<p>First, let me start by saying I realize for ivy-level colleges this is what distinguishes applicants from one another. I'm talking about schools right below that, with 30%+ admit rate.</p>
<p>I was looking at the SAT/GPA graphs of admitted students on About.com and I noticed that almost every single applicant in the top right box(3.5/2070+) was accepted, with the exception of maybe one or two. So it seems as if as long as you have those stats you are in so why do they stress EC's and rigor so much?</p>
<p>For examples type in colleges like occidental, bryn mawr, uc santa barbara,syracuse, georgia institute of technology, etc and next to it ''gpa graph'' on google click on the first link and you'll see what I mean.</p>
<p>I would not put a lot of faith in the stats you get from sites like about.com unless they give you links to where they got the info so you can check for yourself.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that all these applicants likely had the “most rigorous curriculum available” box checked for them.
Course rigor and GPA are THE most important factor.
ECs are then distinguishing factors.
Remember that about.com doesn’t report the entire class. For example, in this class, Occidental had 27% admitted students who scored above 700 in one section of the SAT, 52% scored over 30 on the ACT, and 41% had GPA above 3.75. Rigor of curriculum, GPA, and EC’s are the three most important elements of your application. So, if you have a 3.8, 2100+, but no EC’s they’d have a problem with that.</p>