<p>Here’s one from my school.</p>
<p>3.3 Weighted GPA, 1800 SAT, average ECs, got into UC Davis. He was one of the top players on the golf team. </p>
<p>It’s also strange to hear that at least 1/5 of the seniors in my school got accepted to UC Davis, and not all of them have stellar GPAs or SAT scores.</p>
<p>Actually, that sounds just right for UC Davis. I don’t see the absurdity.</p>
<p>Psssh. Two seniors at our school this year with nothing outstanding except an UW 4.0 and four/five APs with one or two ordinary EC leaderships got into Duke. White. One male, one female. About 150K families. I think it’s because we live in a crap state though lol.</p>
<p>Our valedictorian who has a 4.0 unweighted, 4.7 w, and a good ACT score got rejected from the Ivies. He’s going to Northwestern which isn’t bad, but it’s not what he expected.</p>
<p>^ You shouldn’t “expect” anything other than rejections from the Ivies unless you’ve really got something going for you. And even then there’s the possibility of rejection.</p>
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<p>Bitter?</p>
<p>^ Agree. btw, jamesford posted for the first time I remember in like 4 months</p>
<p>The people at MIT are actually really cool. I think they get a bad rep for being a math/sciencey school and they’re trying to move away from that image. People there aren’t just nerdy freaks who do nothing but math.</p>
<p>Yeah I was personally really disappointed by the process. For background, I got a 2400 on the SAT, got 5’s on all AP’s I took, submitted a fairly decent art portfolio, compose music, won the state debate championship, had really good interviews, do a lot of community service, won many math/science awards, and won several essay contests. Submitting my applications after four years of hard work, I thought, “I’m good at everything: now they’ll like me!” Then I got rejected from EVERY Ivy League school and MIT. I won’t berate the people who actually got in, but it was a little crushing for me personally because I COULD NOT POSSIBLY have done any better academically - it’s like school is all a giant crapshoot because no matter how hard you try you won’t get in on merit alone - while the focus on personal characteristics as admission criteria makes it impossible to avoid the conclusion that there’s something seriously wrong with you when you’re academically way over-qualified and still rejected–I mean, I expected the process to be hit-and-miss, but being completely shut out just hurt.</p>
<p>And fine, while I’m the grumpy show-off “it’s-not-my-fault” whiner on the forum anyway, I’ll note out that the people who did get accepted into the Ivy League from my school were all URM or recruited athletes. Part of me says “AARGH! I WAS SO MUCH MORE DESERVING!” but I’m at the same time really happy for them, making it weird to talk to them (the first couple days after decisions anyway).</p>
<p>Anyway, I’ve realized that above a certain threshold you get the same opportunities no matter where you go, and this obsession with Ivy League schools among high-achievers can be fairly psychologically damaging.</p>
<p>So, instead of finding examples of acceptances you think are absurdly out of the ordinary, just accept that you can’t predict the admission process and come to terms with its “giant crapshoot” status–by the way, congratulations to all of you who got in!</p>
<p>^I agree. There are always going to be “absurd” decisions but they only seem absurd to us. I honestly believe that to get accepted to a lot of these schools it simply takes one person really liking you and placing your application into the “accepted” pile. Sure schools have trends and sometimes some acceptances seem out of ordinary, but I think there are legitimate reasons behind every acceptance.</p>