Official 2005 - 2011 Decision Thread

Colleges & Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
121

<p>Decision:A little late but ACCEPTED</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 740 CR, 740 W, 740 M
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800 Math IIC, 760 US History, 760 Chemistry
[<em>] GPA: 3.93 unweighted, 4.6 weighted
[</em>] Rank: Top 10%
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Essays: good...about killing embryonic chickens and research
[</em>] Teacher Recs: Good I guess...I was pretty close to my teachers
[<em>] Counselor Rec: Good
[</em>] Hook (if any): Not being a typical asian, Siemens-Westinghouse semi-finalist
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country:Southern California
[</em>] School Type: Private
[<em>] Ethnicity: Chinese
[</em>] Gender: F
[<em>] Intended Major: biochem
[</em>] major strength/weakness: strength: my friend says she wrote a good peer rec, lots of sports weakness: a slight drop in grades junior year[/ul]</p>

122

<p>Is dartmouth the only Ivy that recquires a peer recommendation? Any thoughts on whether this would really help or hurt chances anyway, or is it just like some joke that kings on a hill make their subjects do. Maybe next year applicants will have to send a picture of us doing a handstand or something...</p>

123

<p>deerunner: definitely no joke,, and it should not be considered optional. btw: Williams has just added an optional peer rec.</p>

124

<p>Disclaimer: <_> I'm not saying anything meaning to offend.</p>

<p>o.o Dartmouth is easier to get into than I ever imagined? I imagined like... monsters getting in. Like... Absolute monsters with 4.6 GPA, 2340 SAT, EIC, president of blahblahblahs, 5's on all APs, winner of amazing competitions, etc. o.o And then I see 2190-2270, 4.0-4.2 kids getting in, and I'm like OMG I might have maybe had a chance if I tried early!</p>

<p>o.o I didn't do any early cause I thought all the colleges would laugh when they saw my application/stats. I thought I was scum on the rock that might maybe somehow get into a school or two by mistake. o.o Omg.</p>

125

<p>
[quote]
o.o Dartmouth is easier to get into than I ever imagined? I imagined like... monsters getting in. Like... Absolute monsters with 4.6 GPA, 2340 SAT, EIC, president of blahblahblahs, 5's on all APs, winner of amazing competitions, etc. o.o And then I see 2190-2270, 4.0-4.2 kids getting in, and I'm like OMG I might have maybe had a chance if I tried early!

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Lesson #1- admissions to the ivies are not purely stat driven but rather a holistic process where grades, scores, the rigor of the ciriculum, ecs, etc. are looked at in in context to rest of what the person is bringing to the table and their experiences. They know that someone from an affluent background has access to better schools, private tutoring etc. So on the surface how much of that 2340 is really "you" and how much of it has been bought and paid for?</p>

<p>Lesson #2- the Ivies and similar schools are interested in building a well rounded class which aligns with their institutional mission. One of the biggest mistakes I have seen on these board over the years is the misconception that "stats' will get them in. Stats are just the objective criteria that gets you over the first hurdle, it is the subjective criteria that moves your application from admit, deny, defer or waitlisted.</p>

<p>It is not that dartmouth is "easier to get into" it is simply a matter of dartmouth looks at a student as a whole as really takes care in building a class of people that they would actually like to interact with on campus .</p>

<p>This could be the reason that Dartmouth students are amongst some of the happiest undergrads because as a class they are a very cohesive group and a bunch of people who actually like being in one another's company. </p>

<p>Dartmouth is not at a loss for "smart kids" and it does not necessarily mean that someone who feels they have "better stats" would have gotten in. BTW, once one gets into hanover, stats are never talked about again.</p>

<p>If you read back through the threads you will find that there were students with "great stats" that were deferred/rejected in the ED round and many will be deferred/rejected in the RD round.</p>

<p>I that anyone who thinks that it is all about the stats, that they would read the following and become educated because if you think the cost of an education is expensive, try the cost of ignorance:</p>

<p>"Recipe for Success" <a href="http://www.williams.edu/alumni/alumnireview/fall05/recipe.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.williams.edu/alumni/alumnireview/fall05/recipe.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>the thread- My dinner with an admissions officer-</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=118616%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=118616&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Thread- Just how hard admissions can be-</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=116204%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=116204&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Brian Nance's (Dir. of Minority Recruiting at MIT) admissions advice given in his blog 99 problems and admission's is not one</p>

<p><a href="http://nance.mitblogs.com/archives/2005/10/ive_got_99_prob.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://nance.mitblogs.com/archives/2005/10/ive_got_99_prob.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Thread: Whoever has the most APs wins? Started in Parents Forum by audiophile on 09-14-2005 Good discussion of how AP classes figure into the "college admissions arms race.*" Post #49, by Ben Jones of the MIT Admissions Office, is particularly worthy of note; it is full of wisdom as well as information. *</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=97255%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=97255&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>all the best</p>

126

<p>Sorry, I didn't mean like... EASIER to get into. I mean like... o.o They're not all perfect/near-perfect people who have 2400s, 4.7, etc, and have awesome personality/talents/etc too.</p>

<p>.<em>. Sorry. I just.. really expected accepted people to be scintillating perfect people I go "O</em>O Wooooooooooooow, you're my hero." about.</p>

127

<p>To quote m&sdad:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Humility and quiet confidence have their place in the application process.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>To sjmom2329's (parent of curent dartmouth student)
response when she highlighted the quote as parents were responding to the "harvard massacre", which this opinion could be used when talking about any school:</p>

<p>
[quote]
How about amending that to say "...in every aspect of life."</p>

<p>I have a feeling that Admissions people are able to spot arrogance and poor social skills from a mile away. RSI is a wonderful program, but it is certainly not the only wonderful way for students to demonstrate passion and commitment to science and math. Given the data regarding admissions, schools like Harvard don't need to admit any one particular student -- if someone is outstanding in one area, but is an ill-behaved oaf, I don't see them fitting in at Harvard .

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The same would be said about being admitted to Dartmouth</p>

128

<p>that's the spirit</p>

129

<p>what % of ED applicants were rejected? What % deferred? How can we find out why we were rejected?</p>

130

<p>The incoming class has between 1077 and 1080 students</p>

<p>For the class of 2009 1180 applied 397 admitted 33.64%
for the class of 2008 1277 applied 384 admitted 30.70 %
for the class of 2007 1216 applied 397 admitted 32.6%</p>

<p><a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Eoir/dataset.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dartmouth.edu/~oir/dataset.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

131

<p>Lesson #3 - People posting on CC are a small sample of the whole pool of applying and accepted students to any college, and may or may not be representative of any trends or any student. If you had looked at the Dartmouth results last year, you would have concluded that Dart admissions were very numbers driven, with a distinct cut-off at 1500 SAT - it is was very obvious. This year's stats are all over the place, comparatively. This is probably more about who is posting on the site this year vs last year, than any real change in admissions policy.</p>

<p>Also - hard as this may be to believe, not everyone may be 100% truthful! :)</p>

132

<p>OMG1!! cut-off at 1500 :( my highest is only 1400 :( darn, hopefully when i apply next year, they'll lower it :)</p>

133

<p>Newby!!! You misunderstand. My point is that it is very difficult to really draw conclusions from posts on a website. The conclusion one would draw from last year's ED results is different than the conclusion to be drawn from this year's results. Perhaps if someone pooled 5 years worth of numbers, you could begin to get some idea, but even then, maybe not - as we say, the sample size is too small.</p>

134

<p>Stats:
SAT: 2170
SAT IIs: 740, 680, 650
GPA: 100.22 out of 100
Rank: 5/118
Other stats: National Merit Scholarship
Essays: Superb
Teacher Recs: Excellent
Counselor Rec: Pretty much the Best ever
Hook (if any): current job experience...see me about it
Location/Person: Old Saybrook, CT, with Bob Marchant
State or Country: CT, USA
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Intended Major: Engineering/Business
major strength/weakness: kickass interview, sailing team/ my ego is extremely inflated right now
Other Factors: Charm</p>

135

<p>Decision:ACCEPTED</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<pre><code>* SAT: 700 CR, 750 W, 650 M
* SAT IIs: 680 Math, 760 US History
* GPA: 3.99 unweighted
* Rank: 1/70
</code></pre>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<pre><code>* Essays: Great
* Teacher Recs: Great
* Counselor Rec: Good
* Hook (if any): I am an Eagle Scout, Exchange Student in Japan, Editor in Chief of Literary Mag...
</code></pre>

<p>Location/Person:</p>

<pre><code>* State or Country:Maryland
* School Type: Private
* Ethnicity: Caucasian
* Gender: M
* Intended Major: English, Linguistics, Japanese
* Major strength/weakness: Math is not my strong point, but I can do well in it.
</code></pre>

136

<p>what does the rejection letter say??</p>

137

<p>[ size=+1][ color=#228B22][ b]Decision: OMG!!! ACEPTED!!![ /b][ /color][ /size]</p>

<p>[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *] SAT: 1690 (550 english 600 math 540 writing)
[ *] SAT IIs: 540 history, 620 Math I
[ *] GPA: 2.9
[ *] Rank: 102/343
[ *] Other stats: NHS
[ /list][ b]Subjective:[ /b][ list]
[ *] Essays: I though they were good.
[ *] Teacher Recs: 2 of them.
[ *] Counselor Rec: only 1
[ *] Hook (if any): I'm native American
[ /list][ b]Location/Person:[ /b][ list]
[ *] State or Country: U.S., illinios
[ *] School Type: Public?
[ *] Ethnicity: Native American!
[ *] Gender: Male
[ *] Intended Major: idk.
[ *] major strength/weakness: prolly my writing skill. I talk well too, so my interview wuz good.
[ /list][ b]Other Factors:[ /b]
my peer rec was good i think.
i also visited the campus a lot. (8 times)</p>

138

<p>Im not sure i like how this thread is all about stats...you people should know that its more about then getting to know what kind of person you are through your app rather than your stats...so how about insert a section with "strongest attributes" or "what makes you intersting" ..cuz i got accepted and let me tell you...my stats are worse than even some of those who were rejected or deffered. Colleges are picking a PERSON not a sat score or a gpa.</p>

139

<p>I'm for it. Start us off Alina.</p>

140

<p>I think it's really great and heroic that you mention that colleges accept people and not numbers, but it's the numbers that you get to a certain plateau in the decision process. If you had a 1600 (on the new SAT), do you think Dartmouth would care about your glowing personality traits? If you got so-so grades and did no ECs whatsoever, do you think Dartmouth would care about your sense of humor?
I completely agree with the "personality matters" statement and that they ARE creating a class of humans, not statistics, but it's the grades and scores that get you to the level where they even WANT to care about your personality. Looking at the accepted/deferred/rejected categories, you'll see a trend with GPA and scores. Granted some people with AMAZING scores get deferred and some people with so-so scores (eg me) get accepted, but there's a reason we get grades and take standardized testing in the first place.</p>