<p>i've heard that kids exceptional ECs and accomplishments from them make them unique and get accepted "Easier". however, is it true that although you are truly exceptional in this one EC and you love it so much but you see that your grades + test scores aren't that good (such as some B's in high school, not that highscore of ACT/SAT, etc), would adcoms turn their head away and simply say "aww... although he's passionate with his EC, unfortunately we should waitlist this kid because of "not- THAT-good -grades." they would rather look at kids with similar passions to this kid but w/ higher stats, right?</p>
<p>Kevster,</p>
<p>You are going to have to be a bit more specific. If by exceptional accomplishment you mean quaterbacking a state champion football team, you just might find a few schools that would be interested despite a few B's and mediocre SAT's. If we are talking about solving a Rubik's Cube faster than anyone else at your school, that would not carry quite as much weight.</p>
<p>In either case, there are a lot of good schools out there that are perfectly happy to accept students with average test scores and a solid B average.</p>
<p>Great questions. These should stimulate a lot of input and opinions.</p>
<p>To evaluate this issue, I think we need to look at the selectivity ranking of different colleges. For the Ivies and other very selective schools, great EC's are essential. These schools attract a large number of very strong applicants with near perfect SATs, grades, class rankings, recs and great essays. Many also have strong EC's which include activities inside and outside of HS, awards, and "passions." It is pretty hard to stand out as exceptional in this group of applicants and these extremely strong applicants have less than a 50% chance of being accepted. There are plenty of applicants who are president of the math club, have varsity letters and have made it to the all state level playing the trumpet. Without strong EC's, there is very little chance.</p>
<p>EC's are also important for acceptance at selective schools - those with selectivity rankings of about 20-100 where acceptance rates are about 25-50%. The difference is that academically strong students have a good chance of being accepted even if they do not have exceptional EC's. You are likely to be accepted if you have near perfect SATs and an A average. Strong EC's can make up for being toward the bottom quartile of applicants. You can be accepted with a bunch of Bs in HS. There is no quantitative measure but just guessing I think that strong EC's are worth as much as 100 or 200 extra SAT points and can make up for getting a bunch of Bs.</p>
<p>For the vast majority of colleges, strong EC's are not essential. These schools have acceptance rates of 50-80% and reasonable academic stats are all that is needed. Strong EC's still help. They can make a difference for the marginal student and they might help with merit awards and being accepted into honors programs. EC's are not likely to help if you are in the bottom quartile academically. At that level, it is better to concentrate on academics and raise the grades and academic stats to an acceptable level.</p>
<p>thank you for your input edad. i'll try to pull up my grades now (i have 2 Bs now) unlike frosh. year where i had about 6 or 7 Bs. i hope to show an upward trend to adcoms. </p>
<p>well i heard in this admissions book where this girl had average grades and sat scores, preety "normal" girl. she was very worried about her current stats but she had a hobby she loved so much - cooking russian food. she did this everyday after school and even published a book that listed various recipes for russian foods. </p>
<p>she eventually got accepted to 6 out of 8 ivy schools. impressive, huh?
yeah, i think so.</p>