ACE Program Kelley School of Business Indiana University

Colleges and Universities A-Z Indiana University - Bloomington
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Is there anyone on this board (student / parent of student / friend of student) who knows the SAT scores of anyone who got into the Indiana University Kelley School of Business ACE Program?

Daughter currently well above the 3.9 unweighted High School GPA, has relevant work experience, leadership experience, taken several Indiana University ACP classes in High School (all As), and has a 1450 SAT.

Have seen the IU materials on the 1520 SAT, but the way it’s worded, it seem intentionally vague if it’s a hard minimum (screened out if not at least 1520) or if it’s just the average SAT of those admitted. The ACE webpage says “typically demonstrate” 3.9+ UW GPA and 1520+ SAT - co it’s unclear is a 1450 would be considered.

Thanks!

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A 1450 would be considered, but everyone I know that was in ACE had a 35/36 on the ACT, 1520+ on the SAT, and was a National Merit Scholar or Commended, so I’m assuming your daughter will have tough competition and really needs to stand out. However, Kelley admissions have changed a lot from the time I applied to IU, and I know a lot of Kelley DAs in this year’s class that didn’t come in with test scores or made low scores (one girl made a 24 on the ACT). I’m assuming that now that IU/Kelley are test-optional, they will place bigger importance on things outside of test scores.

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Thank you so much for your response! That’s about what I thought. Since the application is invitation only, and invitations are based on the general IU app to the IU campus which has no way to differentiate aside from test scores, she’ll have to give it a go during the 2nd semester application process when on campus. Thank you so much!

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My son is a current ACE student and had a 34. He had well over a 4.0 weighted, unweighted was over a 3.9 (can’t remember what exactly).

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Hi Phillyfan1! Thank you very much for that data-point!

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Was in ACE last year. My class had a good mix of above/below 1520, I was right around the middle. Lowest I heard was 1480 if I recall? So I’d venture to say your daughter wouldn’t make the cut. FWIW I found ACE to be overhyped - great perks to being in the program, don’t get me wrong, but not a gamechanger whatsoever in terms of doing well at Kelley.

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Thank you so much!

My daughter took the SAT again and got a 1480, so we’ll see where that goes.

Thank you for your reply!

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When do kids get notified? My D is in HS Class of 2023 and got admitted to IU and Kelley (direct admit). No word so far on any honors programs nor scholarships. Does one have to be in Hutton to get into ACE?

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SSA is your key to scholarship $ past the unyielding Deans scholarship. ACE invitations usually come out in February.

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Thanks. Do you get scholarship if you get into ACE, like you do for Huttons?

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“unyielding” above is supposed to say “automatic,” but no, there is no money attached to ACE.

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I’m in ACE and had a 4.5 W, 34 ACT. My roommate had those exact same stats and was never invited to apply. There are kids in the program with lower stats than that, but the ones I know had something else going for them (i.e. diversity)

It’s kinda a dumb program in my opinion. They made us take Honors Business Presentations and Honors Computer in Business both at the same time the first semester here (both classes that require a lot of time outside of class) and it was VERY overwhelming. People not in ACE have one of those one semester and one the other, and then take A100 (1 credit) one semester and Kelley Compass (1.5 credits) the other. We do those two classes second semester. HOWEVER, next year, all students (ACE or not) will have it set up the same. Only one 3 credit class each semester paired with either A100 or Compass. There will no longer be 6 credits of Kelley ICORE coursework (Business Presentations and Computer in Business) all the first semester for ACE students.

That was one of the perceived “benefits” of ACE. Then, you also don’t have to apply to the honors program if you have a 3.7 cumulative; they will automatically accept you.

Sure, the Kelley honors application looks like it can be a bit of a pain, but if you’re a high achieving student you are not going to have any problems getting the 3.7 and applying regular.

I wouldn’t really stress about it. Quite frankly, I wish I wasn’t in the program. I didn’t get to pick my professors for K204 and C106 and was automatically enrolled because it was my ACE block.

Oh, there also is an honors version of compass. T176 instead of T175. But Compass is a blow-off class anyways. ACE is strictly stats focused also, majority of the kids in it IMO are robots who are trained to regurgitate information. They’re not really the starry eyed type, and the vast majority of them were rejected from ivies and other elite schools.