<p>FellowCCViewer:), …can the “luck” be self created though or is it
arbitrary flux in the council room or wherever adcoms gather? </p>
<p>(also, thank you for the incredibly intelligent part but I know I am more
tortoise than hare ;))</p>
<p>My thesis is that this “luck” is not arbitrary but a designable outcome
based on informed research with a source like CC guiding the
applicant (providing others failures to study and avoid). We as applicants
are products within brand lines evaluated against the specific buying
criteria of the buyer. When more than one adcom is involved the individual
arbitrariness IMO gets ironed out- product criteria fitting explicit
requirements wins.</p>
<p>Think of it this way…you walk into a shop and see 5 brands of MP3 players on
display. You look at them all, yet you reach for one the first time. Was it
“luck” you reached for it or was the product designed cleverly to make you
reach for it? (yes, the product may have inferior memory size and price point
but you still reached for it). The same with a book at a bookseller where
the experienced publisher has a slew of design ideas to make their book
stand out, yet get stocked on the shelves alongside their seemingly
lesser cousins (even though the others may provide relatively more value).</p>
<p>A case in point would be someone who is indeed rejected from every
top school they applied to. It would seem CS is defintiely not at work
here. Redremote is the third applicant with a similar profile in the past 3 admission
years who got rejected that everyone thought would be accepted. </p>
<p>Thank you TokenAdult:); hikids, yes, early approved at Stanford is what is called
a “likely letter” for RD applicants -in the past provided to ~60 for academic reasons,
and another ~60 for diversity/cultural reasons by Stanford.</p>
<p>college admissions are definitely something of a crapshoot. Sure you need the statistics and extra curriculars to even consider applying to top ranked schools, but that doesn’t mean you will get in. And sometimes kids with lower stats and rank will get in ahead of you. My child was accepted at U of Chicago, Johns Hopkins ( both reaches) and the State University Honors program with merit scholarship, but was waitlisted at her safety school George Washington U, while several of her friends with much lower stats got in.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s as much of a crap shoot as people make it out to be. Look at the chances threads right now–people have been posting results. It’s easy to see patterns.</p>
<p>If you don’t think it’s a crapshoot, or in other words, you are far more in control than what others may think, may I suggest that you package your methodology, find a publisher and get in the long line of “get into any college you want” books. Certainly with your tips, and the droves that would follow your sure fire outcomes, you would be next in line of the sucessful admission gurus.</p>
<p>CS is what is happening. Then how else you will explain kids with 100 or lower points in SATs getting into the same schools while the higher scorers are baffled with rejections or waitlists from those schools? These kids been not only cruising the CC as well to learn the “tricks of the trade” but also worked hard in school as well. Just because they got the lower end, doesn’t mean they didn’t put the same or more amount effort and dedication into their school, exams, admissions. Obviously you are a very smart student who was rewarded for her hard work, but not all have been so lucky to have their dedication to be recognized this year but they worked equally hard as well perhaps even more.</p>
<p>I think it is a mixture of both. There is a random factor (how many folks look like you), and you can control parts of it (scores, grades, essays).</p>
<p>No, I don’t think it’s a crap shoot. When your stats are indeed good enough, I mean not just 2400, 4.0 but with something that will make you standout (i.e. a big award, I think USAMO/USABO etc. aren’t “big” anymore, so maybe something above that), then you’ll have a great shot of getting into most of the places that you apply.</p>
<p>This year was the biggest “Crapshoot” for people I’ve seen. 2400 4.0’s getting admitted to HYP but rejected from their flagship state schools and schools like GWU. 2100’s and 3.6’s getting into Harvard while also getting rejected at their state schools. Some people getting into every single ivy league school with mediocore stats, while others with supreme stats, essays, and ecs getting into none.</p>
<p>i think the people who did get in everywhere will think it isn’t really a crapshoot whereas the people who didn’t will think it is totally one. yes most people who don’t get into their dream school had something in their HS career they could have done better, but most HS kids don’t know from the time they are 14 their dream school and what is required to get there. i know for me i really didn’t know what direction i wanted to go in until the summer before senior year, but after that i became highly motivated. not everyone can be the perfect applicant, you obviously were in that very select category of people that were what most would call an ideal applicant, but that simply isn’t possible for a lot of people. it has nothing to do with financial status, it is more to do with what place grades hold in your life before senior year, what kind of interests you have, what your parents push you to do. the average person, even many in the 90th percentile of applicants have to compete with other good-but-not-perfect applicants, and adcoms need to figure out how well someone will do over 4 years based on a few numbers and essays. there is a lot that simply cannot be accounted for for most people, but to say it is their fault because they didn’t start being the perfect applicant in 9th grade is a bit ridiculous.</p>
<p>It’s a crapshoot to some extent, but there is certainly a “formula of success” to follow if you want admission. GPA, grades, and demonstration of interest are the factors that we control. HOWEVER, being an under-represented-minority or from a unique place that schools will value is one of the variables that we can’t control.</p>
<p>Sometimes you strike the admissions committee right, sometimes not. I was admitted everywhere that I demonstrated interest and wanted to go, and waitlisted at my reaches (where I showed NO interest). </p>
<p>Although hard work plays a part, there’s a HUGE element of chance in the whole process. I have some friends who are getting in everywhere, and some very qualified ones who are being unfairly waitlisted. </p>
<p>To the OP: You sound like an arrogant jerk and I’m very glad that I do not attend school with you. Take a deep breath, give thanks for the fortunes that smiled upon you, and relax some after all your hard work.</p>
<p>Huh? Explain what you mean and explain how that’s justified. He’s honestly the best applicant I’ve ever seen on these forums. That’s saying a lot.
god I feel worse for redremote than I do for myself</p>
<p>I got in everywhere I applied, but I still believe there is a crapshoot element to it all.</p>
<p>Other note:
I know someone who spent a few years on the University of Delaware’s adcom. board. At one point, when two comparable applicants were up and only one could get in, they pretty much drew a name out of a hat for admissions.</p>