I was one of 2 people who applied to a top Ivy league school from my HS. Stats wise, we are extremely similar - his GPA is .05 higher than mine, I have an ACT score that is a point higher and many more leadership positions, and we both have 1 “standout” EC. We also applied to different programs (myself engineering, him pre-med track). I would say Im a better writer, but he has a bit of the unique factor going for him. Will we be compared against each other? I am concerned that I no longer have a chance of admittance because his GPA is higher - is this the case? Please help
No. They will be looking at your grades, scores, etc in comparison to the general student body of your class. They aren’t comparing two students and saying only one can win admissions.
No one can answer that. Are you different genders? That would help. I have heard of more than one person being admitted to the same HYP from really small, not well connected schools. It happens.
Thanks for the input @mom2twogirls @SeekingPam
Yes, we are different genders, and applying to different programs. I do attend a very small, not well-connected school. Do you think the differences I stated above would put me out of the running?
There is NO way to know specifically what goes on behind the doors at Ivy Admissions offices.
but at highly competitive colleges where 90-95% of applicants are rejected, your , and your classmates individual chances of acceptance are very low. So stop focusing on the “competition” between the 2 of you.
Ivy’ Ad coms have to spend most of their time deciding who to REJECT, not who to admit, because they DO have to reject most students.
There simply aren’t enough slots open for all who are “qualified”.
Female in STEM is always an advantage, male humanities are an advantage, especially with an unusual prospective major. No one NEEDS another political science or psychology major but linguistics is another story, maybe.
D did “better” than the girl who had a higher GPA than she did but lower SAT scores. However I think it sort of does not matter at a certain point. If you have a 3.93 and he has a 3.98 and neither of you has any really bad classes, it does not matter. As for the ACT it depends how it breaks. A 34 - 36 may or may not be treated the same, all are the 99th%. A 33 and a 34 may also be the same. At a certain point the admissions department thinks you can do the work and stops caring whether you got a 35 or 36 or a 3.96 or 3.99. Worry about the other 10 people vying for that seat.
Being from the same school would only be a concern if they suddenly got an overflow of well-qualified people from that school. Otherwise, they’d be fine with accepting two from the same school for a year.
“Female in STEM is always an advantage” really isn’t always an advantage. Some schools do not admit by major. Women are over-represented in biology, too. Some schools aren’t very focused on balancing genders within a given program.
Agreed on Bio and psych. I was thinking of engineering, math, and physics.
In Ds AP physics class last year, less than 1/3 of the students were female.
.05 difference in your GPA will not be why you don’t get in, and 1 point higher in your ACT will not be why you get in.
A lot of it will come down to what the rest of the class is looking like and how the adcomm person for your area argues that each of you fits something that would add to the class.
You will of course be compared, but not just with each other: your regional adcomm person will have to argue for each person from all the schools in your geographic area. Your essays / recs / special essay will matter more than the GPA or ACT difference.