<p>1) Their GPA is not high (less than 3.7)
2) They don't have any outstanding ECs</p>
<p>But what if they have both the above, and stellar LORs, will they still get in?</p>
<p>It’s because they didn’t get 2450, no doubt.</p>
<p>It is amusing that people say “Even 2400ers get rejected”, for those students are much less likely to get rejected by every ivy in comparison to a 2200er or less.</p>
<p>3) Personal Statements were not really that great.</p>
<p>4) The applicant’s application was perfectly good, but the college already had oodles and oodles of people with the same exact stats to choose from.</p>
<p>5) They were Asian Males. Arguably just a specific version of (4)</p>
<p>6) They had a criminal record</p>
<p>7) They appeared obsessed with college admissions <em>cough</em> silverturtle <em>cough</em></p>
<p>There’s nothing extremely impressive about a 2400. At the end of the day it’s not that much different than a 2250, and in both cases, it just doesn’t say all that much about the true ability and “intelligence” of the test taker. Kids with a 2400 get rejected because there is far more to a college application than a SAT score.</p>
<p>smartest kid i know has a 2350 (probably HYP/duke), and second smartest a 2130 (dartmouth now)… so SATs aren’t everything (IQ-wise)</p>
<p>if you think about it SAT is just a test of nothing. Also, 2200 and 2400 difference is not too significant; you missed what maybe 10 more questions than the 2400 scorer? Luck is probably involved too.</p>
<p>8) Bland teacher and counselor recommendations.</p>
<p>. . . because there was nothing in the application that made people want to stay up all night, eat pizza and discuss the world with him.</p>
<p>The 2400 is impressive, contrary to popular belief. But it helps in terms of scholarships.</p>
<p>Or so I’ve heard…</p>
<p>They can still get rejected because it’s just one part of the app…the most important thing is the high school transcript. So I would imagine that the most common reason for rejecting a 2400 scorer is a relatively poor high school transcript. The next most common reason(at places like HYP) might be that essays/recs/EC’s paint a portrait of a pretty boring/unimpressive person(awesome SAT score notwithstanding).</p>
<p>Something that often gets missed in this discussion is there are very few pure 2400 SAT scores. It is far less impressive for someone to study to a specific test, and retake that test 10 times, super-scoring until you get three 800’s that add to a 2400. More impressive is the student who tests twice, gets a 2250, and spends the rest of their time not mastering a single exam but involved in other activities. Really, when someone says they have a perfect SAT that’s great, but it becomes less impressive if you studied every Saturday for that same test for years taking it time and time again…you darn well should get a perfect score by then!</p>
<p>I agree with other points that have been made here. I just wanted to add this to the discussion.</p>
<p>There are about 400 perfect SAT scores and probably another 400 perfect ACT scores (I have nt seen ACT numbers validated but making an assumption). Assuming everyone of them thinks they are good enough and all apply to HYPS, it is not possible for the schools to cross admit all of them. OTOH if they all distribute their applications between several schools aim for different schools during the application process, there is a good chance none of them will get rejected.</p>
<p>One factor is that some of them are just not interesting people. I know a guy who got a 2400, but he didn’t get into most of his top choices. His essays weren’t very interesting, and tbh, he’s kind of a bland person in general. On the contrary, I know someone with a sub-2000 SAT (and no, this person doesn’t have a hook) who’s going to Yale with me next year, and this person makes amazing art and probably had very interesting essays too. Basically, you have to bring something more to the table than test scores, because having high test scores doesn’t necessarily add anything to the campus community.</p>
<p>sub 2000 is below 2000 or low 2000?</p>