Admission Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Grinnell College
1

<p>I'm an applicant from India, and have applied to Harvard(EA-Deferred), Columbia, Dartmouth, Yale, Princeton, Brown and UPenn, amongst the Universities.
I've also applied to the following LAC's: Williams, Bates, Colgate, Grinnell, Swarthmore, Reed and Carleton. </p>

<p>I want to major in Physics, and my scores and extra-curriculars are as follows:</p>

<p>SAT 1: 2150, CR=710(national percentile=96),Math=710(national percentile=94), Writing=730(national percentile=97);
Math Level 2:800(national percentile=88);
Physics and Chemistry: 770(national percentile=82 and 83 respectively);</p>

<p>My school transcripts placed me at the top 1% of my class for my 9th and 10th years. However, ranks have slid down badly over the past year. </p>

<p>My Co-Curriculars include:
30 odd wins at city, regional and national level at quizzing events, for one of these quizzes I received an award from the ex-President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
Several leadership posts at school.
Have won a few national level essay/creative writing competitions, and a handful of national/city level debates and/or Model United Nations conferences.
Over the past 2 months I have received decent ranks in 3 Olympiads, which are held in India, and 7 other countries in Asia(though I think South African students do take part too).
(I came State Rank- 3rd, International Rank-81st in the Science Olympiad,
I came State Rank- 12th, International Rank-323rd in the Math Olympiad,
I came State Rank- 24th, International Rank-420th in the Cyber Olympiad)</p>

<p>I have helped at a home for the elderly, and have helped to educate underprivileged children from city slums.
Played for my school soccer team.
Have certification in Piano and Music Theory till Grade 5 from the Royal School of Music London.
....etc.</p>

<p>I think my essay/essay type answers were quite strong and do me justice.</p>

<p>I was deferred by Harvard, but that notwithstanding, Grinnell really is one of my favourite schools. I really am in love with Grinnell for I dunno what reason. So could anyone please chance me? Keeping in mind I need full/near full financial aid.</p>

2

<p>Anybody…bump?</p>

3

<p>superbump.</p>

4

<p>My school transcripts placed me at the top 1% of my class for my 9th and 10th years. However, ranks have slid down badly over the past year. </p>

<p>–</p>

<p>What are your grades/classes like? Schools really put a lot of emphasis on your high school record - grades and how challenging the classes are. You say slipped badly… what’s badly?</p>

5

<p>i really don’t know how to explain it all in terms
of gpa.
Thing is 9, 10 were with a 1st and 2nd rank consecutively, and my percentage hovered
between 88 to 91%. Which although not stellar,
still put me top of my class. My marks were
straight A’s barring my elective language exam
which i was too sick to appear for.
My board exams at the end of 10th got me 94.2 percent, again not amazing, but i received a special academic award for academic excellence from the school sanctioned by the bishop’s office. In 11 my rank dropped to 6th and then sub 10th, with my percentage dropping from 86 to 70 and
my usual A’s turned to a few ugly b’s and c’s. 12 midterm, percentage was raised to 75, rank
unchanged, the a’s came back somewhat, barring an ugly chemistry mark.</p>

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<p>like i said slide in rank was huge. But, after the slide i did take part in those olympiads, i came sub 10th in class and then 3rd in my state in the olympiad. Its weird, but things aren’t always
perfect back in school. I hope the olympiads are
considered.</p>

7

<p>In india we don’t have classes with varying degrees of difficulty. That matters more on the school. For example me and a guy in some x school will have the same syllabi if under the same board.
However, papers may be much more difficult in my school than in his. In fact my school’s extremely rigorous. But i doubt grinnell gets to know that!</p>

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<p>At the end of the day, the only “uniform” level of difficulty you can get is at the board examinations at end of 10th and 12th.</p>

9

<p>You look pretty solid. The slip in grades might hurt you, but you still look like a pretty good applicant.</p>

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<p>I hope to god you’re right. :slight_smile: i love grinnell. I honestly would love to go there ahead of most ivies. I want a tightly knit atmosphere for undergrad, with research opportunities. I like cornfields! Will the aid request hurt? Grinnell is usually quite generous i hear?</p>

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<p>What can you tell me about physics and math at grinnell? I hear good things about the new noyce center?</p>

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<p>Yes, sadly, applying for aid can hurt, since need is taken into account for international students. If they do accept you, they’ll meet 100% of need, guaranteed, but it can be slightly harder to gain admission if your need is greater. It doesn’t make or break most applicants, though. It’s not like they just pick all the richest kids from the international pool, lol. Don’t worry about it too much. I’ve heard that need only comes into play to make cuts between two otherwise identical students at the very borderline of acceptance, where otherwise they would’ve been basically flipping a coin.</p>

<p>Physics and math are definitely big at Grinnell. Something like a fourth of all students here major in STEM, and tons of them go to grad school. There’s also a really prestigious 3+2 program with Caltech, which makes it possible to do engineering at Grinnell as well.</p>

<p>And yes, the Noyce Center is pretty much amazing. Biggest building on campus (I believe), and it’s right in the center of everything. It’s right across from the JRC, and those two buildings are really the heart of campus. Noyce is a newly built science and math center that basically has everything you could want. Despite its size, Grinnell certainly doesn’t lack in equipment or funding for STEM students.</p>

<p>One other thing I’d add, since you mentioned you play the piano, is that almost all the dorms have pianos in them, and there are public practice rooms with pianos in Bucksbaum. I absolutely love the pianos in Bucksbaum. Most of them are Steinways, and they’re absolutely amazing pianos. Before I came to Grinnell, I never touched anything so well crafted and maintained. Grinnell’s music program doesn’t really get a lot of attention, but you won’t lack opportunities if you decide to continue studying music here. Even if you didn’t want to major or anything like that, it’s really easy to get 1 on 1 lessons through the school and get academic credit for it.</p>

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<p>Hmmmm. Okay. Nuff said. I want to go to grinnell. :-)</p>

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<p>Kudryavka, in light of grinnell’s no. of applicants having gone up by 50%, how would that affect someone with my kind of stats? I’d hate to see myself waitlisted or rejected by grinnell.</p>

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<p>^No one really knows how it’s going to affect the selectivity. Grinnell’s admission rate is probably going to go down to like 30%, but Grinnell’s average test scores were on par with other schools at that kind of admission rate BEFORE the surge in applications because of the high amount of self-selection in applicants to Grinnell. If the applicant pool expanded because of increased recruiting efforts, the self-selection might have gone down and the stats of the entering class might not be drastically different. If the applicant pool is still as highly self-selected and high quality but with more applicants, the selectivity could go up significantly.</p>

<p>Basically, we only know how MANY people applied, not WHO applied. A college with twice as many applicants as another of a similar size is going to have a lower admissions rate, but that doesn’t mean it’s harder to get in; if the more popular school attracts lots and lots of low scoring students, it’s very possible for a student to need better stats to gain admission to the school with a higher admission rate.</p>

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<p>Right. That makes sense. I’m just way too tense. Board exams on, should get back to them now, and just wait for the 24th! :)</p>

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<p>I thought this thread was quite insightful. :slight_smile: Though, it doesn’t put a smile on my face. I know one comment read that need would affect admission for int’l students, but are they need blind for US citizens? I really hope so - I have quite a bit of need I would think. EFC of 8500.</p>

<p>About the 50% increase in apps…that’s going to really hurt me I think. My GPA and class rank are solid, but my test scores were in the toilet…I have since flushed them many moons ago. I heard a kid at my school with a gpa 0.6 below mine got an ACT score of 4 points above mine. That’s embarassing.</p>

<p>However, there was this other kid at my school who has an ACT 9 pts above mine and he got rejected to UChicago…I was deferred. I never said anything to him of course, but I was silently saying “mwahahaha” not really. :slight_smile: I told my friends at lunch that my biggest feat was getting deferred from Uchicago…they laughed. One of those kids was our valedictorian who applied to MIT and Harvard.</p>

<p>I have a stong urge to post my stats, but they have just upset me in the past.</p>

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<p>firstly you’re anonymous, so don’t worry about being having stones thrown at you for your scores. :slight_smile: Also, its all about being frank with each other here on cc, so go ahead and ask whatever, post whatever. Cheers.
And best of luck with the applications. :)</p>

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<p>Everyone’s stats are unique in some way. And its that difference whether positive or negative that will decide your admissions. So don’t fret. Just wait and watch.
It can’t go bad if your school stats are decent.</p>

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<p>^ thanks for being so kind!! :)</p>