Does college mail mean anything?

LoremIpsum
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:24:48 +0000

Well, it’s not possible to recalculate your class rank (since they don’t have your school’s entire database) and class rank can be a factor. But perfect stats are neither absolutely necessary nor a guarantee of admission. My son had perfect stats and got turned down by MIT, Princeton and Yale. But also note that 3 of the top schools that did accept him commented not on his stats, but on his dedication to his community. Don’t you do something with inner-city kids in Detroit? My god, admins eat that sort of stuff up! – if it’s significant and you can show leadership or write about real results from your efforts.

If it comes down to a borderline decision between two choices, the one who has shown a commitment to community service will probably win out.

You really can’t predict if any individual top school will admit you these days; lots of people were surprised to be waitlisted or rejected from their match or perceived safety school this year. The best you can do is to create a “laddered portfolio” of attractive colleges with a range of admission rates, ideally from around 7% to around 30%. Those schools that say they will (largely) ignore your freshman year should be among those in your portfolio.