"percentage of acceptance" is not entirely true.

Applying to College
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Many students look at a school like Stanford and say “Hey, I’ve got a 5% chance of getting in”

When in reality this is not true.

If you have a 4.0 (unweighted) GPA with outstanding extracurriculars (specialist, not well rounded, elite colleges do not want well rounded students) and many achievements in your particular “spike” of expertise, your chance of getting in is much, much higher than 5%.

The reason they don’t want students who are well rounded is…well rounded students aren’t really good at anything, they’re mediocre. Schools like Harvard or Stanford want the next generation of leaders, not followers. They want people who have put in a lot of work into one or two areas of study, not a little bit of work into 15.

If you have a 3.0 GPA with 1 or 2 extracurriculars that carry little to no weight, and you have 0 awards, your chance is basically 0%.

If you have a 4.0 GPA (unweighted) with 7 extracurriculars, all different, some achievements but you’re well rounded, not a specialist. That’s when you probably have a 5 - 10% chance of getting in.

Everyone does not have the same percentage of getting in.

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Isn’t this a given?

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Not to all people.

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Well, I guess you have it all figured out. Of course, if that were actually true every slot for the Ivy league schools would be filled with Valedictorians and perfect test score kids. The reality is that many kids with great statistics are not offered admission. The prestige schools are looking for students with higher than average stats and some other factors to make them more interesting.

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Yes clearly, some students they won’t accept. Though they would much rather hire someone who has a mastery of computer science than someone who has some knowledge of it. They want leaders.

Also it’s not true for every slot, hence the parts where I discuss well rounded students chances.

There’s not enough specialists to fill all available slots anyway.

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Just because you’re a teenager and don’t know what you want to do with the rest of your life doesn’t mean that you’re “average.” I’m sure there are adcoms who look for students willing to test a variety of different subject areas and not just focus on areas they are good at. Harvard is a liberal arts college.

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“Just because you’re a teenager and don’t know what you want to do with the rest of your life doesn’t mean that you’re “average.” I’m sure there are adcoms who look for students willing to test a variety of different subject areas and not just focus on areas they are good at. Harvard is a liberal arts college.”

Exactly. This isn’t just for a major. Colleges know that you change when you get older, a plus for not being well rounded is that you show the colleges that you can dedicate time to a certain thing. I can be a master in art (which I’m not) and get multiple awards for it (national and international) and do EC’s in it, and get into Harvard. It doesn’t mean I’m going to stick with it, colleges know that, they want to see dedication.

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I disagree. Middlebury said it perfectly on admissions. “We have no doubts about who we accept, only about who we reject”. Not getting into a top school does not mean that you weren’t good enough anymore if you were competitive to begin with.

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And people with certain hooks and appropriate stats (ex. recruited athletes, child of huge legacy donor, Malia Obama etc.) have well over a 5% chance of being accepted. That’s just the way it is.

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Foreboding, for an 8th grader, you are pretty on top of things. I say that seriously. But I warn that it is dangerous for you as a future applicant to think that the probabilities go much above 5% for unhooked applicants. After accounting for the hooked applicants, the starting probabilities are somewhat less than 5% to begin with. I don’t know the numbers, but wouldn’t be surprised if your base assumption for unhooked applicants should be 3% acceptance.

If you were looking at the result threads to make this assessment, just note there is a bias for folks not admitted to not post their stats. It is human nature.

It is important to recognize how viciously random the results are. I knew someone who in an previous year was shut out of all of the ivies they applied to…except got into Harvard and Stanford.

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My cousin is an 8th grader, I’m just using his account to write this, as he forgot to log off. I’m also doing this to warn him as he can just refer to this post. Obviously not all specialists apply to schools and not all of them get in, personal factors do come into play. Colleges want specialists, though they also want other interests though, do not confuse this with being well rounded. Well rounded is having (at least, of course in my eyes) multiple extracurriculars, most of which you really don’t care too much about and you’re not that exceptional in the eyes of an admission committee. You can still be a specialist and have other interests, though I imagine they’re roughly similar (on face value) to what you like. For example, if you like science maybe your next interest is math or engineering.

When I mean much, much higher I’m referring to people who have showed not only passion in a particular thing but achievement in it. I also mean much, much higher as a rough maybe 15 - 20% chance of admission. Though it’s only this high if your grades are outstanding (3.8+ unweighted GPA) and wonderful SAT and ACT scores as well as excellent letters of recommendation and some other interests as well. They want specialists, but they also want people who have multiple interests, do not confuse this with being well rounded, I’ll say this again: There’s a difference between having 1 speciality and 1 - 2 other interests (that you do actually care about, not just as a cushion for admissions) and having 8 interests, some of which you couldn’t care less if you dropped it right away and being mediocre in the majority if not all of them.

I’m starting to get annoyed how people naturally assume (even though I’ve wrote multiple times) that well rounded students get in, I’m just saying it is much harder to get in to an elite school with a similar application as a good chunk of people applying.

That’s why having a spike is so important, it keeps you unique and you stand out. You show passion in your subject, as well as interest to be passionate about something else. If you’re all over the place colleges have no idea what you’re truly interested in, and they might be, and probably will assume (as they’re correct) that some things you do, you simply don’t care about.

Even if your spike isn’t that big, for example if your interest is programming, let’s say you have a year of intership for a computer company and you made a basic app that isn’t really award worthy as well as maybe coding a basic website and doing some coding clubs. That shows somewhat of a spike, it isn’t huge but it is noticeable.

Now by all means have other interests, but colleges (elite colleges) aren’t looking for well rounded students, they want a well rounded school.

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Closing thread. Two people sharing an account is not allowed, and doing so confuses other users. The OP needs to open an account and start the conversation anew.