<p>toowonderful - I was speaking in terms of acceptances for the most part (wasn’t that the OP question?). </p>
<p>I agree that most schools have classes that fall into the required category specifically designed for those students who might be less interested or capable in that area. Northwestern has an Astronomy class that is taken by many School of Communications kids as their science requirement because of it’s relative ease.</p>
<p>So we all agree we’re talking about acceptance? UCLA, USC, and Northwestern, among the others already mentioned, are not comparable to the ivies. These are tough admits, but simply not in the same impossible category as Harvard and Yale. A 4.X + 36 student is LIKELY to be accepted at these schools. </p>
<p>Here’s my small vent…and I truly don’t mean to offend anyone, which having said that I probably will. Up until this year I had a lot of respect for the Ivies. But a colleague’s son got admitted with barely a 3.0 and SAT’s of 1700 only because he can play football. I no longer believe these schools hold any more prestige as any other college out there. Clearly if you have a famous parent, enough money to throw into an endowment or play a sport these colleges will admit you. </p>
<p>@bisouu - I think that has always been the case for most colleges…it’s just quieter at the Ivies. I was having a conversation with another parent recently who has a kid (still young, just finishing sophomore year) who REALLY wants to go to an Ivy, and we were talking about the “package”…Great Grades, stellar scores, a wide variety of extra curriculars, leadership roles, community service and that quirky something “extra”. I was talking about D’s experience- she did apply to 1 Ivy (Brown, mostly b/c she just thought she wanted to “give it a go”) and in her interview she was asked about her focus of activities in theater rather than having a diversity of interests. And parent and I were talking about that idea, and if it had been sports based rather than theater based would it have been a topic of conversation… who knows </p>