<p>I was such a shoe-in that my counselors told me that I was wasting my time even applying anywhere else, unless I wanted to attend those other universities. Here is a short-form resume:
1. 3.9 GPA (with 80 units completed)
2. Honors
3. Tested genius IQ
4. Charitable (activities involving feeding homeless, etc)
5. Motivated/industrious (created my own software development company out of nothing this past spring, using only investors that believe in my ideas to finance everything.)
6. 12 years of piano experience (taught myself the piano, and am so good, many people mistake me for a music major when I play on campus.)
7. Charitable: wanted to dedicate my intellectual gifts to the betterment of humanity via medicine (bio major)
8. I'm Latino (sadly, this too gives me an edge and makes me more attractive to universities.)
9. Have a great comeback story (dropped out in 9th grade. The counselor cried when she heard my story.)</p>
<p>With that said, I do not plan on appealing but rather am simply curious as to how I did not get in, knowing that I am easily more qualified than 90 percent of their current alumni. I am curious as to how many people got in with sub-par qualifications, and how many people with equal or superior qualifications to mine, also did not get in. This way, we can pin point what, if anything, was the variable that determined who got in or didn't (ie, was it because I wasn't Black? Was it the major?). Please post your short form details, and whether you were accepted or not.</p>
<p>No one cares what your IQ is. Did you put it on your application someplace? You might have come across as thinking you are so superior that you are owed acceptance. You post certainly comes across that way. And maybe your recommendations, did, too… you don’t know what they said.</p>
<p>Why is everyone so arbitrarily touchy about IQ? Tested cognitive ability is very relevant to determining one’s merits for attending a university. All things being equal, if a guy with an IQ of 65 and another with an IQ of 145 both apply to medical school, you want the 145 guy. This detail is no different than mentioning one’s GPA and other talents, in that they can both be seen as “bragging” or as appearing to make the argument that one deserves to enter the school because he is superior in said area. What’s wrong with one thinking he is more qualified (superior) than a certain percentile of applicants? The point if an application is to demonstrate so, so it presumes that the applicant already believes he deserves to be admitted more so than the average student. I would understand the morality-exhibitionism and knee jerk reacting to the mentioning of IQ if it was irrelevant (such as if someone had mentioned that they were very wealthy, or had a large reproductive organ.)</p>
<p>Yes, but colleges do not use IQ scores in the admissions process - thus they are not relevant to this discussion. You may be more qualified than other applicants, but I would not gauge admissions chances on factors that are generally not on the admissions decision grid. For what its worth, I tested at a “genius level IQ” as a youngster too, but I still sent my SAT scores to college, my MCAT scores to med school, my USMLE scores to residencies, etc. As someone who is now on the “decider” side of the process, I would be incredibly turned off if an applicant mentioned their IQ score in written application materials or in person.</p>
From your quote above, one would surmise that you did indeed mention your “IQ” on your application and that you did so with an attitude that the number in some way meant that you were more qualified for USC than others. That attitude alone would be enough for an admissions officer to place an application on the reject pile with a snort of derision. </p>
<p>The sweetest part about the moral outrage, is that I did not mention my IQ in the application at all, since I know it to be a taboo subject since various groups have different means. Secondly, I would love an articulate and coherent argument as to why it is preferable to have a university with low IQ “nice attitude” people than with high IQ “mean attitude” people (especially if in this case, the bad attitude simply refers to one that acknowledges an objective fact.) Is academia a charity, or is it an institution created with the intent of producing advancement in various fields (technology, math, science, etc)? Also, all things being equal, how would someone with an IQ of 200 not be more qualified for any University than someone with an IQ of 70? Aside from that, as I stated, I did not mention my IQ, and I kissed the ring of the king, made obeisance to cliche dogma, played it smart etc.</p>
<p>To VSGPeanut101, thank you for being able to express your opinion without committing appeal to emotion fallacies, or engaging in pseudo morality exhibitionism (it is refreshing).</p>
<p>Sure, “All things being equal” the person with the 200 IQ SHOULD be a stronger applicant than the one with the 70 IQ, but there is plenty of opportunity to screw that up with terrible SAT scores, bad interview or essay, etc. And since USC does not ask for or report IQ scores from its applicants and graduates, neither you or I can say exactly how IQ score relates to admissions success. </p>
<p>Your posts here certainly suggest a high degree of smugness and snarkiness which is not at all appealing in an applicant.</p>
<p>If I were in charge of going through admission applications, I would care to know if I were dealing with an applicant of an IQ of 145+. One would find it difficult to argue why this is not relevant. The aversion to mentioning it stems from archaic dogma, man’s llowly origin, and his preference for comfortable religion(here, religion refers to any nonsensical belief held by a society that is not based in objective reality) over the reality of nature (IQ is unpleasant since it is highly heritable/genetic, which makes it un-egalitarian, since not everyone has the same IQ and one cannot simply raise his IQ with enough heart and effort.) And as I mentioned, I didn’t mention my IQ in the application, so even if one finds my posts “snarki”, I wouldn’t write that way on an essay, especially since I am not debating anyone in the essay. It is obvious that people speak differently when talking to friends, people on the internet, or when writing an essay for a college application.</p>
<p>“Sure, “All things being equal” the person with the 200 IQ SHOULD be a stronger applicant than the one with the 70 IQ, but there is plenty of opportunity to screw that up with terrible SAT scores, bad interview or essay, etc. And since USC does not ask for or report IQ scores from its applicants and graduates, neither you or I can say exactly how IQ score relates to admissions success.” -VGSpeanut101</p>
<p>This is interesting. Are you saying that a university would benefit more from accepting a person with an IQ of 70 that has a good SAT score, and good interview etiquette, versus a person with a 200 IQ that had poor SAT scores (for reason’s unrelated to his abilities, obviously) and poor interview/social etiquette? </p>
<p>I love my daughter who tested as having a 151 IQ when she was 4 and 148 again when she was 7…BUT believe me she is no genius She graduated top 5% from HS–and had a 3.6 from NYU for college. But she is the same kid who put a linen blazer in the washing machine and wasn’t sure where to put the address line/stamp on a letter at 12. But the absolute best thing about her is that she does not think of herself as anywhere near genius level, works hard and never brags!</p>
<p>I have a question…how does a person even discover their IQ? As an adult, I don’t know mine. And I don’t recall my kids ever being tested. Do you have to request the test specifically from a private facility?</p>
<p>But that’s not why you wrote, OP. You wanted to know why you didn’t get into USC when - on paper - you appear to be a sure thing. Well, 80% of everyone who applies is turned away from USC. And are you OOS or from CA? 50% of their class is in-state so if you’re OOS, that’s another strike. And nearly 1/4 of the accepted class was Asian…and 10% from out of country. I mention all of this because <em>all</em> elite colleges are crapshoots…and unless you’re a recruited athlete, there are truly truly no sure bets.</p>
<p>Congratulations on having a genius daughter (some graphs count 145+ as genius). I don’t see the benefit in genius level people not being allowed to know they are genius level, with the exception of the argument that them not knowing would encourage them to try harder than they otherwise would, but then I don’t see people with an IQ of 120 being told they have an Iq of 100 for the same reason. There seems to be an arbitrary prejudice and fear of genius level intelligence even though it is simply a matter of degree (ie, no objective threshold is reached after 145 or 155. They are simply smarter than 135 people in the same way that 135 people are smarter than 125 people etc).</p>
<p>No, I am saying its not that hard for the guy with the 200 IQ to blow some part of his application so they admit some other applicant based on the areas that the admission committee uses to assess applicants. That’s why most of the chances threads on here are BS. You can only know that your scores are within a range of acceptability and then there are a myriad of ways to be positively or negatively assessed holistically.</p>
<p>If I was so smart why did I listen to my counselors if I am smarter than them? Because being smart doesn’t automatically make you an expert in every field, and this I assumed that their opinion on the subject of “applying for college” would have been reliable. And as far as “I bet it was the essay portion”. Which part? The part where I feed the homeless, or the part where I discuss dedicating my life and talents to the field of medicine? Also, even if you were correct, in that they rejected me because they read my mind (and glimpsed into the politically incorrect knowledge/awareness of my IQ), it would be very silly, and would reflect poorly on the modern state of USC’s admissions process.</p>
<p>To the person that asked how one goes about finding out their IQ. An IQ test can be requested by anyone (just make sure it is official.), but in most people of high IQ’s cases, it is given to them at the request of their teachers when they enter school and are observed as being above average in intelligence (I was given the test at the request of my first grade teacher.) This doesn’t mean that if you haven’t been given one already, that you are not above average in intelligence. I know people that have IQs upwards to 135 (the average human IQ being 78), that went under the radar and were never given a test until they requested one later in life.</p>
<p>(I’ve written this elsewhere, but it seems that some incredibly smart people have problems understanding it. SO here goes again.) </p>
<p>One thing I’ve noticed about a lot (not all, but a lot) of the students I know IRL or been exposed to online who have been accepted to the HYPMS level of elite schools is their ability to communicate confidence without arrogance. They’re nice, polite, not grovelingly humble, but not full of themselves, either. They’re interesting. They listen as well as talk. They’re the kind of people that interviewers and essay readers LIKE.</p>
<p>I think that’s something that students applying to colleges forget. Your accomplishments speak for themselves. You’ve got to get that adcom to want you to be part of the campus community, and it’s your personality not your accomplishments that are going to do that. It’s at this point that the people with high EQs along with their high IQs stand out from the herd.</p>
<p>(BTW, on the thread I wrote this before, the student who started the discussion was very cognizant of this. He got into a great college being his own arrogant self. He understood the issues and was happy with his decisions. I actually came to the conclusion that he was a nice, if a somewhat brash, young man. I see nothing wrong with being a little arrogant about being smart…as long as you accept that not everybody is going “get” you and are willing to accept the consequences without blaming other people.)</p>
<p>Honestly, you come across as a person who is above everyone else. Maybe USC doesn’t need someone like that? Some of my observations from what you said: “wasting my time even applying anywhere else”, “Tested genius IQ”, “I am easily more qualified than 90 percent of their current alumni”, “taught myself the piano, and am so good”, etc… </p>
She graduated top 5% from HS–and had a 3.6 from NYU for college. But she is the same kid who put a linen blazer in the washing machine and wasn’t sure where to put the address line/stamp on a letter at 12. But the absolute best thing about her is that she does not think of herself as anywhere near genius level, works hard and never brags!</p>