I’m going to jump in with an example re: NYU. My older D graduated from Steinhardt VP with MT concentration. The summer before senior year of HS she attended Steinhardts MT pre-college program. The classes were taught by their full time faculty including the program’s (current) director. Before the end of the program the students were told that they would be notified in September about whether their performance during the summer would lead to acceptance into the undergrad program on a talent level. In other words, if these students applied to NYU, they did not need to audition. About a dozen students were offered this automatic talent acceptance.
D was in this group and we were arranged a meeting with the program’s director in the fall. He made it clear that this was not an automatic acceptance and asked about D’s SAT score. It was at least 1350 at that time and she was planning to retake the SAT the following day. The director told her not to bother, so obviously he knew she met the academic criteria he would need to get a student an academic acceptance. He never asked her gpa, but since it was a 98+ I knew we were in good shape. He explained how acceptance was 50% talent and 50% academics. If a student is accepted talent wise, they may not be on the list of academic acceptances sent to the department. The lists are cross- checked and there may be some back and forth negotiation on behalf of very talented students, but the director said that over the years there have been many students that he could not get in and many who he knew were below the threshold for NYU’s academics to the extent that he would not fight for them.
One of D’s friends from the summer program was an extremely talented male, but just did not have great grades and GPA. Although he had that talent acceptance and the director fought for him, he was not accepted academically. He had a low 80’s average, no honors/ AP’s and SAT scores below 600. It was a rejection. And thus was for a student who had attended a 3 week program and succeeded.
As it turned out the student attended Temple for undergrad and was accepted to NYU as a VP grad student.
So I do think there is some wiggle room, but certainly only up to a point. NYU is a demanding school academically and I am on my second student there. There was the same 50-50 criteria for my studio art D. The art department is extremely academically oriented and that is without the gen ed requirements. I would advise students who are at or below the 25th percentile for a number of criteria on the common data set to think twice before applying. The school just might not be the correct match.