@hebegebe can you maybe look at your naviance chart with the SAT as the testing option and see if there is still as big of a disparity between sub-32 scores and 34+
You need to realize the odds. Even if you have the scores, you have to win the lottery unless you have something truly unique or a strong hook. Harvard has said if they took the first 1,500 (or whatever class size is) that were rejected, there would be no fall off in the quality of the freshman class. The population is growing, access to education and test prep is improving, but HPYS admit the same number of freshman that they did decades ago.
This is why it’s important to find a great match school. My daughter is applying to Princeton and Harvard RD but most of her effort was in her match (safety was straight forward app).
Just a side note/caveat here: a 35 or 36 does not guarantee admission to Vandy. I know two kids who had a 35 and stellar GPAs who were waitlisted there (and who had been admitted to higher-ranking schools).
@suzy100 that’s interesting… do you think other factors played into that decision like ethnicity or geography? I heard Vandy was huge on geography
Looking at our ACT chart a bit more closely, almost all students in the top 5% (GPA-wise), got in with 31 ACT or higher. The likely rejects have more to do with GPA than ACT.
We have many more students taking the SAT. There I see two patterns. Almost everyone in the top 5% GPA-wise got accepted or deferred, whereas EVERYONE with a 2330+ was accepted (including people who are only top 10%, GPA-wise).
Your school may vary in terms of the GPA cutoffs that Vanderbilt wants, but the key point is that Vanderbilt is very stats-focused.
@hebegebe thanks for looking that up for me… I appreciate it… That is really cool information… I wasn’t aware just how stats-driven Vandy was
@hebegebe is your school very competitive? By any chance would you know how large your class size is and what the highest GPA was?
No idea about the decisions. One was from the midwest, the other from the northeast.
500 students. Highly competitive. Half As and half Bs with all honors courses easily put you in the top 5%. About 15% of students get into top 20 colleges.
I think it helped him get into Vanderbilt and Rice. Michigan engineering is nearly as competitive (<15% OOS admit) as Rice and Vandy, and the median ACT for OOS is around 34. For in-state (us) it is a little lower average and higher admission rate, but I think it helped because he received a small scholarship from the university.
@DMVParent22 I have 3 in college now and we are going through the rodeo with number 4 who is a junior. We have had college admissions reps say it would be important to pull the 670 up to a 700. 700 is an important threshhold. Many other factors matter, too, but in answer to the question about scores, thats what we have been told directly. FWIW
@grandscheme I agree with you as I have heard similar comments. Also, it seems that the universities like to see 700 in each test as preferable to a 1400+ where only one of the subsections is over 700. The rationale being that whatever major the kid picks, he/she will still need to write well, analyze data and have reasonable math skills.
@londondad that’s true, and if you score a 1500 you’re certain to have beaten the 700 threshold in both sections… So that follows the logic that a 1500 is enough…
I heard that concordance is just a prediction and not an actual conversion…?