This discussion was created from comments split from: Where did your SAT 2100-2200 child get in?.
2150 SAT
Accepted: Johns Hopkins (attending), UCLA, Emory, Colby College (presidential scholar), Case Western Reserve ($22.5 K scholarship + Baker Nord scholar) UCSD, UCI, SF State
Waitlisted: Carleton, Middlebury, Williams, WashU, UChicago, UC Berkeley
Rejected: Pomona, Duke, Cornell
For a student I worked with: 2150 SAT Female Engineering
Accepted: USC, UCLA (attending), UCSB, UCD, UCSD, Cal Poly SLO
WL SCEA and then denied: Yale
Denied: Stanford, Harvard, Vandy, Cornell, UCB
2160 SAT
Female Engineering
Accepted: Case Western Reserve University (attending), Northeastern University, Clarkson University (honors college), RIT (honors college), Worcester Polytechnic Institute, SUNY Binghamton(honors college), SUNY Buffalo (honors college)
Deferred: MIT
Rejected: MIT
33 ACT
Female STEM
Accepted: Santa Clara U, University of Toronto
Rejected: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Harvey Mudd, USC, NYU and a couple of others
I feel like it would be even more helpful if people put u/w and w GPA (and maybe ECs?).
32 ACT, 4.0 UW, minimal ECs, cobbled together public on-line charter school/dual credit at comm college, female, engineering
Accepted: Northeastern (attending), Case Western, U of Rochester, Stevens, Co School of Mines, Union, U of NH, Temple
Rejected: Olin (after making it to Candidate’s Weekend), Brown (deferred ED first), USC, Columbia, Standford
32 ACT, 3.75 GPA, decent ECs, good essays
Accepted: Boston University (attending), NYU, Pitt, Ohio State, UNC Chapel Hill, Fordham
Waitlisted: Boston College, UChicago, Barnard
Denied: Columbia
32 ACT / 2160 SAT (school average is a 19/1400)
GPA was a 4.0 (99.3 I think)
ECs were mostly leadership, state ranked in all activities. Essays were honest but not groundbreaking. URM Hook, so do with that what you may.
Accepted everywhere: Vanderbilt (Chancellor’s - Attending), Georgetown, Emory (15K merit), American (14K Merit), Tulane (30K Merit), UGA (Zell Miller), Howard (Founders).
Female Mech. Eng. 32 ACT/ 4.2 GPA/750 Math 2, Avg/Good EC’s
Accepted: CU Boulder (attending) Cal Poly, UCSB, UCI, Chapman, U Washington, Purdue
Waitlisted: UCSD, UCD
Rejected: USC, UCLA
A student I was working: 1950 SAT. GPA 3.78 (UW). Private, boarding school. Non recruited or hooked.
Accepted: Pomona, CMC, Dartmouth, Wellesley, NYU, Cal, UCLA, UVA.
Rejected: Barnard, Penn
Waitlisted: Brown
D. did not apply to any Elite college despite of the push from her GC. She attended one of our in-state public on full tuition Merit scholarship, had great time there, graduated as a top pre-med in her class and had great choices of medical schools that accepted her. She did not use her SAT anyway, she felt that her ACT score of 33 was better.
^ 2016 Miami
@MiamiDAP What matters is that she had a great time, did well, and went on to be successful. What more can you ask?
2much,
I wanted to draw attention to the fact that where one gets in is not as important as what one achieves at ANY place. And for that the year is irrelevant. My apologies for not being clear about it. Thank you exlibris for understanding the point that I was making despite of my apparently not very clear message.
@exlibris97, what would you say contributed to your students acceptances? I’ve not seen those kind of results fora student with that SAT or GPA before on an unhooked student. I worked with a student who had a 1700 SAT and got into UCLA and USC, but student was Hispanic and had a very specific talent (photography) portfolio.
I did work with an unhooked student this year with a 28 ACT that got into UCB, but didn’t get into any other reaches (Ivies, UCLA, BC, etc). Was WL at Wake. Student had a dance supplement, but it wasn’t strong as it was at the last minute.
@sbjdorlo My student linked their main EC–working with a community outreach AID counselling program–with their chosen field of study (public health/development) and some of their high school electives (human genetics, economics). They wove this into their essays and got what I consider to be a stellar recommendation from a major community HIV initiative. I think this demonstrated commitment and maturity and also was somewhat unique.
When I spoke to their HS counsellor, he said that when he spoke to one of the universities, the admissions counsellor said that they had rarely seen a student make better use of resources. I think this tipped the balance.
My experience is that it is the highly selective colleges that take these sorts of things into consideration. I worked with my student to craft a picture of them that the universities would find unique, compelling and memorable. I doubt any university admissions official says, “I remember that kid with the 2300 SAT”. They might remember the kid who did something exceptional or who really applied themselves in a way that crossed academic/EC boundaries. And in the case of my student, their academic performance improved dramatically over the course of their HS career, showing that they had the ability and just needed the discipline or focus. Just my opinion but it does seem to be a winning formula.
sat 2060, act 33 , asian , top 5% rank, no hooks, ECs: lots of volunteer, music, speech, ( no sports)
got in to : Stanford(matriculating), Berkeley, Notre Dame , UCLA , BC, USC ,etc