<p>Hello ppl. I’ve got a few general questions I’d like answered. So help me out. :-)</p>
<li><p>When admission officers say they judge each application in context, do they really mean it? If I got an F in my report card but I have a perfectly legitimate reason for it, then that won’t count against me?</p></li>
<li><p>Let’s say there were 2 people, X and Y. X’s school offers AP classes and so X took loads of em. Y’s school does not offer AP classes, so Y utilized the extra time doing volunteer work, etc.
Now assume that either X OR Y can get in and they both have similar stats. (Due to any whatever reason)
There are 2 possible scenarios:
(1) The admissions guy decides that since besides APs X and Y both have same stats but Y spent extra time doing volunteer work. So Y wins.
(2) The admissions guy values APs more than volunteer work, even though Y never had the opportunity to study AP classes. So X wins.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Both scenarios are pretty unfair.
In this hypothetical situation, what will really happen?</p>
<p>1) Kind of. It usually means that a student that went to a really hard school and took really hard classes is going to be looked at more favorably than a student who went to an easier school and took easier classes but has the same GPA. Fair or not that’s how it is. There aren’t really many legitimate excuses for an F but you can have your GC write a letter if you have a reason that might help.</p>
<p>2) Nothing about college admissions or life in general is fair, so get that out of your head now. Some colleges look at whether or not you took the most challenging curriculum offered at your school instead of doing a 1:1 comparistion, so then student Y would have the advantage. To be honest theres no way for any of us to say who’d be favored because it depends on school and even which individual admissions person is reviewing it. So there’s no “what would really happen” to answer that with, just a “sometimes one will get in, sometimes the other.”</p>
<p>So basically if I take part in every main program/event/class my school offers, and my application is judged in context, then I’ve got nothing to worry about?</p>