I got into Oxford and Imperial College London as an international student. I also got into a few top 20’s in the US with a full ride. If I went to Oxford, I would have to take out loans (60k a year). I ended up committing to Brown University in the US reason being I wanted to find a job in the US. But after talking to a few people in the UK, they told me that Oxford would be more employable in the US than Brown and other T20’s. Was it a mistake to turn down Oxford? Would an oxford education justify the extra cost?

used this subreddit a lot back in hs and it was crazy seeing everyone being like oh low income people have it so easy they get college for super cheap and its a hook while they can't even imagine ever being poor and struggling. it also gets way harder being one in college. im really sorry you're middle class.

actually im gonna make so many rant posts on this subreddit because I have too much schoolwork and realize im never going to be above my peers who grew up with money and connections

Hi Everyone! For a bit of context, I am from California and plan on majoring in Mechanical Engineering. To be quite honest, I applied to Harvard on a whim, only because my brother had done the same a couple of years back and was waitlisted, so I only wanted to see if I could get in. To my absolute shock, I was admitted, and now that I'm in, I feel like I'd be throwing away such an amazing opportunity by turning down my offer.

The main reason I am debating not accepting is the distance. Like I said earlier, I'm from California, and I'm also very close to my family, so I might struggle emotionally/mentally quite a bit. Also, 'm not sure if Harvard's engineering program is as good as some of my other options.

As of now, I am deciding between Harvard, UC Berkeley, and UCLA (leaning towards UCLA because I loved the campus when I visited).

I would love to hear what you guys think about this haha

Edit: my title is gonna stay as it is but I don’t mean that schools like UMich and Northwestern were my targets, it’s just to add on to the title.

Edit 2: My targets were schools like UIUC, UW Madison, and Purdue (not listing all of em).

On every ounce of every thing I’ve ever loved, not only have I never been this infuriated in my life, but I have to constantly hear “who cares?” and “your undergrad doesn’t matter” from my friends and family. My stats were mediocre for Ivy League schools (4.36, 1480 SAT, 4 leadership positions, multiple MUN awards, 200+ hours of community service, teaching voluntarily), and I didn’t expect much from any of them. Seeing waitlists from schools like UIUC, UMich, and NYU, were chill because I thought I had more options, but after my Northwestern rejection I started panicking. I know I probably wasn’t going to get into an Ivy, but seeing 4 rejections in a row just put me off the edge. I had worked for 4 years, losing friends, not being able to hang out with anyone until the end of my junior year, and then applying to colleges with the idea that I was gonna get in to at LEAST one target school. I can say goodbye to that now.

Everyone told me that I shouldn’t worry about it, and I probably shouldn’t. None of those people are currently dealing with that right now. I applied for Neuroscience to every school (idk what I was thinking) and so everyone started telling me that my undergrad didn’t matter. It’s so easy to tell when someone wants to make you feel better and it just makes you feel worse. Obviously your undergrad matters. I don’t care what anyone says, the connections and opportunities you find at certain schools are nonexistent at other schools. The people that said that to me also did not know what it meant to be known as the “smart guy.” It’s not fun to be labeled as some prodigy and then underperform and be “consoled.” You look back at your entire life of trying so hard and then you look at the other guys who maintained a B/C average getting into the schools you got waitlisted at. Seeing the smile and happiness of the other person getting into a school I thought I was going to immediately accept floods my being with cortisol and makes me want to look back at my rejections to see if they made a mistake “just in case.” I can say I don’t care and that there is always next time. But I really do care and I hate waiting. Waiting another year to apply really pisses me off more than anything, and then building off of nothing will also piss me off.

Waitlists also put you at such a disadvantage. You have less priority for aid, housing, and classes. You watch everyone accept their offers and then when someone asks you, “did you decide where you’re going?” You just tell them that you’re still waiting. My teachers told me that I’d be successful during parent-teacher conferences, I was told I was the gifted kid in school, I was told that I was MIT and Stanford material. How much of a detriment is it to be a glass half empty person? Let’s say it’s intense. Now when you look at a glass totally empty you just say screw it. I did not work hard to go to community college because I got rejected everywhere else. If I go to community college I want it to be because it was the logical thing to do, not because I didn’t get in anywhere.

Rejection is redirection, yes, but I’m not meant to use that as a cope or as a way to give others advice. I want to say “rejection is redirection” by getting into at least one of my target schools and maybe not the other.

I know many people can relate so I also just wanted to let those who experienced the misfortune I did to understand that they aren’t alone.

Sorry if I made any grammatical or spelling mistakes I’m tired and I don’t care anymore.

It's a new season in the admissions cycle and that means a new category of panicked posts flood this subreddit.

• December to January is "I sent my application 2 seconds after the deadline, will I get auto-rejected? Will they even receive it?" season
• January to March is financial aid confusion and "MIT and John Hopkins, please admit me" season
• March to May is jam packed with "I can't afford my dream school", "UPenn vs Princeton", "I wasted so many years just to get rejected from Stanford", "I got accepted and my friends are being awful about it" and the classic "Can you guys withdraw from UCLA so I can get off the waitlist" followed by discourse about how waitlists work.
• March to May is also home of the infamous rescinded posts "Will I get rescinded for because I had one bad grade?" and the "What are my chances of getting of the waitlist?"

Tell me what other seasons of a2c I missed

If you can say with a high degree of certainty that you’re applying for pre-medical programs, the most competitive schools might not actually be the best choice. 

For one, med schools place a huge emphasis on your undergraduate GPA, so if you attend the most rigorous school possible, you could hurt your chances of a high GPA.

Some large universities have barriers to the programs you need.

Applying to graduate STEM programs will emphasize research, so you’ll want to be at a school that not only produces a lot of research but where you can actually get engaged with research and know your professors well–they will write you a very important letter of recommendation.

Working in admissions, we saw STEM students who desperately wanted to transfer from larger, competitive universities like UCLA because they weren’t necessarily landing research opportunities.

This might mean that you need to take a second look at other public universities or smaller liberal arts colleges with strong STEM programs and robust research or internship opportunities.

Do they have connections to local hospitals? Some smaller colleges are in consortiums or partnerships where cross-university courses and research are possible. For example, check out the Quaker Consortium with UPenn, Haverford, Swarthmore, and Bryn Mawr.

A side note: medical school admission officers will tell you that they value a wide range of majors in their applicants. Gone are the days of just biology and chemistry majors applying to medical school. If you have other interests, consider a different major while still joining the pre-medical program and completing the pre-requisite courses. Pre-med students can be found in majors like global health, child development, neuroscience, cognitive studies, Asian studies, and sociology.

If grad school (or med school) is the plan, broaden your options. Think beyond prestige. You don’t need the most competitive undergrad—what you need is a high GPA and research access.

Profile: FGLI; 3.91/4.32 GPA and 1510 SAT; ECs were local volunteering and clubs; applied for: psych(bs,ba), cogsci, neuroscience, statistics. everything was free

Acceptances (15):

Manhattan

Whittier

NYIT

Purdue

SMCC

UoP

GCU

UCR

UCM

Grinnell

USC (EA)

Vassar

Denison

UCI

UCLA

Waitlists (11):

UCSD

Hamilton

Davidson

Colgate

BU

UMich

Tulane

Syracuse

Carnegie Mellon

Rejections (32):

Harvard

NYU

Pomona

Skidmore

Amherst

BC

Northwestern

Bowdoin

Brown

Cornell

Carleton

CMC

Columbia

Dartmouth

Duke

Emory

JHU

MIT

Princeton

Rice

Stanford

Swarthmore

Tufts

UChicago

UND

Penn

Vanderbilt

WashU

Wesleyan

Williams

Yale

Cal

this year was record competitive. how does next year look like playing out?

are Ivy acceptance rates rising once again? are top public schools getting a new record number of applicants? what will happen to median SATs?

I've always wondered - the twins I've seen have pretty much the exact same college results. Obviously they have similar ECs and a lot of times grades too, but wouldn't their essays, letters of rec, etc. be completely different? Why do they have such similar results

I just heard back from many of my classmates, and it looks like the results came back with patterns..? Maybe coincidence, but every classmate I’ve asked who received great fortune to be accepted at UC Berkeley also had the great misfortune of being rejected / waitlisted by every other UC? It really seemed odd to me since they were pretty great applicants as well—they just got rejected / waitlisted by every UC until Berkeley decisions came out, turning out to be their savior (that is if they were gunning for a UC). I’m happy for them, but also very intrigued by such a coincidence. Has anyone had this happen at their school where senior classmates who got rejected / waitlisted everywhere seemed to be accepted into one school? I’m not saying it’s true, but I’ve got my beliefs of why this is so. But…maybe it’s just my school and just coincidence? Anyway, GO BEARS! 🐻

I tried searching how to convert my GPA to a 4.0 scale cuz I kept seeing conflicting answers everytime I did before. I have an average of 16/20 which is "High honors" in exams in the French system. I converted it and its a 3.2 💀 . I was thinking it'd maybe be the equivalent of like 3.7 or 3.8 (obviously not a 4.0) but that's so low I can't cope with that. And a 16 is apparently a B letter grade. There's no hope for me, I genuinely wanna cry.

I know I have some kind of depression and anxiety for a long time. I’m often depressed and the college application process only makes it worse. My family is not helping and cannot understand my feelings. I finally decided to go to a therapist after my mom asked someone at a prestigious college to give me advice about choosing my college. I don’t know why but the phone call just makes me hate myself and my life so bad and I cut my arms to feel better. I’m going to study a major that I don’t like and attend a college I don’t want and my family is not understanding which make me feel suicidal

Hey everyone, our high school grading is out of 100. I know that in the U.S. GPA is typically on a 4.0 scale, and the basic formula I keep seeing is:

(Your percentage score) × 4 / 100

That would make my GPA around 3.52, which is decent.
But here's the issue...

Here it's extremely difficult to get scores above 90. Even the top university here takes students with 87%, so our system isn’t really designed to give out 95–100s like in other countries

I’ve heard that U.S. admissions officers take your country's grading system into account when evaluating GPA, but I’m wondering: How do U.S. colleges evaluate GPA when 90% is nearly impossible in my system

• Is there a specific method or trusted formula they use?
• Do they adjust for how tough the local system is?
• What would you say my GPA would be considered in U.S. terms if I’m averaging ~88%?

Appreciate any help from other international applicants or anyone who's been through this!

I applied for the Letters and Sciences department for both. I'm thinking of doing applied math or economics.

Realistically I could switch into the engineering or business departments for USC. I could do either Finance or Electrical Engineering, which are both lucrative careers. I cannot for UCSB.

If I go to UCSB I really want to do physics, which UCSB is ranked #9 on US News for.

I'm an upper-middle class only child, so I'm not getting aid from either universities. It's gonna be 50k annually vs 100k annually. The fact is that my parents can afford both but the question is whether the extra 200k is worth it or not.

Is anybody else extremely frustrated with their parents now that we have to choose a college to attend?

I talked to my parents about my top school I got into , a T30, and they were just on my ass. It’s so frustrating having parents who didn’t grow up here.

My dad pulled up the top 10 richest entrepreneurs in history and just listed off the schools they attended, obviously all like ivies and Stanford. It’s crazy cause my dad isn’t usually like this, he just got so egotistical and defensive when I claimed I got into a top school. He said my school isn’t a top school, and the acceptance rates online aren’t accurate.

Is anyone else’s dad like mine? He is so chill until it comes to me being called smart or successful, that’s when he starts getting mad for no reason. The school I got into has a 8% acceptance rate, which my dad claims is false. He said “if the acceptance rate was true, you would be one of the smartest kids in the country. And you are not”. I told him I got a 1530 SAT, would I not be considering one of the smartest in the country? He says “I know hundreds who got a 1600”. It’s so crazy to hear this stuff because my dad is SO CHILL in regards to all other aspects of life. This is the issue with having a engineer dad.

And the whole argument felt so privileged and pointless because tens of thousands of people would kill to have my spot and I’m having trouble even talking to my parents about attending.

Which LACs do you think are better than Ivies? Are top ranked schools overhyped? Which ones? Are LACs starting to provide better opportunities and employment? Which?

I am a junior, currently preparing for applications. I’m currently taking two APs, AP, English language and AP art history. I have really good grades in both classes (97+) and feel pretty confident about AP Lang, but APR history I am so screwed. I’m looking to apply to schools like Lehigh, BU, Binghamton. Should I try my best to get the score up for art history and risk high stress, or just put my energy into Lang? I plan on taking two more APs next year anyway. Just unsure if it’s worth my time to just get a three.

Looking for some advice as an incoming freshman!

Notes: I am full-pay and live in Florida.

Cornell - Pros: Ivy League reputation, slightly smaller than Georgia Tech (by about 3,000) - Cons: Cold & isolated, lower-ranked MechE program, more expensive and farther away

Georgia Tech - Pros: Better engineering reputation, big city, cheaper, nicer weather, closer to home (1 hour flight) - Cons: Not Ivy League, larger than Cornell, not sure how the dorms/facilities are in comparison (hopefully get into Honors program though)

Hi everyone. I am admitted of class of 2029 of Umich，but last September and this February, I lost my two grandpas. Everything was so sad and tired. So in the second semester, I dropped a level Further Mathematics and Economics, leaving English History, Physics and Biology. After being admitted in Umich in RD round, I am so afraid that my offer will be rescinded. Could anyone give me some advice?

As an international student applying next year, I heard from my friends that it is much harder to get into top universities without a US citizenship, reasons being having to compete in a much more intense pool of competition and students, admission officers' natural preference of wanting to accept more american students into an american university or whatever. Is this true? If it is, to what length?

given how unexpected the admissions are, how should I make a college list with adequate safety, target and reach schools, considering that I am premed(probably majoring in public/global health w/minor in cs)? don't care tm about prestige, but i'd want a school that has a lot of premed related internships and opportunities and schools that have a great med-school prep programs(and a school with grade inflation).

for context, i'm an pretty average asian female in the bay area and have a 3.87 ish gpa, pretty high course rigor, couple of cs dual enrollment classes(didn't factor them into my gpa), 1520 sat(retaking bc i messed up math and that's not too hard to fix), and a national award in a science comp(lack of specs bc i don't want to be doxxed), a bunch of volunteering that's med-related(pvsa bronze), jv sport for 2 years, president of a stem club at school, vp of another stem club, and judge at local science comps.

essays will probably focus on my health issues(have a chronic ovarian disease), and how the lack of medical knowledge regarding the female body(no srsly this is a huge issue) motivates me to work hard so in the future i can help create solutions.

I have a LOR from a distuingished prof working at Harvard, will it give me a boost if i apply early in Harvard or should i use my REA for another school with a high acceptance rate to safeguard my choice and life. P.s: Harvard is my first choice

What should I do?

I'm an international student and I withdrew my application to some schools due to some issues involving my transcripts and I plan on reapplying fall of 2025. I'm worried if this would give me a bad rep or reduce my chances in the upcoming common app season. Honestly I'm scared I need advice please.

For reference im going to study art history and will be going to a masters after. i was accepted into kenyon and fordham which would've been really good but were just sooo expensive. in the end i settled on UNC Wilmington because i would leave debt free. i never wanted to go to a big state school and know i would thrive at a smaller LAC. Someone make me feel better about going to an instate public school😭😭

My daughter would like to be a nurse and eventually go back to med school.

She was accepted into Colorado College with a tuition of $7,750 (we live in city as well) and admission to San Diego State University with first year attendance to the School of Nursing at SDSU for 50k.

We are grateful for the opportunities she has been given. We could use some assistance from you guys.

CC is not a “pre med/nursing” college but, she could apply after her 4 years at CC. At SDSU nursing school she could get a jump on her future but at a cost.

She can choose a different major at CC and still enroll to med/nursing school. Obviously, SDSU she wouldn’t have to.

Can anyone provide their personal opinion on which route they would take?

Thank you!