Carleton for my outdoorsy S???

SAY
Fri, 24 Sep 2010 11:12:27 +0000

The exact GPA is unimportant and to be more precise I should have said above 3.75 uw. In our large city the typical top 10% GPA weighted from the top private and public hs are above 4.2. But the schools are well aware that different schools use different grading systems. My point is that the story about getting in without a hook with a 3.2 is not generally applicable. Moreover the applicant may have something less obvious that the school considered a type of hook. For instance I know a couple of children who seemingly gained admission to top five schools without a hook. Yet because I knew them well I was not surprised because each had a unique story. The first case the applicant’s mother had passed away at age 13 and she as the oldest had very much helped raise her three younger siblings. Also her came from a very middle class situation such that her father could not afford extra help. She was also a good athlete and had other good ec. Her GPA and scores were also fine but nothing different but she was accepted to Stanford. In her case the school was well aware of her personal situation and undoubtly wrote about it in her recs. In the other case the child had immigrated to the US at age 8 from South Africa(she was white.) Still she had to learn a new language and had a far different application from the typical high achieving U.S. student. The top schools get thousands upon thousands of applications with top GPA’s and scores and something truly unique makes a big difference.