CC seems to swing between, gee, these 6 or ten kids can write their own ticket and scores of anecdotes about some kid who didn’t seem to you to meet standards, but got in. Have to remember, the app itself is what ultimately presents a kid and defines more of his chances. Including LoRs and then any interview. It’s not just about stats. And/or what you think are hot ECs.
Seriously Tom, anyone who thinks that a school is not selective or worth their darling and brilliant child’s while probably has a personality disorder, or is dangerously close to it.
Nobody gets sarcasm anymore.
I believe Hunt is correct. The stats are valuable, but one must understand the pool. It is said that the HYPS ( Harvard has specifically broadcast this fact) receive more applications from Valedictorians than they have spots in a class. Therefore, having stats that compare to a database is not an automatic ticket to admission. Each of these colleges reject thousands of students each year, with statistically equivalent SAT/ACT and class rank as those who got the golden envelope.
Here is the bottom line: For students who aspire to the glamour colleges the statistics mean nothing, because every applicant is going to have absurdly high stats. A poster earlier pointed out that the stats get you to the gate and not further. I find this to be correct. Once at the gate, with anywhere from 8000 to 30,000 students with near perfect statistics standing right next to you, it becomes a matter of which students can prove they bring an intangible to the university.
The only kid I know who got into Harvard this year has the same great grades and test scores as everyone who passes the first bar to get in, but what separated him from other applicants is that his mother is a very famous author.
You don’t know everything that was in his app… no one else ever does. He may have some out of school activities you have no clue about.
“You don’t know everything that was in his app… no one else ever does. He may have some out of school activities you have no clue about.”
Exactly.
Or perhaps he inherited his mother’s talent and wrote a “knock your socks off” essay.