Hey everybody on this forum talks about how hard it is to get into an ivy league school like Harvard,Stanford,Yale etc and that you need a “wow factor”, a good length of EC’s , and also excellent scores to at least have a chance.
My friend graduated last year; he was a genius. He had a perfect GPA, SAT and ACT score. The only problem he had no "wow factor, or anything spectacular in his EC other than he was Math and Science club president. He was accepted into Harvard, Yale and also MIT. He isn’t a legacy applicant and also he is an Asian. Can anyone explain this to me?
I agree with @bodangles here. College Confidential has a tendency to reduce this entire college admissions process into a purely numbers game, but the fact is that essays will always make or break any application, especially when most students applying to a top school are qualified in a quantitative sense.
The majority of students in the tippy top colleges are not geniuses. They are really smart, hard working, motivated, talented, etc. But real ‘genius’ is rare, and tends to stand out.
In reality, the ‘wow’ can be in the essay. The application process has turned into something of an arms race: good grades aren’t enough, so add good test scores, then leadership positions, then a varsity sport + a performance art, then community service…but none of it is magic. They are just ways for AdComms to sift through a lot of very able applicants.
A different (and imo, better) way to look at it is not as a “wow” - something so extraordinary that nobody else has done it- but rather as an “and”: you have the numbers to show that you are a strong candidate AND there is something else about you that is interesting to the university. [url=<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/there_is_no_formula%5DThis%5B/url”>http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/there_is_no_formula]This[/url] and [url=<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways%5Dthis%5B/url”>http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways]this[/url] are great examples - and they mean it.
One year a top school need a oboe player, so they admitted one even he/she does not look “wow” by others. It really depends on what they need to form that class. It may be a “wow” factor when a high school student published a scientific paper as first author. But when they have 10 candidates like that, it is not likely to accept all 10 with similar characters. Outsider may think the admission process is a blackbox.
As with all other college applicants, you can’t fully know what went into his application. You don’t know what is in his essays or recommendations, and I would suggest that you may not be aware of all EC or summer activities he did.
My kids friends only had a vague idea of my kids activities. They might say, “My friend Intchild went to X country for a few weeks this summer.” They don’t know that she got a prestigious scholarship from the government of said country to spend a summer there on a sponsored program, or that she has studied the language since age 8. Second kid went to an academic program that is intense and highly thought of by colleges. Her friends know she was at some program in Nevada where she took classes. She didn’t want to give them details, and was purposefully vague. She also finished near the top of the state pool in an athletic activity that no one from her school participates in – pretty sure she told no one at school, as she had convinced herself it was a fluke.
The point is that no one knows for sure what any other applicant’s application really looks like. I think the advice on CC to that student would have been to apply away, but include some lower tier schools as well. That advice still stands. One of my kids got in everyplace she applied, including her 3 reaches. It was great that it worked out that way. But she had good choices if it hadn’t, too. That is all we advise anyone to do out here.
We will never know. His essays, recommendations or something like that could have been great. He could have had interests/research or something outside of school that you don’t know about. My advice is to be happy for your friend and stop thinking about it.
This is a rare case. Even if he was a “genius”, how would colleges know? You can’t convey genius through the Common App. Maybe he’s a development candidate?
To be fair, it is a rare case to have perfect scores on all tests. It is true that some applicants with perfect scores get rejected from HYPSM every year. But not all of them.
I think the biggest problem with College Confidential is all of these students who worry about their chances all the time or wonder why X was accepted but Y was denied. I tend to think that the admissions process is holistic; strong test scores, grades, and transcript will never automatically get you accepted. Similarly, a great essay and stellar EC’s never can as well. It’s a balancing act; NO ONE (maybe .01%) has everything going for them. The key is to showcase your strengths and present yourself in the best possible form – it’s not too worry about whether a 2200 SAT is enough or if being President in only two clubs will harm your chances.
“Can anyone explain this to me?”
Multiple recommendation letters from his teachers saying " **** is the smartest student I have ever taught" would go a long way to proving the exceptional intelligence of a particular student.
DS had 2 truly scary-smart students that he had known since grade school at his HS- both were [fortunately] in the class following his.
One was the first recipient of the schools Da Vinci award. And he deserved it.
He went on to Stanford to continue advanced Mathematical research.
One created an entirely new language after seeing the first Lord of the Rings movie in 7th grade, and went on to MIT to study Linguistics .
Both were utterly brilliant.
“Multiple recommendation letters from his teachers saying " **** is the smartest student I have ever taught” would go a long way to proving the exceptional intelligence of a particular "
I don’t know why an adcom would take such a statement as meaningful. Mrs Schmoe the 11th grade English teacher may have a limited experience base. She may not be a good judge of anything. We all know the kinds of people who gush over everybody.
@Pizzagirl – that’s taking things a little harsh. I’m gonna assume that Mrs Schmoe backed up her assertions w/concrete evidence. There are positive and gushing LORs and then there are blow away positive and gushing LORs, IMHO
Maybe the teacher had a well-written and incisive letter. Maybe the teacher is an Ivy PhD with numerous accomplishments and awards. Maybe the teacher had recommended other successful students in the past. Maybe the teacher has taught Advanced Calculus for the last 25 years, giving her a substantial base of experience with which to compare.