I found a new college admissions calculator website on Reddit the other day: mycollegecalculator.com. It says it uses admissions data from Ivy Leagues to predict your odds of getting in based on you gender, race or ethnicity, test scores, type of high school you went to, and a couple of more things. I’m wondering how much college actually factor these components of your application, because it seems like it can make a difference based on the amount I’ve played with it.
Many schools take these, along with many other factors, into account when making admissions decisions, using “diversity” and other reasoning to argue it’s beneficial. (There’s plenty of literature on the topic - discussing it here rarely has a good outcome. But it’s a simple fact that the data is used.)
How much it impacts decisions is anybody’s guess - the admissions process is quite opaque.
I wouldn’t put too much weight on “calculators”. They can multiply the historic numbers to give you a ballpark, but don’t take the results too seriously.
I’m sure there is some info to be gleaned from it. But when I put in info for D21, and tried ACT scores of 30 and 36 it barely moved the needle. Based on results from our HS it seems off. Our kids in the 33-35 range do a bit better I think. But I have to assume they wouldn’t do that well with a 30.
The calculator is click bait and doesn’t give you any real info. It only asks a couple of questions - early or regular decision, race, region, ACT/SAT, and public or private HS. It doesn’t take into account the very nature of these schools: that they do holistic admissions. FWIW, I checked it out for my D18 using her info when she had applied to the college she’s enrolled at. The calculator said her chances were under 11%. At the time my D applied, her HS GC said she thought my D had a better than 50/50 chance based on all her experience with this college because she thought it was a great fit and my D’s application (and the wonderful GC’s recommendation) showed it.
No GPA? What kind of calculator is this? 