How hard is it to get in to Princeton?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>I know its the #1 school in the country right now, but my best friend goes there now and his stats were nothing like you'd expect. this might make some of yall feel better, but im sure this was really lucky or maybe theres something i dont know about him.</p>

<p>not top 10%, not in national honor society because he didnt feel like filling out the form haha</p>

<p>GPA: 3.7/3.8 or something - we went to an alright private school, you'd only know about it if you were from our city. took 7/8 APs though.</p>

<p>SAT: lower 1300s - very surprising</p>

<p>pretty much no ECs, wasnt really invovled in anything extensively. played a few sports here and there, a few leadership conferences. we mostly partied, unfortunately thats not an EC haha.</p>

<p>none of his family went to princeton or donated a bunch of money, he didnt know anybody at all when he went there, he did interview with an alumni though, but he wasnt on the admissions board or anything.</p>

<p>he applied regular decision and got in right away w/o being deffered</p>

<p>just thought id give yall a little hope that sometimes weird things happen. there are so many valedictorians, captains of sports teams, 1600 SATS, 100s of hours of volunteer work, etc etc. trying to go to the ivies its nice to see an regular guy get in.</p>

<p>oh yeah one more thing - princeton was his last choice, he only went because he didnt get into UGA or Duke or Georgetown.</p>

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<p>Based on your description of your friend (no ECs, not a recruited athlete, not a legacy, average SAT scores, etc), I'm guessing he isn't white? Otherwise, it's a mystery...</p>

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<p>ha ha, I like your username. classic.</p>

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<p>yeh lol. He only went because he didnot get into UGA or Duke or Georgetown. Wow, so Princeton took a kid that UGA, Duke, and Georgetown didn't spare a second look. :p.</p>

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<p>um...what?</p>

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<p>for the most part he was white. he had a tiny fraction of american indian, and by tiny i mean he didnt even know he was indian until he applied. thats probably why he got in.</p>

<p>granted he was very smart, but never studied, very very athletic but too lazy to play sports after a year, and im serious when i say he didnt do any kind of ECs or volunteer work at all, just the bare minimum and had no connections or alot of money. well actually he did but his parents didnt donate a building or anything. our school was private, but definately not anywhere near the northeastern prep schools that alot of princeton people come from</p>

<p>yes it was a huge shocker - our group of friends were the same way, except we didnt make good grades like him, we partied alot and got in alot of trouble at school, so thats why our school was so surprised that he got into princeton and not surprised the rest of us went to southern state schools haha.</p>

<p>once again, just wanted to give some people out there a ray of hope that weird things do happen in this world</p>

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<p>Sounds like an apocryphal story to me.</p>

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<p>Psh not that hard.</p>

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<p>---- flame ----</p>

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<p>I believe the OP.
welcome to the ivy league. That's just the way it goes.</p>

<p>More reason for people to relax about competitive school admissions.
imo, in a perfect world we could...</p>

<ol>
<li>identify the top 100 schools in our country (big enough to have some concensus)</li>
<li>divide up the endowments evenly (taking into account fixed resources)</li>
<li>rename them P.S. 001 to P.S. 100 (alphabetically)</li>
<li>charge tuition based on the remaining unchangable characteristics eg. you're going to have to pay more if you want to go to P.S. 028 because it's in NYC.</li>
</ol>

<p>and then everyone who goes to said schools will be academically/socially equal in every way (given only the information of their school of attendance).</p>

<p>P.S.- competitive sports and tournaments would still be allowed but publication, journalism coverage and excessive school spirits would be gronuds for disciplinary action! that's right.</p>

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<p>interesting idea, but boring. it'd take the fun out of everything.</p>

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<p>Does he have a common name? Could be just a mix-up of your friend with someone with perfect SAT scores. We all heard about errors when people were not accepted because they were assigned wrong scores or something.
He also could make a typo on his app., which made his ECs or community service look extraordinary. Or the nname of one of his minor awards could sound very similar to something really major.</p>

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<p>"for the most part he was white. he had a tiny fraction of american indian, and by tiny i mean he didnt even know he was indian until he applied. thats probably why he got in."</p>

<p>Yup. American Indian is a hot commodity in the admissions market right now...</p>

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<p>There was a student in my school last year who was only half native american and got into Dartmouth. She was ranked 6th, and the 3,4,5 ranked students went to state schools. It had nothing to do with finances either. And it was not really fair, she was one of the richest kids in our school and definitely had no disadvantages in any way.</p>

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<p>Our school had a student with a very Anglo-Saxon name, decent grades, below average ECs, never noticeable in school or community activities. Was known more for dapper GAP wardrobe than anything else. Suddenly student was accepted by H, Y, S, etc., everyone amazed...turned out there was a Native American grandparent. Oddly, not in at P, which was #1 on their list (a few years ago, pre-Rapelye and before gung-ho URM campaign.)</p>

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<p>Jesus didn't get into Princeton.</p>

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<p>Or did he...? </p>

<p>(To the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic)</p>

<p>We've come to tell the story of the college of the Lord,
But the grapes of wrath fermented in the vintage where they're stored,
So excuse us if we're all a little drunk out of our gourd.
We saints go marching on.</p>

<p>Glory, Glory, we're the fossils
Of all the Nazarene apostles.
If it weren't for Christ we'd be
Just fishermen from Galilee,
So listen to our tale.</p>

<p>Now, Jesus was your average ancient Middle Eastern male.
He went to school, but had a special holy grail:
He'd rather burn in hell than to go to Harvard or to Yale,
So the choice was pretty clear.</p>

<p>Glory, Glory, God convinced Him,
Jesus Christ, He went to Princeton.
He made the right decision
When He majored in Religion
And the rest is history.</p>

<p>So Christ arrived on campus in the fall of year 18,
The Biggest Man on Campus that the world had ever seen.
It made the other eating clubs turn jealous Ivy green
When Jesus chose T.I. (Tiger Inn)</p>

<p>Chorus: Glory, Glory, Jesus bickered,
All the snoooty heathens snickered.
Ivy: We couldn't take a Jew;
Cottage: A carpenter won't do;
Chorus: So the Lord, He joined T.I.</p>

<p>Jesus, Jesus, He's a fun guy.
Thanks to Him we're all alumni.
There's nothing so divine
As turning water into wine,
His truth is marching on.</p>

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<p>Is this from "The rule of four"? I vaguely remember something like this in the book!</p>

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<p>Admissions will take any 'fraction' of native american they can get. Looks great on their stats. Isn't AA wonderful!!</p>

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<p>I've got a very small fraction of Native American...the rest of me is Polish (including my last name). So should I change my name to Running Deer or something so they'll know ??</p>