<p>Now that I've got your attention (or driven you away, in which case you wouldn't be reading this, so never mind):</p>
<p>Hello, I'm a junior. 2260 SAT (but I retook it Saturday so hopefully it'll go up); 4.0 / ~4.6 GPA; top 1% of class. As for EC activities, pretty dull & unimpressive: four years marching band, two years NHS, two years Literary Club - no leadership positions. =D</p>
<p>My list as of a while ago:
Yale University
Brown University
University of Chicago
Macalester College
Reed College
University of Colorado-Boulder
Now, my mother thinks that I should add in another Ivy. 'It's just a crapshoot, dear, that you have to apply to as many as possible to maximize acceptance probability.' Okay, makes sense. I like the University of Pennsylvania, too, so I would like to apply - only I feel as if even two Ivys is overkill, and I'd seem a prestige whore and I would be embarrassed to tell people where I'm applying. I feel like it's pointless for me to apply in the first place, and people will just laugh at me when they hear. =/ Yeah, so I have good grades, but otherwise I'm kind of boring on paper.</p>
<p>But, anyway, my real questions are 1) do you think that, with my qualifications, it's just stupid to apply to Yale, Brown, and Penn considering how selective they are? and 2) would you suggest adding another safety school? Don't let me get cocky.</p>
<p>of course its not stupid to apply to those schools. You may be lacking in EC's, but you're certainly up to par with test scores/GPA, probably even if your SATs don't improve. Who cares if people laugh at you for applying to good schools...they're obviously idiots if they feel the need to make fun of someone who is smart.</p>
<p>And yes, you never know what can happen with colleges, add another safety.</p>
<p>Re: Bill<em>h</em>pike: I honestly haven't found any safety schools I like a lot. This bothers me.</p>
<p>Re: Drew00: I was really against my retaking the SAT, but I signed up at my counsellor's suggestion. She thought that I would need a more recent standardized test score (since both the ACT and SAT are from my sophomore year). I'll probably end up doing worse overall, but maybe I can raise my math section? <em>shrug</em></p>
<p>just wondering, not to be offensive , i was thinking about your sn
but i believe "poubelle" means wastebasket in french. I usually say "corbeille" (i think that's feminine)</p>
<p>dont retake the SAT, ad coms won't like that. A girl at my school scored 2280 on her first try and retook it to get a 2390 on her second try. She applied to HYP and other ivies. She was rejected at HYP and the only ivy she got into was Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Retaking a good score for a better score is pointless in my opinion.</p>
<p>funnyman, that is definetly not the reason she was rejected.</p>
<p>Also, good ECs? Student Government? Not that it's bad, because it's great, but I would consider good ECs (after reading what I've seen here) many many many great, unique, and standout efforts. Anyone can just join student government or some club and maybe become president... </p>
<p>So I'd think that might be more of a reason then retaking the SATs.</p>
<p>There is also her essay, recommendations, courseload, and even SAT score itself (people score better than 2390).</p>
<p>You are making such a random (and probably wrong) assumption saying that retaking SAT looked bad and got her rejected. Come on!</p>
<p>uh, a 2390 is at or above the 75% at HYP, not many people score higher. She probably had excellent recs and essays (very friendly to teachers). I'm just trying to say that a 2280 is good enough and retaking it for the sole purpose of scoring very high probably raised some adcom's eyebrows.</p>
<p>i have a friend who scored 2400 on his first try on the SAT reasoning, 800 physics/800 math2C on the subject tests, was a valedictorian, was on the varsity swim team his whole high school career, had tons of volunteer work, math/physics/science olympiad finalist, placed at national science bowl with the school's team, etc etc. he also probably had excellent letters of rec, since all the teachers love him (you get the idea). he was rejected from MIT, princeton, and stanford. can you explain it? nah. so i don't think it's safe to say or even plausible that your friend was rejected for retaking the SAT. </p>
<p>"I'm just trying to say that a 2280 is good enough and retaking it for the sole purpose of scoring very high probably raised some adcom's eyebrows."</p>
<p>why else would someone retake the SAT? to score lower? because they enjoy standardized testing? the very obvious truth is that the only reason someone would retake the SAT is to score higher. also, 2280 is really not that high when compared with scores of applicants to HYPMS. many people i know that scored above 2300 were not admitted to a single ivy school they applied to. (not to discourage any potential applicants.)</p>
<p>poubelle - your SAT is alright and your GPA is pretty damn good, but your EC's are definitely lacking if you are shooting for yale, brown, and the like.</p>
<p>your friend seems like he tried too hard. Colleges want real people who follow their passions, your friend didn't sound like someone with a passion.</p>
<p>"I'm just trying to say that a 2280 is good enough and retaking it for the sole purpose of scoring very high probably raised some adcom's eyebrows."
My friend had higher than that, retook it, did better, and got into Harvard, MIT, etc....it doesn't have to do with that, it has to do with the fact that only the best get into these schools. Having good scores and grades does not make her the best. You don't know his strengths and weaknesses. You say he's friendly to teachers, but perhaps they don't see him putting in full efforts into their class? Or perhaps they think that he is a great student but has some sort of character flaws (ex. cocky)? There is no way you can know why he didn't get in. Plus, he did get into Dartmouth!</p>
<p>these colleges dont want people to apply to them, think they know what they are looking for. Guaranteed they reject top students that look like they do all their Ec's just to SEEM well rounded. And I am sure they can tell. Being involved in a hunred clubs means nothing except that your a dork with no life that wants to get into college so badly, youll put that before living happily.</p>
<p>High SATs are a must in most cases, but (I agree with others), 2280 is already very good. However, if you want to retake it again, that's your business of course. If you think can score higher (which you are sure of), then reach for the sky. Just keep in mind that past 2280, your score won't make you that much of a stronger candidate as would, say, working more in your ECs or finding a new interest that you could develop between now and admissions time. IMO, someone with 2320 doesn't have a huge advantage over a person with a 2250, because both scores are very high. I base this on acceptance of unhooked applicants: People with 2100-2200 are accepted, while some people with 2300+ are rejected, one constant I've noticed is very high class ranks. (I'm DEFINATELY not saying high SAT=bad, by any means, I'm just saying past a certain score, it can only do so much, which is why they vary).</p>