I applied to the following universities:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (EA Deferred, RD Accepted)

• Georgia Institute of Technology (EA Deferred, RD Accepted)

• University of Washington at Seattle (Accepted)

• Northeastern University (EA Accepted, N.U.in)

• UCLA (Accepted)

• UC Berkeley (Accepted)

• UCSD (Accepted)

• Columbia University (Accepted)

• Harvard University (Rejected)

• Dartmouth College (Rejected)

• Princeton University (Rejected)

• Yale University (Rejected)

• Cornell University (Waitlisted)

• Brown University (Waitlisted)

• University of Pennsylvania (Rejected)

• Stanford University (Accepted)

• Northwestern University (Waitlisted)

• Duke University (Rejected)

• Washington University in St. Louis (Waitlisted)

• Johns Hopkins University (Accepted)

• Rice University (Accepted)

• California Institute of Technology (Waitlisted)

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Rejected)

• Swarthmore College (Accepted)

• Case Western Reserve University (Accepted)

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Accepted)

• University of Michigan (Rejected)

• Rochester Institute of Technology (Accepted Rolling)

• In-State Safety 1 (Accepted Rolling)

• In-State Safety 2 (Accepted Rolling)

• In-State Safety 3 (Accepted Rolling)

• Colorado School of Mines (Waitlisted)

Some info:

• Asian male

• Midwestern state

• I applied economics everywhere except MIT and Georgia Tech (math)

• My essays were fine (I'm not exceedingly proud of them)

• My ACT score/GPA/recs are good (I do not feel bad about them)

• Participated in a decently well-known research program in summer 2025

• Decent EC involvement and research experience

• Some colleges (Swarthmore, Michigan, Cornell, Caltech, UIUC, UNC) applied last minute (or with no college app motivation left); may have slightly compromised essay quality

Will resolve once I get waitlist results back

Edit: I have decided to decline my waitlists, and thus do not count them as admissions.

Credits to @contabulator for original market

• Update 2026-02-24 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): Colorado School of Mines has been added to the list of universities applied to.