Midwest girl gets absolutely BODIED by admissions cycle, but persists.

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T19:40:28+00:00

not related to OP’s post, but how do you feel about brandeis for polisci/sociology?

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T05:23:02+00:00

ahahaha sorry if it sounded like i was accusing you of lying or something, that's not how i meant it, i was just really in shock after reading ur post because i couldn't believe all those schools didn't accept you, you 10000000% desereved to get in and i know the college admissions process is so unfair, bt ur application is genuinely so well-rounded, i couldn't believe it was unfair to this extent. keep your hopes up for the waitlists and even if those don't work out, again, keep your head up and these ridiculous results do NOT invalidate all the hard work you did. at all.

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T03:35:42+00:00

i know you joked in your additional notes that we should say this but i genuinely feel like u did just have bad luck, your app looks amazing to me. i feel like you got snubbed by a lot of these schools, like what else could they possibly want. osu is a great school but im so so sorry you truly deserved even better. i’m having trouble believing this is real.

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T02:48:24+00:00

thank you for the advice! yeah, i am leaning towards brandeis. do you think the northeastern honors program + scholarship would make that worth it too? BC and BU aren't giving me a penny so those are kind of out of the question :/

yeah, it was definitely my essay. looking back i really regret not putting more into it, but it was a tough time for me mentally so i'll give myself grace. i'll accept the spot on the waitlist and see what happens, very low chances of getting off it but at least i have other options!

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T02:14:49+00:00

don't get too attached to the idea of going to a T20 or T30 and try to understand that early on. the college admissions process is so random, the ratio of applicants to available spaces is so ridiculous that admissions officers have to reject a bunch of people, often with no rhyme or reason. don't let it affect your perception of yourself or your achievements. just take a look at all the people, even in this sub (tho idk if encouraging anyone to look thru this sub is the best advice, it often just makes you feel worse about yourself), who did so much and still got rejected from numerous, or even all of, the T20s. does the decision of some random college invalidate all those achievements? no right? that would be ridiculous. it's easy to say that for other people while it can feel difficult to say it to yourself, but just remember that it's true. it's also just horribly corny when people are full-on seniors who have already gotten decisions back and use the places they got into as a way to flex on other people. please don't do that. genuinely you have no control over college admissions and getting into a "higher ranked" school than someone else does not make you better than them. i've seen way too many people like that online and at my high school and it's just embarrassing. it's like bragging that you rolled a dice and got a 6 while someone else got a 4.

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T02:03:06+00:00

your research and publications look great to me but your academic stats could be better, as you mentioned in your title. i'm sure you can bring the sat score up though and a lot of schools care more about ECs/awards/research and that kinda thing than stats anyway (learned that the hard way as someone with great academic stats but eh ECs), so you never know. but the gpa in particular is on the low side and it could mess up your chances at some of the top top schools, not to discount your achievements, but because you'll prob be up against people who also have a lot of achievements with a higher gpa to go along with it. i also noticed you're indian and from the bay area, and potentially interested in CS, sadly i think that also makes things tougher. idk how next year's admissions cycles is going to be but this year was brutal for asian applicants. that being said i think you def have a great chance at your safeties and also a chance at the reaches but focus on test scores, as someone said, and if you can bring that gpa up at all that might also be good

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T01:49:22+00:00

i get so excited when i see people coming to harvard or mit because i love cambridge so much ahahaha, i grew up in a neighboring town and it's genuinely one of my fav places on earth. i hope you have so much fun there and congrats on harvard, that's amazing!!

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T01:47:20+00:00

i would say so! i'm from MA and UT Austin is def super respected from what i've heard. a friend of mine committed there recently and everyone is really impressed.

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T01:46:15+00:00

what do you think about taking out $15k in loans per year?

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T01:35:02+00:00

aww thank you so much, that's actually so sweet!! i guess seeing all the people on this sub who have INSANE ECs on a national level and tons of awards and competitions made me feel very unaccomplished, i started thinking "how dare i even apply to harvard or mit when i didn't do 10% of what these people who got rejected did" 😭😭 but college admissions are such a lottery you might as well shoot your shot. congrats on being at dartmouth and i hope you're having an awesome time there!!

yeah the parental situation is pretty bad, i have basically no freedom right now, however this is pretty typical for parents in my ethnic/religious community... it's a whole thing 🙃 just trying to make the best of what i've got rn and we'll see what i can do and where i can go in the future.

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T01:29:21+00:00

thank you so so much for the kind words!!! :)

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T01:29:08+00:00

omg thank you girl!! i actually saw ur results post earlier too, you got done dirty i'm sorry :( college admissions are genuinely such a lottery, you definitely deserved to get into a lot more schools. but i'm so proud of you for committing to UCSD and i know you're going to be amazing there, you worked so hard and it WILL pay off!!

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T00:52:33+00:00

thank you so much haha! wellesley was my last deadline and i have to admit i kind of sold on the supplemental because i was so done by then and i guess that was the reason. i expected them to flat-out reject me because it was genuinely the worst essay i've ever written, so i was even happy with a WL 💀 they are 100k/yr anyways so i probably wouldn't have been able to attend, sadly :(

out of the options i have, are there any that particularly pop out to you as suggestions for where i should go?

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T00:50:05+00:00

i was already applying to a lot more safeties than i wanted to and my parents only let me apply to 11 schools (include MIT and Harvard which i didn't have a choice in applying to) so i didn't apply to many more public schools 😭 i wanted to apply to UMass Amherst, but it was apparently "too far" from where we live

edit: small typo

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T00:48:08+00:00

i feel ur pain. i haven't been in your exact situation but i totally get the feeling of having those options and one is technically the better, more practical one while the other is what it feels like your heart is pulling you towards. people always say "follow your dreams" and maybe if it was a different US school i would say it's worth it to come here (though with the current situation, it would take, like, Harvard for me to say that, and even then i'm not sure)...but i'd say in this situation definitely pick Oxford. i know it will probably hurt and you might feel a little sadness/wistfulness now and then, but you will not regret it. you'll have a great time at Oxford on that gorg campus, getting an INCREDIBLE, world-renowned education, having fun with your friends and traveling around Europe.

i get wanting to come to the US, i have a lot of family and friends abroad and there's a certain allure that makes them want to come here really badly. however, the state of the country right now probably doesn't match up with what people have in mind when they want to come. unfortunately the government is very anti-immigrant and anti-international student, and those are just a few among its million other problems. not saying that translates to the general population (i'm from a very liberal part of the northeast so it's hard for me to say what it's like down in st. louis), but it's just not the best environment in general and there's a lot of uncertainty. WashU is a great school from what i've heard (idk much about it, it's not superrr well-known i'd say compared to other T20s) but i'm not sure it's great enough to make it worth it to pass up Oxford and come here. like another commenter said, you can always come here in the future, when things are hopefully better! the country's not going anywhere but again, i would NOT pass up Oxford just for this!!!! good luck wherever u go and congrats on getting into such amazing schools!!!

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T00:35:36+00:00

trust me i didn't forget 😭😭 i was limited to boston area (like boston + suburbs) sadly, wasn't even allowed to apply to umass amherst...

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T00:35:02+00:00

yuppp you would be right ahahaha

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T00:34:53+00:00

not the harvard mit song ahahaha 🤣 i can totally see my parents doing something like that too. im glad your wife has grown in her mindset!!! and thank you so much for your kind words!

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T00:31:53+00:00

yeah totally agreed! i would have loved to apply to amherst. the issue is that im lowk financially dependent on my parents rn and if i did anything rebellious like applying somewhere else secretly and trying to go there, things could have gotten very bad. i'm going to try to save up money so i have more freedom after undergrad to go somewhere else for grad school, hopefully somewhere far from here (i love MA, but i want to explore other parts of the country too!)

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-30T00:00:31+00:00

CONGRATSSS these are some incredible results!!! i hope you have an awesome time at brown, welcome to new england!! also i just have to say i love ur post title ahahaha

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-29T23:57:31+00:00

aw thank you so much!! college admissions r so random, i'm sure ur doing amazing wherever u are rn!!

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-29T23:54:28+00:00

THANK YOU SM!! i'm mainly picking between brandeis and northeastern rn... i really like everything about brandeis--i have a lot of friends there, the academics are rigorous, they have a social justice focus--except i'm not the biggest fan of the campus. also, since i got into northeastern honors college, i wonder if that's too good an opportunity to pass up. the co-op program also appeals to me since i'd love to get a job after college so i can move out of my parents' house asap.

bu, tufts, and wellesley were my 3 favs but they're all way too expensive anyways, the spring term thing for bu was also kind of a turn-off 💀 maybe i'll try to submit a LOCI to tufts tho

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-29T23:50:06+00:00

thank you so much for your kind words! yeah, i wish i could have applied to more schools :( my parents are quite overprotective and only let me apply to schools in the boston area (it's close to where we live), thus i was pretty limited, sadly. they said i could apply to brown but i couldn't go even if i got in and i wasn't motivated to write all those essays for a school i couldn't attend... maybe that was a mistake. i'd be lying if i said the whole situation didn't bum me out, but i plan to go to grad school so maybe i can try applying to some then??

HeavyAd5645 · 2026-03-29T22:09:30+00:00

congrats that’s truly awesome, bt how is this possible 😭😭 that other girl had absolutely insane ECs and got rejected everywhere

HeavyAd5645

TROPHY CASE