<p>When i read stats evaluations there are a bunch of kids who are in the low 700 and people say they have low chances at Cornell, JHU or Georgetown, but for Cornell the middle 50 is 650 Verbal and 660 Math, or something like that, that means that 25 per cent of admits - Thats huge!- Is below those scores…so if people base mostly their opinions in SAT scores, where the hell are getting their ideas from! I mean someone with 650 or 640 in the SAT’s with good GPA, EC’s, Recs etc…has a fair shot at most of the univerisities! Another example the 25 percentil of Boston is about 610…I’ve read post saying that a kid with SATs of 720 would have a tough shot at Boston…What in the world people here are smoking???</p>
<p>I think that’s the lower 25% you are talking about. A good deal of the admits below the 25% have some sort of hook e.g. first generation, minority status, star athlete, etc. If you have SAT scores around the 25% and you don’t have a distinguishing trait, you don’t have good chances at whatever school you are applying to.</p>
<p>I agree that the chances estimates on this board aren’t always so wise though.</p>
<p>Is first generation really that much of a hook?</p>
<p>No, actually, I don’t think it is anywhere near as much of a hook as being a minority or a great athlete, but it helps. I’d imagine it would be about as big of a hook if you could tell a person was first generation by a college viewbook picture, but you can’t, so it’s no big deal.</p>