<p>so for MIT, STanford, Harvard, PRinceton, etc.
everyone knows that application pool is very competitive.
so like 20,000 apply to each of those schools and let's say there are like 15 of very competitive colleges.
that means 300,000 will apply to colleges like MIT, STanford, Harvard, Princeton, etc.
so out of those like 30,000 get accepted.
my question is, in America, r there really 30,000 highly competitive students?
i guess what im saying is maybe the competition is not as hard as what we think it may be.
in this forum, if u read chance me threads and stuff, everyone is genius. but in reality, i highly doubt 30,000 kids have stats like kids at CC.
anyone wanna correct me?</p>
<p>I would estimate around 6000 kids out of the 20-27k who apply are “qualified” to attend that school.</p>
<p>qualified is kinda different from exceptional.
im saying r there really that many exceptional kids in america to supply those prestigious colleges.
maybe there aren’t that many so they have to accept some of the qualified people, which means competition is less.</p>
<p>The type who aren’t as lazy as you are, Mr. I substitute “r” for “are.”</p>
<p>There are plenty of international kids who are vying to get into American universitites. Just think about Korea.</p>
<p>Easily. From the Collegeboard:
Table 5: Score Distributions
SAT Reasoning Test Critical Reading Mathematics Writing
Male Total
Female
Score Range Male Female Total Male Female Total
750800 12,407 12,160 24,569 26,610 13,854 40,466 9,066 12,967 22,035
700-740 22,543 22,809 45,360 34,955 21,789 56,755 17,387 23,940 41,332</p>
<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Total_Group_Report.pdf[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board;
<p>The table above didn’t transfer over well so check out the above link.</p>
<p>“When more than 2.94 million students graduate from more than 27,000 high schools each year in the United States-Including more than 27,000 valedictorians, 27,000 salutatorians, 27,000 student government presidents, 27,000 school newspaper editors-in-chief, and about 25,000 students with verbal SAT scores that are 750 or above and 30,000 kids with math scores of 750 or above-totaling more than 100,000 ‘top kids’ (assuming some kids have a combination of these credentials- otherwise more than 150,000 top kids)-why should a college that accepts only 500-3,000 freshmen annually take your kid?”</p>
<p>What Colleges Don’t Tell You </p>
<p>Elizabeth Wissner-Gross</p>
<p>Valedictorian, salutatorians, student govt presidents, etc. does not = smart. For example, the valedictorian at my sister’s school had an amazing average at HER SCHOOL. But the school was so bad that the kid was actually pretty average. Oh, and she didn’t get into a good college. Id say that out of the 27000 valedictorians, the vast majority are not even close to qualified for top schools. Look at the elite private schools, where like, 20% get into HYPSM… most of those kids, although they are only in the top 20%, could qualify for valedictorian of most public schools.</p>
<p>Some high schools virtually never send graduates to top schools, others send several every year. But with almost 3 million graduates per year, the top 1% would fill 30,000 spots.</p>
<p>yes, but look at what the OP says. “In this forum, if u read chance me threads and stuff, everyone is genius. but in reality, i highly doubt 30,000 kids have stats like kids at CC.”
He is saying whether these top 30,000 are actually better than a lot of these “chance me” kids on CC. Open up some random “chance me” threads where ppl are applying to elite universities. Most of them, i would say, look above that 1% mark you are setting. Maybe he is saying that a lot of these people posting are actually in this top 1%, and that we are worrying too much about how many qualified ppl there are? that was my interpretation of OPs post, at least.</p>
<p>Depends, is exceptional contingent on the stats of these kids? If so, then by that condition, there would be few who meet that criteria.</p>
<p>@Yet
that is exactly what im saying…
i don think there are that many exceptional kids who have stats like CC’ers.
i would say about 8000~10000 have stats as good as CC’ers.</p>
<p>The simple answer is many, many kids considered exceptional in their communities, with stats that make them qualified, get rejected from all of these schools every year.</p>
<p>The analysis is more complex than you’re considering. First understand that at these schools, 40% of seats are taken by recruited athletes, legacies, URMs, staff kids and the children of the rich, famous and powerful.</p>
<p>That leaves the acceptance rate for the unhooked at about half what most think.</p>
<p>Next, the schools want representation from 50 states and as many countries as possible. So a kid from Alaska and one from NY with the same stats have very different odds of being accepted.</p>
<p>Then, they want some low income, some middle income and some rich students. If you’re from an inner city school in LA, you have a much better shot than a kid at an LA prep school unless his family is so wealthy they are likely to give millions.</p>
<p>They want a variety of talents and personalities. If they have just built a new art building and you have an impressive portfolio, you’re in luck.</p>
<p>They are building classes, not taking the kids with the highest stats although the unhooked better have high stats to go along with their other talents. Therefore, there are many kids qualified for every available seat.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A combination of those factors doesn’t make you a “top kid.”</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the applicant pools to these very selective schools frequently overlap- 20k applicants per school for fifteen schools does not necessarily mean 300k individual applicants to those fifteen schools.
But I think that the competition isn’t entirely made out of overachieving CC kids at these top schools. However, even without counting the applications of those not truly suited to such schools who apply anyway, intense competition remains among those left who are more or less qualified for the school, as few can get the acceptances they desire.</p>
<p>Yeah, the way that the top schools (HYPSM, etc etc) calculate their acceptance rates–which seem ridiculously low, like 9% and stuff–is geared to give them the lowest number possible so that they seem more competitive. I’m not exactly sure how they do it, but they estimate a bigger pool than there actually is and don’t count the waitlisted/deferred students in the accepted rate … idk exactly. Either way, it’s still really competitive, but it’s not like the average student has practically 0% chance (I like to think that essays are a really big part of the process, equally important as GPA/SAT score. And there are “average” kids out there who can write killer essays)</p>
<p>Ehh I don’t like how Harvard for example tries everything in their power to inflate the number of applications they receive.
Such as sending out applications based on PSAT scores,</p>
<p>I only got a 191 and still received their application.</p>
<p>Come on now, its a bit ridiculous what they do for that low acceptance rate.</p>
<p>AnagramPanda said it right. Really the most competitive applicants apply to multiple schools in the top 15 colleges, so there really shouldn’t be 300,000 students applying to all those schools. And even if there were, the acceptance rate at HYPS has gone down to below 10%, so I still wouldn’t assume there are 30,000 super-competitive applicants.</p>
<p>Don’t underestimate your competition. We’re not up against legacies and URMs. The real competition is between the overachievers in each geographic region.</p>
<p>There are definitely many people out there with stats better than most CC-ers.</p>
<p>Imagine if all college admissions officer knew which applicant will enroll at their University. And they accepted however many students the freshman class can hold, how would you view that college now? I’m pretty sure with greater prestige. Many people put down schools because of their acceptance rates not realizing that the only reason why most school’s acceptance rates are so high is because they are not sure who is going to enroll and who is going to back down. Rest assure that if even Harvard knew exactly everyone who will enroll at the University, their acceptance rate would be lower than 9%. The schools with a 60% acceptance rate would probably end up with a 20% acceptance rate. Just imagine if school’s hypothetically only had an ED policy.</p>
<p>In my opinion, 9 times out of 10 the kids who are accepted at elite universitities deserve it.
the 30,000 seniors spoken of are rarily gifted or extraordinary applicants but almost all of them are qualified.</p>