<p>Which do colleges care about more?
I understand that it's best that class rank, gpa and test scores are all high.
I also understand that it's good if ECs and essays reflect who you are.
However, which do colleges, such as Ivies/MIT/Stanford, care about the most?
Can unique ECs that you're passionate about + a good essay possibly make up for low class rank and GPA?</p>
<p>Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>No, they really can’t. These institutions want to enrolled students who will succeed. Enrolling tennis players, debaters, floutists, fundraisers, baritones, ballerinas and do-gooders is a secondary concern. And GPA, class rank and standardized test scores say more about whether you’re a successful student than those other things do.</p>
<p>I’m going to disagree with Sikorsky a little bit here. At the schools the OP is talking about, strong GPA, class rank, and test scores are pretty much a minimum requirement, except for the most coveted recruited athletes; for URMs they might set the bar slightly lower but they’re still looking for the strongest of the lot. But once an unhooked candidate passes a certain threshold, the difference between candidate A’s 3.9 UW GPA and 2300 SAT and candidate B’s 4.0 UW GPA and 2400 SAT will be seen as trivial. At that point, ECs, essays, LORs, and a variety of diversity factors (socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural, not just racial) play a much bigger role. So bottom line I’d say GPA, class rank, and test score won’t get you into these schools, but they can easily keep you out. ECs and essays are not likely to make up for deficiencies in the hard numbers, but they will be important factors in determining which among the many candidates with strong numbers get pushed over the finish line.</p>
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<p>Generally not. High GPA/rank and test scores are generally a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for being admitted to the super-selective schools (exceptions may be recruited athletes and others of unusual desirability).</p>
<p>My apologies for forgetting to add in consideration of test scores.
In THIS case, would a low GPA +low class rank + 36 ACT + 2400 SAT + 4s and 5s on AP tests + good essay + unique ECs possibly = admittance ?
Sorry about forgetting test scores in the beginning of the post.</p>
<p>What is your GPA? How “bad” could it possibly be? I mean, if you have a 3.5 GPA with a perfect SAT score, essays and extracurricular activities play an important role in the admissions process. But if you have a 3.0 or below, they will almost certainly not consider you.</p>
<p>Bclintonk, I don’t think we disagree at all. I will concede that I should have added “except for the most coveted recruited athletes.” I certainly agree that, despite all the dithering and hair-splitting about standardized tests that you’ll see on College Confidential (and all the worry about a 3.95 UW vs. a 3.97 UW), grades and test scores are a kind of initial hurdle that must be cleared, and that once that hurdle has been cleared, rarely if ever does anyone look back to see whether Candidate A cleared it by a couple more millimeters than Candidate B did.</p>
<p>Chromakey, I have to echo Rain’s question: how low is low? Because now you may be introducing a new problem. A 36 or a 2400 coupled with low GPA/rank raises the question of whether the applicant may be a slacker. A perfect test score, a low GPA and remarkable extracurricular activities can mean one of two things: either an applicant spends an unusual amount of time on an extraordinary activity (which is fine if you’re an Olympic-caliber swimmer or you’re in a national tour of Wicked), or he spends too much time on activities and not enough time studying.</p>
<p>I think 36 and a 3.5 GPA is a non-starter unless a 3.5 makes you one of the top few students in your class. But a 3.6 and a 3.75 may make you a viable applicant. Class rank, despite what it may say in the common data sets, can be a problem: if you’re not clearly one of the top students in your class, your chances at universities of this caliber are virtually non-existent if you’re not a recruitable athlete or a celebrity.</p>
<p>Unless your ECs include words like “Internationally Recognized” or “Olympic Champion” they are unlikely to compensate for excessively low GPA/class rank.</p>
<p>Frankly, perfect test scores combined with low GPA/Class Rank screams “underachiever”. That may not be true in your case but that will likely be the perception you have to overcome.</p>
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<p>Too late to edit, but that may be a confusing typo. It’s supposed to be a *36<a href=“meaning%20ACT,%20or%20a%20near-2400%20SAT”>/I</a> and a 3.75.</p>
<p>GPA (in rigorous courses) & SAT/ACT scores will get you into the adcoms conversation. More subjective factors such as: leadership & excellence demonstrated through your EC’s,
essays, letters of rec., and demonstration of “fit” will be deciding factors for those who meet the “threshold” of GPA & test scores.</p>
<p>GPA and class rank may go hand in hand. If a student has a 3.5 GPA and has taken/is taking more than one AP class, that is not impressive at all, but if that student is at the top of his/her class, then the GPA IS impressive because obviously that school has very strict grading and/or deflation.</p>
<p>OP, the problem is that most schools that even care about ECs as a factor in admissions don’t even look at the ECs until an application has survived an initial screening. In other words, if an application doesn’t show adequate grades/rank/rigor/curriculum/scores it is unlikely that the application is going to go far enough in the process for ECs to be considered as a factor—it’s academics first.</p>
<p>At the schools that really consider ECs as a factor in admissions, it’s basically a given that the academic standards of the school are met. There are plenty of applications from more-than-academically qualified applicants that will also cover a full range of ECs for the school not to need to consider the applicant whose ECs may shine, but the academics don’t.</p>
<p>Of course, this does not necessarily apply to that small group of applicants who bring something particularly wanted by a school…for example a star quarterback or an Intel winner…but those students are not applying in the regular run of admissions anyway.</p>
<p>A balance of all 3 is ideal. Each school cares about them all, but some care slightly mroe about others.</p>
<p>Check the Common Data Set. This will confirm what rowrow posted.</p>