Can you explain this?

Applying to College
1

<p>Just out of pure curiosity, but our school got a couple of people into top schools that (according to CC), wouldn't have normally gotten in.</p>

<p>Now, of course, we have the top student, water polo captain (I don't think he was recruited) who was accepted to MIT, we have the top 10% recruited athelete, ranked swimmer who was accepted at Princeton (both early, both caucasian). We had two URMs get accepted to Brown and Columbia, one with 4 years of tennis, the other with little in terms of ECs, both early. None had absolutely stellar SATs, but they all could make it at their respective college.</p>

<p>BUT, we also had a student with relatively average SAT scores (2220), asian, whose only ECs were minor involvement in Amnesty International for 2 years and 4 years on the tennis team (not ranked, not recruited) get accepted to UPenn and Dartmouth (as well as Cal in-state and Pomona, which is literally 5 minutes away). We also had another asian student with a similar situation minus tennis get into Swarthmore. They could also make it, but they didn't have the "hooks" and "amazing ECs/stats" that CC seems to expect for people accepted to these schools.</p>

<p>Our school goes through this year by year, with similar results. We're a Catholic all-guys high school, nowhere near the top of any national list. How do you explain the fact that not everyone we get accepted to these "Top" schools fits the perfect CC mold? =). I personally think they're all perfectly qualified (having known most of these guys for three years now), but I know they don't meet CC standards.</p>

<p>EDIT: And to be fair, we had one caucasian student, just like the rest of these (2250, tennis, challenging curric, etc.) get rejected from Yale and Brown, waitlisted at Harvard. As far as I can remember, that rounds out the list in terms of results of those who applied to ivies and such.</p>

2

<p>Well, remember, you are talking about the "CC Standard: Because of the nature of the website, the academic "standard" is significantly higher than even of the Ivy Leagues. Remember, this site represents the smallest percentile, and generally the top ranked students. Basically, the standard here is not necessarily a true standard, and a 2200+ is the middle 50 percentile of students at schools like Harvard and Yale. The middle 50 is the MOST common, so that's the real standard.</p>

<p>I nearly choked when you called 2220 "average".</p>

3

<p>Well it is average on this site.. it goes like this
2400-A
2300-B
2200-c
2100-D (but possibly passing)
2000 and below-failing</p>

4

<p>HAHAHAAHA</p>

<p>I move to make that the official CC scale, with a friendly Amendment</p>

<p>2400= A-</p>

5

<p>Agreed with the above. CC blows a lot out of proportion, and then when results come in, people are scratching their heads in confusion, when the answer is apparent: the person had a great shot in the beginning, though CCers usually can't see it.</p>

6

<p>I actually called it "relatively average" because I was aware I was comparing with CC scores. I know perfectly well that these are all amazing people who would have amazing experiences at all of these schools. Just my own attempt at bringing a little bit of perspective to this board. =)</p>