Would you say a 34 ACT and 3.75 GPA “checks the box” academically for a school like HYP or Wharton? We hear all the time about the 2400/4.0 who gets denied, but assuming good Ec/personal qualities, how good would you say is good enough? Don’t mean to have this as a chance me thread I was just in a debate with a friend at school.
There are folks who get into Harvard and similar schools with similar grades and test scores, although the GPA is a little on the low side for Harvard. But remember, roughly 19 applicants get turned down for every one who is admitted. These grades and scores make admission possible, but not highly likely.
While your test scores and GPA are indeed “good enough” it’s the rest of your application, including your teacher recommendations, essays, EC’s and “strength of character,” that matter and make you stand out from the crowd: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/03/a-change-for-the-better/
@notjoe what about for SCEA?
^^ While you wait for @notjoe’s response, let me take a stab at that question.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford say “We don’t take anyone in the SCEA round that we wouldn’t take in the RD round.” That’s Admissions-speak for “We take the best of the best in the early round.” Unless your GPA puts you in the top 2% of your high school’s graduating class, I would think – just based upon your grades and test scores – that your application would get buried by student’s who have better GPA’s and test scores. Therefore, there is a STRONG likelihood that Admissions would defer you in the SCEA round no matter where you apply (H,Y,P, or S) so that Admissions can better compare you with a wider range of applications. IMHO, a student with your GPA would be better off applying to a broad range of non-binding school’s early, so that you have at least one acceptance in your back pocket come mid-December, and apply to Harvard in the RD round.
When you back out the recruited athletes, legacies, development cases, etc, that apply SCEA, for many universities, the net acceptance rate will not be statistically different from RD.
^^ I think you meant RD but even when you back out those things, it still is higher.
Following up on @gibby’s post about the importance of things like recs. Think about it, if you have a 3.75 gpa, it is not likely that a teacher or guidance counselor can write that you are a “once in a career” type student. They probably can’t even say say something like you are the best student they’ve had in the last five years. Yes, above a certain threshold the box is checked but they read the rest of the app with a bias formed from looking at the transcripts and test scores first. Good luck!
^ I did indeed, and have edited to reflect. Thanks.
@gibby see I agree with the best of the best thing, yet I also see plenty of acceptances on Wharton ED threads of unhooked students who I would not say are cream of the crop. Thoughts?
Then apply to Wharton! I don’t follow UPenn Admissions, so I cannot comment on what happens there.
@gibby I am I am
Keep in mind that UPenn has Early Decision, which states that if accepted, you agree to attend the college. So Early Decision is really for student’s who DO NOT need to compare financial aid offers: http://professionals.collegeboard.com/guidance/applications/early.
Also see: http://admissions.duke.edu/images/uploads/process/ED_agreement.pdf
@gibby of course. I guess I was getting at that I see those types of admitted applicants (unhooked, not eye popping) on HYP SCEA threads as well, I just mentioned Wharton because it’s my personal favorite. Since Harvard is your area of expertise I was wondering your opinion?
I think that a huge number of students who apply to Harvard, and perhaps other Ivies, are “eye popping” in whatever setting they are applying from, but when compared to the enormous applicant pool that is Harvard’s, they get swallowed into the all equally awesome pool. Some big fish get to jump from the smaller pond to the Harvard pond and some even bigger fish don’t. It all comes down to what Harvard, and other schools are looking for to make up a given class. They get to decide what “holistic” characteristics they want in light of a minimum standard that they publish on their website and other applicant publications. It is what it is.
That is why people in the local environment are shocked when a stellar student from their “pond” doesn’t get accepted or gets deferred or waitlisted.
What you see on a CC results or chances thread is probably about 20% of the information considered by a college. You are missing the essays, the recommendations, the interview report, the sense of how strong the high school is, how the applicant’s story emerges from the application. I suspect that if you had all the relevant information, you would understand that practically everyone accepted SCEA is eye-popping in some way.
@JHS great point
@NorthernMom61 The next step for the parents is going to all the cocktail parties and explaining how, since their darling son or so-and-so’s daughter didn’t get into HYPSM, no one from “here” can. It’s all rigged.
@claxcowboys: I agree with JHS. Every unhooked SCEA accepted applicant is going to be eye popping. Students that are NOT eye popping are deferred to the RD round.