<p>I agree, legacies especially normally need at minimum median stats to get in. Yet, the unhooked with median stats have slim chances. Legacies are accepted at twice the rate and 12% of the seats are held for them. It’s considerably higher at some colleges such as Princeton–there they get in at 3 times the rate.</p>
<p>The most bending is done for revenue athletes…we could parse all day, but the bottom line is that 40% of the seats are taken before the average applicant is even considered. The effective admit rate for the unhooked is therefore much lower than published numbers.</p>
<p>I agree with you that most people don’t understand this. Colleges release most of these figures, but never in one place. </p>
<p>I cringe when kids on this board tell kids with median stats for one of the colleges that they have a good chance when the fact is, to have a good chance, every stat would have to be over the 75th percentile. At HYP, that would be 790 per SAT section, 770 for the mid tier ivies.</p>