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<p>Quite wrong. If they’re specific, if they’re illustrative, if they’re from a school well known to Ivies (respected by them), if they elaborate on academic interests which the student also intends to discuss, they carry a great deal of weight. One of the hugest mistakes too many CC’ers make is in blowing off their LOR’s, assuming they’ll “be great,” etc.</p>
<p>@E2012CY: That information can easily be found on institutional websites.</p>
<p>If recommendations don’t hold a great deal of weight, then interview should be considered useless. When a teacher writes a recommendation letter for a student, the teacher normally teaches the student for a year. While interviewer often talks to the student for an hour. The problem with the interview is that it is so subjective. The variability of interviewers is so large. For the same applicant, if we ask 100 interviewers to evaluate one applicant with the score from 1 to 100, I think we might get 100 different scores. Northstarmom had a racist as her recommender. I am sure there are many racists among the pool of interviewers as well. It is too bad not many school can detect a racist like Harvard did for Northstarmom.</p>
<p>Valid point, @epiphany. Certainly if recommendations are very detailed and specifically outline students’ accomplishments in a way that a student can not convey on his or her common app they can be quite helpful.</p>
<p>I guess my main point was that acceptance is based on each individual student’s strengths. So while one student may have a 4.0 and 2400, another may be accepted for his or her amazing recommendation, while yet another will be accepted for his or her extracurricular experience. Ivies, like all good schools, look for students who can maintain a high standard of work in the classroom while pursuing their own interests outside the classroom.</p>
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<p>Dan
[Discus</a> Awards](<a href=“HugeDomains.com”>http://www.discusawards.com/) - Honoring all-around high school students</p>
<p>I guess misery does love company. ;-(</p>
<p>wrt one of northstarmom’s comments, all of my ivy interviews went great, especially Dartmouth and Harvard. In fact my Harvard interviewer sent me an email the other day expressing condolences and mild surprise that I wasn’t accepted. He said I was an “exceptionally capable and promising student.”</p>
<p>The Dartmouth interviewer also sent me emails about how great the school was and how I would definitely love it. And the rowing coach at Penn contacted me throughout the process expressing support.</p>
<p>Which, in hindsight, are all so much tea leaves. But I just wanted to clarify that I dont think I came across as stiff, remote, rude, or any other negative thing.</p>
<p>Also in hidnsight, I think it all boils down to “demonstrated achievement in an area outside of academics.” While I did have interesting and varied EC’s, I didnt have any real demonstrated achievement in anything non-academic.</p>
<p>That and supremely bad luck.</p>
<p>And maybe the Econ major.</p>
<p>;-)</p>
<p>not the GPA range</p>
<p>Well, the range is pretty wide at big Ivy schools where recruited athletes, musicians, artists etc actually make up a sig percentage of each class. But the average accepted GPA is above 4.0 at all Ivies. It’s easy to look up.</p>
<p>how bout unweighted?</p>
<p>^ I’m guessing the accepted unweighted GPA range for the Ivies is somewhere around 3.8-4.0.</p>
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<p>Wrong. The value of the interview is that it is the most direct of the subjective elements of an application. It is up close and personal, and thus has value to illuminate aspects of the student as an individual. Virtually no one is accepted or denied on the basis of an interview alone. It is not something that is given great weight (cf. the CDS on this); yet it provides an important avenue for determining that the applicant’s accomplishments and interests are consistent with his or her remarks.</p>
<p>The purposes of the LOR and the interview are quite different.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the interview allows the applicant to learn more about the school. I had several excellent interviews where I was able to talk about what I did in high school, and my interviewers shared their experiences. In my specific case, I was lucky to have Floridians who lived here most of their lives and I got great advice on moving, preparation, etc. The interview also gets the applicant excited about the college. It may not get you in, but I think it serves an important purpose.</p>
<p>hey… i can sympathize w/ you guys. Asian. 2390 (One sitting). Val at a school that usually send 3-5 to HYPSM. State-level awards. Decent essays IMO (one won an award)</p>
<p>Rejected HPSM and waitlisted Y & Wharton</p>
<p>I guess I’d be ok going to any of what i considered my “safety” schools (Cornell, Duke, etc.) but whats worse is that itll be like months before my mom stops getting phone calls from friends and family. sorta ruined our val rep. too</p>
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<p>Cornell and Duke are in no way “safety” schools, no matter how good your stats are. Congratulations – you should be extremely proud of yourself for getting into such great schools! :)</p>
<p>No, I don’t consider them safety schools at all, hence the quotes. But that was the kind of arrogant attitude I had going into college applications. I’d be fine going there but its just dealing w/ this not getting into HYPSM that irritates me.</p>
<p>^Well I didnt even get into duke so…</p>
<p>What about being a girl? Some colleges have a large majority of girls? Being a female used to help but now do you guys think it hurts?</p>
<p>^^ If this makes you feel better, you’ve got more waitlists than me… and depending on what you want to do, williams and georgetown can be better than Duke.</p>
<p>@ mike, i’m not very knowledgeble about these things but from what posters on other parts said, girls have better gpas, boys have better test scores, but in the end, boys don’t really get that much of an advantage.</p>
<p>Ah ok I was just wondering! It was something I heard…</p>
<p>In general, boys have an advantage. There are more competitive applications from girls.</p>
<p>@aisdufhb: Maybe that arrogant attitude explains your rejections… Just a thought.</p>