@txstella thanks for telling me to look over CA, I ended up completely redoing my main common app, additional info, EC’s, and information.
A year later…I can tell you unequivocally that the system is so skewed that getting into a school of your choice is totally a crapshoot. The point is, don’t let it get to you. Apply where you think you want to go to school and let it go.
As someone mentioned above, the ivies really like to kick top scorers to the curb. We’ve learned that some of the accepted candidates are the best at creative writing (meaning they create the story they wish was their own.) This tells me that the folks reading the apps aren’t very sharp.
So, a year later, life at a competitive southern university is GOOD. A year from now you won’t even care about the schools where you didn’t get to attend.
“As someone mentioned above, the ivies really like to kick top scorers to the curb.”
Yeah, that’s why their admitted students have the highest test scores. /sarcasm
Test scores and high grades are not enough to guarantee a place at the Ivies, or any other highly selective college. That does not mean that scores and grades don’t matter to these schools, and it certainly doesn’t mean that they are biased against high scorers.
You can make the case that the Ivies love to kick almost any type of applicant to the curb. The numbers suggest they love to kick legacies, or URMs, or kids 5 years from curing cancer, to the curb, since the admission rates for all these categories are well below 50%.
But they love kicking kids who have none of these attributes to the curb even more. The same is true of test scores. Maybe they reject 75% of perfect scorers, but those odds are a lot better than those facing an applicant with a 1700 or a 25.
The Ivies dont kick people to the curb. They choose what meets their needs the best just like what every student should do
Which isn’t always just the top test scorers.
That’s why the threatened legal actions are just silly.
Diversity of all measures is great.
So is a vibrant campus of athletes, artists, musicians, actors, etc. is more valuable than kids who don’t contribute to campus life but have high test scores…