<p>I was just wondering if anyone had a courageous story of how they got into a top-notch school with less than stellar GPA or SAT/ACT scores. With this website, it's always quite depressing to read about how people don't think that someone with a 2400 and 4.0, tons of EC's won't get into any of the top schools. It is just ridiculous. Anyways, I was just wondering if anyone actually has an encourgaing story to share to help shake away all these horrible stat readings haha.
Thanks</p>
<p>i need a miracle.</p>
<p>bump please</p>
<p>Sometimes you can get into a college that you think would really be a long shot. First, look at the admissions statistics. Even the top schools have a few students admitted who are way below the majority of the other applicants either gradewise or SAT wise. If you don't even fall in the bottom ten percent of the students admitted, then you are probably wasting your time. If not, then it is probably worth taking a chance, particularly if there is something that will really catch the eye of the admissions committee, i.e. you are a champion athlete, or a reknowned artist, etc. My child was admitted to the U of Chicago with at high school cum of less than 3.6 and SATs of 1340, below the majority of other applicants. She is a great singer and sang with reknowned choirs throughout high school, did lots of important volunteer work and had great recommendations and also pursued the school ( i.e. let them know why she was a great fit for them). So it worked. If she had SATs below 1200 then she would have been wasting her time. So do your research and give it a try for the one or two schools that are a super reach as long as there is evidence that they do admit some students with stats like yours. There are lots of great schools for you, no matter what your stats are that would be happy to have you and that you could do very well at.</p>
<p>Well, it seems to me on this site that the only schools considered "top-notch" are Harvard and Yale (hey, to each his own). For those that can see past that .... I was accepted into some good schools (Vanderbilt, Brown, Boston College, Notre Dame, Duke, Emory). I "only" had a 31 ACT and I wasn't even in the top 10% of my class -- okay, I was close (like 22/205 or something). I'm not a URM or legacy, I didn't overcome any big obstacles in life (not to the colleges' knowledge, anyways), no special internships or inventions or discoveries or cures, etc. It's not an extreme miracle -- it's not like my ACT was a 24 or something. But still, take it for what it's worth.</p>
<p>thank you for that answer. Congrats to your daughter too, that is a tough school to get into. Anyone else?</p>
<p>thanks lylbeach. I have a "30" on my ACT which as you said haha is considered a "low" score on this website and my GPA is really good though along with my class rank. Its hard to hear people from this website say that I won't make it just because a 30 instead of a 32/33. Thanks for your story though, anyone else?</p>
<p>bump it up</p>
<p>My friend got into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and MIT. Now he's going to P-town. He didn't even apply anywhere else.</p>
<p>^What was your friend like though?</p>
<p>i really don't know if this is a "miracle"...but my friend got into harvard and he had 2090 on SATs. but he had EXTREMELY good ECs. ^^ just making a point that standardized testing aint everything!</p>
<p>haha Geoffrey that didnt help and all, and jacobe that is nice to know that standardized scores aren't everything. More?</p>
<p>bump,bump, bump it up</p>
<p>my friend got a 1760 on the SATs, but had a 3.9 GPA with good amount of AP classes. However, he didn't having stellar ec's. he had the normal ec's of working, mun, etc. he's asian btw. and he got into cornell.</p>
<p>bump? I wanna hear more</p>