<p>Some schools (such as Princeton) emphasize ECs and leadership just as much if not more than grades. I, and many others, are grade oriented students with high GPAs and great standardized test scores. Dont get me wrong i have some volunteer hours along with a Varsity sport, but thats about it. What elite schools (ivies, Stanford, etc) would prefer the brainy (and slightly involved)student over the highly involved student with lower grades? Thanks!</p>
<p>All of the super-selectives prefer that unhooked applicants have top-notch academic credentials. However, that still leaves them with more applicants than they can admit to fill their freshman classes. So the ECs and other non-academic factors take on an exaggerated importance at such schools.</p>
<p>The applicants who can get in with somewhat lower academic credentials are hooked with either being recruited athletes or having desired (to the school) demographic characteristics (e.g. alumni legacy, large donor legacy, race/ethnicity, etc.).</p>
<p>The UCs (if you consider UC Berkeley and UCLA “elite schools”) probably emphasize more on grades and test scores simply because of the number of applicants they have. In my opinion UC admissions are a lot more predictable than other private peer schools. It seems like if you have a 2200+ and a 4.0+ you’re in. I think this also applies to top public schools like Michigan, UVA and NC Chapel hill. Of course it doesn’t mean that they don’t care about your ECs, but it is safe to say that ECs are taken more into consideration in a private school.</p>
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<p>You’re missing the point. The most elite schools prefer the brainy, highly involved student with high grades. As you go down the rankings ECs matter less and less but you need about the same level of academic achievement. At some point ECs stop mattering completely, and then it’s all about academics. Here’s a graph for ya:</p>
<p>Academics] ECs
----------]----------------- HYPSM
----------]------------
----------]--------
----------]------
----------]----
----------]–
----------]–
----------]-
----------]
--------]
-------]
-------]
------]
-----]
-----]
—]
–]
–]
–]
–]
-] community college</p>
<p>Offhand, I’d say it looks more like this:</p>
<p>Academics] ECs
---------------]------------ Caltech
--------------]------------- MIT
-------------]-------------- HYP
----------]----------------- S
-----------]-------------- Brown, Dart, Penn, Columbia, Amherst, Wms, Pomona
------------]--------- Chicago, WUSTL, Swarthmore
----------]----------- Duke, NU
-----------]---------- Cornell
----------]----
----------]–
----------]–
----------]-
----------]
--------]
-------]
-------]
------]
-----]
-----]
—]
–]
–]
–]
–]
-] community college </p>
<p>I’m sure I don’t have it exactly right. The precise placement of that bracket would depend on the scale you set to represent variations in GPA and test scores (but there is some such variation in GPA & score averages, relative to ECs, among those schools.)</p>
<p>You might consider the following schools that seem to highly value test scores…perhaps with less EC consideration…</p>
<p>USC
Rice
Vandy
Emory
Duke</p>
<p>If you look for schools that offer national merit scholarships, they are probably especially interested in high test scores.</p>