<p>Thanks a lot for the comments. They were really helpful; I'll start by getting my recommendations and lots of research done.</p>
<p>Don't worry about SATs. If somebody gets rejected from a top score with SATs above 2250 it's because of something else (most likely essays).</p>
<p>You have excellent chances at all.</p>
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Don't worry about SATs. If somebody gets rejected from a top score with SATs above 2250 it's because of something else (most likely essays).</p>
<p>You have excellent chances at all.
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<p>its a bit of a stretch to think that if you apply to e.g HYPS with SATs above 2250 and average ECs, you'd get in mainly by writing good essays. Especially when colleges are aware that many people hire counselors to polish their essays way beyond recognition. And if it were true that you could get in by a few weeks of inspired writing rather than a few years of determined accomplishment, then everyone would be focusing their time on getting good SATs and taking essay classes instead of running clubs and ECs... it'd be so much easier.</p>
<p>essays are important, but they're probably not more important than your ECs and recs, in addition to your SATs. Great essays with lousy ECs make you sound like an empty vessel, great ECs and SATs with lousy essays shows you can't write. for 2250s, ECs will be the main deciding factor - they will influence your essay in some way, and IMO they are the accomplishments that indicate what kind of person you have been your whole life.</p>
<p>Fair enough. To be honest the most likely essays comment was referring directly to the OP...I think his ECs are already very good and I'd imagine his recs will be as well.</p>
<p>How important are recommendation letters then? I'll start getting recommendations, what's the best way to go about it? Would it be advisable to get as many recommendations as possible and discard the mediocre ones?</p>
<p>Recommendations are useful if they are really good. I think most recommendations are rather bland so they don't tell anything useful. Still, you need to send 2 teacher recommendations and 1 counselor recommendation(which would be your CT).</p>
<p>You should try looking for teachers that know you well and have a high regard for you. Ask them to write. Don't go about asking more than you need, its rather rude.</p>
<p>he'll have a hard time getting into many of his college choices because he'll be placed in the international pool. my friend who is bengali applied to many top schools in the U.S., i.e. MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cooper Union, and Cornell, just to name a few. He had a 2320 SAT score, took the AIME, Captain of our school's science olympiad team, math team participant, and much more, but was rejected from MIT, waitlisted to Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, was accepted to Cornell and Cooper Union. This is just to give you an indication of how you'll stand in the international pool.</p>
<p>are you considering waiving your right to view your recommendations i.e. confidential recs? i've no idea how much advantage that would give you, but if you wanna do that you can't read and choose your recommendations cos ur teacher wld send it directly to the colleges for you. you're gonna have to guess which teachers know and like you the best :D and it's not necessarily those who teach your best subject or for whom you're the best student academically... it's more impt that they like you. and i'd say teacher recs are very important - admissions officers would probably trust the words of teachers more than the expectedly exaggerated personal statements and essays written by applicants.... even if obviously most teachers do try to write glowing recommendations to bolster the school's admit rates.</p>
<p>and even as an intl applicant, boeing767's gonna get great help. he's from raffles junior college loll one of the best ivy league farms outside of the US. and yeah boeing you really should consult your teachers about your applications too, how to present urself, etc cos rjc teachers are v good at this... better than hc ones anyway. and rjc already has a very good relationship with stanford and cornell.</p>
<p>screwitlah: It has been a tradition for RJC teachers to only write confidential letters of recommendation; this I hear from my teacher. So now there is the added challenge of identifying the right teachers, because obviously I don't want a negative recommendation reaching the colleges. Thanks a lot for your tips!</p>