<p>Somebody i know got a 2400, a 97.6 unweighted gpa, salutatorian, and amazing ec's and two varsity sports (which he excelled at) and got waitlisted from princeton! how can this be..</p>
<p>what could they possibly be looking for? how can it get any better?</p>
<p>Maybe his EC's weren't so amazing. Maybe his essay didn't convey anything. Princeton doesn't want boring people...</p>
<p>not surprised, most ivy school admission is pretty arbitrary these days</p>
<p>Goes to show it isn't all about stats.</p>
<p>Yea. HYP loves to brag about the number of perfect scores they can reject.</p>
<p>i had a 2400, 3 club presidencies, 12 years piano, musical theatre lighting technician in any free time, and i got deferred at MIT... it happens:)</p>
<p>it's an ivy league after all. i'd say that once you're over a certain level for grades and SAT's, that they don't really matter at all anymore. it's all subjective!</p>
<p>**** happens. NOTHING is a guarantee. Apply widely and well!</p>
<p>It's completely arbitrary. I had a friend last year, white, non-legacy, from Fairfield County, didn't even visit, Ranked around 5%, normal SATs, normal courseload. She's a RIDICULOUSLY good opera-singer, and apparently that's what Princeton wanted. She got in there, and also got a full scholarship to the JHU Peabody-BA Duel-Degree program. Tufts and Chicago rejected lol.</p>
<p>Arbitrary? That's the wrong word. I think any college admissions officer would absolutely disagree with labeling their admissions decisions as "arbitrary." You can list someone's credentials as much as you want to, but if their essays weren't good enough, if their teacher recommendations weren't personal enough, or if the overall feeling of an application wasn't warm enough, then he/she was rejected. Numbers are great, but there could be plenty wrong with an application that belongs with someone with a 2400, a high GPA, and a lot of listed activities.</p>
<p>Well essays, teacher recommendations, etc etc are kinda arbitrary to judge. One person might love an essay but another might not. And teacher recommendations are too dependent on the writing skills of teachers.</p>
<p>I think everyone here is over-generalizing. No college admissions officer I've heard has ever said there is ONLY a cut-off with SAT scores, just that there is a certain benchmark that will be your death knell if you don't surpass. Granted, scores matter less beyond that, but I have never heard an admissions officer say that 2400=2250. The closest I've heard is a Yale admissions officer say that SAT's are more important for some candidates than others, and that they are easily overlooked in some circumstances. </p>
<p>But I don't think the admissions process is arbitrary. Subjective does not mean arbitrary. Though they do allow for some ambiguity, the "soft" components of one's application can be definitively better than those of another- in the same way that a book by Nabakov will be almost irrefutably better than one by a randomly chosen person. Yes, that judgement is subjective, but it is both subjective and legitimate. Numbers mean SOMETHING, but they certainly aren't EVERYTHING.</p>
<p>^^ nevertheless essays/teacher req's are usually the make or break factors between applicants, esp. to HYP - where tons of applicants have godly stats as u mentioned above (2400/800/800/36/Captains/etc. etc) ... and they're not rele that arbitrary anyways - AO's can pick out the few truly gripping essays amongst just the really good ones. </p>
<p>anyways, @ op -- read the person's written answers and you'll most likely find the source of his rejection</p>
<p>Sigh. Contrary to popular misconception, a 2400 is not an admissions ticket.</p>
<p>^^^ Neither is being an Intel finalist or an International Olympiad medalist, contrary to what lots of folks on CC seem to believe.</p>
<p>But all 3 = SCORE!</p>
<p>Haha. Maybe he/she was competing against a legacy.</p>
<p>" . . . in the same way a book by Nabakov will be almost irrefutably better than one by a randomly chosen person. Yes, that judgement is subjective, but it is both subjective and legitimate. Numbers mean SOMETHING, but they certainly aren't EVERYTHING."</p>
<p>Touche! Not only subjective but legitimate because well educated. What stands out is a perception of what is good, well done, meaningful, memorable by someone who has seen A LOT of . . . .</p>
<p>^^ having intel or intl olympiad medal makes it highly unlikely for you to be rejected. nobody said impossible.</p>
<p>Agree with #16. I haven't heard any case that a 2400 SAT plus 4.0 GPA and an Intel finalist or an International Olympiad medalist being rejected by any school. What if you only have two out of three? Then you gotta try to convince them that you are not boring.</p>