5 Mistakes That Got Me Rejected from All the Top US Universities (Must Avoid Them)

Today, I will be sharing with you my story of rejection and some of my blunders which got me rejected from ALL the Universities I applied to except one. Had I not made these massive mistakes, I would’ve likely received offers from some of the best universities in the world.

Now, if you make one of these mistakes, it is highly likely that you too will get rejected from these universities. But don’t worry, not only will I share my mistakes, I’ll also share the things you can do to avoid them and turn the tables in your favour.

One of the biggest reasons why I made these mistakes was that I simply not aware of them because I didn’t have a college counselor to guide me. Therefore, do watch the complete video so you become aware of these mistakes and can avoid all of them totally to increase your chances of getting into universities you want to go to.

“Sometimes you learn more from failure than you do from success.”

Michael Crawford

I hope you do, from my experience.

Now, If you’ve watched my College Decision Reactions Video you might know that I applied to thirteen universities for the fall of 2021. Out of these thirteen universities, twelve of them were American universities and only one of them was Canadian.

Basically, I got rejected from every single American University including all the Ivy League schools, Stanford, MIT, NYUAD, and Amherst College. You can watch my College Decision Reactions Video to see how I reacted to my one and only acceptance which was for the University of Toronto. haha!

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My Story

So in high school, I did the IB Diploma Program which is one of the most rigorous academic programs in the world and guess what? I didn’t know that and I really struggled maintaining my grades initially.

Now, in Grade 11th, I was just engaging in all sorts of random activities and extracurriculars, like everyone else around me, because we were told that extracurriculars are really really important. I was into everything from playing badminton to making food in cookery club, not really thinking about the why I was doing an activity and what impact it was having on my application.

Fun Fact: I even went in a Taekwondo State Championship without any experience in fighting and got badly beaten by a national player just because I thought a participation certificate from a big competition would help my application. Funny, isn’t it?

In between maintaining my grades and doing all sorts of activities, 11th grade was over and I didn’t have a solid list of universities I wanted to apply for. But by that time, looking at my family’s financial condition, I was sure that I will not be able to study abroad unless I receive a 100% scholarship from any foreign university. So, I researched and narrowed down my college list to the top universities in the US and one top university in Canada where I could get a 100% scholarship.

Before we move forward, if you’d like to watch me speak and tell you everything using graphics and sound effects, you can watch my video on the same topic down below 👇.

Now, as I told you I was doing the IB and IB is very writing-intensive—I had to do a writing work in all of the 6 subjects, a research project of 4000 words and 2 philosophical writings. As my Grade 12th progressed, these writing projects consumed more and more of my time but despite that I managed to give the SAT, SAT Subject Tests, and IELTS. Though I scored pretty decent on the SAT Math Level 2 Subject test and SAT Physics Subject test, I didn’t do excellent enough on the General SAT.

✅ SAT Math 2 Subject Test: 780/800
✅ SAT Physics Subject Test: 760/800

Generally, all the top universities in the U.S. accept students of SAT score between 1480 and 1600, though there are exceptional cases too where students with low SAT scores but extraordinary extracurriculars get in; however, I wasn’t one of them and my SAT score was lower than 1480. So, my dreams to apply to top universities in the U.S. got completely shattered and I gave up on applying to American universities because I would’ve been nearly impossible to get in with a SAT score below 1480.

Now, in the same month, that is December 2019, I made another blunder which was missing out the school nomination deadline for the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship at University of Toronto due to lack of proper research. I was shocked, dumbfounded and lost all hopes to apply abroad because Lester B. Pearson scholarship was the one and only fully funded scholarship at University of Toronto and I missed that opportunity to apply.

I have talked more about my experience, mistakes and tips for the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship in one of my previous posts, if you’re interested do check it out down below 👇.

Check Here 👉 How To Get Full Scholarship at University of Toronto as an International Student

Now, as all of my college application plans were ruined, I decided to focus completely on the IB Diploma Program and apply to universities after my exams.

Luckily, I managed to score a 43/45 in the IB. Thanks to the Pandemic !! my exams were cancelled, but one more thing happened due to the pandemic, SAT became optional and guess what? I was the happiest person on the planet as it opened doors for me to apply at universities in the US that I had lost all hopes for (because my SAT score was below 1480).

Now, it was August 2020, I applied to a bunch of Turkish Universities with free application fees and 100% tuition scholarships. I got into each one of them. I got a 50% scholarship, a 75% scholarship and an 80% scholarship, but did not get a 100% scholarship, so I took a risk, rejected all the offers and give a shot to American universities.

☑ KOC University: 50% Tuition Scholarship
☑ Sabanci University: 75% Tuition Scholarship
☑ Bilkent University: 80% Tuition Scholarship

On a side note, during that time, I extensively researched about 100% scholarships around the world and I found so many of them which I didn’t know, back in Grade 11th and 12th. This is why to make you guys aware of these opportunities, I have compiled and shared my complete list of full scholarships, it consists of 112 full tuition and full ride scholarships for undergraduate studies around the world. So check these 2 posts and let me know if you found them helpful.

Check Here 👉 50+ Fully Funded Scholarships for International Students to Study Abroad for Free in Canada, UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe 🔥

Check Here 👉 55+ 100% Scholarships for International Students in Singapore, Japan, China, South Korea, Turkey, Indonesia, Qatar, Brunei, Hong Kong, UAE , Saudi Arabia, and India 🔥

Anyways, it was September 2020, I started researching about the requirements of these top universities in the US, their expectations, deadlines and everything else. I also asked some of my teachers to write Letter of Recommendation for me and also got the student nomination form for the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship filled by my school.

In October 2020, I started brainstorming for my Common App Essay as well as the supplemental essays. I spent a lot of time researching about writing the college essays and even read some college essay books because everyone online was saying essays are very important. Ironically, I spend too much time brainstorming and researching about writing perfect essays than actually writing and working on them. Sadly, It took me 2 months to realize this.

College Essay Books I Used (No Affiliate Link):
👍 50 Successful Harvard Application Essays
👍 50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays
👍 50 Successful Stanford Application Essays
👍 On Writing the College Application Essay
👍 College Essay Essentials

Now it was December 2020 and forget writing anything for the supplemental essays, I hadn’t even written the first draft for my common app essay. I had no other option but to dedicate the whole of December and the first two weeks of January in writing down my essays and completing my applications. I struggled but ultimately got through them and submitted my applications.

Fun fact: some of my applications were submitted seconds before the actual deadline because I was busying completing the supplemental essays of these universities at the last minute. Once such example that is deeply embedded in my mind is of University of Pennsylvania where I submitted my application 3 seconds before the deadline. Probably a Guinness World Record !!

Anyways, I submitted all of my applications by the end of the third week of January 2021 and from January to Mid-March, I completed all the financial aid forms and submitted them to the universities, but during this time I wasn’t preparing much for the college alumni interviews until I received an email from a Princeton’s alumna to schedule an online interview.

To my surprise, it went pretty well and my interviewer thought I gave her pretty compelling answers, but as you all know, a couple of months later I found myself getting rejected from all the universities I applied including Princeton, excluding University of Toronto.

Luckily, I recorded all of my reactions or rejections, it was painful but I learned a lot from the process. Even more so, I made a ton of mistakes which didn’t help me but will surely help you guys because you’d know what they are and how to avoid them and not end up on the same route as mine.

Not Doing Enough Research & Starting Out Late

Ok, let me tell you my first and most obvious mistake, it was not doing enough research and starting out the whole application process very very late.

The first thing you should realize is that no one is going to do your college research for you and you’ll have to do it on your own except if you hire someone to do it.

Secondly, your senior year of high school or Grade 12th is not for deciding whether you want to study abroad or not, which colleges you want to go to etc., you need to decide all these basic details in Grade 10th and 11th and your parents should know them.

Thirdly, there will not come a perfect time, when stars will align and you’ll sit down and do your college research. You’ll have to take imperfect action and start doing your college research immediately if you haven’t started it yet.

In my case, I did not do a proper, detailed research for the Lester B. Pearson Scholarship at University of Toronto and I ended up missing the opportunity to apply for it in the fall of 2020 which was a far less competitive year compared to the next year, the fall of 2021, because due to Covid-19 the scholarship application process got immensely competitive compared to previous years and that made my selection for the scholarship pretty hard. If I had done proper research in Grade 12th, I wouldn’t have missed the school nomination deadline and ultimately the chance to apply for the scholarship in 2020.

Ideally, I should’ve started planning for my college applications in the beginning of Grade 11th when I was investing my time in different activities but I didn’t because no one told me how much time and effort the essays and the overall applications to top universities would require.

However, now, I realize that saying “no one told me this” is just an excuse and in this world of information, you and I can’t give this excuse. Ideally, I should’ve been a lot more serious when I decided to apply to top universities, I should’ve done the research in advance, read the experiences of past applicants, the mistakes they made and how I can improve my profile, but when I got to know all of this it was too late and the actual application deadlines were pretty close.

This mistake can be really costly, but you can easily avoid it by starting early on, researching all the requirements of your universities in advance and adding their deadlines on Google Calendar. You can also add reminders weeks before the deadlines so you don’t forget them.

Think of a university application as a big project and it’s requirements as tasks that needs to be done. Research all of these things and collect them in a spreadsheet or document. Once you do that, add all the official deadlines for each task and give yourself personal deadlines for tasks like completion of common app essay, or completion of Cornell’s supplemental essays etc. and strive really hard to meet these personal deadlines. Regularly view your spreadsheet or the document and try to complete the tasks well before the allotted dates.

Now, apart from researching the application requirements to your universities, check what each specific university is really looking for and don’t forget to analyze the profiles of students who got accepted to the universities you want to go to as it will give you a pretty good idea of whether or not your profile is similar to theirs or has the same level of potential.

Now, there is a really great post by Harvard University which in my perspective, pretty much sums up what top universities in the US actually look for in their students (in general). It is titled “What We Look For” and I would highly recommend all the US university applicants to read it. If you’re interested, do check the link above.

Not Applying Early

Let’s move onto the second mistake which I made and which you too can make if you don’t start early on, it is Not Applying Early to any of the universities.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, the US application process is carried out in two cycles Early Action or Early Decision Cycle and the Regular Decision Cycle. The Early decision cycle usually starts in November and ends by mid-December every year, whereas the Regular decision cycle starts off in January and ends by April every year.

Now, whether you apply early decision or early action, applying to at least one university early on his really really important esp. in a time when top US universities are recording their lowest acceptances rates in centuries because

1. It’ll give you an edge over other applicants who may be more qualified than you and may have better profiles than yours but applied regular decision because at most universities, the early admission rates are much higher than regular or overall admission rates.
2. Early decision results are out by mid-December, now if you’re admitted to the university, it will save all the time, efforts and money which you’d have to otherwise put in all the other universities’ applications in the regular decision round.

Now, back then, when I was applying, I knew all of these advantages but couldn’t apply to any of the universities early on because of my first mistake of not doing enough research and starting out late. I got to know about early decision and its advantages in October 2020, only a month before the deadline for Early decision and Early Action applications and one month was not sufficient for me to complete all the general and financial aid requirements of the university.

This mistake literally costed me an admission offer and I can say that for sure. Why?

As you know I applied to NYUAD in the Regular Decision cycle, got waitlisted, and ultimately got rejected. Now, NYUAD has 3 admission cycles:

🥇 Early Decision 1: Starts on November 1 and ends by December 15.
🥈 Early Decision 2: Starts on January 1 and ends by February 16.
🥉 Regular Decision: Starts on January 6 and ends by April 1.

I completed my NYUAD application by January 1 and I could’ve applied to NYUAD in Early Decision 2, but I chose not to and went with the Regular Decision cycle. Later, I found out that almost all students who applied early decision to NYUAD got accepted whereas a lot of qualified applicants, from the regular decision pool, got waitlisted and we’re then rejected just because there weren’t enough spots available.

This one choice of early decision or regular decision could literally be the difference between an acceptance and a rejection. Chose the one university that you definitely want to attend and apply early to that one. You’ll most likely not regret it.

No Engagement in Field-related Activities

Moving onto the third mistake, which I pretty much discovered after I got my rejection letters and started to reevaluate myself, it was not engaging in activities that are specifically related to the field of Computer Science.

Now, Perfect grades and high standardized test scores alone won’t be able to get you into a selective university. Extracurricular activities are one of the most important things that makes the difference between qualified applicants and admitted ones. Most people don’t know this, but luckily I knew this back in high school but unfortunately what I didn’t know was the fact that extracurriculars need to be related to your areas of interests and studies.

There is a reason why all the top U.S. Universities rejected me while a top Canadian university accepted me. As I have discussed in my previous posts, College admission process vary from university to university but this variation becomes really significant when comparing universities from different countries. While U.S. Universities focus a lot on the overall profile of a student, in general, Canadian universities focus more on the academic accomplishments of a student. So, strong extracurriculars are a big deal for top U.S. universities’ admissions while it’s not really a big deal in Canadian university admissions.

Keeping this in mind, I think my extracurricular activities weren’t impressive enough to get me admission into top U.S. Universities while the same activities were up to par for admission into a top Canadian university.

I think most of my extracurriculars weren’t focused as I was engaging in all sorts of random activities and this might have appeared a bit scattered or too diverse to admission officers.

These universities would have a pretty hard time profiling me because I didn’t really fit into any one category according to them or maybe these universities weren’t able to understand the spike I was trying to present in my application which was of a student who is involved heavily involved in community service or maybe I didn’t present it the way I should’ve.

Whatever the reason, it is really important to do extracurricular activities in the areas you are deeply passionate about which, from the university’s perspective, are the fields and programs you’ve applied for at that university. An applicant’s profile won’t look impressive with interest in computer science and technology but random activities in business or service 😁

Therefore, avoiding this mistake is really crucial in presenting a strong extracurricular profile and the way you do that is by planning your activities ahead of time and engaging in them with a purpose.

Personally, I believe it is really crucial to learn to say NO early on in life because keeping invested in things that do not excite you much and neither contribute to your long term goals are really a waste of time and energy. It is better to stay away from them.

Whatever activity you engage in, make sure is connected to your areas of interests. Now, I am not saying you shouldn’t explore different avenues and engage in things beyond your interests. In fact, I would ask you to not stop engaging in activities that you like doing but don’t necessarily contribute to your application because even though I didn’t do a lot of CS-related activities, I really enjoyed my time in different activities because I learned so many different things and my friends and I really had so much fun.

So be balanced and don’t just think about your college application alone but again don’t toss it off your mind completely.

Rushing Through College Essays

Now, let’s move into my next mistake, which was rushing through my College application essays.

Now, as I told you, I spent a lot of time researching about writing good college essays than actually writing good essays and this left me with only one month and two weeks to complete the common app essay and all the supplemental essays of twelve U.S. universities applied to.

One month and two weeks is not sufficient to completely brainstorm, write, evaluate and review college essays and so I had no other option but to rush through these essays. This mistake happened because

1. I started the whole process late which is my first mistake.
2. I spent too much time acquiring the right understanding to approach essays.

Now, if you are in a position where you have started late but you have 3-4 months until the application deadline, I think you should definitely get the right understanding on approaching essays but don’t let that be your only purpose. Dedicate let’s say 2-3 weeks for this, than get started with the actual writing process.

Think of writing your college essay as creating a masterpiece. Now, imagine rushing through your art work, how will it turn out? Not as it should. The same is true for college essays, if you don’t put in the necessary time, effort, work into it, it won’t turn out to be a masterpiece. You won’t be able to produce essays that you wanted to produce in the first place because rushing through this delicate process can lead to essays without details, emotional appeal or personal connection with the admission officer.

A key part of the whole writing process is the phase of preparation where you decide upon a topic, brainstorm key points and arguments, think exhaustively, add literary devices and make things creative. This takes time. However, if the preparation, which is key to a good written work, is rushed, you’ll likely miss a point of view, or weakly structure your arguments or just be too general leading to a less creative, mediocre essay which doesn’t stand out to the admission officers who, by that time, would’ve already read hundreds of mediocre essays.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Abraham Lincoln

Therefore, never hurry in writing in your college application essays and understand that preparation is crucial to a coherent, well-thought out essay of high quality.

Also, it is really important to start the preparation process for your college essays early on, ideally in the summer of your senior year, so you spend a good amount of time preparing the ins and outs of your college essays and not end up writing last minute essays without preparation or critical review.

Not Taking Feedback on College Essays

Moving onto mistake number 5, which if made can really prove costly to your admission chances, it is not taking critical feedback on the essays and not improving them.

Much like the preparation process, the evaluation process is most often overlooked when writing college application essays. Personally, I had a few days to get at least some of my essays reviewed and I knew the importance of getting feedback for essays but didn’t give my essays for a review because I had no one who knew me and could actually give me valuable feedback.

Now, if you are in the same situation, I would recommend you to approach an admitted ivy league student or a college essay editor online and ask them to review your essays. Some might do it for free and some may even charge you for it, but make sure that the person is reliable and won’t misuse your essays or make them public. Getting your essays reviewed is worth it and trust me you won’t regret sharing them.

Why are we doing so much for college essays? 🤔
College essays are one of the most important elements in your whole application since they are your only voice to the admissions committee to know your background, story, who you are as a person and as a student?

Hence, it becomes really important for you to not only write thoughtful essays but to get thorough and clear feedback for your essays so you can improve them.

Having a different pair of eyes 👀 other than yourself, to review your essay points, initial drafts and overall application can provide you with helpful feedback on different perspectives to your essays. You will also learn how others see your essays which can help you to not only polish your essays further but also improve your overall profile as well.

Moreover, having your application and essays thoroughly checked by your parents, guardians, peers, teachers or counselors is really crucial because what may seem a really good essay to you, may not really be as impressive to others.

Also, after you’ve submitted your application, you’ll be less anxious because you’ll know that others, who know you, have reviewed your application and found it compelling.

Personally, I thought my college application essays were great, but maybe the universities I applied to didn’t think the same.

Now, I would like to point out another mistake a lot of students make which is Repurposing College Essays. Please avoid doing this because one essay won’t fit all the prompts. Generally, Admission officers are familiar with the essay prompts of other universities and it isn’t pleasant for them to find out that you have repurposed an essay you submitted to other institution to fit the prompt of their university. So tailor your essays specifically to each college.

Lastly, I would say you can immensely improve the quality of your essays by using your time and other’s time to evaluate them. Remember that you have already put great effort to write your essay, why leave the chance to make it the best you can.

No Taking Care of Yourself

Now, another common mistake which students make and I personally did not make is not taking care of themselves when going through the college application process. They are constantly stressing out, being depressed all the time, not eating well or taking rest. Just chill out 🖐 eat healthy, sleep well, go out with your friends and enjoy.

Don’t forget that even though you are heading for a new adventure, your school journey is coming to an end. It is the last year of your school and you will remember these moments with your friends for the rest of your life.

Conclusion and Advice

If you look at my mistakes deeply, you’ll notice that all of them stem from my first mistake of starting out pretty late. The fact that I was day dreaming and not really serious about my college applications until much later.

If there is one thing you can do to avoid these mistakes altogether, it is by starting early because then, you have plenty of time to plan your extracurricular activities, engage in meaningful work, do good college research, apply to universities early, prepare for your essays, get reviews, as well as improve your essays.

Therefore, push yourself and start the college application process early on and if you are already in your senior year without having anything done, start right now or else you’ll end up making the same mistakes.

Practically speaking, utilize your time in Grade 11th and the starting of Grade 12th and make sure that by November of your Grade 12th, you’re basically done with everything including standardized tests, extracurricular activities, resume, applications, essays, supplemental essays, financial aid forms etc.

Do comment “I WON’T MAKE THESE MISTAKES” in the comments section below to let me know that you’ve read the full post, so I can say a personal thanks to you.

If you found this post helpful, do share it with your friends and classmates so they get to know these mistakes and don’t end up making them.

Thank you so much for reading this 😘

See you in the next one.

Good Bye and Take Care.