<p>What country of origin is he from? And what’s yours?</p>
<p>Edit: looks like you are from Turkey? Your English is very good, is he a newer foreign student with less English skill? As an international student SAT scores especially reading and writing and TOEFL scores will be judged differently if he has weak English skill. He has weaker GPA but is it being dragged down by his English skill like poor English/History grades? Admission officer looking at his transcript will make different assessment based on what they see.</p>
<p>Wow, lots of hate on this thread. I didn’t read it all. But, OP, you seem a bit obsessed with this other kid, knowing his stats, rank, LOR, etc. You’ll be happier in life if you learn to MYOB.</p>
<p>@ttparent: In his transcript English grades are high but especially science lessons make it low. And his SAT reading score is 430, writing 450, TOEFL 84. </p>
<p>@Youdon’tsay: I had to learn all of his stats in order to find out what was the reason.</p>
<p>You did not say what country of origin he is from. That could be a big factor also.</p>
<p>This could be a case where his poor SAT reading, writing and TOEFL scores really help him. As an international student, you can really get the benefit of a doubt when the standardized test for english is low. I can see the rationale behind thinking that a person with that poor english skill who can manage to get 3.5 in school is a lot more exceptional than his overall composite score. This happens all the time to international students that are studying in the states at various prep school.</p>
<p>I’m surprised by all the angry, hostile responses to this post.</p>
<p>I think the OP’s question is a reasonable one. I am pretty certain that lots of people who receive rejection letters have the same concerns.</p>
<p>Why all the demonizing?</p>
<p>In the original post, I do not perceive that he is arrogant, or ultra-competitive, or wishing bad things on the person he is comparing to himself. He just seems to be baffled by something that many people find baffling. And he honestly stated his feelings, feelings that are likely very common, and asked the question.</p>
<p>He’s from Turkey, same as me, and we’re in the same school since the 1st grade in elementary.</p>
<p>I don’t know, he had the same possibilities with me in studying English but as obivously seen from the test scores, I’m much better than him in this area.</p>
<p>The sense of entitlement here is really amazing. Rather than being grateful for the tremendous opportunity that you have been given, you are griping and obsessing about the one you “didn’t get!”</p>
<p>So, you are fully aware of this other person’s grades, class, rank, test scores, essays, and ECs. How about recommendations? Did you have access to those as well?</p>
<p>Recommendations are supposed to be confidential. The ONLY persons on your end of the application process who should have seen the letters are the ones who wrote them. </p>
<p>So…add “incredible invasion of privacy” to my comment about about entitlement.</p>
<p>While working with our academic advisor outside the school I had a chance to look his papers like he looked on mine too. What’s the invasion here?</p>
<p>Judging from the way you express yourself in this thread, your writing skills are actually pretty sub par. I wouldn’t be surprised if admissions reps were less than impressed by your tone and diction. Just being honest.</p>
<p>@cherrybrand: You just proved his point through the startling lack of basic grammar you displayed in last response.</p>
<p>@vibragreen: Agreed. The idea of a student having access to another’s recommendations (which <em>they</em> aren’t even supposed to see) is rather fishy and implausible.</p>
<p>See, you don’t know what’s going on here. Here we work with an academic advisor outside the school who plans application process for students going abroad. And in that office we all have rights to see our paper copies which can be recommendations, essays, or etc. We just compare our stats and chance us, so the kid also read my recommendations, essays and EC’s… </p>
<p>Believe me or not, here is not America and I’m not obligated to make you believe me, I don’t give a thing about it. </p>
<p>Unfortunately some people who are obviously seen in this thread aimed to put destructive and arrogant comments here and made it unnecessarily long. </p>
<p>So I’m making an announcement for them:</p>
<p>Okay, I’m arrogant, selfish, jealous, liar and ■■■■■. You’re right, the kid deserved that spot with worse stats because I’m a loser. I have no right to question this. </p>