<p>who here also agrees with me that we can sometimes overthink this college admissions process, and make it seem almost impossible, even though it's not even close to being THAT competitive?</p>
<p>Hear, hear.
It's less competitive that we think, but more competitive than we would like it to be.</p>
<p>Yup. As long as you're not reaching for ivies, it's really not a huge deal.</p>
<p>Even the ivies are blown out of proportion, imo. You do not need to cure cancer to be accepted.</p>
<p>IMO, getting into ivies isn't as big of a deal as people make it out to be...</p>
<p>yea, even the rank 1's and 2400ers here on CC think theyre gonna get rejected from top ivies. of course, a lot of them will. but also, a lot of them will not. they seem to think they have a 10% chance or something. but its obvious that lots of totally unqualified people apply to these top schools for various reasons, so the real qualified people (academically speaking) actually have like 25-50% imo instead of 10% average. plus, really good extras, recs, essays, will bring that up to 50%-70%.</p>
<p>It is THAT competitive. But yes, people do over think the admissions process. Especially trivial things like: "will 1 B hurt me?" "should I take leadership or one more AP"</p>
<p>
[quote]
yea, even the rank 1's and 2400ers here on CC think theyre gonna get rejected from top ivies. of course, a lot of them will. but also, a lot of them will not. they seem to think they have a 10% chance or something. but its obvious that lots of totally unqualified people apply to these top schools for various reasons, so the real qualified people (academically speaking) actually have like 25-50% imo instead of 10% average. plus, really good extras, recs, essays, will bring that up to 50%-70%.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I definitely don't agree with that, let's say awesome prestigious school X has an acceptance rate of 10% and of the students accepted, 25-35% were URMs, recruited athletes, etc. So that brings the acceptance rate for normal people down significantly, thus there isn't a huge disparity between the overall acceptance rates and the acceptance rate of "real qualified people."</p>
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acceptance rate of "real qualified people."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think the hordes of cretins that apply just for the hell of it do a lot to even the odds. :)</p>
<p>^Agreed.</p>
<p>It's kinda like Pascal's wager. Better to a) believe you have no chance and get accepted, or [somewhat] expect the rejection than to b) believe you have a decent chance and get rejection, or get accepted but with less shock and euphoria.</p>
<p>ok that was poorly worded what I said, but what I mean is,
for example, from my school,
there are people with 3.7-3.9 GPA UW applying to harvard and stanford. I mean, they are pretty smart compared to everyone else, and participate in volunteering, clubs, sports, etc. but I mean Harvard? With like 3 B's in high school, and memberships in NHS? come on. we all know that stuff is not legit. Obviously, it's better than nothing. but it won't get you into Harvard or whatev.
so that's why i believe there are so many people who apply to these schools just for the name and for the infinitesimal chance that they could get accepted out of sheer randomness. and by "real qualified people" I'm even talking about anyone special. im just talking about the ones who actually have 4.0's and high class ranks. and SAT scores that are within the medium 50% of applicants. and who actually did something in high school instead of going to clubs with 2 meetings a year (NHS in my school)</p>
<p>People in general just obsess too much. Do what you love in high school, work hard without killing yourself, take challenging classes in your strong areas, and "be yourself." (Really.) That's how you get into a good college...</p>
<p>
[quote]
who here also agrees with me that we can sometimes overthink this college admissions process, and make it seem almost impossible, even though it's not even close to being THAT competitive?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>agreed with other people that it is that competitive. the most selective colleges have acceptance rates <10%, and since this is cc those are the colleges that kids here talk about the most.</p>
<p>Seriously. Like that list of "good ECs" somewhere on here is absolutely ridiculous. You don't have to do all <em>that</em> much to get accepted into even Harvard. I know two girls with very few ECs who go there, and one of them had even had (oh no!) a B in high school. Another girl I know who goes there has a lot of ECs but got waitlisted.</p>
<p>^ did they have any special hooks like URM or athletic recruitment?</p>
<p>Tom... I am sorry but you do not know what you are talking about..</p>
<p>Especially in this post:
ok that was poorly worded what I said, but what I mean is,
for example, from my school,
there are people with 3.7-3.9 GPA UW applying to harvard and stanford. I mean, they are pretty smart compared to everyone else, and participate in volunteering, clubs, sports, etc. but I mean Harvard? With like 3 B's in high school, and memberships in NHS? come on. we all know that stuff is not legit. Obviously, it's better than nothing. but it won't get you into Harvard or whatev.
so that's why i believe there are so many people who apply to these schools just for the name and for the infinitesimal chance that they could get accepted out of sheer randomness. and by "real qualified people" I'm even talking about anyone special. im just talking about the ones who actually have 4.0's and high class ranks. and SAT scores that are within the medium 50% of applicants. and who actually did something in high school instead of going to clubs with 2 meetings a year (NHS in my school)</p>
<p>A lot of people in that range of GPA get in. People say it is a crapshoot, well it is not. The best get in, to me this almost sounds like pitying ourselves in case we get rejected. The 10% is a lot higher than most QUALIFIED people will have. That 10% includes legacies, donators, URMS, Recruited athletes, winners of intel etc. The actual chance that any of us will get into Harvard hovers around 3%. </p>
<p>I would like to restate this, a LOT of people with 3.7 GPA get into Harvard. Let me also say something... In a neighboring school they matriculate close to 28% to ivies. Even if all the top people go to Ivies that hovers around the third decile of people going to ivies. So again in an Adcoms eyes those 3 Bs you got in Freshman Health don't mean anything. The class rank will be lower, but your statement does not make sense at all...</p>
<p>I know a lot of people who went to HYP, including both parents, and they will tell you the people there are there for a reason.</p>
<p>Bottom Line: IT IS A LOT HARDER TO GET INTO HARVARD THAN MOST PEOPLE THINK... PERIOD</p>
<p>well it's obviously not the grades that set them apart. so other than doing a whole bunch of ECs, there's got to be some other stuff people are "passionate" about...</p>
<p>Passion is exactly what they want.</p>
<p>I agree that the admissions process is actually much more difficult than what the laymen (i.e. non-CCers) believe it to be. How many of you go to a school where the kids are all like "Oh, you're the val, you'll get into [top competitive school with an acceptance rate <10%] for sure." The majority of the population is clueless as to how competitive it really is.</p>
<p>^ Correct. </p>
<p>I don't get why people want to try to make it seem less competitive than it really is.. Same people will say it is too hard once they get accepted.</p>
<p>Take it for what it is, a brutally competitive process in which less than 1 in 10 get accepted.</p>