<p>Samonuh- you stun me. This is not the attitude I have seen in your other posts. It’s one thing to be a little frantic, at this point- and quite another to need asterisks.</p>
<p>3.8 IS competitive for Ivies. I believe T mistakenly wrote 3.8 instead of Samonuh’s 3.6. IME, 3.6 will not “get summarily tossed aside.” </p>
<p>The issue is not that an Ivy gets 25-30,000 apps and fills it’s bucket with the first best or only the best. How do you think they judge “best?” There are easy hs and tough hs- schools with inflated grades and with deflated. Some kids take a few challenging classes and others max out. All that affects gpa. All that is one part of holistic. Throw in the ECs, essays and LoRs and you get a better picture.</p>
<p>And, the institution’s needs matter a great deal. This is far more than diversity.</p>
<p>But, could we say it’s “harder” for a 3.6? Well, yes- more has to be proven in the app. But, I believe every kid out there should pay great attention to what the app shows about him. I have seen too many tippy-top performers who screwed their apps with laziness, a poor essay, lackluster descriptions of ECs, etc. Or, my personal headache inducer: the “Why Us?” essay that perfectly describes another university.</p>
<p>If it were so easy to lose based on, say, a 3.6 gpa alone, what would U’s do with the brilliant STEM kids who get B’s in language? Or, the amazing IR/poly sci kid who couldn’t master physics? Adcoms inspect the transcript.</p>
<p>Thnx for the follow up. Let me restate that a 3.8 doesn’t necessarily scream NO for an applicant (my own successful HYP accept GPA was betwen 3.8 and 3.9 UW). There’s a lot that goes as into one’s profile as has been discussed. Certainly if many factors are the same, one would rather have a =>3.9 rather than <3.9. </p>
<p>However, I think a 3.6 definitely pushes that file lower on the stack…</p>
<p>I still don’t understand why what I did when I was 14-15 should affect a college’s decision to admit me or not. Shouldn’t they judge based off of what you’ve become, not what you were?</p>
<p>Sam: I would find it incredulous that you don’t find yourself with acceptances from colleges that will be DYING to have someone with your accomplishments. </p>
<p>If you get a 4.0 from here out, your cumulative GPA by time for applications will be 3.77. Definitely something to be proud of and will serve you well.</p>
<p>But if you’re talking about schools with under 10% acceptance rates – you’re disconnected from reality if you don’t think that with the multiple thousands of applicants that clearly are among the best applicants in the world that you’d think it’s unfair that less than top performance (even with a logical rationale) doesn’t make one less competitive. Yes, top colleges are looking for potential – and for someone like you might be able to portray that – but for you to assume that anyone is given an automatic pass – that’s not wise thinking.</p>
<p>The highest performers with the spotless records and highest academic achievements – will find hit and miss at the top schools. Those are just the numbers. </p>
<p>Does it mean these people (and you) are somehow less worthy or doomed to collegiate failure? Of course not. But how many spots are in these top schools for incoming freshmen? How many are vying for them? Look at the admit rates and the cold reality of too few seats for too many applicants comes in.</p>
<p>“I still don’t understand why what I did when I was 14-15 should affect a college’s decision to admit me or not. Shouldn’t they judge based off of what you’ve become, not what you were?”</p>
<p>…because they will turn away applicants who’ve done as well or better than you have excluding fresh. & soph years & did significantly better than you did for their first two years of high school. We all make mistakes in life, and for each one we make there is a price we pay. Some prices are steep, some are shortlived, but none the less, there is always a price. Your price may be that you are not admitted to an Ivy league school…in the big picture is that really a very steep price?</p>
<p>Not an admissions officer – but I think, and would certainly hope that most (if not all) colleges realize that “all 3.6’s are not created equally”. The student who had a solid 3.6 in every year is VERY different than the student who had a terrible year – then became a 4.0 student thereafter. The latter has proven him or herself.</p>
<p>Sam – you’re over analyzing. What’s done done. Let focus on the rest of your HS career and search for a group of colleges that best fit you. Remember, you’ll have some where between 35-45 working years ahead of you. I don’t trivialize the college admission process but, really, it’s not that important once you get to certain stages of your life. About the automatic cut-off, nothing unethical about it. For example, when your parents apply for a mortgage, the bank will run their credit scores. If it’s under some arbitrary number, they toss the application away.</p>
<p>And that was 1 year ago…Make sure you don’t spend too much time talking about this in depth. Don’t mean to downplay what you have overcome but the “S” thing can scare off a lot of very competitive schools. They will worry that the academic stress may throw you over the edge again. And by your reaction to other posters, I think you may still be a little unsteady. Just MHO…</p>
<p>Sam,
many kids have problems. such is life. you are not entitled to anything because your parents divorced. So did 455 of other kids. Get realistic. There are many good schools that will take you. probably not Ivy league though. Look ahead and not backwards!</p>
<p>I’m not going to discuss chances or percentages of admissions. To be honest, I’m not qualified to do so.</p>
<p>This being said, your statistics suggest that you are ‘academically qualified’ for virtually any school in the US. By this I mean that if you are admitted, you can probably do the work required.</p>
<p>However, the top schools claim that 75%-80% of their applicant’s are academically qualified, yet we see admissions percentages dip below 20% at the all or most top 15 or 20 schools, and below 10% at a number of them. So, it’s really a numbers game.</p>
<p>Your freshman/sophomore years will be a negative (relatively speaking). But that’s ok. First, there’s nothing you can do about it now and second, students with stats similar to yours are, in fact, accepted every year.</p>
<p>With your record, if there’s a school that you think you would want to attend – APPLY. If there are several top tier schools – APPLY to all of them. Given your GPA, you should have a Plan B, and should also apply to schools where the admissions statistics are more favorable to you. I would say this to anyone, regardless of how good their statistics are.</p>
<p>^IIRC, Sam has extensive, competitive marching band experience. I believe it’s on a level that will be attractive to certain schools. I also think he does have some back-ups in mind. Just keep up the good work and pull together the best app package you can.</p>
<p>Several books are out there written by former admissions officers of Ivies, if you want to go right to the source. In a nutshell, though, the original Ivies are pretty small, enrolling only about 1000 undergrads a year. The sex ratio is roughly 1:1, so roughly 500 g’s and b’s a year. Then, the priority goes to a certain number of alumni offspring (deliberately vague because amount of contributions, academic quality, and # of kids varies from yr to yr.) Then, athletes have a different set of criteria and # of spots to fill, and their academic requirements are lower, too. Right or wrong, the Ivies like to brag about diversity by filling their ranks with the rare exotic fruit of various minority groups as well, and their academic requirements can be substantially lower, too. All of this boils down to white males being proportionally under-represented at Harvard and the rest. Asians supposedly need to be even better academically. Fair? You probably are not going to think so. </p>
<p>Actually, you do have one thing going for you, and that is your grades improved over time, which they interpret to mean you are maturing. They hate to see academic decline! But if you look at your chances, with all the kids out there who are virtually perfect, your 3.6 is gonna look pretty non-competitive for a school with 20,000 apps and 100 spots for non- athletic white males. </p>
<p>But as a lottery winner from my town said, “You can’t win if you don’t play”. Just don’t be too surprised if you are turned down. And yes, they are encouraging too many kids to apply to make themselves look better even though you are wasting your money.</p>
<p>Really, if it’s your dream, go for it. You just never know what will turn them on. A friend of mine who had 2 brilliant sons at Princeton told me heard they were looking for a French horn player one year; apparently theirs was graduating. Sure enough, a few weeks later the son of a friend of a friend was accepted, a bit late in the cycle, because he played the French horn!</p>