Wow. Finally I can quote! With 200+ posts, I’ve been waiting to be able to do that
^How do you quote? o:
3togo helped us out to learn how to quote
ooh yeahhhhh ;D
2190 will not cut it if your kid does not have a hook. Unless you are a URM, an Athelete, etc., I would shoot for 2300. Averages include URM’s and Athlets, etc. If you are from a wealthy and educated family, even more reason to have higher SATs. Just the cold, hard facts.
Also, what does 4.3 mean? Top 10%, 20%??? Estimate rank if not given.
Actually is goes deeper that that. On the MIT forum, there is an admissions officer posting, and his statement on the subject is that:
So even when the admissions officers can comment, they can only say that they cannot usefully comment. Basically getting into HYPSM or similar schools is never a given. If you are “competitive” for these schools, then that basically means that you are above 700 on each part of your SAT’s, have a decent transcript, and have made a demonstrable impact on your high school. You have that, you are competitive. Short of a nobel prize, that is all that you are. For example for MIT, the school I know most about.:
51% of the class of 2014 were the valedictorians of their class. HOWEVER, of all of the valedictorians who applied, 19.4% were admitted. So being a valedictorian was not your ticket, though it is a good thing! In any case, 94% of the admits were in the top 5% of their class.
31% of the class were identified as being “academic stars”. Examples of academic stars include being a Siemens Finalist, qualifying for the USAMO, and so forth. Like with everything else, being “starry” in this way is a good thing, but it doesn’t secure you a spot in the class. Of the nearly 900 academic stars who applied, less than 500 got in.
19% of the class were identified as being art, music, or athletic stars. These are people who may have played major concerts as soloists, or who have been recruited to be varsity athletes. One of our art stars has designed several US stamps and a major art installation at the UN, and has been supporting his family since the age of 8. Same as with the academic stars, this helps, but isn’t a meal ticket: of the 900+ AMA stars who applied, around 300 got in.
So yes, you could be a valedictorian, an USAMO team member, and an art star, and you would be “competitive”. Yet 6% of the admitted class were not in the top 5% of their high schools. And students were accepted this year with SATs in the low 600’s (though median SATs were in the mid 700s).
It all means that you cannot tell whether you can get into to any of the top schools. Nobody can. It is however true that all of the top schools last year admitted 0% of those that did not apply.
Very well stated!
The exceptions I have seen are recruited athletes for Ivy league schools. I know of several instances where the student knew before applying that they would receive a “likely letter” or that in fact, the admissions office would be “unable” to issue a likely letter. The explanation is that they want the student athlete to be able to pursue their best option and not “waste” an ED/SCEA application. That being said I don’t know if there are other instances where there are early reads, but for most of our kids… it’s pay your buck and takes your chances!
It’s fair to say that “Chance Me” threads can give an OP a sense if their GPA, SATs, and ECs are sufficient for a given school to “consider them”, or advice for how an OP can improve their profile to better their chances.
However, since there are so many other variables to admissions that are beyond the applicant’s control, posters of “Chance Me” threads need to be very careful they don’t get misguided by the abundance of seemingly knowledgeable chance-me-thread replies.
3togo,
what school does your child go to? what is the school’s ranking?
^ not sure why this is relevant to this thread … my oldest attends Barnard … I’m not sure about the ranking but I think it is in the 25-30 range for LACs.
I agree completely with what’s been stated by mikalye and others. I should note that MOST kids at MIT are NOT national figures; my son is a junior, and he was #2 in his class, and an academic and music star on the local level, but with no real national recognition and no other hooks.
To be accepted at an elite school with less than 2200 on the SAT typically requires a hook - URM, national standing in something, amazing personal story, seven figure donation, etc. On the other hand, applicants with stellar stats are a dime a dozen; it’s been said that 70-80% of applicants to HYPSM would do fine there. I also saw a stat once that Harvard rejected more than half of the applicants who had 2400 SAT scores.
LOL @ the Scripps thing XD