I’m looking for anyone with a story of acceptance at a top college with mostly great stats-high SAT/ACT and 4.0 gpa for example with average ECs. I see quite a lot of the Accepted threads that show decent but not amazing stats but fantastic essay stories or ECs. There is also a lot of talk about very high stats students who are rejected.
Looking for some of the other stories, where a very high stats student with average ECs and no hook gets in. I have heard it happening but have not heard any details on any of these. Anyone out there with such a story?
I think your scenario plays out all the time outside of the top, tiny handful of selective colleges. I think most large public universities are overwhelmingly stats-driven in admissions.
The problem is that there are so many kids that hit the “very high stats” bar of 99th percentiles in everything that higher institutions run out of spots for them. It’s important to realize that “amazing stats” means anything from a 2250 to a 2400 on the SAT, for example. No one is going to wedge their way into Stanford with 150 extra points on the standardized testing portion of the application.
I understand that-but there are some CCers that have said previously they have heard of students getting into the better LACs with good stats and average ECs-I’m hoping we’ll get someone or a few someone to post those…
Yes I have an actual story. The truth about ECs is that liberal arts colleges are not looking for a laundry basket of peripheral after school activities. What they really look for is something a student is really, really good at. Why? LACs are small so they have to pick students that can complete the puzzle. A fantastic flute player that did nothing else is better for them than a candidate with 12 filler ECs.
This is why the top LACs are so hard to get in and why for regular students the acceptance rate drops so much in regular decision.
My son had very limited ECs, sports and he mentored 14 freshman during senior year. He had no time for anything else, even on Christmas break he was competing.
I can agree with the above. There’s no way your “EC’s” are “average” or “above average.” I didn’t have any EC’s, because I dropped all of my honor societies, engineering clubs, robotics, spanish club, etc. when I just stopped caring. But I really cared about playing trombone, and that’s what I’m recognized nationally for. Every one of my EC’s was earned by playing my instrument, so I’m one dimensional in that regard: but what I did do is because I wanted to, really badly.
BatesParent2019 and SKTT1Impact: Thanks for your input. Those of us who have sons or daughters who don’t have hooks and weren’t the presidents of 15 clubs are looking for some hope our kids can get into really good schools. In my case it’s not because my son “has” to get into a top college for prestige reasons, it’s because many of those are full need met colleges that I’ve run NPCs on and would fit our budget, especially with his sibling a year behind him looking at colleges also.
I’m also going against the prevailing CC rule to only apply to a few colleges; I have heard of students applying to 10 top colleges and getting turned down by all but one, and one full need met college that he feels is a fit is all he needs.
I think what people mean by paring down the reach list is to focus on your goal. If you apply to all the top 10, you MAY get lucky and get into one. But more likely you will get shut out of all 10, and will have spent the time and effort on them you could have used to redouble the effort on your high match/low reaches.
What you need to avoid at all costs is getting shut out of your matches! Most people expect to get rejected by all their reaches, no matter how many they try. It becomes folklore that if the rate is 10%, if I apply to 10, then I’ll likey get one. Instead, you have a 10% chance at each, which means you have a 90% chance of getting shut out. So pick your favorites only, and then put all your efforts into your whole list!
I see posts on here where kids get shut out of all but safeties, and they don’t know why. But they likely cast too wide a net, and the apps suffer quality bc of that!
He most likely will get NMF so not as worried about having a financial safety-but he likes the idea of a smaller closer school so full need met colleges are one of the categories he will be going for.
New York state-looking at NY PA CT OH etc. Already have the FNM colleges pared down as well as the NMF college as a safety and a few competitive scholarship ones as well
“I’m also going against the prevailing CC rule to only apply to a few colleges;”
If your son is going to apply to a lot of schools, and money is an issue, then I would suggest a strategy like this:
Have 2 lists of eight schools each. Eight are from the top 15 to 20 prestige LACs, some of which may meet full need if your son is accepted.
The other eight are from the many highly regarded LACs in the 21 to 70 range or so. Some of these may be schools that are known for great academics and great aid (such as Denison, Wooster, Earlham, Hobart & William Smith, etc.). Some might be great schools that offer a few full-ride scholarships, such as Sewanee (2 full-ride Benedict Scholarships offered in a field of roughly 4,000 to 5,000 applicants). The NPC’s would provide at least a ballpark estimate of what you might expect from each of these schools. These eight will require much more work than the other group. Your son should visit these schools at least once, and interview. Demonstrated interest may directly impact his results at these schools.
The benefit of a strategy like this is that he likely would have several acceptances in hand with excellent merit awards by the end of December, making for a much less stressful spring as he waits for the results from Amherst, Williams and Swarthmore to come in.
@MidwestDad3 that is a good strategy… once I again I wish we had stumbled across CC before December of D’s senior year.
OP, to provide you with an example, my D has top test scores and grades and average ECs. She’s pretty introverted and likes to spend her time writing and drawing. We used to lament “but where are the scholarships for students WITHOUT leadership qualities?”
Accepted: Amherst (attending), Oberlin (with merit aid), UMichigan
Waitlist: Wesleyan, Swarthmore, UChicago (she took herself off the waitlists)
Rejected: Yale, MIT, Harvard, Northwestern
She really liked Wesleyan but made a mistake about deadlines and failed to get an interview, which might have worked against her there.
She only applied to Harvard and Northwestern because we badgered her into applying because she wanted schools in cities (? not thinking clearly in December). Those were both mistakes, if I was to do it again we would have investigated a LOT more LACs that are a little bit less selective so she might have had more choices including some with possibly a bit more merit aid. LACs are clearly the way to go for her but we didn’t really grasp that until late in the process.
Fortunately we are all happy with how it worked out, but in retrospect it feels like she just go lucky despite not having a better designed list.
Just be aware that every application is time consuming and needs attention for it to be successful, that is why CCers recommend a shorter list.
Passion and interest in the college. DS will be attending Swat, one of the elusive meets full need and doesn’t put loans in the package colleges. We had done a tour during junior year and he fell in love wit it so he needed a longer visit. He flew in by himself in October of senior year (we have relatives nearby) and stayed on campus, got along really well with his host and hosts friends so they all wrote him a letter saying how well he fit in. He went to a class and talked for 45 minutes after with the professor about his interests. He interviewed with an admissions person, although not our state rep who was out of town, and had a fabulous conversation; by the end she was telling him classes to take when he got there! He had high enough stats, but nowhere near perfect(3.8/4.6, 2280). He did fairly normal ECs (volleyball, debate) but had leadership roles in them and was absolutely passionate about them. He didn’t fake being interested in things on his visit with the goal of gaining admission, he just genuinely loves talking about ideas with people and he was really excited by everything he saw and heard there. I was pretty sure that if he visited it would only help his application because he’s his own best asset. He also worked really hard on his essays and used the information he’d gained from the information session, interview, and host to address the things they are interested in seeing. Stats buy you a look, it’s the rest of the package, IMO including a visit, that gets you in. OTOH, a girl from his school also got in and she applied on a whim. But she was attractive for a sport and for her major, I think, which is how she transcended the enormous pile of great kids.
