<p>You could have asked the same question without listing the whole freaking courseload of two people (one of whom is yourself, the other a peer of yours). Besides, listing the courseloads is meaningless without also providing grades.You should have simply asked: “Who has a greater chance of getting in, an applicant with relatively stronger academics and weaker EC’s or an applicant whose situation is the opposite?”</p>
<p>My answer is: Once you’ve reached a certain academic level, assuring the adcoms that you are intelligent and more than able to handle their academic program, whether your GPA is 3.8 or 3.9 doesn’t matter; at that point, EC’s come into play and make or break an applicant.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, take notice that this is assuming the academic record of the academically weaker applicant (you, obviously) is not so weak as to raise doubts with respect to his abilities. A 3.7, for instance, is borderline, depending on the rigor of your school. A 3.6 will virtually pull you out of the competition.</p>
<p>It depends on the counselor rec… if he/she gives person #2 anything other than “most rigorous courseload”, then person #1 takes the cake easily (at ivy level anyways)</p>
<p>(dooit)
so ivies care more about strictly courseload and grades attained than grades (w/ slightly easier classes) + ECs?</p>
<p>"person #2 anything other than “most rigorous courseload” "
you idiot; you said person #2 has the hardest courseload when person #1 does with more IBs</p>
<hr>
<p>IB1 Math Methods SL IS PRECALC</p>
<p>IB MATH METHODS (INCLUDING IB2 MATH METHODS SL) IS PRECALC + CALC AB!!!</p>
<p>??? I guess I wasn’t being clear, but I presumed that person #1 would have the most rigorous courseload. And therefore if person #2 gets anything other than that, he would be at a disadvantage no matter how high his GPA is</p>
<p>The answer is neither. With a 10% acceptance rate, they take the kid at the school accross town with grade academics and ec’s. Drop the or!</p>
<p>You are not in competition with the kid at your school. Your biggest competition are 1,000s of kids you never met. I think the two kids should genuinely wish each other good luck and work on their essays, summer programs and other distinguishing factors.</p>
<p>everyone says “you’re not competing against kids at your own school” but that’s definitely not true</p>
<ol>
<li>My hs ALWAYS has one (and only one) Harvard acceptee</li>
<li>Class rank is extremely important for top schools (and esp. since my school does not rank, colleges will have to combine SAT, GPA, and rigor to form a class rank system)</li>
<li>50% of the kids in my grade wanna go to JHU (though some might just be talking about grad school)</li>
<li>colleges definitely have quotas, no matter what they say</li>
</ol>
<p>you guys are depressing!!! Man and I work my ass of trying to get the hardest and most well related classes i can queeze out of my school and then i look at this and it’s like…“yea no way to compete” ugh…all well</p>
<p>every year, there’s a new amazing asian guy or girl that seems destined for harvard cuz they’re awesome at everything and of course they get in…</p>
<p>and these asians themselves keep getting better year after year…</p>
<p>I happen to know the answer to your question, but I’m not going to say anything because, for all I know, you’ll probably make some sarcastic comment about my reading skills or call me an idiot, too.</p>