<p>you're still not guaranteed. if you've got the smarts, work on your personal and social and leadership characteristics, or find something really exciting to immerse yourself in.</p>
<p>That is to say, develop a personality and make yourself stand out beyond just numbers.</p>
<p>Incidentally, this is the wrong thread.</p>
<p>re: greg's post from some time ago... one can look at college board's 2006 senior class data and see EXACTLY how many people got 2400s. the number is quite high: <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SATPercentileRanksCompositeCR_M_W.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/ra/sat/SATPercentileRanksCompositeCR_M_W.pdf</a></p>
<p>they released a lot of other data at the end of august, as usual.</p>
<p>by the way, greg--they have historical data on that same page-area there if you want to go look for it, so you could get the data you want to compare to 1995. :D</p>
<p>I went through the 2006 data a little bit on my website and picked out a few interesting pieces, most of it was noise. (link here if anyone interested: link)</p>
<p>So far several very well qualified URMs were deferred. I thought that, combined with a good profile, that was an automatic in.</p>
<p>NOTHING is an automatic in- not athletes, legacies, URMs, perfect scores, Presidential Scholars... whatever. That's an important thing to understand.</p>
<p>But those things pretty much seal the deal. U gotta admit...
I THINK Harvard, Princeton, Yale (not so much Princeton)) main problem is that they weight Legacies, URM, and Athletes before academics in a few cases (I believe). For example, if they look to recruit, they'll check for the athlete first and then make sure his academics are okay. If they see a legacy, they'll put much weight on that and, once again check to make sure academics are on par rather than look at academics, pick out the competitive app., and let those things boost an app. just a little. But I may be wrong.</p>
<p>I know this is just a little late...</p>
<p>*Decision: Deferred *</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I: 800M/790W/780CR
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800 MIIC 800 US HIstory 790 Physics
[<em>] ACT
[</em>] GPA: 4.0 UW
[<em>] Rank: School doesn't rank, but in top 2%
[</em>] Other stats: National Merit Semifinalist, National AP Scholar with Distinction, 5's on Chemistry, Comparative Politics, Micro/Macroeconomics, Physics B, US History, 4 on English Language, Model UN Best Delegate at Stanford
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Essays: Pretty good I think
[</em>] Teacher Recs: Not Sure
[<em>] Counselor Rec: Very Good
[</em>] Hook (if any): Um...I play the cello?
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country:AZ
[</em>] School Type: Public
[<em>] Ethnicity: Chinese
[</em>] Gender: Male
[<em>] Perceived Strengths/Weaknesses:
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: They don't like Asians?
[/ul]</p>
<p>my friend (from Canada) got accepted into harvard EA and it shows that sometimes great stats simply do not matter; it shows that anyone who applies has a shot</p>
<p>my friend's stats:</p>
<p>*Decision: Accepted *</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I: 640 (math), 560 (critical reading), 540 (writing)
[</em>] SAT IIs: 610 (math IIc), 570 (physics), 480 (US history)
[<em>] ACT n/a
[</em>] AP: AP calculus (our school only offers 4 AP courses)
[<em>] Courseload: moderate
[</em>] GPA: 3.2 (unweighted; our school does not weigh GPAs)
[<em>] Rank: top 50% (about 78/220)
[</em>] Other stats: 79% average (Canadian education system); on the school honor roll
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Essays: decent but nothing truly amazing (i read his essay)
[</em>] Teacher Recs: honest assessment; he told me it was nothing amazing
[<em>] Counselor Rec: same as teacher recs
[</em>] Hook (if any): played varsity rugby; play community basketball, volunteered at local church, played piano for 9+ years (Diploma from London Conservatory of Music), very artistic, hardworking student who uses hard work and motivation to compensate for lack of talent
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: US citizen but schooled in Canada and Hong Kong
[</em>] School Type: fairly competitive; has one of the best chemistry and math programs in province (Canada equivalent of state); has only sent one student to a prestigious school (MIT) in school history
[<em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[</em>] Gender: Male
[<em>] Perceived Strengths/Weaknesses: Surprisingly low SATs; made hard work and motivation a key part of his application
[</em>] Why you think he was accepted/deferred/denied: I had no idea how he got accepted with such low stats compare to other applicants; I have way better stats than him in school and I don't have a shot at any Ivy league school
[/ul]Other Factors: did not apply for financial aid (perhaps it helped); very artistic
General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc: we told him to tryout as a joke and now everyone at my school is in total disbelief</p>
<p>When you come across an applicant who has mediocre stats but got in Harvard, I suspect this applicant has some extenuating circumstances at home.</p>
<p>Either the applicant has some chronic illness he/she is battling or someone in the family that's going through some chronic illness. Or simply that they come from an economically challenging environment at home perhaps.</p>
<p>Such circumstances can open doors for a candidate despite their lower scores.</p>
<p>We believe cp3 is a troll - it must not be a real person's stats. From working with admissions officers and knowing how the admissions process works, these students would not even make the first cut. Even highly sought after nationally (or even internationally) ranked athletes do not have scores that low.</p>
<p>so what are the borderline stats that actually make past the first cut?</p>
<p>and my friend got waitlisted with a very high gpa but 980 (out of 1600) SAT score. was she lying to me or do these situations really happen? p.s-she got two interviews too!</p>
<p>Sifat and all,
Put little confidence in stats that are reported via friends. SAT scores and GPA are completely confidential. No one else except the student and his direct family know the actual scores and GPA.</p>
<p>I put more faith in the survey that US News presented just this year on stats for top schools.......only problem this article was that their stats reflected old SAT scores (out of 1600).</p>
<p>I am keen to see the next US News edition with the new SAT.</p>
<p>*Decision:ACCEPTED! *</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] Name: Woods, comma, Elle
[</em>] SAT I:
[<em>] SAT IIs:
[</em>] ACT
[<em>] GPA: I have a 4.0.
[</em>] Rank:Not sure
[li] Other stats: President of my sorority where we determine important issues such as toilet paper, recently judged a tighty whitey contest, danced in a Ricky Martin Video, Gemini Vegetarian, designed a line of Faux Fur panties, won the Ms. Hawaiian Tropics contest, talked Cameron Diaz out of buying a truly hideous sweater</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]</p>
<p>[<em>] Essays: Wrote about how orange is not the new pink and cited my experiences with Cameran Diaz.
[</em>] Teacher Recs:
[<em>] Counselor Rec:
[</em>] Hook (if any): A Coppola directed my admissions video.</p>
<p>[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: Southern California.
[</em>] School Type: Big university!
[<em>] Ethnicity: Blonde.
[</em>] Gender: Female
[<em>] Perceived Strengths/Weaknesses: My resume was scented and pink-- I think it gives it a little extra something.
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: hehehe
[/ul]Other Factors: none.
General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc:</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Um, no.</p>
<p>I know this is really late guys...sorry</p>
<p>Decision: deferred</p>
<p>[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ <em>] SAT I: 800/800/800
[ *] SAT IIs: 800 in Math IIc, World History, Chemistry, Biology, 740 Literature, 750 Spanish
[ *] ACT
[ *] GPA: 97.6
[</em>] Rank: N/A
[<em>] Other stats: 5 on 7 APs and a 3 on Music Theory (blah)
[/list][ b]Subjective:[ /b][ list]
[</em>] Essays: pretty good
[<em>] Teacher Recs: don't know
[</em>] Counselor Rec: don't know
[<em>] Hook (if any):
[/list][ b]Location/Person:[ /b][ list]
[</em>] State or Country: USA (TX)
[<em>] School Type: private
[</em>] Ethnicity: Chinese
[<em>] Gender: female
[</em>] Perceived Strengths/Weaknesses: active in sports (cross-country and track all four years), tons of leadership/awards in community service, leadership in choir (which i was in thruout high school)--in two choirs currently; presidential scholar candidate, national merit, ap scholar w/ distinction, lots of school academic awards, 130 on AMC 10, blah blah blah
[ *] Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: don't know...anyone have suggestions? maybe i didn't do anything really amazing?
[ /list][ b]Other Factors:[ /b] applied for financial aid; income bracket 70K-90K
[ b]General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc:[ /b]</p>