<p>College isn’t all about scores. Most important lesson learned in the process.</p>
<p>@thewarmheart OMG!! you got 6s and 7s for your IB predicted scores?? wow! i guess that’s what Brown AdComs are looking for: intelligent people that are already wise in their thoughts as early as senior year (based on the way you write, i can see that your are indeed wise) I was rejected by Brown, and if the AdComs took my seat for yours, than I think they made a good choice. Best of luck to you thewarmheart :)</p>
<p>I got a bunch of sixes and sevens predicted for my IB scores… and I didn’t get into Brown.</p>
<p>So no.</p>
<p>Yeah…I think it all has to do with how well you will fit in…the colleges want to find students that will fit at their school! I’m not sure why I’m randomly posting on this Brown forum hahaha but I thought I would go ahead 
Definitely scores aren’t what they look for…I’m a decent example…kinda hahaha
I mean I took the most rigorous courses in high school that my school offers…I am verrrrrry active in school…with many leadership positions (vp stuco, president NHS, started a nonprofit organization, varsity and outside sports, etc.) and I’m number 3 in my class
However…I never took the time (partly because I didn’t have it hahah) to prepare for standardized tests…so my ACT was a 28 haha my math and english scores were where I wanted them…in the 30’s but my reading and stuff just wasn’t up to par haha
While that isn’t a super competitive score for an elite university…I’m specifically talking about Johns Hopkins actually haha…I still got in there…and I was verrrry thrilled!!
I feel like my ACT was definitely the weakest part of my application…but usually (with the mindset of most students) that will “ruin an application completely”…not necessarily haha
I decided that it is what it is…if they want me and think I will fit in… they will accept me! and they did!
Just goes to show that having a super awesome application all the way around doesn’t guarantee anything…it’s who you are that they want to see and how well you’ll fit :D</p>
<p>and I have a friend who’s 7th in our class who got into Cornell…our valedictorian didn’t apply there…but she got rejected to all of the Ivies (but cornell and brown haha the two she didn’t apply to)
My friend who’s 7th and I are the only two who got into anywhere prestigious I guess haha
It all just depends…NOBODY KNOWS if you’ll get accepted to a school as selective as Brown or Cornell or Hopkins or any Ivy/Elite school! haha</p>
<p>Well, for me it was:
-Most rigorous schedule in the state (took 8+ junior/senior level college courses)
-no volunteering, I look very selfish.
-not a wealthy family.
-One EC, baseball. </p>
<p>Rejected everywhere but nyu and brown. </p>
<p>My theory is that the school has to “like” you. I analogue it to dating: a girl can be 1)gorgeous 2)brilliant 3)wealthy 4)caring 5)friendly 6)independent and mentally solid. But that doesn’t mean every single guy will go for her, including the elite ones. They look for something else.</p>
<p>“I don’t think it’s a mystery why you were rejected at all, maybe to you, but not for anyone else…”</p>
<p>even though you might stand completely by what you said, you have to keep in mind that this person is very disappointed right now, and saying something that is totally insensitive is NOT the best way to help them feel better…</p>
<p>“even though you might stand completely by what you said, you have to keep in mind that this person is very disappointed right now, and saying something that is totally insensitive is NOT the best way to help them feel better…”</p>
<p>the truth hurts sometimes. harrypotter’s comments were just as ignorant and insensitive</p>
<p>Also, think about politics. Let’s say seven people from your high school apply to College X. Chances are, College X will not accept all seven of them. They might take the legacy and the really qualified applicant. And sometimes they will accept a number of people to cover for one advantageous acceptance (i.e. an under-qualified applicant whose parents are major political figures). </p>
<p>It’s also about where you’re from. Massachusetts, New York, and California tend to have a lot of applicants (and many coming from good schools), which makes the applicant pool out of those states extremely competitive. While colleges will usually adjust accordingly (there are a lot of students from Massachusetts at Brown), they are not going to take all the top candidates from those states. Not even most of them.</p>
<p>And then there are the random things you can’t know. Let’s say your trapeze skills happen to be your hook. You’ve trained for years, you’ve performed with a variety of minor companies, and you’ve won some circus arts awards. You’re also a well-rounded, academically qualified student. Well, then let’s say that College X admits ahead of you another student who also happens to be a trapeze artist. When they read your application, maybe you don’t stand out any more.</p>
<p>Or, on a happier note, let’s say that you’re a solid candidate but don’t have anything particularly special in your file. However, you happen to play the viola, and College X’s orchestra happens to have a shortage of violists for the upcoming year. Your instrument may be an unexpected hook strong enough to get you admitted.</p>
<p>In short, nothing is terribly predictable.</p>
<p>@wolfmanjack
thank you</p>
<p>It’s all about the prep schools.</p>
<p>@ Rumson
Your son has benn admitted with a 1500 Sat score and you’ve been an Harvard interviewer. It’s easy to criticize other people!!! Admission process can be a real shame…
Do you remember Orwell? We are all equal, but some pigs are more equal than other pigs.</p>
<p>I’d defend Harry Potter, wolfmanjack, the thread is about bitterness and his point about the lack of academic meritocracy in the admissions process is utterly correct. There are all sorts of other criteria but colleges mostly insist that they have the “best students” and the “best class” which definitely suggests academic ranking is determinant, however this is hardly the case. Harry Potter is correct, your smugness is wrong. Brown, for instance, routinely takes blacks and athletes (in many odd sports, some 37 of them and many from prep schools) and legacies and just plain rich kids whose SAT’s are (given 1600) routinely 200 and 300 and even 400 points below the average of other kids not in these groups. This is reality. You want to be ironic and smug because you don’t like reality or maybe you’re ashamed of it.</p>
<p>Parents are intimately involved in discussions of colleges with their kids and your reply is completely odd and wrongheaded. Parents pay tuition, of course, without the parents’ money the kid cannot go to the college at all. Parents come with their kids to visit the schools. Their own backgrounds are checked by the schools and a famous or rich parent or legacy parent certainly helps his kid get into the school, of course. And a less famous or rich parent might be bitter – the thread is about bitterness – about this situation.</p>