Why I got waitlisted by Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, etc.

Sharing the reasons why my college admissions profile (stats, activities, awards, essays, etc.) barely missed the mark for these schools.

ACCEPTANCE RATES
- Harvard: 3.2%
- Stanford: 3.9%
- Columbia: 4.1%
- Princeton: 4.4%

MY STATS
- 36 on the ACT
- 800 on the Physics Subject Test
- 800 on the Math Level 2 Subject Test
- 5 on 11 AP Exams

MY AWARDS
- Canadian Debate Championship: Grand Finalist (Gr. 12)
- USA Physics Olympiad: Semifinalist (Gr. 11)
- Reach for the Top National Championship: 10th Place (Gr. 11)
- STEM Fellowship Big Data Challenge: National Finalist, SAS Prize (Gr. 11)
- Thailand International Math Competition: Bronze Medalist (Gr. 10)

CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
0:37 Reason 1: Subpar talent
1:29 Reason 2: Subpar passion
2:47 Reason 3: Subpar essays
4:59 Reason 4: Subpar luck
5:30 Reflection

[MrBjorn]

It doesn't matter where you go to undergrad in the big picture 🤔 There is a guy named Tang from Texas who had 4.0 GPA, 1580 SAT and didn't get into any of the ivys. So he attended UT Austin honors business program.
4 years later he got into several Ivy's medical schools, and is now attending Columbia Medical school, with many of the individual who got into the ivy's 4 years before, who told him no.

Nothing before it's time!

[aaronabraham]

this dude be dropping mad facts. i wish i had this when i was in high school. thank you mr. lin

[VicentedePablo]

I think your insights are brilliant. One of the best videos we have seen, and we have seen a lot. Congrats for your admission in CMU, a great school!!!

[orbit]

This video was super helpful, thanks man! I’m astonished you didn’t get it, you seem like a great students and person!

[madinamir]

not everyone have courage to say I am unlucky, not talented enough to the public

[Dip..]

As an international I feel your pain. I applied for fall 22 last year. Got rejected by every IVY and even many liberal arts colleges but many top public unis accepted me. Couldn't attend because of high cost for internationals. I'm applying this year as well knowing the fact that I'll get rejected again.

[snakechips]

Bro im in the same position as you lol. Im a highschool senior and got waitlisted at Harvard, Cornell, Northwestern, but accepted to Carnegie Mellon (which is where im probably going)

[v.m.]

I think learning is like a pyramid. You sound like you have an amazing foundation and could find success when you found your passion. College doesn’t have to be finished when you are 21.

[ffmr]

I don't think there is anything to regret or think you did wrong. The real problem is these schools expecting 18 year olds to figure out their passion when they have barely lived. It's okay to be good at all you were good at, to be smart. Don't let those big names mean anything. You can't show who you are on a 5-page application.

[edwardb]

Being waitlisted means that the college judges you as capable of doing the work but is not yet ready to accept you. If you are then denied, it is due to lack of vacancies. You are obviously smart and capable of learning from your experiences. If you apply yourself in college, you should get into any graduate program to which you aspire.

[fouziakhan]

My daughter got an email from Harvard that her application has been deferred to regular decisions, whats the difference between waitlisted or get deferred

[danielcsuti]

“I wasn’t talented enough”
I just saw the activities and awards you had in high school and you are definitely among the most talented people in the application pool. I think you just got unlucky

[katewexell]

Looking at your awards, I don't know how you didn't get in. As somebody trying to transfer into those schools, your activities intimidate me. There was a girl from my school who went to Harvard who did a lot in Science Olympiad as well. It honestly seems like your flaws were that you didn't engage your community as much (except you did through your math contest) and it was likely just that you were an international student. I have watched other videos where a lot of international students were screwed over.

[safemasteryoh]

Have a question-
Is getting an interview from an ivy school alumni a good sign of getting accepted?

[Ash-uffv]

If these were actually Supbar you wouldnt have gotten into top 10 schools, literally the only ones you didn't get into are the top 5s it seems lmao. Ur ECs, despite not being focused, are still great, so I doubt thats why you didnt get in. But the advice you give is still sound, but ppl "less qualified" than you have gotten into top 5s, but ig that could be due to you saying your essays werent as good as they could have been, and I can see ur ECs making up for your essays.

[xz]

It's all about reducing Asians in these universities

[superiorv]

You probably didn't stand out enough, got to remember you're applying to colleges, that only admit, like 6% of applicants, if you went to a state school you'd probably get a full ride it's all relative.

[abdullah.al.noman.z]

30 December 2022 first know u today and subscribed 69 number subscriber "

[zerodev]

You didn't stand out because 'asian'