<p>*This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain ... *</p>
<p>HAHA.</p>
<p>Okay, so what do you think about what gets people accepted in general? (this isn't going to rhyme, but...)</p>
<p>35% transcript+GPA (20%) / rank (15%) 20% standardized tests: (14% SATs or ACTs, 6% SAT II subject tests) 18% personal essays (16%) + interview (4%) [some schools don't even give an interview, so I didn't give it a separate category] 12% recommendations: (8% both teachers + 4% counselor) 10% extracurriculars, leadership, programs, and hobbies (unless you're in the olympics and have cured cancer...) 5% URM (+ points), ORM (- points) / geographical location / family income / whether you apply ED or EA or RD, and a bit of luck.</p>
<p>So overall, it's about 55% academics, and 45% other.</p>
<p>lolol then there'd be no room for the ECs and recs...
hmm</p>
<p>50% transcript+GPA (30%) / rank (20%)
15% standardized tests: (13% SATs or ACTs, 2% SAT II subject tests)
12% personal essays (9%) + interview (3%)
10% recommendations: (8% both teachers + 2% counselor)
10% extracurriculars, leadership, programs, and hobbies (unless you're in the olympics and have cured cancer...)
3% URM (+ points), ORM (- points) / geographical location / family income / whether you apply ED or EA or RD, and a bit of luck.</p>
<p>And I also think a lot depends on the student. For example... stellar ECs could definitely make up for a nice but lackluster transcript/GPA so that, essentially, the applicant gets "full credit" for both parts.</p>
<ol>
<li>Class Rank/GPA 10 (GPA is used when school doesn't rank)</li>
<li>SAT I 15</li>
<li>SAT II 10 (if required 2)</li>
<li>APs 10 (Same for IB's, Hons or other College Course)</li>
<li>School Selectivity 10 (Private Prep, Highly competitive public, ...)</li>
<li>Essay 10 ( Includes interview if any)</li>
<li>Recommendations 5 </li>
<li>School Ecs 10 (Non Stellar ECs)</li>
<li>Community Service 5</li>
<li>Special hooks 15 ( icludes Stellar ECs, URM, Legacy, Athletes)</li>
</ol>
<p>2,3 together constitute 25% for Standardized tests
4,5 together constitute rigor of curriculumn having 20%
6,7 together constitute essays,recom. is also 15%
8,9 together constitute 15% for ECs</p>
<p>So 55% is pure academics, 45% consists of Essays, ECs, Recom., Com. Service, and special hooks.</p>
<p>I'm not sure you can give an exact percentage because in the college admissions game, especially to top schools, they reject people with perfect everything. But I believe GPA/courseload/high school reputation is very important because that's represent 4 years of effort, while they do give a benefit of a doubt for a bad SAT day but not 4 years of slacker effort.</p>
<p>30% is devoted to rigor of the curriculum while 25% is for standardized testing of which 10% is actually to subject tests.</p>
<p>15% to essay and recommendation also look appropriate.</p>
<p>What do you think then the cut off for selection is? 90%</p>
<p>We can test it out by having a student (already admitted or rejected from a top school) post the stats and we can take a shot with that stats at a particular top school using the above criteria to see how much chance he/she had.</p>