<p>I agree there is probably a lot of "tweaking" of applications, but I think the admissions office knows this. In an article on admissions one officer said, "how could one student do all this and still sleep or study?" When we see a few things that have been steady we know they really like doing it and it wasn't a filler.
One funny comment he made on high SAT scores and one parents question on how some "lower" ones get in his high ranked school. He said "can you imagine if we just let in all 1600 students? By the end of first semester, half would be in the bottom of the class and our mental health services couldn't handle it!" : )</p>
<p>My friend (white female) was accepted into Cornell with nearly no EC's ...however, she had a 1460 and all 700+ SAT II's.</p>
<p>Other than that, I probably could have predicted all the college admissions results in my school based on the stuff I've learned off of CC.</p>
<p>WashU accepted meeee! it was really surprising since only two from my school got accepted and they both had WAAAY higher stats then me.</p>
<p>i was accepted to the prestigious DeVry institute... it came as a COMPLETE shock since I had only been accepted into Laney College and Alameda College... but I would have never expecte DeVry.... DEVRY!!!!! So 1337!</p>
<p>This Is The Gloaming!</p>
<p>A lot of people at my school are shocked over one acceptance in particular, our valedvictorian for the class of 2006 was admitted to Harvard and Brown, but waitlisted at Cornell. Nothing truly extraordinary though.</p>
<p>I heard colleges waitlist/reject "overqualified" applicants because they are sure bigger schools will probably accept them. I suppose they do this to boost matriculation rates?</p>
<p>Yes, helloangel that is commonly known as "tufts syndrome" (in relation to the school known for this) but it is common among many many schools. It's why you can hear of people being accepted to all their reaches but rejected from their safety</p>
<p>The richest man in Cincinnati's son got into UVA with unimpressive SATs, less than 3.0 GPA I believe, and no real hooks that I know of.</p>
<p>But more important than shocking acceptances,</p>
<p>Acceptance is shockingly good! New CD comes out this month! Militia Group rules!</p>
<p>I once heard the head admissions officer at William and Mary at a lecture, and he told a story about an applicant who got an 800 (combined) on his SAT. They were going to reject him but there was a mix up and he was sent an acceptance letter and enrolled accordingly. Ended up becoming one of the most successful undergraduates at that campus, and to this day does not know that he wasn't "supposed to be there"!
I thought it was a pretty cool story myself...</p>
<p>are you sure about the accuracy of that story?</p>
<p>A student at Brown got in with a 980 and graduated with a B+ average. Went on to Harvard and Univ. of Mich. for 2 masters. You can't always tell with numbers, too much is put on it sometimes.</p>
<p>Yeah but for every actual brilliant kid with a sub 1100 SAT score, there are a bunch who really wouldn't do that well in say Brown or UVA.</p>
<p>But who knows? I'm annoyed that people here equate a 4.0/1600 or 2400 with being smart. It just isn't so. Some of the smartest people I know don't even crack the top half of my class</p>
<p>
[quote]
are you sure about the accuracy of that story?
[/quote]
Well it was from the horse's mouth, so to speak, and he spent a good deal of time going into great detail about this kid so I believe it is.</p>
<p>"But who knows? I'm annoyed that people here equate a 4.0/1600 or 2400 with being smart. It just isn't so. Some of the smartest people I know don't even crack the top half of my class"</p>
<p>Well if someone is smart and doesn't have a 4.0/1600 (or at least approaching it), there's usually something else going on. It's usually an extenuating circumstance (depression, family crisis, dyslexia, etc etc) that prevented them from getting there, as opposed to an inherent flaw in the test or grading system.</p>
<p>A couple of kids I work with didn't crack 1000 on the SAT, and shockingly enough, those were the two who attempted to use saran wrap in lieu of a condom. A smart kid with a low SAT/GPA is more often the exception than it is the rule.</p>
<p>Interestingly, I scored in the top .05 percentile on the Stanford-Binet, which put me in highly gifted magnet range (which I turned down as a child). However, I was never motivated to really...well... work hard on standardized tests in high school. I got a 1370 or something like that, but I just didn't care to work harder because I knew I wanted to transfer since junior year. </p>
<p>Lo and behold, I was also depressed, dealing with the death of my grandfather (who was my father figure), and working 25 hours a week to help support my family. Badabing. You really hit it on the nose Flavius. And I've gushed about myself too much for comfort. </p>
<p>I, fortunately enough, am not dyslexic as far as I know. But hey, who knows?</p>
<p>i was admitted at upenn with 3.96(uw) and some okay ec's. my test scores were horrible: sat-1150!!!!, satII- all in the 500's except writing=630. i guess my essay really helped me. i don't think race helped me since penn is roughly 20% asian.</p>
<p>my friend was recruited full scholarship for soccer at berkley and his sats and gpa dont even meet the minimum requirement</p>
<p>that's how it goes.. if you are super good at a particular sport, a college would usually let you slide or look the other way on your grades.</p>