Thank you all!
It seems like the conversation is kind of spiraling into Brown, but I want to assure you all that I am talking specifically about schools that have around a 20% acceptance rate-- not Ivies. I understand that even the top test scores, GPA, and courses don’t give you a great (or even good) chance at admission to t10 schools.
Switching the conversation back to schools like USC:
I want to ensure everyone here that I am not going into this process with only test scores, GPA, and tough courses and expecting admissions. I was trying to understand how to use ‘75th’ percentile scores to find the chance at admission for t50-t20 schools.
I received a lot of great responses on that matter, but I am still slightly confused by the conflicting information here. @lookingforward, you first said that there is NO one with a 40% chance at a school with a holistic process, then @cptofthehouse offered conflicting information by saying how it’s around 75% acceptance for Vanderbilt ED with top scores/GPA/courses.
Once I described the conflicting information, you said: “Yes, some college that auto accept based on stats will be lower tier.” Does this mean that you are calling Vanderbilt/USC/etc lower-tier schools and that they will nearly auto accept based on stats? I wouldn’t imagine this is the case, but you were commenting on a thread where I directly compared Vanderbilt to top schools like Brown, so I’m a little confused.
As a reminder, this thread has nothing to do with any school better than USC/Vandy/etc.
Assuming a kid applies ED, has a 4.0, and a really solid academic schedule, do they have a good chance (>60%) to get into a school with an acceptance rate of ~20%? Given that they don’t have anything that would really hurt their application.