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The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/Candid-Expression899 on 2023-08-11 03:42:47.
This happened a couple months ago, but I discovered this sub now, I’m wondering.
My younger brother was applying to colleges this past admissions cycle. He applied exclusively to top schools— Ivies, Stanford, MIT, CMU, etc. His ‘safety’ was Berkeley because he felt confident he’d get into a top school due to being valedictorian and winning a few debate competitions.
My parents asked me to help his application because I got into a few of those schools last year. I don’t think that makes me an expert, but from getting in and meetings lots of others that did too, all I can say is, it’s completely fucking random. I’ve meet Olympians, kids who’ve published full length novels, kids who run successful companies; I’ve also met kids who have essentially good grades and normal extracurricular activities. So essentially there’s no formula to guarantee that you’ll get in, and it’s always common sense to apply to actual safeties.
I told him this, but he laughed this off and said unlike me his application’s good enough not to need to apply to safeties. I said fine, his funeral.
He ended up getting rejected by every college he applied to, had to scramble to apply to colleges with rolling admissions dates, and ended up having yo go to community college for two years.
I heard this when I came home to visit during summer break. Given the context of him being so arrogant about his application and denigrating mine, I found it incredibly funny. So I started laughing about it. He got angry and called me an AH for laughing at him instead of being supportive.
I honestly think he had it coming. AITA?