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</p>
<p>Fascinating read that was (no pun intended, I swear!). It is really useful for them to articulate their process so precisely. </p>
<p>Though I was actually surprised (and disappointed) a place like Reed would care about two typos or nervousness at an interview. Seems incredibly uptight and petty for a place that prides itself on being much bigger than that.</p>
<p>^ My guess (just a guess!) is that they’ve found the issues to be predictive of success, typos because of intense writing and required excellence, nervousness because of required participation in the conference-style classes. I think the essays should be an example of the very best one can do, but I agree that being marked down for nervousness in the interview is harsh.</p>
<p>Private schools tend to have a good handle on a number of schools that tend to accept their students. My boys went to such a school that knew most of the east coast LACs, ivies, and a number of other east coast private colleges. The counselors there had their own data tracking student acceptances with even more info than Navaiance shows, and it was pretty clear for a number of the schools what it would take to have a chance at acceptance.</p>
<p>For instance, both my son, and a classmate were interested peripherally in Dartmouth after the Dartmouth rep visited. Looking at the history of kids who applied from his school to Dartmouth, and there were a good number of them, it was pretty clear that they were below the accept belt enough that they dropped the consideration. A girl who did apply that year who was slightly above their stats and with legacy standing was not accepted. However, Vanderbilt and Northwestern were within the one boy’s range and slightly out of my son’s. He and that same girl applied and were accepted to those schools. My son chose not to apply to those schools though they would have been good try reaches. </p>
<p>Where these private school tend to have their gaps is with state schools and scholarships. We did not get much help in that area. There were some niches that they knew but overall the knowledge was very poor. </p>
<p>We found that our son did very well in acceptances to out of area, out of scope schools that were looking for high test scores and males and geographic diversity. Schools like UDenver, SMU, DePauw, Rhodes College, which did not show up on the Naviance or school data were good picks for my son, and were willing to throw in merit sweeteners.</p>
<p>Since your niece is not looking for money, she will be a very attractive candidate for many schools that are just below the most competitive. The HPY, need blind schools will not take that into account, but those schools that are need aware, looking for high stats will certainly be interested. Schools like Ct College, Skidmore, Rhodes, Denver, Loyola, Dickinson, are all good possibilities, to name a few.</p>
<p>^^ I agree with this. Here are some helpful tips I think:</p>
<p>Her GPA being the main concern can be interpreted two ways:</p>
<p>Interpretation 1. “It’s a hard school”
Interpretation 2. “She’s underachieving in the classroom based on those scores.”</p>
<p>I think interpretation 2 can be counter-balanced by:</p>
<ol>
<li> Look for highly selective universities with ED (Vandy, Northwestern, Hopkins, Emory) or liberal arts colleges with ED (Swarthmore, etc). If she stands alone in the pool from her school, ‘underachieving’ will be less likely the interpretation. It’s easier to stand alone in an ED pool at a LAC than a univ.</li>
<li> Look at some of the women’s colleges - they are always looking for high SAT’s.<br></li>
<li> Look at schools where she will be in “the minority” either by gender or state or academic interest. This will give a reason to overlook a lower GPA.</li>
</ol>
<p>I think the top three tips above give some reason</p>
<p>Most importantly, get a list of schools from the school fcounselor that would be interested in such a student from past experience.</p>
<p>Also, check the HS’s Naviance system, which will show history and stats of students accepted from your niece’s HS (GPA, SAT, ACT). If I remember there is a tab/function in Naviance that will match your niece’s particular stats to schools that have accepted students like her from her HS. (College Match? maybe?)</p>
<p>The GPA is important, but the absolute number is less critical than how it places her in relation to others in her class. As one poster noted, her son with a B+ average, but in top 5% of his class, had very good results. One of my kids, with all SATs over 700 and 3 out of 5 scores of 800 (SAT and Subj tests), had a weighted GPA between an A- and an A, but that put him below the top 10% in his high-achieving high school. HIs ECs were good, not great and not a lot of leadership. He did not get into top 20 Univs or LACs, but did well in schools just below that level with good merit aid (which he needed to attend an expensive private). In his case, his high test scores and relatively low GPA compared to the school profile, pegged him as an underachiever, which hurt him in the admissions process. However, if that same GPA put him in the top 5-10% I think he would have had many more acceptances.</p>
<p>I second the suggestion to consider applying ED if she can find a schools she loves, and EA to any schools she likes. My S got accepted ED at WashU in St. Louis with a 3.5 GPA and 35 ACT. There are several CC students this year with similar (mismatched) stats who got into Chicago EA.</p>
<p>Look outside of your own geographic region. </p>
<p>Look for schools that award NMSF scholarships, since they are specifically looking for high test scores. Rice, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, USC, WashU all come to mind.
See post #20 in this thread for the schools with the highest percentage of NMSF.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/454412-national-merit-scholars-2007-schools-have-most-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/454412-national-merit-scholars-2007-schools-have-most-2.html</a></p>
<p>Also check out these threads:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/767118-under-3-6-gpa-applying-top-20-parents-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/767118-under-3-6-gpa-applying-top-20-parents-thread.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/697661-top-schools-value-sat-act-scores-over-gpa-rank.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/697661-top-schools-value-sat-act-scores-over-gpa-rank.html</a></p>
<p>Colleges provide information in their common data sets about how important they consider: Grades, Ranks, Test Scores, etc., and you can find them on sites like the Princeton Review site.</p>
<p>Choosing a good mix of schools at different selectivity levels is important for mismatched students like this, since it is really hard to define what is considered a Match or Safety.</p>
<p>My S was a high test score/good but not great GPA (not in top 10% of his class) kid who did much better than I would have expected reading this thread. Accepted to 8 good schools including one top 10 and two top 20. Only rejection was Yale.</p>