<p>Upper left corner: Bush's</a> Yale Transcript</p>
<p>Hmmm Idk… maybe because his dad was the president? lol</p>
<p>his dad wasn’t president when he went to Yale. Nonetheless, everyone knew who the Bush family was and how influential and wealthy they are.</p>
<p>Also, consider the fact that scores from the 1960s are not really comparable to current scores. A 1200 then is not the same as a 1200 now.</p>
<p>His grandfather was a Senator from Connecticut until 1963, Bush started his time at Yale in 1964…</p>
<p>In addition to Prescott Bush being a Senator from Connecticut, when W was admitted to Yale his father was a successful businessman who was running for the Senate in Texas as the Republican nominee. He (George H.W.) was also the consummate insider – although he lost that Senate race, he was subsequently elected to the House of Representatives, then served as Ambassador to the UN, de facto Ambassador to China (the first in the postwar era), Chairman of the Republican Party and Director of the CIA. That kind of stuff meant something at Yale (and still does, I think).</p>
<p>But it was more than that. Anyone who spent time at Yale around then knows that long before he achieved any of those thing, George H.W. was the biggest of big men on campus: bona fide war hero, captain of the baseball team (in the College World Series, no less), president of Deke, second-generation Bonesman, deeply involved in University alumni affairs.</p>
<p>In an era when legacy meant something, and test scores meant a lot less, W was the son and grandson of men who were A-1 alumni. As long as he could read, he was going to get in.</p>
<p>Life Lesson here - It is not WHAT you know but WHO you know that matters.</p>
<p>A 1200 SAT score was pretty decent back in the day, not atrocious as many of us on CC consider it today.</p>
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<p>It’s not WHO you know but WHOM you know.</p>
<p>Nowaday, a sixth grader can probably get a 1200 in combined verbal and math sections without preparation. Back in those dark days, C might be a decent grade in Yale since those schools are full of themselves of legacies and jocks. But these days, Yale is full of social engineering products through a variety of social and political agenda. Elite schools seem never get it.</p>
<p>“But these days, Yale is full of social engineering products through a variety of social and political agenda.”</p>
<p>underachiever: It seems like you’ve never stepped foot onto Yale’s campus. Maybe you should reserve your cockeyed opinions for issues that you truly are informed.</p>
<p>Did SAT scores really used to not be multiples of 10 or is the transcript bogus?</p>
<p>gadad - As far as I can remember, my SAT scores (slightly younger than W) were not even deciles. Seems like I had a 642 Math (or something similar). I was actually impressed that he took as many Achievement Tests (now SAT IIs). I think I only took two.</p>
<p>As someone else has pointed out, SAT scores from the 1960s are not comparable to those now. I don’t want to say that the test has been dumbed down, but it has been changed over the years to be more culturally sensitive. 800 scores were very rare in those days, and combined scores of 1200 to 1300 were quite competitive. Legacies had more of an advantage in those days, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that George Bush was less qualified than a Gore or Kerry or Kennedy. They all benefitted from their family connections.</p>
<p>I am not an admirer of George Bush and I certainly didn’t vote for him, but I have read enough to know that the man is not as stupid as he has been portrayed.</p>
<p>lmao, “culturally sensitive”</p>
<p>The SAT scoring scale was “recentered” in 1995, which mostly affected verbal scores. Bush’s 566 verbal score in 1964 is approximately equivalent to a 640 today. His 640 math score would be the same today (supposedly). With his English Achievement Test, the scores for which would probably also have been somewhat rejiggered, he translates into an 1850-1900 on today’s test. Of course, if he were taking it today he would probably have coaching, take it multiple times, and superscore, and he would wind up another 100 points higher.</p>
<p>So . . . not super-impressive, but hardly intellectually challenged, either. </p>
<p>What’s funny to me is that his transcript, in addition to faithfully recording his fraternity and his membership in Skull & Bones, has all of his Davenport intramural sports on it, including “B” team basketball, as well as the Davenport social committee. I am pretty sure my transcript, not so much later, does not include my four-year commitment to the Saybrook Tang and soccer teams. I wonder when that change got made?</p>
<p>His Spanish score was pretty good.</p>
<p>Pre-1995 verbal scores, in particular, can be misleading due to re-centering. However his verbal score was still below the 10th percentile for Yale (573) in 1964 and his math score below the 25th percentile (650), (See p. 102 of <a href=“http://www.yale.edu/oir/book_numbers_original/b.pdf[/url]”>http://www.yale.edu/oir/book_numbers_original/b.pdf</a>) And, as I have pointed out in the past, the potential applicant pool at the time was reduced at least by half due to the exclusion of women. Nowadays both of his scores, even re-centered, would be below the 10th percentile.</p>
<p>Lacking any other obvious skills (athletic or otherwise) that he could bring to Yale, he was a clear case of a legacy admit.</p>
<p>I would say that somebody who wast that well connected politically should really be called a developmental admit, even if it’s not about financial donations.</p>
<p>1.) SAT only went up to 1600 back then, and based on percentiles, 1200+ was solid
2.) Bush was accepted to Yale before his father was even senator
3.) The Bush family was not that “wealthy”
4.) Harvard, Yale and others had acceptance rates above 20% and beyond. Harvard never became though as super selective until the 90s and especially the past decade. In fact, Harvard didn’t have students from beyond New England until 1930 - over 300 years after it’s endowment!
5.) JFK had bad grades, having failed some classes at Choate - his application is available on the internet and in Widener stacks</p>