<p>It seems like Dartmouth has access to the best snowboarding of the ivies. I'm really involved in snowboarding and I was just wondering if it could be seen as a plus/ a "fit" for Dartmouth that could give me a leg up in the admissions process, or if it doesn't really matter and won't help me much. Can an applicant who appears slightly less qualified get in over another more qualified because the first one demonstrates a better "fit"/"match" for the school, or do you think they don't really care about that?</p>
<p>snowboarding wont help you. it helps to be more of a "fit/match" but i dont think there is any evidence that shows snowboarding will give you an edge. i can say i drink a lot and i am more of a fit than others because dartmouth is known for drinking (keggy the keg)</p>
<p>The Black Lantern is being a bit cruel. (I didn't interpret ham's post to mean "The admins are gonna look at my snowboarding skillz0rs and be like 'w00T! Kid is 733t!!!' " ) </p>
<p>If you have an application that would get get the nod, and someone else has an application that is identical to yours, (I mean, Identical), and you display just a little more personality/potential for student involvement you will have made at least one person on that adcom identify with you, and that might be what gives you admission over that person. </p>
<p>Assuming of course that they have some fixed standard which they first compared you to, and then compared the other kid to. Being a good "fit" for a school is important - schools don't want to give admissions spots to kids who go elsewhere, or kids who might transfer/dropout/go on sabbatical and an adcom really does want its students to be more than "do nothing dweebs". (Up your score reference)</p>
<p>However, being a good fit is probably orders of magnitude (if you can quantify the importance of factors in admissions) less important that say, a rec letter, or a transcript.</p>
<p>In the scenario I presented, or just some general case where a personality trait prejudices someone on the committee in your favor, it might be a nice thing to have on your app.</p>
<p>Can it get you in over someone who has more qualifications (which are more conventional ones) than you? Probably not.</p>