<p>contrary to collegeconfidential belief, scores and grades only matter to a point. ECs, essays, and interviews matter a lot to separate yourself from the thousands of applicants out there, not just test scores and grades (which past a certain threshold don’t matter). It’s laughable when high schoolers say such and such school is a match based on grades and test scores when they don’t know anything.</p>
<p>I do interviewing for a selective company - I reject students who look good on paper but may appear to be superstudy robots in real life all the time.</p>
<p>We can’t see her undoctored essays or interview responses, but the girl’s writing in that article is atrocious to be frank. i’m frankly not that surprised.</p>
<p>While this young woman’s credentials are impressive, she doesn’t have a 1st place in any national or international competitions, or an equivalent accomplishment. HYPS love those more than a 2400, I think. Clubs are generally “fluff” activities, unless one does something highly unusual in that context. It makes sense to me that HYPS didn’t bite. But Columbia is excellent; I don’t see a controversy.</p>
<p>I watched the you tube clip. I’m not sure what I liked better, the reporter not knowing how to pronounce “Xia” or that once in college she would pursue a major “either related to science or liberal arts.” Do tell.</p>
This is an ancient thread that just got resurrected, BUT I think there is a lesson here - there is no telling which way the ball may bounce, so to speak, in elite admissions.
Columbia (John Jay Scholar)
Duke
Rice (Trustee Distinguished Scholar and Century Scholar)
UT Austin (Health Science Honors and Plan II Honors)
University of Florida (Gator Nation Scholarship)
Let’s face it, that is very solid. Columbia is a great school, and she got the John Jay Scholar designation on top of that. Did she get into HYPS? No. But she did get into Rice with merit aid, Duke, and so on.
The whole story is potentially a great illustration of why students have to apply to matches and safeties, not just dream schools. Others made good points here - we don’t know how her essays sounded and there were not over-the-top awards. But…as was said above, she may have just gotten a little unlucky for HYPS. Statistics dictates it will happen to someone, I think.
In the end, I would wager she will do great at Columbia and won’t look back.