<p>Except at some state schools, your ethnicity does affect admission.</p>
<p>rocket6louise, I was not referring to schools like HYPSM, I was just referring to “a highly ranked school”, which her school happens to be. There are many schools out there for kids who are mere mortals! That is why I enjoy the Parents thread for kids who have a “GPA of 3.0 to 3.3”, we talk about colleges for student in this range and who aren’t shooting for HYPSM-like schools. If “a highly ranked school” only means HYPSM to some people, they are really missing the intent of my post.</p>
<p>Myth: You need lots of community service to get in to Ivies.
Reality: Community service is an important extracurricular for many Ivy applicants, but participation is not required. These schools simply ask that you have some extracurricular involvement, and they’re not too picky about what it is as long as you’re passionate about it.</p>
<p>Dear Sally,</p>
<p>Shhhh. . . the sports myth takes many a promising scholar out of contention for top schools and merit awards, improving my kid’s chances!</p>
<p>Myth: One specific thing on your application is either (a) all-important or (b) doesn’t matter. It’s human nature to want to believe that the one really good thing in your application will get you in to your school of choice, and that the one not-so-good thing won’t matter. The reality is that everything matters, but no one thing (unless it’s extremely good or bad) makes the difference. Thus, for example, a good essay will not overcome lackluster grades, scores, and ECs to get you in to a highly selective school, and a lackluster essay won’t keep you out if you have excellent grades, scores, and ECs. What gets you in–or keeps you out–is the total package.</p>
<p>**Myth: HYPS are reaches for for everyone.</p>
<p>Reality:** HYP and S compete with each other to attract and enroll certain applicants. For these applicants, these schools are not reaches. Specifically, highly recruited athletes with stellar academic credentials have the luxury of choosing among elite colleges. This may be equally true for academically strong development cases, less so for the otherwise “hooked”.</p>
<p>Sally- your post made my day. D found she had sent the wrong draft of her essay, which contained two typo’s (left out a “to” and added a ‘d’) and was heartbroken. Showing her your comment about mistakes not being the end of the world was a great comfort to her. Should she attempt to send the correct draft, or just hope no one catches it?"</p>
<p>Myth: Highly selective schools randomly admit a few unqualified, unhooked applicants, just for the heck of it.
They don’t. If your qualifications make it unrealistic for you to apply, don’t waste your time or money.</p>
<p>Myth: What selective schools care most about in terms of ECs is demonstrated passion.
Reality: what they care about most in terms of ECs is achievement. I think this also relates to the discussion above about athletic participation. It’s great to show passion and peseverence in ECs and athletics–but the most selective schools are looking for students who are high achievers both inside and outside school. If your EC (or sport) is one in which achievements are objectively measured, then participation without achievements are not likely to be impressive to the most selective schools.</p>
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<p>Well, 75% of that college’s enrolled students are at or below the 75% percentile. It’s a useful metric for trying to understand whether a school may be a reach, match or safety, but it’s certainly not the case that all of a college’s admitted students are above the 75% percentile, unless it’s Lake Wobegon U.</p>
<p>No it isn’t. If you have good grades, test scores and have challenged yourself academically it is possible to get in (even “unhooked”). I live in Virginia and I have heard people claim that “NO ONE gets into UVA”. Well, actually about 1/3 of applicants do and I personally know people who have.</p>
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<p>Glad I could help, merryecho.</p>
<p>My answer to your question is NEITHER! Your daughter shouldn’t send a corrected draft for such minor mistakes. It might only make her look obsessive, not attentive.</p>
<p>But she also doesn’t need to pray that her small snafus go unnoticed. It really doesn’t matter if they get noticed or not. They won’t be held against her.</p>
<p>Myth: You need to be involved in an EC for all four years, or it doesn’t look good.</p>
<p>Sally, is that true? My son, a senior, “discovered” that he really enjoys writing for the school’s newspaper, but he’s only been a writer for two years and EiC for one. How bad is this?</p>
<p>Myth: never give up an EC in your senior year. Schools will look down upon that big time.</p>
<p>Sally, is this also true? My son participated in theatre for three years, although by junior year, he really disliked it. He never got the parts he saw others getting, and it occurred to him that his acting talents were so-so, certainly not something he’d do in college. He dropped theatre and decided he just preferred to focus on other subjects, maybe even have 1-2 “open” classes for once. This decision has plagued me. Did he blow his chances?</p>
<p>Neither is true, zweebopp. I do advise kids to avoid being “serial joiners.” (In other words, they shouldn’t be in the Club of the Month Club. 
) But there are certainly no hard and fast rules that determine how long a student should stick with an activity. Your son doesn’t need to have been in the newspaper all though high school, and he did not blow his chances by quitting theater. In fact, sometimes students only find their true interests after they bow out of many of the school clubs and hone in on an activity or hobby that suits them and which may not be school-related at all.</p>
<p>
Bragging about your son, eh Sherpa? Just kidding :).</p>
<p>Its a bit of a myth that admissions officers are holistic and consider/weigh your gpa in relation to people only in your own high school (cf. the applicant pool). Holy Cross has a piece in the New York Times today about that, giving an impression they spend an incredible amount of time on each applicant, even calling guidance counselors with questions…and frankly I just dont believe it. </p>
<p>The admissions process is very much a gpa/sat cut off process. You are either in the loop or out of the loop. Yes, they look for Honors and AP courses, but basically its gpa/rank/sat and that is it. They simply dont have time to call people, have numerous meetings etc.</p>
<p>Myth: Acceptance/Rejections line up with stats.</p>
<p>Reality: This is particularly true for LAC’s, but admissions can be quirky and unpredictable. Many students are accepted at their “reaches” and denied at their “safeties.” This frequently observed phenomenon is routinely denied on CC.</p>
<p>In fact, when it comes to LAC’s, I would say that the categories of safety, match and reach don’t really exist.</p>
<p>The solution: Cast one’s net widely. Find a TRUE safety (not a slightly less selective LAC) and then apply to a good sampling of schools one would really like to attend. The results may surprise you.</p>
<p>(Ex. from my family: Accepted: Brown, Williams, Vassar, Wesleyan, U of C. Rejected: Bates. Yes, I know, Brown and U of C are not LAC’s. Safeties were unnecessary because S was accepted EA at Bard and U of Chicago. Safety would have been Drew. Clearly, Bates does not want to be anyone’s safety.)</p>
<p>^ Amen to that. People from my school got accepted to Claremont McKenna with a class rank in the bottom 40% of the school as well as from the top 20%, and plenty of people got rejected from the top 10%.</p>
<p>**ghostbuster:</p>
<p>Its a bit of a myth that admissions officers are holistic and consider/weigh your gpa in relation to people only in your own high school (cf. the applicant pool). Holy Cross has a piece in the New York Times today about that, giving an impression they spend an incredible amount of time on each applicant, even calling guidance counselors with questions…and frankly I just dont believe it. </p>
<p>The admissions process is very much a gpa/sat cut off process. You are either in the loop or out of the loop. Yes, they look for Honors and AP courses, but basically its gpa/rank/sat and that is it. They simply dont have time to call people, have numerous meetings etc. **</p>
<p>We’re glad to know that at least at UConn, this is not the case. Our D’s SAT R/M was 1300, yet UConn’s website said “For 1/2 tuition OOS, 1350 required”. D’s unweighted GPA is only around 3.5, but weighted, well over 4.5 due to honors and AP courses. Grades must have hellped, and probably her essay too.</p>
<p>But if they weren’t being “holistic”, how would they have ever gotten past the SAT?</p>
<p>Myth: Freshman year doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>This is just dumb, and it annoys me when people say it.</p>
<p>Myth: Freshman year is extremely important. </p>
<p>Although actually, for class rank and crap, freshman year is pretty important. Straight As freshman year give you a nice buffer zone. Unfortunately, I had to work my way up the ladder given my Bs freshman year.</p>