<p>Gender: Male Race: White Class: Junior State: Massachusetts</p>
<p>GPA UW: 3.7 GPA W: 4.4 SATs: CR: 770, M:790, W:760, T:2320 SAT IIs: none taken, planning on taking at least Math II, Lit, and Spanish Class Rank: Top 10% (that's all I've been told) APs: Frosh/Soph: none offered Junior: AP Calc AB, AP Phys, AP US History, AP Eng Lang (self-study) Senior: AP Lit, AP Spanish, AP Bio, AP Stats, AP Chem (taking a course at MIT on Sundays), AP Calc BC (self-study). Other Stuff:
~I am the only junior in 3 APs
~There is a 3 AP limit in my school, but I petitioned it this year and was granted an exception.
~My GPA UW is a bit low becauese I missed 38 days of school soph year because of anxiety--related medical problems.
~I took a precalculus class over the summer to skip the course in school. Extracurriculars:
~Volunteer at Local Hospital
~Volunteer at Local Homeless Shelter/Food Pantry
~Work at Cold Stone Creamery
~Captain of Varsity Tennis Team
~Captain of Academic Decathalon
~Member of Math Team
~NHS Member
~Peer Minister at Local Parish</p>
<p>So, do I have a chance? I really like the school.</p>
<p>Interesting screen name for someone interested in this school…Yes, you have a chance, as do several thousand other students with a similar profile. Your SAT scores are fine. Your grades/coursework seem fine. What makes you stand out? Why would Swarthmore accept you? What could you bring to the school to enhance their community? Have you visited? If so, “Why Swarthmore?”</p>
<p>Yeah the screenname says I dream of an ivy league school (which I really don’t, to be honest), but I am not so deluded to think I will get into one. That’s why I’m choosing fantastic non-Ivy schools, like Swarthmore, to look into. I plan on writing an essay about being a heavily-closeted gay kid in an uber-Catholic family, and the goal is to not make it cliche. There will also be an undertone in the essay of how my roots draw me towards conservatism while my inherent beliefs draw me towards liberalism. I don’t know if that makes me “stand out”, but it’s who I am.</p>
<p>"… but I am not so deluded to think I will get into one. That’s why I’m choosing fantastic non-Ivy schools, like Swarthmore, to look into. "</p>
<p>While I think you’ve got a shot (at least, you are in the blind-luck range, as are the vast majority of applicants), I don’t think you should approach Swarthmore expecting it to be easier to get into than an Ivy. The main difference in applications, as far as I can tell, is that Swat puts a much heavier emphasis on essays while most (all?) Ivies focus more on grades/test scores, which is somewhat a function of their significantly larger size.</p>
<p>to arador: that’s exactly why I’m choosing top LACs. My essays will hopefully be the thing that makes my application good. I am aware that Swarthmore is just as good if not better than some Ivies, but it does pay closer attention to special circumstances, of which I have a few.</p>
<p>^Swarthmore had a 22 percent acceptance rate this year, which means it seems far less selective than, say, Harvard, but it only had about 5000 applicants, out of which it acceped 900. On the other hand, Harvard had about 29,000 applicants. Its acceptance rate may be far smaller than Swarthmore’s, but that’s because there weren’t nearly as many applicants.</p>
<p>Swarthmore College sent letters of admission to 959 prospective members of the Class of 2013. 17% of the 5,574 students who applied were offered a position in the first year class.</p>
<p>Also as far as it being easier to get into than an Ivy, Cornell’s rate according to USNWR was 21.4%.</p>
<p>Actually, I read that the average GPA of Swarthmore applicants is much higher than that of Harvard applicants. This is because since Harvard has such a huge name, lots of people apply who are not remotely qualified, because they just want to see if they can get in. Many unqualified people apply just because of the name, and to have it as the token super-reach dream school. Swarthmore, however, is much more self-selecting. Like, if you ask some random person on the street about colleges, they will probably have heard of Harvard but not Swarthmore. Swarthmore is basically only known by people who are very academic, though, unlike Harvard, which is known by everyone, non-academic and academic alike. So, most of the people who apply to a non-famous school like Swarthmore would be less likely to have heard of it unless they actually researched and looked into top-notch liberal arts schools, unlike Harvard, which everyone knows about. Therefore, even though the actual percentage of applicants who get accepted to Harvard is a good chunk less than the percent who get into Swarthmore, you shouldn’t be deceived by that and say that Swarthmore is way easier to get into than Harvard. I’ve heard of 2 people who got rejected from Swarthmore but accepted to Harvard, I’ve heard of 1 person who got into Stanford but was rejected from Swarthmore, I’ve heard of one person who got into Brown but was rejected from Swarthmore, and I’ve heard of 2 people who got into Columbia but were rejected from Swarthmore.</p>
I can’t tell what point you’re trying to make. Harvard gets more applicants, yes, but that’s part of what makes it more difficult to get into. If you had convincing evidence that a significant portion of those were long-shot applicants that wouldn’t give someone like the OP any competition, maybe you would have a point but, as far as I know, no such evidence exists.</p>
<p>
You’ll note that I said “most Ivies.” Congratulations on finding the one Ivy that actually has a higher acceptance rate than Swarthmore.</p>
<p>
How do you propose someone back up the statement that Swarthmore is as selective as the Ivies? It doesn’t have as low an acceptance rate as most Ivies, the percentage of accepted students in the top 10% of their high school classes is lower than at most Ivies, and the average SAT scores are the same or lower than they are at most Ivies (with Cornell again being the only Ivy with an appreciably lower average SAT). What other metrics do you propose we use to determine the selectivity of an academic institution?</p>
<p>
I don’t see how your post is logical in the least; what difference does it make why a school is more selective? What’s more, supplying anecdotal evidence about knowing people that got accepted at other places but rejected from Swarthmore is largely worthless. I could tell you about people that got accepted to Swarthmore but rejected from Ivies (or even Stanford). So what?</p>
<p>FWIW , if you are comparing this way at least you should be comparing apples to apples. Cornell university has 7 separate undergraduate colleges.</p>
<p>The last published SAT mid-50% range for its College of Arts & Sciences (18% accepted) was
SAT Verbal 650-740
SAT Math 670- 770.
The comparable ranges for its College of Engineering were
SAT Verbal 640 -730
SAT Math 720 - 790.</p>
<p>Swarthmore College offers programs in Arts & Sciences and “engineering”. As far as I’m aware it does not offer comparable programs of study to what is offered at the other 5 specialty undergraduate colleges at Cornell. And even if it does, each of these colleges should be evaluated for admissions chances individually. A potential applicant to Swarthmore would most typically be considering in the alternative either the Arts & Sciences College or the Engineering College at Cornell, however.</p>
<p>If you read what I wrote about the SAT scores Swat’s are higher than half the Ivies, so Swarthmore has higher average scores than half of the Ivies and the same as one of them. </p>
<p>No need to congratulate me by the way, I can do without your sarcasm.</p>
<p>What difference does it make if a school is more selective or not? </p>
<p>What is important is the quality of the educational experience and the fit of the college for the particular student. I will also clarify that “educational experience” includes the social environment since the whole college “experience” is a 24/7 thing that includes classroom, extracurricular, dorm life, peer exchanges and whatever else might transpire in the student’s life at a college. </p>
<p>It is, indeed, sad that so many students and parents go about choosing colleges for the “brand” effect, in a manner similar to how they might choose a pair of jeans or car without any consideration as to whether the kid will be happy and thrive in the particular environment.</p>
<p>D**n those wretched rankings of the US News and World Report…</p>
The difference is it’s harder to get into a more selective school. I think that’s all anyone was talking about, not whether that makes it better or anything else.</p>
<p>
Would you have even heard of Swarthmore were it not for the US News & World Report? Maybe, maybe not.</p>
<p>As for railing against people choosing colleges for the brand effect, there is really no way to avoid it. An academically-oriented person who is interested in a challenging, intense, and dare I say it, elite undergraduate experience is going to have to choose from brand name colleges (such as Swarthmore, for instance). There are simply too many colleges out there for each college-bound senior to research all of them. At best, such a person can seriously examine about 10 or 20 and, as such, he will have to rely on branding and the metrics provided by the likes of USN&WR. After that, he will simply have to make a choice and hope it’s a good one, because you just can’t know going into a thing like this that it’s definitely going to be a great fit, be it academically, socially, or otherwise.</p>
First of all, you give no source for this data. How current is it? Is it even accurate? Secondly, you cite the 25th and 75th percentile scores, which is not the average score. From the data you give, there is no way to know if Swarthmore has a higher average SAT score than the other Ivies. It’s only clear that Swarthmore’s is higher than Cornell’s but, then, someone pointed out a few posts ago that the score given to Cornell doesn’t accurately reflect what’s going on there. Maybe the hotel management program is easier to get into or something.</p>
<p>This is why I say Swarthmore’s average SAT is the same or lower than most of the Ivies. It’s significantly lower than HYP’s, higher than Cornell’s, and about the same as the rest.</p>