Which top universities and liberal arts schools have the most holistic admissions processes? Which give the most weight to things like essays and extra curriculars and additional materials (the “human element,” one might say)?
What are some good schools that I can still get in to with an 87 because of my excellent extracurriculars
(work 2 jobs for 50 hours a week, won about 6 essay contests and participated in about 20, number one ranked marketing student in long island, State Senate Youth leadership award, treasurer of 1 club, Founder President of 4 clubs, awesome recommendations, awesome college essay)
All of the top schools have holistic admissions. Look up the Common Data Set for each, section C. There are a few like Bard which accept alternative things like essays to GPA and scores.
But all the top schools – won’t overlook your B average either. Sorry but great work, contests and leadership only supplant an otherwise stellar academic achievement and potential. Top schools are academic institutions first. Even as a top rated athlete, a B average would be an extreme outlier. You’ve not achieved greatly at any honors or AP curriculum either (89 UW GPA, 91 W GPA)
Frankly, the schools you need to be targeting are those who will accept students w/your GPA and test scores – and these won’t value your ECs. If there’s any way for you to cut back or omit some or most of your ECs and boost your GPA in your final semesters or increase your ACT/SAT, that will yield MUCH more benefit than some additional ingorable lines or vol hours in your common app. I don’t mean to be unduly harsh but that’s your likelihood. Plz meet w/your guid counselor and get input on what a realistic suite of target colleges is – she or he will have lots of experience with prior kids’ records and results. Good luck
School choice for the B+ student is the most difficult by far, made worse by the fact you are from a high population, high acheiving area like Long Island. What you need to do is think out of the box and apply to schools others in your area won’t apply to. Examples would be St. Lawrence, University of Vermont, Case Western, etc. Stay out of the admissions traffic coming from Long Island. You also have some good SUNY choices.
What are your ACT/SAT/Subject test scores? Are you planning to apply to test optional schools or do you have a few strong scores that would boost your application? While a lower GPA does put you at a disadvantage if applying to “top” schools, perhaps a bump from good scores along with those ECs will help. By the way what do you consider “top” schools as that can be a pretty broad term based on different criteria? Do you want to stay in the NE or are you willing to look south, to midwest, to west? What are your financial needs- how much will you be able to pay/cover per year?
@lr4550 No financial needs. Willing to travel. Interest in politics. I got an 1810 (650M/590W/570R) on my first sat and am awaiting the results of my second
@diplomill When you say top school you are referring to top 20 schools in either the university rankings or liberal arts college ranks. Generally, these schools are admitting the top 5% of students.
You are in the 85th percentile which is well above average but not close to those students.
Look at schools in two groups. Matches, where you are solidly in the middle 50% and Safeties where you are in the top 25% of applicants.
I usually take the other side of the holistic argument, and that is when a school can choose between two numerically equivalent students, the more rounded and “human” wins, not that being a more complete applicant is worth 10 percentiles.
When you pick schools try not to think like the typical Long Island high school student.
One example, if you were thinking about Lehigh, stop and think about Gettysburg or Muhlenberg or Clark instead.
If you were thinking about Georgetown, stop and think about Loyola Maryland instead.
If you have no financial need you don’t need to work 50 hours per week. You first priority should be your grades. So many students still have misconception that great EC can substitute for an OK grades.
Most top schools are holistic. But they don’t give a weight to things on your profile. They are looking for ECs that would fit what they are looking for. So while a certain EC may help you a ton with getting into one school, it could make a small difference in terms of getting into another.