<p>When I was a junior and senior in high school, everyone was fretting about college and were worried about SAT I and IIs, APs, GPAs etc. Honestly, everyone I knew turned into a bunch of crazy people wanting to make it into Cornell and MIT. I’m just here to tell you that, in reality, all of these are nothing compared to your Reccs, Extra currics, and maybe internships if you had any. I got a basic 1900 on the SAT–now before all you 2400 geniuses start looking down on me, hear me out. Although I had a 1900 and basically bombed most of my AP classes, I had the greatest extracurrics. I was president of the Student Harp Instrument Team (harp club), Associate Student Society (politics within the school), Teacher IT committee (helped teachers and faculty with electronic work), and the First Unified Council for Kreation, Korrection, and Khange (3 Ks make it a little catchy). There were so many better people than me applying to college; for instance, one of my friends–who was one of the finest in his own right–had 4s and 5s on around 7-8 different aps, a 2300 SAT, and a 4.33 GPA. He also had a decent amount of extracurrics, as did others, but he wasn’t the president of any of them–in essence, all he did was sit on his butt and settled for mediocrity while I worked hard. Therefore, Im saying that 2400s are useless and 1900s are superior.</p>
<p>“I had the greatest extracurrics. I was president of the Student Harp Instrument Team (harp club), Associate Student Society (politics within the school), Teacher IT committee (helped teachers and faculty with electronic work), and the First Unified Council for Kreation, Korrection, and Khange”</p>
<p>The deal is…There are plenty of “2400’s” who do all of these (and more), which is why admissions are so competitive. The actual 2400’s are rare, though; usually, you compete against 2100s/2200s with plenty of leadership positions, awards, great letters of rec, etc. of their own.</p>
<p>Dude, tell me how to be like you!</p>
<p>Admissions officers at the most highly selective colleges are going to take a glance at a 2400 and say “cool story.”</p>
<p>Look at a high GPA and test scores that are anywhere near the 50th percentile as the “ticket” that allow your application to be read. After you’ve met the standard numbers, everything else is fair game. </p>