<p>Shreyers may not use SAT scores, but they do say something about being top in one’s class. Don’t know if that means top 1-2% or what. But I don’t think it means at the 10% level.</p>
<p>Personally, I think their “we don’t use SATs scores” is just their way of assuring some ethnic diversity.</p>
<p>Auburn gives a Presidential Scholarship plus an automatic invitation to the Honors College with an ACT of 34 or an ACT score of 1490. (It was 33 in the last admission cycle; they just bumped it up for the Fall 2012 admits.)</p>
<p>Fordham does not admit very many students to their honors college.</p>
<p>From what I could see from the pattern of Schreyer admissions at our high school, academic criteria are very important, and lack of consideration of SAT scores is not a ploy to increase diversity. Our high school is very competitive and stopped ranking a few years ago, but counselors do provide enough information that most schools would be able to figure out if a student would be top 1 or 2%, top 5%, etc. </p>
<p>Students at the top 10% level or even somewhat below have gotten into Schreyer, but these have been outstanding students who have garnered numerous <em>academic</em> distinctions and taken the most rigorous courseloads. They also tend to be academically well-rounded. Even if these students have not gotten the best GPA’s, they tend to have had the experiences and drive to achieve that will (usually) also result in high SAT scores.</p>
<p>OP - I would give Schreyer a try (it seemed like an excellent program, but Frazzled D had a few strong interests that were better supportd at other schools), but not count on it as a safety. And, FWIW, we have seen students from our high school who were not admitted to Schreyer, go on to PSU and find great research opportunities in the sciences and engineering. (It has gotten so that the big coupfor many students is not even getting into Schreyer so much as starting at University Park.)</p>
<p>I would also apply early to Pitt, and (if D is interested and willing) try to get those SAT scores up to 1500 or so for a shot at merit money. </p>
<p>At any school with an honors college, though, I would also look at course availability. (One advantage of Schreyer is priority registration.) Find out if your student will have to take additional placement tests to enter honors classes, even with a top SAT score and a 5 on the relevant AP, and if qualified students are often or ever shut out of honors sections because demand exceeds number of places.</p>
<p>Ohio state does not require have a cut off for honors but you have to write 3 essays. My daughter has a 28 act 4.0 uw gpa and she got in . Her boyfriend has 29 act and 3.8 and he also got in.</p>
<p>South Carolina honors requires seven essays. I think they must have had too many kids applying and wanted to cut down the number of applicants!</p>
<p>If she’s in the top 25% with a 770+ CR and 700+ M, she will have several solid options.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>I don’t know if that’s really true if her geographical limits are the upper quadrant of the county…like Midwest to the NE/Mid Atlantic. But, maybe I’m wrong.</p>
<p>It seems like a number wont’ accept those who aren’t in the top 5%.</p>
<p>
:eek: That is crazy.</p>
<p>We found with Frazzled kids that quite a few that said they would not accept below the top 5% were willing to bend the rule for more competitive high schools. It doesn’t hurt to ask.</p>
<p>But, one more good reason to encourage your school to stop ranking students, if they haven’t already.</p>
<p>"But, one more good reason to encourage your school to stop ranking students, if they haven’t already. "</p>
<p>-Colleges still rank even when HS does not. More so, many times, they strip HS ranking and weighted GPAs and rank themselves based on student GPA and HS class profile. As an example, if top 3% had GPA=4.0uw in class of 33 kids (data provided in HS class profile) and an applicant has HS GPA=4.0uw, it is not that hard to figure out that applicant graduated #1 in her class. It is not that hard to see also that top 2% simply is NOT possible because 2% out of 33 represents less than one person.
At least that was an answer to my question that I have raised during Honors’ info session as I was concerned with the fact that it was not possible to make top 2% in D’s HS class (of 33 kids) and HS did NOT rank.</p>
<p>Well, the answer we got was that even though when our school still ranked, some colleges were willing to stretch admissions criteria a bit when they took the difficulty of the school into account, but admissions results still improved quite a bit (especially at top 20 schools and some of the stricter honors colleges) once they abandoned rankings. </p>
<p>And, yes, I am sure that they looked at the class profile and could see that students not in the top 5% or even top 10% could still be getting 1500 plus SAT’s, several 5’s on AP’s by end of junior year, national awards, etc., and made nuanced judgements and decisions accordingly.</p>
<p>I suppose YMMV. We did have parents complain that once ranking was abolished, good students with higher GPA’s than SAT scores for our school (straight A’s or top 5% but could not break 1500 on SAT’s even with tutoring) found it harder to stand out when applying to top schools or honors colleges.</p>
<p>My Quote:
Originally Posted by mom2collegekids:
It seems like a number won’t accept those who aren’t in the top 5%.</p>
<p>Digimedia quote:
That is crazy.</p>
<p>I know…but if you look at Fordham and Clemson and Schreyers and some others, if you’re below 5%, your chances are much lower for acceptance. </p>
<p>But when you think about it, it’s not too “out there.” If a school’s student body has a very large % that ranked in the top decile, then determining who should go into honors would require a much smaller %…otherwise you could have half the school qualifying.</p>
<p>U Delaware doesn’t have a strict SAT admission criteria for honors I don’t think, but it certainly sounds like your dd would qualify judging by the College Confidential forums. My dd was accepted with similar stats but we are instate. </p>
<p>Check out the UD forum for more details.</p>
<p>Don’t discount U’s that don’t just go by the numbers. Look at what is involved in the Honors program. Wisconsin, for example, offers some stellar sequences in Math, Physics, Chemistry and Biology plus an Honors sequence in Integrated Liberal Studies (I know the sciences but not ILS). There are also Honors opportunities in other courses. No one size fits all courses for Honors. Too much diversity in students to lump them all in one dorm as well. Consider the overall caliber of the students- you want to be challenged in regular as well as the minority of Honors courses taken.</p>