Is a flat out rejection a sign there is something wrong with my application?

Question

I applied ED to Columbia and EA to UChicago.  I was flat out rejected at Columbia and deferred at Chicago.  These are highly selective schools so my disappointment level was tempered somewhat.  At the same time it got me to thinking that maybe there is something wrong.

I have a 4.0 UWGPA.  My school only allows 1 AP in junior year and 2 in Senior year.  Otherwise I took 15 Honors classes so my rigor is supposedly strong (though not in comparison to others outside my school).

I submitted my SAT scores (780 written, 770 math) as my test scores are around 75 percentile for even the most selective schools.

According to CollegeVine my ECs are somewhat weak (President of my club, 4 year Varsity + 1 as Captain, work 10 hours/ week, tutor, outside classes, community volunteer, etc.  No competitions, awards or outside research).

I had two teachers ask to write my recs so I'm assuming they did that to write good things.

I'm pretty sure I pass admission's first hurdle of the objective measures but obviously fall short on the subjective measures.  A straight up rejection from Columbia makes me question my essays and/ or other parts of my application.  Could my ECs really be that bad in comparison to others with the same academic profile that it warranted a rejection and not a deferral?  I'm wondering if I need to rethink my entire application as I move into the RD phase or do I chalk this up to just a couple of highly selective schools with a big applicant pool?

Answer

My 2 cents.
Sorry about your 2 schools, but there is still hope for UChicago.

One thing that very few people think about this cycle is how many spots they are competing for.
In the case of Columbia, they have been a little vague about how many people deferred their admission from the Class of 24'. We know that 349 Harvard frosh deferred, between 344-372 deferred from Yale and 378? deferred from UPenn. So that's like 15-20%, right? So if the class of 24' Columbia had 20% deferrals then there are only 1194 out of 1492 spots available. Researching past records of how many Columbia EDs every year it has remained relatively constant at 650, no matter how many apply but this year is weird with the spike in deferrals.  So let's say they kept the 650 but this year had 6435 applicants so that is like 10.1% versus 15% ED rate from last year. But if they only are going to admit 1194 this cycle that means that there are only 542 spots left which intuitively seems flip-flopped.

Now if Columbia cut back the ED admit pool by 15-20% then the admit pool would be 520-585, not 650, which means the ED rate would be like 8.1% to 9.1% with 609-674 spots remaining for RD assuming everyone who deferred is coming back this fall. 

That being said, 8.1% is nearly twice as hard as last year's 15% ED rate. So perfectly qualified applicants that would have glided in under ED were deferred or rejected. 

I'm not saying this to ease the blow but to rather point out that a grave miscalculation all applicants are making is that Top 20 schools are getting floods of applicants which makes decision making muddy at best since some lackluster applicants without test scores are taking away spots from kids who "ground" for 3 years getting 99% percentile test scores, and hardly anyone is adding the lack of available positions into their admissions calculus.

Therefore, my advice is to apply to more schools. If the deadline is passed, consider some Top LAC Liberal Arts Colleges like Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore and CMC, and Pomona that may have later application deadlines as well.

Answer

Hey. I also applied ED to Columbia and EA to UChicago and was deferred by both, so I feel ya. This year Columbia specifically got 49% more ED applicants, which means that there were simply more qualified people. The lack of awards could be a factor. Or there was something wrong with your essays - maybe your Why Columbia essay was too vague? Your ECs don't seem weak - I think they are, you know, okay. The way you present them and their significance to you makes a real difference at the end, I think. You can look through your entire application with your counselor - they might be able to detect any weak points.

Answer

So not only do almost all ivies have single-digit admit-rates in years past due to covid selective schools are getting more applicants as in in the 50% more range likely decreasing most admit rates by possibly 33% the fact of the matter is ivies do largely deserve their reputation for elitism.

So I got this information from an expert on Quora
Approximately 18k students have a of SAT 1500+ 
And then there are 8 ivies that accept about 1.5k students a year.

And ivies also get at least 30k applicants a year and almost all applying to ivies have excellent GPA and great extracurriculars compared to almost all public schools bar like 5.

Also besides the factors, you mentioned there are so many other data points considered that listing them all would take a day.

Being deferred is an accomplishment. If you really want to attend those school send an update that updates them on what you have since achieved since you applied.

Hope this helps.

Is a flat out rejection a sign there is something wrong with my application?

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