certain that most of the applicants are extraordinary students, however, just because you didn’t get admitted doesn’t mean you are dumb or not capable of achieving success in your life. It just means that, based on the things you said in your apps, you wouldn’t be able to match the lifestyle, resiliency, and hard work that is needed here. Also, if you tried to be or sounds like someone else on the application, that might have been the reason for your rejection.
That’s just my 2 cents here.
Nevertheless, I’m really sorry to hear that you guys didn’t make it. It sucks, yes. But this is not the end of the world. Pick it up and move on.
To all of you who got in, congrats!! I hope I’ll join the celebration once the rest of the decisions start rolling out in March.
Trust me, it could be worse. You could have a 5.112 test in 3 hours.
@ LSK
you seem to be taking things a little too hard. Take life easy and believe me things will get better
@LSK
no philosphical talk!
you may have been regected because you may have wandered into forbidden land of arrogance;no complains but the border between telling the reality and arogance is very fine.
*sigh* Asher…