As college acceptance gets tougher, more applicants are put on waitlists or offered deferred admissions, which only prolongs the waiting game. And only a lucky few ever get in, writes Kristina Dell.
#1, Columbia University
#2, Stanford University
#3, Harvard University
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
#4, University of Pennsylvania
#5, Washington University in St. Louis
#6, University of Chicago
#7, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
AP Photo
#8, Vanderbilt University
#9, Northwestern University
Tim Boyle / Getty Images
#10, Yale University
#11, Johns Hopkins University
Andre Jenny / Newscom
#12, Princeton University
AP Photo
#13, Dartmouth College
Cheryl Senter, Bloomberg News / Getty Images
#14, Duke University
Jim R. Bounds, Bloomberg News / Getty Images
#15, California Institute of Technology
AP Photo
#16, Cornell University
Heather Ainsworth / AP Photo
#17, Brown University
Newscom
#18, University of Southern California
Reed Saxon / AP Photo
#19, Carnegie Mellon University
#20, Tufts University
#21, Georgetown University
#22, University of California—Berkeley
#23, New York University
Getty Images
#24, Rice University
AP Photo
#25, University of Notre Dame
AP Photo
#26, Boston College
#27, Emory University
Robin Nelson / Newscom
#28, Wake Forest University
AP Photo
#29, University of California—Los Angeles
AP Photo
#30, University of Rochester
#31, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
AP Photo
#32, Brandeis University
AP Photo
#33, University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
#34, Lehigh University
#35, University of California—San Diego
AP Photo
#36, University of Virginia
#37, Case Western Reserve University
Tony Dejak / AP Photo
#38, University of California—Santa Barbara
Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images
#39, University of California—Davis
AP Photo
#40, Georgia Institute of Technology
Getty Images
#41, University of Miami
Cindy Karp / AP Photo
#42, College of William and Mary
Stephen Salpukas
#43, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
#44, University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign
#45, University of Texas—Austin
#46, University of California—Irvine
#47, Pennsylvania State University—University Park