I wanted to ask if there were red flags in HYPSM admissions. You know, things that would automatically get you rejected on the spot. Is a C a deal dealer? What about an extremely light courseload one year?
George Bush was admitted to Yale with C’s on his high school transcript, so the folklore at Yale is that Admissions always accepts at least one ‘C’ student because you never know who might become president of the USA!
That said, GW was a legacy . . . and that was a long time ago. I imagine these days, a ‘C’ and a couple of B’s on a transcript is a deal breaker even for a recruited athlete or legacy. See this note on Harvard’s golf team recruiting page: http://gocrimson.com/sports/mgolf/faq#Recruiting
While the same may not be true for a football or basketball recruit, I imagine it’s true for most other recruited athletes. If a recruited athlete has to have that kind of GPA at Harvard or Yale, I imagine non-athletes do as well.
An extremely light-load would also be a red flag, as Yale, and their peers, look for students who have received the MOST DEMANDING course-load rating from their guidance counselor on their Secondary School Report (SSR). See page 2, especially the top right hand section of page 2. I would imagine anything less than MOST DEMANDING or DEMANDING merits a rejection: http://ugadm.northwestern.edu/documents/UG_Admissions_SecondarySchoolReport.pdf
Another red flag might be a transcript that is out of sync with test scores. For example, a student with C’s on their transcript who scores a 2300 on their SAT begs a question: Why didn’t the student do better in school? Were they just lazy and didn’t try hard? Or, were there extenuating circumstances (death of mother/father, homelessness etc) that caused the student to do so poorly in class. That kind red flag merits a call to the guidance office to find out about the student’s drive, determination and story.
Yet another red flag is a tepid teacher recommendation. After all, a teacher is not going to write the same kind of recommendation for a C student as they would for a straight A student. And, sometimes a teacher you think is your biggest fan tells the Admissions Committee a different story: http://marymountcollegeadmissionblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-recommendations-attack-worst.html
Beyond that, I would think a lackluster essay, while not a red flag, will result in a rejection. Same with an EC list that demonstrates a student sat on the coach and played video games during their spare time at school.
Lastly, a red flag might be an interview report that warns the Admissions Committee that this kid seems like a time-bomb waiting to off.
Come to think of it . . .there are actually a lot red flags and ways to get rejected.
You didn’t post this information, which I found on the Princeton forum: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/1791382-is-a-c-going-to-kill-my-chances.html#latest
I stand by everything I said in post #1, however, if you have a learning disability backed up with a verified IEP and 504 plans, or a note from your doctor, then your guidance counselor can write-against your grade in your SSR. So long as your GC adds an explanation, HYPSM et al will evaluate you in the context of your learning disability. So, when the time comes to apply to college, you really need to have a conversation with your guidance counselor, as they are one of your best friends in the applications process.
So are you saying that it’s possible for me to be rejected solely on a c, even if my gc attaches an explanation of my learning disability?
As @gibby said, it depends on the circumstances of your TS and if an explanation is given. Also, if you show steady improvement they’ll focus more on that than the initial “C” I’d think.
On another note, not only was Dubya a legacy, his father and father’s father etc. were public officials and if you watch the movie “W.” you know that they pulled extreme strings. Plus he went to Exeter (or was it Andover?) and most of those kids go to HYP and beyond. He also pulled strings to get into Harvard Business. Another example is basketball Hall of Famer Bill Bradley who later became a senator. Recruited athlete to Princeton but got a super low score on his SAT. It even says on his Wikipedia article that would’ve caused Princeton to disqualify him immediately if he wasn’t just a monster on the court. Now how he got into Oxford on the other hand…
@4EverAnnoymous: Yes, it’s possible to be rejected with one ‘C’. It’s also possible to be rejected with all A’s. Here, I’ll give you an example. Several years ago, I posted my daughter’s transcript with her courses and grades. She’s a Yale and Princeton reject (but a Harvard Alum), so be sure to check it out, as I’m sure it will be an eye opener for you: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1619966-ivy-standards-for-rigor-of-highschool-curriculum-p1.html
The more realistic way to look at this is that you need to give Yale very, very good reasons to admit you. They get many, many strong applications, and they have to reject people with strong applications. If the reasons you can give are good enough, they can counteract some things in your background that aren’t optimal. If you are a recruitable football player with high SATs and good grades except for a C in one freshman year course, you may well be admitted. If you are simply a typical strong applicant, except for a C–well, you’re not as strong as all of those people who don’t have any Cs.
So in order for the admission officers to know that I have extraordinary qualities, they would have to read pass my C/Transcript. That’s all I wanted to know.
Colleges learn about an applicat’s extraordinary qualities in several ways. They learn about what kind of student you are from the courses you took and the grades you received. But they learn about your scholastic abilities, your work ethic and drive, your leadership in the classroom, your contribution to the classroom discussion, your writing and cognitive skills, your EC’s, your kindness, your maturity, whether you are respected by your peers and teachers alike, whether you are destined for greatness in this world and your extraordinary talents through your teacher and guidance counselor recommendations. Admissions also learns who you are as a person through the story you decide to tell in your essays and the way you say it. So yes, Admissions learns most about an applicant by looking beyond their transcript.