<p>wow a 2100 is 97th percentile? How sure of you of this data lol</p>
<p>Not everyone can get into HYP. Not everyone is going to be CEO of a Fortune 500 company. </p>
<p>You can get a great education and have a great job without aiming at HYP.</p>
<p>There have been mentions of people who did not go to Ivy Leagues or other presitigous schools and did well. Does anyone know any examples of these people?</p>
<p>There are so many people that exceed the “normal” standard that elite colleges don’t consider “normal” people. Yeah, it sounds really unfair, but not accepting those who tried harder than “normal” people isn’t much fair-er. How would you feel if you had a 2300 SAT score, a 4.7GPA, and loads of ECs, only to be rejected because colleges say “Oh wait, we have to accept “normal” people who didn’t work as hard as you. Sorry.”</p>
<p>WF1117 - Are you joking? I will assume not. OK, here are just a few. I don’t know your definition of “prestigious”, but I will take it as any school in the top 25 of the USNWR rankings.</p>
<p>Jack Welch, CEO of GE for years: UMass
Steve Jobs, Apple Computers: One semester at Reed College
John Glenn, first American in space and former US Senator: Muskingum College
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House: Trinity Washington University
David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo: Tulane University
Pat Woertz, Chairman, CEO and President of ADM: Penn State
Angela Braly, President and CEO of Wellpoint: Texas Tech
Sam Walton, founder of WalMart: University of Missouri
Kenneth Lewis, CEO Bank of America: Georgia State University
Stephen King, best-selling author: University of Maine</p>
<p>Is that enough? I mean, there is no question that many of our most successful people from all fields attended top schools, but that is to be expected. How does one untangle whether they were destined to that success because they are the “best of the best”, or if the school got them there, or some mix? It is an impossible question to answer. Clearly, going to a top school with other amazingly bright students would be a big plus for most people that are also that bright (and usually not so much so for people that cannot keep up), but it is neither a necessary not a sufficient condition for being successful in life, however you want to define that.</p>
<p>Galitzin: George W. Bush went to Yale.</p>
<p>glido: I already told him that, lol (post #53). Although he did get an MBA from Harvard. But that isn’t what we are talking about here.</p>
<p>ironicallyunsure may have hit on something. There re a lot of really great normal schools for normal people. Go Devils!</p>
<p>fallenchemist: sorry about that. You are ahead of me as usual. George W. has twins. One went to Yale, the other went to a normal school. Hook 'em Horns!</p>
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<p>Something tells me that Duke surpasses most Ivy league schools and then some.</p>
<p>I’d like to thank you all for yours responses. Some of them were really insightful! But first, I want to make it very clear that I am not saying that lowering the bar for HYP applicants is viable! Of course it is not. If you lower the standards of accepted applicants, the HYP won’t be HYP (paradoxically). Most of you didn’t get what I meant by “normal student”. I’ll try to elaborate on what I meant. This student is diligent and very hard working. He gets a “good” (~2200) SAT score and is in the top 5% of his class. He has 2-3 ECs that’s he passionate about. But that’s it. Here, I’d like to quote my own example. I’m not a US citizen, and I come from a place where people don’t know much about the applicant process. I didn’t know what SAT was till a year ago! Most of the people I know draw a blank when I talk about Cornell. Frankly, I think they don’t even know what the Ivy League is. I am not justifying my circumstances but yes, I didn’t get many opportunities to prove myself. I’ve always been hardworking so I managed to be in top 5% of my class and score a decent 2200 on my SAT. I followed my interests with lot of passion. I am very passionate about music (play the piano for over 10 years, have a band, launched an album etc) and I purse debating very earnestly. But that’s it. Now I don’t have a degree in music; I haven’t played at Carnegie Hall; I haven’t taken part in Olympiads, INMO etc etc. ExieMITAlum is right; my knowledge about colleges and their admission process is limited to CC. But then I really don’t have many resources other than this. I’ll be competing with people with similar and better numbers, people who’ve authored books, published papers etc. While my SAT score and class rank might compare favourably with theirs, but my “out of the box” extra-curricular activities don’t.</p>
<p>^ Still stuck up on those three blessed authors? Hahaha.</p>
<p>Well, you just described how some people can be “better” than you, so why should the ivies take you over them? You have to have some special. There are thousands of extremely bright students out there applying to ivies. You can have a 2400 SAT score and still get rejected from many ivies. You have to bring some unique to the table. As an international student, i’m sure that you could find something unique to bring.</p>
<p>I’m a “normal” kid, and a potential international student, Yale has always been my dream school, but I realised that I’m not the “perfect” candidate for that kind of a school, so I got past that, and I’m only looking at colleges that i have a shoot at attending…Every college in the us will probably give you the same level of education as the ivies. Attending an ivy league university is probably the best experience you can get, but there are perfectly good, as far as education goes, and beautiful schools that are in the same rank as the ivies.
With this post I am also trying to convince myself that it’s not all about the Ivies, but i’m going to apply to yale in whatever case, i have nothing to lose except the money from the application fee :D</p>
<p>I think it’s often a bit of a shock for international students to find that being “hard-working” has limited value in gaining admission to the top schools in the U.S. While most admittees do work hard in high school (and at their ECs), most of them also have some talents and abilities that help them out. One of those talents, of course, is the ability to get very high scores on standardized tests–something that can be improved with prep, but only so much.</p>
<p>What is “failed simulation”?? sounds like something out of Isaac Asimov.</p>
<p>“Galitzin: George W. Bush went to Yale.”</p>
<p>“glido: I already told him that, lol (post #53). Although he did get an MBA from Harvard. But that isn’t what we are talking about here.” </p>
<p>Ohhhhh yes it is.</p>
<p>DMelanogaster: No, we are talking about undergraduate admissions.</p>
<p>itsmylife99: If you have 2200 SAT, top 5% of your class, and are an accomplished musician with passion, of course you have a shot at HYP. Do you have a great chance? No, but the admission stats alone tell you that no one has a great chance (unless their parents donated millions, that’s just reality but also only a handful of cases). Harvard takes people like you every year. Don’t get blinded by the CC crowd, it is not representative. It is generally a good and useful group, but it is also self selective towards the upper end.</p>
<p>The fact that George W. Bush was accepted by Yale often comes up. I would like to throw out a few facts that suggest why that may not be that relevant to today’s applicants. First of all, he enrolled there in 1964. That’s a while ago. Second, he was a major legacy. His grandfather–a U.S Senator went there, as did his own father, George H.W. Bush. Both were big deals on campus–members of Skull and Bones. Also, George W. Bush graduated from Phillips Academy, a major prep school feeder to the Ivies. So, this was in an era when grades and scores weren’t as important as they are now, AND he was a multiple legacy AND he was from a very well-connected family AND he was graduating from a top prep school. So you can’t really generalize too much from that, especially considering that it was almost 50 years ago.</p>
<p>itsmylife,</p>
<p>Being international is not an execuse. Here is one from the Harvard board.</p>
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<p>his screen name is bilguun look him up. that is kind of competitions you are facing at the top ivy schools. Why an Ivy pick you over some one like that? Give me a reason…</p>
<p>For a unhooked candidate, it is just pure competition in the Ivies.</p>