<p>JUST MET A FEMALE WHO GOT PERFECT SCORES, VALEDICTORIAN IN COMPETITIVE SCHOOL, GREAT EC'S AND SHE WAS REJECTED FROM HARVARD AND YALE. CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR? WOW.
(she got into Penn, Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia and Brown) But hey what are they looking for??????</p>
<p>Maybe her EC's weren't as great as you think they are. Maybe her essays didn't make a great impression or she didn't interview well. Maybe she was a violinist and they already had all the violinists they needed. </p>
<p>There is a random element in the process.</p>
<p><a href="she%20got%20into%20Penn,%20Princeton,%20Cornell,%20Dartmouth,%20Columbia%20and%20Brown">quote</a> But hey what are they looking for??????
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<p>She did get in some great schools, what is she looking for??</p>
<p>Sometimes ya have to remember more than a billion chinese don't care.</p>
<p>It's their loss, not hers.</p>
<p>"CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR? "</p>
<p>I certainly can't. However, perhaps she wasn't certain what she wanted either. Applying all Ivy may mean that she did not evaluate fit very well.</p>
<p>(she got into Penn, Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Columbia and Brown)-lol</p>
<p>There is a certain level of randomness. Certainly she was qualified for H and Y (otherwise she would not have gotten into 6/8 Ivies), however it could just be the greatness of so many other applicants gave her the boot. Was she waitlisted at H or Y? Also, congratulate the kid for her impressive showings.</p>
<p>Perhaps even Harvard and Yale look beyond the "numbers."</p>
<p>Maybe her stats weren't as competitive for what she intended to study???</p>
<p>
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But hey what are they looking for??????
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Well, all anyone can say is...not her.</p>
<p>Perhaps her essay or her teacher and counselor recommendations were not as good as those of other candidates.</p>
<p>Or perhaps there were simply too many applicants like her, and Harvard and Yale, with their desire to create classes that are diverse in many different respects, could not accept all of them, no matter how qualified they were.</p>
<p>In any case, she had a range of interesting colleges to choose from. I hope she made a choice that she is pleased with.</p>
<p>What was the strength of her high school schedule? ("Valedictorian in competitive school" doesn't provide much detail.) Did she have a lot of extracurricular activities, or was she outstanding in a few with sustained commitment? Did she apply exactly and only to the eight Ivy League colleges and nowhere else? Why?</p>
<p>Hey, OP, are <em>you</em> upset she didn't get into H&Y, or is she?? It's not like she was shut out...</p>
<p>Without seeing the whole package that the adcoms saw, there's no way to tell why she didn't get into one or the other or both. There is a bit of luck to the process (just your luck that H or Y needed a quarterback this year). And it's not like the schools look for the same thing. A person can get into H and be rejected by Y, or vice-versa.</p>
<p>so where did this perfect applicant/you decide to matriculate?</p>
<p>H and Y reject more than one perfect SAT scorer each year, and they reject tons of vals and sals.</p>
<p>She went to a very tough school, excellent recs, nationally ranked the whole package honestly. She wanted H or Y and the reason she applied to so many was because everyone told her just because she had everything she might get rejected from every school due to the sheer numbers of applications. She was very personable and my friend knows her very well and was just shocked H and Y didn't grab her! Strange thing is that a kid in her school who was an A student but otherwise very very ordinary stats got into Y and H!! (not legacy,not rich,not minority)</p>
<p>hedoya,
How did her stats match up with what she indicated she wanted to pursue in college (I'm not talking about CR and Math SAT scores- that's about as general as it gets!).</p>
<p>What did she want to study???</p>
<p>As I understand it, HPY reject roughly half of all perfect SAT/ACT scorers. So while those perfect scorers enjoy better odds than the norm (and the odds may reflect correlation rather than causation), it still means that half of them are denied admission. Your friend did quite well in the admissions lottery, it seems to me.</p>
<p>I think what's hard to grasp is there are lots of people like her--H and Y could fill up their classes with people just like that, with some left over. Also, it wouldn't surprise me if more people like that apply to H and Y than to the other Ivies. Harvard doesn't need to "grab" valedictorians, or yearbook editors, or perfect SATs. This is why people need to remember that the top schools are a reach for almost everyone, no matter how great their stats are.</p>
<p>
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She wanted H or Y and the reason she applied to so many was because everyone told her just because she had everything she might get rejected from every school
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Well, they were wrong. She only got rejected from two. Predictions were that she might get rejected from all. Where is the surprise?</p>
<p>As wjb said, several schools have published data showing that the acceptance rate for perfect SAT scores is around 50%. Meaning they have way better chances than the overall pool (~10%ish). But not the 100% chance the general public seems to expect.</p>
<p>"Perfect" applicants not getting into HYPS. A big yawn.</p>
<p>My quick take, she applied to too many Ives....should have just applied to max of four that she most wanted then some other back ups like Stanford or Chicago etc.</p>