This year's applicants - please listen

taxguy
Mon, 30 Jan 2006 21:15:28 +0000

sewbusy asks,"How is it possible that a 2400 NMF, with national and international awards in mathematics and the humanities at the high school and college level, good ECs, well liked, etc kid can be in the position of being terrified that he’ll be rejected from both the top tier (for who knows what reasons) and the safety tier (because it’s seen by those schools as a safety which would hurt yield stats). "

Response: Sewbusy, many kids are taught that if you do very well in high school and get top SATs and have decent ECs, you will get into a top school. This is NOT necessarily true.

As one college lecturer noted that schools don’t necessarily want well rounded kids. They want a well rounded student body! College recruit for a host of reasons. Maybe they want kids who are great football players for their teams. Maybe they need more Egyptology majors. In fact, from what I can tell, if you have a good hook, you have a better chance of getting accepted into top schools than simply having amazing GPA and SATs.

Examples of strong hooks would be:


Recruited athletes, which is probably the number one hook
Non-recruited athlete but plays varsity sports in a sport that the college wants
Top notch musicians who were in state wide or national honor’s orchestras and bands.
Artistic kids with very strong portfolios
Kids with tremendous voices for a school’s choras, if one exists
Kids who are sons and daughters of major donors or major political types. Think George Bush, who got 1200 SATs and got into Yale.
Kids who have shown exceptional talents such as Intel award winners, those that published books etc.
8.Another somewhat lessor hook are those kids from expensive private schools. Colleges assume that they won’t need financial aid. This is why some of the top private high schools have amazing track records for ivy league school acceptances.


Bottom line: I have just touched the surface. Top ECs usually can trump top grades and scores as long as you have the “minimum” SATs and GPA that each college deems necessary.