<p>Does anyone really know whether someone can get accepted into a school or not? Unless it's extremely unlikely, like someone with really low grades and test scores trying to get into Princeton.</p>
<p>People here generally know what they are talking about. Chances of HYPSM(etc.) are always on the basis of if you are a good candidate then you have average chances of admission.</p>
<p>to tell you the truth, the predictions here are harsh in my opinion.</p>
<p>Yea, i guess reallity is harsh.</p>
<p>The vast, even overwhelming number of applicants who are not development admits, legacies, recruited athletes, desired URMs, sons or daughters of senators, congresspeople, etc., or Olympic tiddlywink champions or holders of patents are going to be rejected from HYPS - you can check the numbers yourself. AT H., the odds are 1 in 11 BEFORE the acceptances of the above are taken into account. </p>
<p>The good news? You'll get just as good or better education elsewhere.</p>
<p>Spinach, having gone through the whole admission process with my son a year ago, and reflecting on it, this is my take: There is some good advice to be found here and almost everybody tries to be helpful. Discerning good advice from bad advice is another matter. Do people here really know what your chances are at any given school? My feeling is no, they do not, they cannot view your application in context with all the others, despite their most well meaning intent, unless it is blatantly obvious, they are only guessing. In retrospect I would say the best indicator of your chances at any particular school comes from the schools you are applying to themselves. Do you meet the academic standard that accepted students are expected to meet? Do you have something beyond academics to offer the school? Do you, as a person help to fulfill the stated goals of the school? I could be wrong here, but I sort of view the whole thing like a construction project. The school is building a class. Like when building a home, it takes more then a pile of perfect 2x4's. You need plumbers and electricians and carpenters and sheetrockers and the list goes on. There are many different elements that go into building a class. What would you do if you were building a class? Would you select only one particular type of candidate? I doubt it. You would want scholars and musicians and athletes and organizers and people of diverse backgrounds. In the end my son felt that the schools he was accepted to made the right descision, and those he was not accepted to also made the right descision. He is where he belongs. Good luck.</p>
<p>What this forum can do (at least if reasonable people reply) is help point up unsafe application strategies or overly conservative ones (these don't appear very often).</p>
<p>What we can't see are recommendations, essays in context, and how carefully the application itself is prepared. These factors are going to be critical at highly selective schools - in addition to currency that a particular institution cares about at the moment.</p>