THE REAL SCOOP: Who Gets Into
What College
A rare, behind-the-scenes look at the ever-evolving – and sometimes totally random –
world of college acceptances. Duke says no; Harvard says yes. Georgetown says no;
Amherst says yes. Go figure.
I admit, I’m a curious person. Whenever we visit a college and take a tour, I always ask the student tour guide, “What’s the question you get asked most often?”
Their reply almost always is, “Where else did you apply and where else did you get accepted?”
Unfortunately for inquisitive parents, most colleges forbid their tour guides from divulging such information. Evidently colleges fear it might reveal a secret about their admission policy. Or perhaps they want parents to believe that every one of their students had their college as their number one and only choice.
Silly wabbits.
Don’t worry. What they won’t reveal, I will. Below are actual, real-life acceptance/denial reports for six students. Four are from New Jersey, and one is from New York. For privacy reasons, I’m not going to use their real names and hometowns. I’ll give you their GPA and test scores, so you can get a snapshot picture of their academic level.
One important caveat: I’m not including the essay or recommendations—two extremely important factors in the college admissions game. But there’s no way to do that here, and we wouldn’t anyway for privacy reasons. That said, here’s a rare look behind the curtain.
High School Student #1: Alisha (not her real name)
Hometown: New Jersey
GPA: 3.4 SAT: 1440 ACT: 21
| Colleges Applied To | Result |
| University of Massachusetts Amherst | Attending |
| Seton Hall University | Accepted |
| Western New England College | Accepted |
| Boston College | Denied |
| Boston University | Denied |
| Clark University | Denied |
| Northeastern University | Denied |
| Ramapo College | Denied |
| University of Vermont | Denied |
High School Student #2: Chris (not his real name)
Hometown: New Jersey
GPA: 3.4 / 4.5 (weighted) SAT: 1890
| Colleges Applied To | Result |
| Villanova University | Attending |
| Stevens Institute of Technology | Accepted |
| University of Connecticut | Accepted |
| University of Maryland | Accepted |
| University of Pennsylvania | Denied |
High School Student #3: Diane (not her real name)
Hometown: New York
GPA: 3.34 / 4.24 (weighted) SAT: 2080
| Colleges Applied To | Result |
| Bates College | Waitlisted/ Attending |
| Carnegie Mellon University | Accepted |
| Denver University | Accepted |
| St. Andrews (Scotland) | Accepted |
| George Washington University | Waitlisted |
| Boston College | Denied |
| Bowdoin College | Denied |
| Tufts University | Denied |
High School Student #4: Rachel (not her real name)
Hometown: TN
GPA: 3.85 SAT: 2320 ACT: 35
| Colleges Applied To | Result |
| Harvard College | Attending |
| Bryn Mawr College | Accepted |
| Tufts University | Accepted |
| University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | Accepted |
| Vanderbilt University | Accepted |
| Washington University in St. Louis | Accepted |
| Wellesley College | Accepted |
| Brown University | Waitlisted |
| Duke University | Denied |
| Yale University | Denied |
High School Student #5: Mark (not his real name)
Hometown: New Jersey
GPA: 3.80 / 4.3 (weighted) SAT: 2010
| Colleges Applied To | Result |
| Washington and Lee University | Attending |
| American University | Accepted |
| Bentley College | Accepted |
| Fairfield University | Accepted |
| Loyola College (Maryland) | Accepted |
| Villanova University | Accepted |
| Wheaton College | Accepted |
| Boston College | Waitlisted |
| Lehigh University | Waitlisted |
| Tufts University | Deferred/ Denied |
High School Student #6: Dustin (not his real name)
Hometown: New Jersey
GPA: 3.7 (weighted) SAT: 2230 ACT: 33
| Colleges Applied To | Result |
| Amherst College | Attending |
| Bowdoin College | Accepted |
| Claremont McKenna College | Accepted |
| Colby College | Accepted |
| Rollins College | Accepted |
| Rutgers | Accepted |
| University of Richmond | Accepted |
| University of the Sciences (Philadelphia) | Accepted |
| Bates College | Waitlisted |
| Cornell University | Waitlisted |
| Emory University | Waitlisted |
| Pomona College | Waitlisted |
| Dartmouth College | Denied |
| Georgetown University | Denied |
| University of Pennsylvania | Denied |
| Yale University | Denied |
What lessons can we learn from this cursory glance behind the curtain? Some takeaways to remember:
- Don’t be intimidated in choosing your “reach” schools… After all, who would have thought that a student denied by Duke would be welcomed by Harvard? Or that a student turned down by Ramapo College would find a home at Seton Hall? When picking “reach” schools, go ahead and reach for the moon. That’s why they call them “reach” schools.
- Make sure you spend the necessary time preparing each application to give yourself the best chance at acceptance (get coaching if you need to because there is a right way and a wrong way to complete applications). Admission officers really do consider the merits of each and every application. For a most excellent book on the thinking and modus operandi of admissions officers, I recommend Jacques Steinberg’s The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College.
- Learn the proven, effective ways to showcase your strengths (or hire someone to do this for you) and go with them.
- People have different comfort levels about the number of schools they apply to. We’ve seen students apply to as few as one college and as many as 20. Narrowing down the field is part of the college preparation process. Applying to 20 colleges is overkill, not to mention costly. We recommend applying to 2-3 reach schools, 2-3 comfort schools and 2-3 safety schools.
- How do you explain a “yes” from Amherst and a “no” from Georgetown? A thumbs-up from Carnegie Mellon University and a thumbs-down from Bowdoin College? These vagaries indicate just how vital the essay is in influencing your acceptance, as well as recommendations and extracurricular activities.
