<p>This is a nice topic and all…but with what proof do you guys make all these claims? They’re “myths” for a reason, and that is because they are widely believed. So a topic on a public forum full of the same people who hear these rumors doesn’t seem like the best source for myth debunking… I could say “Myth: All parts of the app are weighted equally. In reality, SAT scores are much more important than ECs!” But I of course have no proof to say that. There have already been a few contradicting claims, which makes me worried that this thread could just lead to confusion and the perpetuation of new myths.</p>
<p>^ very nice… i wont read this thread anymore lol</p>
<p>This discussion would not be complete without mentioning a book by Jerry Israel, “The 75 Biggest Myths About College Admissions,” Sourcebooks, 2008. A very good read.</p>
<p>Freshman year actually DOES NOT COUNT AT ALL(tennistard1) at UCs, Stanford, i think Princeton and others</p>
<p>What about AP’s taken Freshman year?</p>
<p>Collegebound41:</p>
<p>Frosh year does not count at some schools (lets use Stanford as an example)</p>
<p>Say you get all Ds frosh year, and straight As every other year. Stanford says that it won’t look at the grades, but your class rank is going to stink. If you go to a competitive school, even 1 B frosh year can take you out of the top 3 for sure, and maybe even out of the top 5 or 10 percent.</p>
<p>Heck, I go to a small public school, and if I get one B I’ll drop down from number one, just because number two is really close.</p>
<p>Back to the point, Stanford does not want to count your frosh year, but they have no way of recalculating your class rank because they don’t know, for example, that I am 2nd with a single B, and can pretty much get straight Bs before I drop down to third.</p>
<p>So don’t procrastinate working on your grades just because they dont ‘count’. It’s in your class rank, so it counts.</p>
<p>I feel like a lot of these things are made up and posted as “myths”…And collegebound, Freshmen year definitely counts…especially as getalifemom said, for classes that are APs etc. If it “DOES NOT COUNT AT ALL” like you said, they wouldn’t even ask for the grades of Freshmen year and where do you get your claim that it doesn’t matter for colleges like Stanford and Princeton?</p>
<p>My kids’ college counselors said that top tier colleges all have their own way of calculating gpa. We were told that a fairly typical formula would be to discard freshman year grades, double the weight of the junior year grades and, if it is a regular decision application, also double the weight of the first semester senior year grades. </p>
<p>If you think about it, this makes quite a bit of sense. It results in a better GPA for kids with grades that improve through high school. </p>
<p>Certainly can’t say how wide spread this approach is though. Just reporting what we were told.</p>
<p>obviously class rank counts, i should have specified that. I got my information that stanford and princeton don’t look at the grades because its true and common knowledge here?</p>
<p>and yes AP scores count, but from what i’ve heard in Cal they recalculate your rank based on 10/11 grade.</p>
<p>OH,ncram65…from your mouth to God’s ears. But that every school used a more complex formula like that. I’ve never heard of this type calculation. Just yesterday I was making a formula in my head, that I would use if I had a college, and it was a LOT like what you have! This would SO help my daughter (and maybe explain why some kids get in and some don’t…when we can’t understand the reasoning). She IS applying to top tier colleges. But she changed high schools midyear as a sophomore and her rank/GPA took a nosedive. LONG story but there were SO many problems. Probably from top 2% to about 9%. NOT good enough for top 20 schools. She recitified it quickly (once we physically moved…she was having to commute…part of the “story”). And is again working a 3.9 with 1.0 weight for a 4.9 this year. So her Junior year was very good and her Senior year is exceptional. BUT…getting her GPA back up is SO slow. I’d just LOVE to know what schools use a similar formula (too late now, but…just curious).</p>
<p>if your mistake fell into more typical turf … e.g., you wrote “form” instead of “from”, “their” instead of “there,” or you added an “a” to “definitely,” then just let it go and lose no sleep over it.</p>
<p>This is true because I was there:
A Duke admissions officer stood up in front of a group of prospective applicants and said that she would throw away any applications that said “I participate in a myriad of activities.” Her stated reason was that “myriad” is an adjective, not a noun, and that the sentence should be, “I participate in myriad activities.” Well, I looked it up and “myriad” is both a noun and an adjective, and both sentences are correct. How many applications have been thrown out because of this?</p>
<p>MYTH: The admissions process is infallible. Corollary: Those admitted to top ivies are better than those rejected. I’ll make a separate post giving a real life example of this in action. We need to recognize, as others have suggested, that there is a lot of “noise” in this process, and that the results at highly selective colleges can be quirky.</p>
<p>Myth: When it comes to college admissions, what I want to be the truth is the truth.
'nuff said.</p>
<p><b>Myth: People on College Confidential know more about how applicants are selected than you do.</b></p>
<p>This site is pretty cool for questions about HOW to apply. But really, what do random college students and high schoolers know about your chances at X college?</p>
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<p>That twerp needs to learn some Greek or to consult a good English dictionary. </p>
<p>[Myriad</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myriad]Myriad”>Myriad - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>^ Indeed. Christ, it’s one thing to become annoyed because it’s a bit cliche, but it’s another to toss an app because you fail at English.</p>
<p>This thread seems like it’s oriented towards freshman admissions, but I have a question regarding transfer admissions:</p>
<p>How much of a significant impact do withdrawals have on an academic record? Of course, it looks bad if one were to just drop a class out of sheer laziness, but what if there is a documented medical excuse or an extreme financial situation which forced the student to drop the class? Assuming that the student explains the reasons for dropping the course on the common application, would dropping the courses still be a huge detriment, even if these medical or financial situations were present?</p>
<p>I got a question, or a myth. Many engineering, math/science, students can’t write as good as literature students. Their essays are likely less interesting or even boring compare to non-engineering students. So here is the question/myth, Ivies are only looking for well-rounded. If you can’t write as well, you don’t have a chance. True or false?
Do admission officers cut them some slack?</p>
<p>In 1974 I received a “likely letter” from Yale which also invited me to come to the campus and meet with some profs. I went, even though it was a big deal for my 'rents. A few weeks later I got another letter saying “oops. sorry. mistake. pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” I was ultimately rejected. But I ended up at MIT. So, I now consider myself from Missouri, the “show me” state - I don’t believe it until the fat lady sings.</p>
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<p>It’s more a question than any myth. But my opinion is that someone that is trying to get into Cornell’s engineering program better have a great score in math. Will they give some slack on the reading/writing scores? It simply depends on the competition. If they have a great number of candidates that scored well in all areas … no slack is given/required.</p>