<p>When reading through this board, I constantly hear of students with sub-incredible stats getting admittance into what others would consider their "reach" schools. </p>
<p>Are there any examples of these types of students on this board? Can you explain what you mean by "selling yourself" to the college? How did you convince them why you were better than students with higher GPA/SATs?</p>
<p>Essays are actually a huge asset--some with "sub-incredible stats" have ways with words that make them seem appealing beyond belief.</p>
<p>^ how do you make yourself sound "appealing"? just by being an all-around amazingly passionate person through prose? (but with sub-incredible stats, of course)</p>
<p>That works.
An admissions officer at Brown was telling us about how there was an absolutely hilarious essay that an applicant wrote, and they felt like they almost couldn't reject her. After checking her academics, they admitted her.</p>
<p>I posted this on Dartmouth's board. It cracks me up that people think they need to be absolutely perfect to get into top schools. It further cracks me up that I get messages occasionally whining and crying about how my stats are worse than their's... the point is, I was admitted and students with higher stats than mine were not. College admissions is a GAME, it's all a matter of knowing how to play it. I'm not going to go into too much detail 'cause I'm busy doing something else right now.</p>
<p>The secret is to be a REAL PERSON with REAL PASSIONS. Academics will only get you so far, and even then, they might not be necessary if your ECs are good enough. I pursued extracurricular venues, and got my friends involved in them so it was just like hanging out with them all the time. </p>
<p>I didn't do a modicum of work in HS, I mostly slacked off, partied and generally HAD FUN.</p>
<p>And it's not like I was admit-reject (in the sense that they offered no financial aid). In fact, Dartmouth doesn't expect me to take out more than $2000 in loans per semester; the rest are grants! But this is also because my family is dirt poor.</p>
<p>Here's my story.</p>
<p>I'll preface this by saying I am not an athletic recruit, URM or legacy.</p>
<p>SATs: 800 Verbal, 620 Math, 800 Writing (Perfect grammar subscore, 12/12 on essay)
SAT IIs: 720 World History, 800 US History, 790 Literature
GPA: 3.26 (weighted)/ 3.14 (unweighted)
Rank: 251/469 (bottom 50%)</p>
<p>My ECs are long and involved (not too many of them, I just did A LOT with the ones I got involved in) so I'm not going to type them up.</p>
<p>Used a fee waiver.</p>
<p>Accepted: Dartmouth College(Attending), University of Georgia, Tufts University, New York University
Waitlisted: Duke University
Rejected: Harvard University</p>
<p>Essays are IMPORTANT, as are having high-impact ECs (not necessarily national ECs, but something you have a demonstrable passion for and impact in). You also need good references to cover your GPA and to provide a valid reason (if any) for your GPA. I had no reason, really, I was just lazy, but my teachers LOVED me and wrote recs that showed that.</p>
<p>Remember, the transcript is a huge part of the evaluation, and unless you can make up for it in a big way with other things, your chances are slim. But also remember, YOU CAN PLAY THIS GAME AND WIN. People told me I had no chance, but that's BS. Don't let people get you down on here. Most of em have no idea what they're talking about.</p>
<p>I am SO happy I got into Dartmouth, it was my first choice by far. :giddy:</p>
<p>**Copied almost verbatim from my post on the Dartmouth board.</p>
<p>admissions are people making decisions, so of course you'll run into these odd situations/scenarios every now and then</p>
<p>sell urself well... carry a banner and scream.. chaaaaai, kaaaapiii, sandweeeech </p>
<p>(if uve travelled by Indian Railways.. ull understand :))</p>
<p>The whole concept of selling yourself to a college is ridiculous. As much as I think admissions shouldn't be based so much on an essay that you write (what if you aren't a good writer, or aren't good at selling yourself? Sure, some people say those things are necessary in life, but that's definitely not the rationale used to justify it's presence in college admissions). But it is a necessary evil. Otherwise, colleges may accept a lot of really boring people.</p>
<p>I don't consider the essay a necessary evil at all... it saved me from the mediocrity of my high school performance. Meritocracy is all well and good, but once again, colleges get more bang for the buck from real people as opposed to academic robots.</p>
<p>if ur not good, then ur bad luck.. as with naything in life. U go for an interview being the most qqualified person, and dress in stripes and checks and keep wiping ur nose.. well u know the result usually.</p>
<p>I tyhink essays are also used to estimate ur personality so they can see whether u would be a good match to the school</p>
<p>Does anyone know the exact stats of how many applied from each state to Vanderbilt and who got accepted. Because Colleges can be deeply discriminate towards people just because they live in an area that is densly populated so they cannot accept more than a certain number of people from one state.</p>
<p>yeah that works, just make yourself stand out from the other tens of thousands of applicants that they have recently interviewed.. which may be hard if your a normal, common person, but hey, who ever said life was easy?!</p>
<p>Have you ever thought of rowing?</p>
<p>That won't make you stand out.</p>
<p>I row.</p>
<p>"students with sub-incredible stats getting admittance into what others would consider their "reach" schools."</p>
<p>what are "sub-incredible" stats? i bet there's a lot of stuff "others" don't know and thus can't accurate evaluate what are "reach" schools for that person. </p>
<p>i also think it depends a lot on what colleges need at that specific time.</p>
<p>i bet the definition of "sub-incredible stats" here is like 3.75 UW and a 2150 SAt1.</p>