To all Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, Harvard, rejected basically all the top world universities

nice uni, hope it all goes well friendo

that's not bad user, try not to get too hung up on uni prestige, it'll kill you inside

i'm a slob and accepted to cambridge (and rejected their offer)

Don't worry about it, interviews at that level are pretty hit or miss. Friend I had applied to the top two schools for physics in the country. Got rejected from one after interview and the other interviewer decided to award him a scholarship.

I did everything right. Hit me like a punch when i got rejected. this guy who was more handsomer, more friendlier and really sociable got in, and his first choice college. He chose the exact degree as me, and I found out afterwards I got a higher mark in the entrance and interview exam. But I just didnt get in.

Thanks boys, this was a few years ago anyway.
I was upset at at the time (like OP seems to be) but I think it was for the best in the end.

oops, wrong guy, I meant the 2nd guy.

I can't speak for the UK and its class system, but that sort of thing doesn't really fly too much for American unis nowadays, and interviews aren't *that* important. Did you apply to any American schools?

naa, dont have the funds to live abroad.

This. There is definitely a rich bias.

OP did you go to an independent school?

I'm objectively good looking and posh/rich, and got rejected from Cambridge phyics after the interview [because I blanked out, and they asked me questions in topics I had never learnt so I just looked like a retard].

I'm studying maths/physics in Durham now, but I am both disappointed that I didn't get into Cambridge, but slightly glad knowing that I probably wouldn't have been able to switch to maths so easily.

Nah, your skin just wasn't dark enough.

I know a kid with a drug problem from St Paul's London who was accepted to Princeton and another one from Groton who was kicked out who got into Harvard. Definitely true, though I'd say it's more just money than presentation during an interview.

If I didn't get in to MIT but I only care about engineering what school should I apply to?

Caltech
UC Berkeley
Stanford (maybe? I don't know)

I fucked my Stanford interview due to social anxiety

I've actually visited Harvard and MIT while on vacation in Boston. I can believe Harvard being stingy with appearance, they all looked preppy, but the MIT students had the stereotypical nerd appearance.

i feel you my dude, you will do great man, I believe in you.

Omg dude, you are exactly like me. Got rejected by Oxford for physics, got an offer from durham recently. Say, is it a good university objectively? Are you enjoying yourself?

What are some of the best and worst things about the Durham physics course? And most of all, are you happy there?

hey dude you there? im really interested in your response

Caltech is way more picky about admissions it seems

Caltech is better :^)

Harvey Mudd might work

>is it a good university objectively?
It is one of the best for physics in UK, it has an extremely large amount of funding compared to other subjects because of it (they're building the third physics building right now, while every other department has 1)

>Are you enjoying yourself?
Yes, I have a large group of friends, and a couple of best friends, and recently even gf, and I play lots of sport.

There are very few universities in UK that have a collegiate system, and let me tell you, it's the best thing. If you're interested in sport, you can play at two different levels (intercollegiate and interuniversity) which means you can learn new sports without the need to have played for England before as do some other unis, and Durham is the best team sports university, and they have loads of funding. There are also other non-sport societies but I don't really care too much for it.

If you are wondering about nightlife, every college has their own bar and there are a couple of pubs, and if you like going out, there are a couple of shit clubs with shit music, but it's quite easy to pull.

The city overall is quite small and shit, but I don't care too much.

>What are some of the best and worst things about the Durham physics course?
I really disliked the physics course from the start, mostly because I'm more rigour-inclined and don't enjoy most physics branches. The maths department is far superior for me, which is why I did the change to maths/physics in my second year. The first year classes are a joke, but I feel like they probably would be like that in other unis.
I don't do labs anymore, but they were quite great and well organised, and I bet they're quite good in 2nd year+

>are you happy there?
Yes, but I feel like I'd be happier in Cambridge since I'd be challenged a bit more. I feel like classes here are too easy, but idk.

What college are you in? Can really change your experience

No idea, still in Y13. Which college do you recommend my dude?

Hey, I'm going Durham as well. Does the place look good, sorta like Cambridge?

You pretty much get assigned a college when they give you the offer, so I suppose you knew.

What college you'd want to go to depends on how you are and what you like.

If you're posh and enjoy being around other posh people, or maybe you enjoy being competitive in sports and classes (the mindset in general), then any of the "bailey colleges": University college, Hatfield, Cuth's, John's, Chad's, and in particular the first two.

If you really enjoy sport specifically, then Collingwood.

If you want to make your own food and be in a tighter knit group then Josephine Butler (but I really, really don't recommend this one, it's really far from everything, and you're never going to pull).

If you want to be really close to where you have your lectures, then Grey's or Mary's.

If you want to be in the most "inclusive" college, Aidan's (this is mine kek, I got randomly assigned to it)

The rest are OK I suppose

It looks kinda good I suppose. The cathedral is quite nice and big, and some street are old looking, but nothing too fancy. What college?

dunno. They literally sent me the letter Z, meaning they havent sorted it all out yet.

Got into an ivy/top 10 program for grad school in my field so it worked out.

Bit older than most people at my stage because I took a few years off in the middle of undergrad for mental health.

I was in the same boat as you OP a few years ago. My biggest piece of advice is don't obsess over it or try to figure out why you were rejected because 99% of the time it's not going to help you. Go to your next choice university and smash the degree there, and maybe if you still want to you can do postgrad at the uni that rejected you.

What if you only give a fuck about engineering and none of that normie garbage you mentioned?

Also what if you happen to hate serious college sports (the type they give scholarships for)

If you're not going to leave your room, why would you care about what college you get into? I suppose you'd prefer the non-bailey colleges, or hill colleges, since they're a bit more modern. Also prepare for a lot of team projects kek

that means you're getting assigned a college randomly, so most likely a hill college (see above), since almost nobody applies specifically to them, most people apply to Hatfield/University college

ugh, are those hill colleges bad?

they're not specifically bad, other than maybe josephine butler, but you won't get the rich and successful contacts that you could get in Bailey colleges, unless you're particularly talented in social stuff, and you're maybe a 20-30 min walk away from the town centre (instead of 3-5 mins), but you're a lot closer to lectures instead

If you are sufficiently smart enough in an interview, then that is all they will remember when considering your application.

Take that as you will.

I sure as fuck hope so

not true for most American unis, the interviewers do not review your application

bump

but they obviously report back to the bigwigs and tell them if you are legit or not

Why does these universities have interviews? I guess they do not want the most intelligent but rather the most moneymakers. Well I may not be in a top univeraity but at least I got there with my grades only.

I'm at Imperial, didn't get a Cambridge offer. Does it count? Entry requirements for my course are essentially the same, and there is a similar number of applicants per place. Also know people who got rejected from Imperial and went to Cambs.

Among my friends who went to Oxbridge, I wouldn't say they are particularly attractive on average but one friend who missed his Oxford offer who is quite good looking was snapped up by another college at Oxford.

I fuckin got in lel

They don't want to end up with a college full of only the type of person to get a perfect GPA, maybe.

I can feel that because I didn't have a perfect GPA.

> C in spanish because I didn't try as hard as I could because I wasn't interested
> B in a racket sports class because I didn't memorize the exact rules of Ping-pong and pickle ball
> B in "intra personal communications" because the class was a joke
> B in geometry because I spent my time in that class learning pre calc so I could do calc the next year

it's because highschools are not perfect themselves. Also they vary so much in quality. GPA has a margin of error. So do standardized test scores.

I've been given a conditional for Cambridge Maths
A*,A*,A,A in Maths, F.Maths, Physics, Latin + 1,1 in STEP II and III entrance exams.
No pressure but I reckon I'll get it

Also I'm white, but loads of chad thundercocks got rejected for engineering which is a glorious feeling

are SAT subject tests not the same as the ones in the "standard SAT" that you take when you just sign up for the SAT?

shit

spanish
racket sports
communications
geometry

What uni is this? Sounds like highschool 2.0. No wonder they do not want the most intelligent.

I was talking about the highschool I went to, and highschools in general

nah they're tests out of 800, not very difficult to get 700 or above which is pretty much all you need on them, of course an 800 doesn't hurt but still...

Do you live in aston you autist?

No, I just didn't give a fuck and was an underachiever. Got into a private party school on a nice scholarship and failed out at one point, but eventually finished. I like learning on my own I learned.

You need 2 A* and 2 As to get in? Jeez, i have 3 mates who have offers from oxford and cambridge to do things like medicine and history. 2 has A*AA and one has AAA, they must hold maths to an very high regard.

I've got A*A*A offer for Physics with Astrophyics in Manchester. Slightly shitting myself but with enough hard work you can get any grade you want.

What? Manchester? 2 A stars? Why so high?

About 10 years ago the typical offer for physics there was ABB or lower. This was partly because of government incentives to combat the shortage in physics students in the early 2000s and also because manchester didn't have the sane reputation it does now.

Since then, Manchester's physics department has had 2 nobel lauriettes for graphene research and no shortage in students alongside the incentives ending. In recent years the quality and quantity of research in physics coming out of manchester has begun to rival that of oxford and cambridge.

This generation is gonna have a hard time getting into a high level uni, i got A*AA from birmingham and even AAA offers from sheffield for god's sake. Standards of entry have gone through the roof.

>got CCD in chemistry, physics and maths at A-level
>now at Kent doing a foundation year, doing pretty well
>applied to go to Manchester next year because Kent is a shit tier uni

>tfw perfect SATs and every top college around the world wanted my dick

feels good to not be a brainlet

At my interview for MIT I brang along my technical portfolio and the interviewer straight up said that it was the most impressive thing she's ever seen from a prospective student.

I forgot to finish my application before the deadline.

The people that get into MIT don't really get into Harvard. Also there are tonnes of ugly fucks getting into MIT.

I am 98% sure for MIT, at least, getting in was based, first on qualification, then on humanity. By that I mean first they seemed you qualified then looked to see if you were willing to reveal faults, insecurities or humour about yourself. When we compared our applications one thing we all had in common was that we didn't write it too seriously. E.g one dude wrote his essay as a parody of the fresh Prince of Bel-air theme. I wrote about how I as a kid I didn't have cable so I manipulated all the other kids into arguing with each other instead of talking about Sonic (I couldn't relate to those conversations so I directed them in a different direction). Another one wrote an essay about memes and how everything is cringe worthy after two years. (Calls is the two year cringe rule/ half life of memes)

So for MIT at least, you may not have gotten in because you tried to be too good/perfect/serious.

I think alot of the reason many of us got in is because we didn't think we would, so we didn't try to be professional but just entertain the admissions officers a bit.

Funny, that's exactly what I plan on doing

I've been working on things for a long time with the goal of them being impressive to even extreme normies

I would really be interested in what exactly you had

interesting

Also, Brian Cox teaches at Manchester so every Normie's physics student wants to experience that.

thats some bullshit desu, i doubt hes really a good teacher.

True, but the funny thing is is that Brian Cox is probably the best science communicator to the public in the world, but as an actual lecturer, he isn't too good.

Perfect SATs don't get every college on your dick, it gets the ones a tier below HYPSM on your dick (assuming good grades and high class rank/school does not keep track of high school rank). So Cornell, Michigan, Brown, etc

I wanted to apply for Cambridge but I got scared of the interview and ended up not bothering.

why didn't you take pickle ball more seriously you fuck up

Might be a good place to ask:

At what point is a grad school so poorly ranked that it's not worth going to?

I got rejected from Stanford and Caltech.
I go to California State University, Los Angeles.
FeelsPrettyGood

Grade fags are the least accomplished in any field.

They're losers.

This.

If you're unattractive and get good grade it's likely because you're a tryhard.

Take the lesson and improve yourself in all areas instead of grade whoring.

you couldn't be more retarded

Got accepted to Dartmouth and Princeton, turned them down after graduate visits, believe me when I say you guys aren't missing anything not going to an Ivy League/Muh Toppest of Tiers school.

The people are mostly pretentious assholes and the education you're getting at wherever you end up is going to be, in every way that really matters, fundamentally the same (the laws of physics don't magically change when you drive from Harvard to Michigan State or University of Nebraska). You're essentially paying 5-6 times the tuition of a normal school to have a name on your degree that **maybe** gives you a slightly easier time getting your foot in the door during a job interview.

I impressed my Brown interviewer a lot, she said she would do everything she could to get me admitted but said the interview doesn't have much of an effect. I was rejected

>he does undergraduate at an ivy
pleb, ivy grads run the world and influence governments.

>i go to university to pull

honestly hope you stub your toe

What were your grades

>You're essentially paying 5-6 times the tuition of a normal school to have a name on your degree that **maybe** gives you a slightly easier time getting your foot in the door during a job interview.

Its not maybe, it does make a difference in a job interview. Any kind. And if you can't afford the tuition, you get financial aid. I get aid, anyone who needs aid gets aid. I'm not paying a dime, there are many like me. Enough with this nonsense.

"Aid" generally means a loan with no/lower interest. You're still paying. Check your finances.

No it doesn't, you goddamn moron. You can get loans with low interest regardless of your financial situation. I'm talking about how they wipe the cost. You're telling me you visited various Ivies for graduate school but didn't know this?

that's fucked up

What do you think you're gonna be doing? Studying? Classes are easy as shit unless you're a brainlet, and you have a total of less than 20-25 hours of contact hours a week. What do you think the rest of the time is spent on, you fucking autist?

>t. shit uni attendee

yeah, that's what I plan to do

if classes are easy then I can make myself something to do

>tfw only got a 33 on the act so I didn't bother applying to MIT
>tfw regret not trying harder because it seems that half of my professors went to fucking MIT and I see MIT everywhere in my texts

T-there's always grad school right? I hate being a fucking brainlet

I heard that he tried to fuck at least one (female) student. Reliable source

>you will never get a PhD at Harvard

Makes me feel good that uni admissions are purely based on entrance exams and high school matriculation exams. No bullshit.

In my country.*

There are so many fucking high schoolers on Veeky Forums, Jesus. Anyone hear back from PhD programs yet?

didn't apply to oxbridge due to fear of rejection

Sounds like you want to go to MIT to feel included in the league of big brained boys.

Honestly should just focus on you and your own knowledge. At the end of the day its just a school. Don't put your happiness behind this school.