Do some colleges admit people SOLELY by looking at their grades and test scores?

Applying to College
1

<p>I have someone in my class who has eleven 5's and one 4 on 12 AP exams (and by the way these APs are the most challenging ones, not ones that are considered easy. plus, she's a junior and is taking 7 additional APs next year as a senior), 2390 SAT I, 5 perfect SAT IIs and 2 SAT IIs above 750. I think she is ranked second or third, and looking at her scores and grades, I think she has what I could call a "free pass" to any college I can think of.</p>

<p>She says that besides core ECs, (such as athletics and community service) extracurricular activities are just a waste of time for her, and she says some colleges have a system where one admissions officer looks at an application and admits the student SOLELY by scores and grades. Is this true? I was shocked by how confident she was when saying this, and I'm starting to think this is true.</p>

2

<p>Most state schools focus more on raw stats than extracurriculars.</p>

3

<p>I second with NuclearPakistan1
Schools like ASU, UofA, and NAU admit a lot of kids who do so-so in school and barely have any ECs</p>

<p>Top tier schools look at EVERYTHING and how you set yourself apart</p>

4

<p>Nephew1 said he didn’t want to apply to any place that required an essay, so he applied to Iowa State online submitting only his test scores and his grades. He had his acceptance letter in the mail two weeks later.</p>

<p>Many public colleges and universities list the GPA and test score combinations that guarantee admissions for in-state students right on their websites.</p>

5

<p>Yeah, state school are often like that. I know UCs are very statistics focused, so I’m sure she’d be in at all of them. Private schools are definitely a different situation, though.</p>

6

<p>Yes, state schools. My teacher told me that Penn State basically just looks at your GPA and test scores and doesn’t really consider ECs, essays, or recommendations.</p>

7

<p>ECs matter little outside of the top colleges.</p>

8

<p>I heard University of Texas has a rule where if you are an applicant from Texas in the top 10% of your class, you are automatically admitted. Which makes it significantly harder for students outside the top 10%. And yeah, a lot of state schools just look at grades, class rank, and test scores and input those into a formula. So, many students are automatically admitted (and know either beforehand or right after the application was sent). This generally becomes less true the more competitive a state school gets.</p>

<p>She will probably have trouble at privates like the ivies and such, as they care a great deal about essays, ECs, and teacher recs. These schools want to see a passion (or more) that this student doesn’t seem to have. She still may be admitted, but (even if she were a more active person outside of school) the top privates are a crapshoot.</p>

9

<p>Senior0991: actually, it’s a little bit different than that. the rule is that all students in the stat of texas that are in the top 10% are automatically admitted to any college of their choice. and yeah. it DOES make it harder for those that aren’t in “the elite 10%”. i should know; i live in texas, and i have it paraded around me everyday.</p>

<p>and ecs only make a difference if you want to get into a harder school. colleges that “weed out” freshmen aren’t going to be too interested in ecs, though they may make somewhat of a difference if applying later.</p>

10

<p>There were a couple of threads about this topic recently, but I can only find one of them:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/712961-what-schools-have-guaranteed-admission.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/712961-what-schools-have-guaranteed-admission.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here is another link on guaranteed admissions:</p>

<p>[Guaranteed</a> College Acceptance - Associated Content](<a href=“http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1754110/guaranteed_college_acceptance.html?cat=4]Guaranteed”>http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1754110/guaranteed_college_acceptance.html?cat=4)</p>

<p>Public universities often are very generous about accepting AP/IB/CLEP exams for credit and/or placement. If mosdefinitely’s friend is interested in getting through college by the quickest means, her best bet is probably to apply to a guaranteed admissions school that will give her a lot of credit for those AP classes. With something like 20 AP courses, she could conceivably enter college as a second semester sophomore or even a junior. If the school awards credit for CLEP exams, she might want to consider taking the CLEP exam in any subject where her AP exam score was too low for college credit.</p>

11

<p>I think most schools look at GPA / SAT as God and then take a quick look at what else the student has done with his time. But when it comes to scholarships it’s GPA / SAT / Sports and nothing else matters except with small scholarships.</p>

12

<p>About 95% of US colleges admit solely based on metrics. Only very few look beyond that. It’s just that CC denizens are extremely focused on those rarefied few.</p>

13

<p>Oxford and Cambridge seem to roll that way.</p>

14

<p>Most schools rely only on grades/test scores, it’s only at top colleges where virtually everyone has stellar stats that ECs, etc. are very important.</p>

15

<p>McGill University–admission solely based on test scores</p>

16

<p>Many of the state universities do that quite a bit. I know that UMass Amherst only takes GPAs of 2.9+. If you have at least a 3.0 and half-decent SAT scores to back you up, you are almost guaranteed entry.</p>