<p>I'm really curious about the students who are not near the top of their class but get admitted to top schools anyway.</p>
<p>Several top colleges report that 90% (or more) of their students were in the top 10% of their high school classes. I'm curious about the other 10%. I suppose they fall into several different categories:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Students from such fantastic schools that even those below the top 10% are brilliant academically.</p></li>
<li><p>Students who are not brilliant academically but have exceptional talent, leadership skills, or other merit.</p></li>
<li><p>Students who are not brilliant academically and have no other special merit, but are admitted because of legacy status, athletic ability, or similar non-academic factor.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Which of these is most likely to be the case? And if it varies by school, can you give some specific examples?</p>
<p>I know this will be largely speculation, but I'm hoping that someone who's familiar with the college admissions process can shed a little light on this for me. Thanks.</p>
<p>I feel like those at my school should be allowed a shot at top 50 schools seeing as our top 10% is like 6 people. Perhaps some of these people go to really small schools?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Students who have an unbalanced academic transcript, but who clearly excel in a specific academic field.</p></li>
<li><p>Faculty children and spouses, and staff members who haven’t completed a full undergraduate degree.</p></li>
<li><p>Students who have diagnosed learning disabilities that have limited their academic performance somewhat, but who have also demonstrated an overall ability to perform at a high standard.</p></li>
<li><p>Students whose class rank is top 10.5%</p></li>
<li><p>Students whose schools don’t rank.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My D ranked 35-40 in a class of approx 325 in a pretty good public HS (but not famous enough to be known out of state), ACT 33, reasonable ECs, about a half dozen APs with a couple of 5s and 4s. Was waitlisted at Northwestern; she wrote a very strong letter when she returned the waitlist application and was accepted into Biology a couple of weeks later. We (W & I) were more concerned about how she’d fare as a waitlisted out of the 10%ile in a sea of top notch students, and actually she’s done very well, and on the dean’s list at the end of her freshman year. So don’t lose hope - write a strong essay as to why you want to go to that school, and go on a site visit to show you’re actually interested enough spend the time.</p>
<p>My school has a lot of people outside of the top 10% who go to top schools anyway, so here are some various reasons I have seen.</p>
<p>1) We are a very tough school academically, so kids outside the top 10% are still very smart. The average SAT score is 2100, so kids in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th deciles are still likely to have SAT scores in the 2200s and the 2300s. They might have had a bit of a harder time in their freshman year or something, but steady grades since then, etc. </p>
<p>2) We’re a pretty small school. The top 10% is only 10 people. The GPA range for each decile is often pretty narrow. Therefore, sometimes the difference between top 20% and top 30% is not that big. </p>
<p>3) Donations, legacies, etc. </p>
<p>But overall, reason number 1 is why so many non top 10%ers go to top schools. Top 10%-15% can usually all get into HYPS, and so on.</p>
<p>I really don’t see any schools in CA getting 15% of their kids in to HYP. And if the school is so competitive it doesn’t make sense to rank students.</p>
<h1>1 happens over and over again at my school. I’m an example. We are a small, uber-competitive private school that doesn’t even rank or calculate GPA, but we have Cum Laude Society which honors the top two deciles. I’m outside the top 20%, as are unhooked applicants attending Princeton, Stanford, and Brown.</h1>
<p>Those statistics about everyone being in the top 10% make me feel kinda insecure, tbh.</p>
<p>It’s not hard to figure out when you consider that 40% of any class at top colleges is comprised of recruited athletes, URMs, legacies, staff kids and children of the rich/famous/powerful.</p>
<p>
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<p>Agree with Choklit. I don’t this is true at a single high school, not Andover, not top NYC preps, not HW or top LA schools. Maybe 10-15% attend those schools, but the majority have a hook.</p>
<p>Aside for Texas-like statewide open admission policies, I believe that strict cutoffs based on percenthile rank work better in favor of students who don’t have stellar SAT/ACT scores (the classical case being URM student attending inner-city underfunded HS and managing to graduate as valedictorian).</p>
<p>My opinion is more generous: at the top boarding and prep schools, one doesn’t even need to be anywhere near the top of one’s class to be competitive for admission as long as one has a compelling hook.</p>
<p>I speak from personal experience, knowing a handful of URMs who had fallen in the middle of my class, and coming from the middle of my graduating class as well.</p>
<p>Only a tiny number of this handful can expect a positive response from HYP, but most can look forward to attending any of the other Ivy League schools, or a top liberal arts college.</p>
<p>I thought I was in the top 10% of my class of about 430 people at a large public school but it turned out in the end that I wasn’t. However, I got in regular decision to Washington U St Louis (where I am now), Johns Hopkins, and Tufts, all really high ranking schools. So I don’t think that the GPA number matters as much as the all-around transcript. After all, people with higher GPAs than me certainly didn’t get into the schools that I did.</p>
<p>ChoklitRain - My school (in CA) doesn’t officially rank, but it does give GPA deciles on the school profile. Personally, I think it’s kind of annoying, since it very publicly claims not to rank, but deciles aren’t that much different when there’s such a small class. </p>
<p>We definitely do send a lot to HYPS, especially Stanford, but I do see your point about 10-15% attending, but a fair number having hooks. But I don’t know, with our top 10% only being about 10 people, a lot of them do end up getting into those schools. Incidentally, there may be some overlaps between those in the top 10%/those who have hooks.</p>