<p>In general (very general) how do adcoms balance out the weight they place on gpa, ecs, and sats. I heard that they devote 40% to gpa/classes, 40% to sats, and 20% to ecs. These are of course general in nature and obviously differ between schools. But I just want to know whether ecs are lower weighted than sats and gpa because ecs are my weakest spot.</p>
<p>I'm not sure on the statistics, but I can tell you one thing, from lectures one of my teachers has given our class on college. If your GPA is, say, 3.9, and your SAT I is 1400, and you have very little (or no) EC's, and someone else has a 3.6 an SAT I of 1150, and has a million achievements, awards, positions, and the like, you can bet that that person will get in if it's between you guys.</p>
<p>Your high school GPA holds the greatest weight overall, because it sums up how hard you've worked for the past 3.5 years and how challenging your courseload is. I'd say it makes up 50% of the admissions. decision. Another 20% is devoted to the SAT I score--this differentiates between applicants with a similar h.s. record, accounts for grade inflation, and is used for placement. Another 10-20% is based on ec's like volunteering, awards, clubs, work experience, and leadership roles--not really how many, but how much devotion and committment you've shown to a particular area and if you've progressed in it. The last 10-20% is based on the essay, recs, "personal qualities", interview, and how seriously you want to attend the school.</p>
<p>These criteria are just a guideline and it varies from school to school.</p>
<p>im in the same spot my ECs blowwww. ECs, from what I hear, differ in importance from school to school. Large universities will look more at scores and stats. private, smaller colleges will look more closely at ECs. It also depends on the competitive nature of the school...lets assume its a competitive mid sized school...</p>
<p>Your GPA and SATs are going to be very important. Also, you better have taken many honors and AP. EC importance: ECs can be "kickers" - if you have similar stats to other people applying but have an outstanding EC or two, then you will easily slide past into admission...if your scores are somewhat lower on standardized tests, then good ECs will increase the chance that your score will not matter as much (essentially replacing your SAT importance with your ECs). If you have average ECs but good academic stats (at least average...preferably a bit higher) for the college, you're probably in. They just need to know you're involved and whatnot. If you have poor ECs, you will probably want to easily exceed the top 75% stats in the school (test scores and GPA). Then you have a good chance of admission.</p>
<p>To sum it up, ECs can "kick" you past admissions if they're outstanding. If they're just "there," make sure your academics are on pace for the school. If they're poor, hope that your academics exceed expectations for the school.</p>
<p>EDIT:
40-50% HS GPA
30% Tests
10-20% EC
10% Recommendations/essays</p>
<p>well my academics thankfully are certainly up their (99 GPA 1520 SAT). My ECs are average, I play the violin, varsity tennis, and I participate in 4-5 clubs (leader of 2). But I am certainly not the President or VP of 8-9 clubs like some of the people posted on this message board and thats what is scaring me.</p>
<p>check out the book A is for Admission by Michele A. Hernandez. It addresses all that stuff and is an easy read. Its a great book. Happy reading!</p>
<p>you know, it would be really cool if you told us what it said in the book. then we wouldn't have to spend money</p>
<p>I think very selective schools like MIT first use an academic filter, taking into account SAT I (or ACT), SAT IIs, high school gpa, and AP/IB classes to filter out the non-competitive applicants. If you pass this first step (let's say like 50% of applicants to MIT do) then they will start using other criteria, such as essays, ECs, recs, interview, etc. In this way, it is much tougher to get in only with stellar sat's and grades.</p>
<p>I think they use tests primarily, and grades too, and then it comes down to the subjectives.</p>
<p>You guys are all wrong. </p>
<p>They don't look at your app the first time with only numbers in mind, they want to see a real person emerge!</p>
<p>"10% Recommendations/essays" PREPOSTEROUS</p>
<p>Those are most important aspects of the entire application. Why do I say this? Because people have gotten into Harvard with 3.0 GPAs, but you'll never find ANYBODY who got in with mediocre recommendations and a crappy essay!</p>
<p>Balance the math in your head. </p>
<p>In the end, however, it's fruitless to come up with formulas, because there are none in the real process!</p>
<p>Ask yourself this:: Am you worth knowing? </p>
<p>That's what each and every adcom strives to find out, and unless you have an F, you should get in as long as most people you know answer "yes" to the above question.</p>
<p>People got into harvard with a score that low?</p>
<p>Were they rich or have a famous daddy?</p>
<p>Hell, I if they had neither of those (rich or famous daddy), I should have applied...</p>
<p><em>scratches chin</em></p>
<p>I don't think its preposterous...with the exception of top top schools like Yale and Harvard. You really MUST have at least a 3.8 and most admitted students will have 3.9s and 4.0s. That is the bare minimum. On top of all that, they will look at your essays and such. Therefore, at these type schools, the essay and EC and recommendations mean everything, assuming you have the grade prerequisite...everyone's GPA and test scores are going to be top of the line.</p>
<p>As for your 3.0 story, that is either some strange athlete or some person who has extremely tight connections. or maybe they lived in 4 different countries and so on. that is a VERY RARE case.</p>
<p>How much do you think schools like Northwestern, Cornell, and CMU value SATII's?</p>
<p>pretty high, they're competitive schools.</p>
<p>My ECs are great, started 2 engineering clubs (leadership in both), president of a 3rd science club. I've earned many national awards, including gold in national science olympiad and tsa. I've taken mostly honors/ap, but my 9/10th grade years i had really poor GPAs (like awful: 2.7/4), some family related reasons...
This year (junior) I have a 4.0 avg with honors/many APs, and expect to earn the same next year. I will be doing seimens-westinghouse research over the summer.
Will schools look at my junior/senior years more closely than 9/10?
I was looking at schools like carnegie mellon for engineering, and princeton(parent is a professor there, will that be a large enough factor?)
1430 old sat, hoping to do much better on the new ones.</p>
<p>i think you should explain ur sit.
Im personally relying on my ecs...and background...and country hopping...my grades are good..but my sats dont seem amazing to me..im going to try again..but if everything looks good and my ecs are great will they look to much at a sat 1 score even if i have good grades recs essays and such? i mean i think i have awsome ec's which i have beeen commited to for ages... if i stand out will they cosider that more and "overlook" my mediocre sat 1?</p>
<p>Every school is different. Some will give you a breakdown.</p>
<p>Most competitive schools want to make sure you can do the work, so they look at the grades you got and the level of difficulty your classes were in high school. High AP scores and decent SAT II scores usually get a look at this point. They don't want to accept someone who is going to flunk out second semester.</p>
<p>Tied to this, they might consider your SATI to see what kind of potential you have. For some schools if they can use this to increase their stature. A high SAT combined with an ambitious EC history might imply the student's intelligence isn't being measured by the classes they are taking.</p>
<p>EC's, letters of recommendation help them to understand what your intersests are and if and how you care about your community. Your essay usually fleshes that out. If your essay conflicts with everything else written about you flags go up.</p>
<p>Some schools are very interested in creating a class of people with certain characteristics and that might mean high SAT scores or Class rank or ECs that imply you care about the world. Every school is different. Good luck.</p>
<p>Hyp2010, they look at junior and senior grades much more closely than sopohomore and freshman grades but you better have a good explanation ready for the adcoms.</p>