Does anyone know anyone who took a chance at the Ivys and got in? You know when our college guidance counselors say “A person with a 2400 can get rejected but a person with a 1900 can get accepted” Anyone know that person “with the 1900” ?
Definitely. I’m from a public school that’s not that great but a couple of students in the past years have been accepted by the Ivies regardless.
Valedictorian last year was a QB finalist with a mid 1900 and got accepted to Yale via Match, salutatorian is at Brown with around the same score (ED), & another person in the top 10 had a 2100-something and now attends Cornell. My bro was accepted to Harvard and MIT with a 2150 a few years ago. Clearly, those scores do not indicate triple 800s.
Colleges always have a reason for admitting these lower scoring kids, though. Always. They may have come from a horrible background (QB) or they might bring diversity to campus. However, if you don’t have a 2000+ on our SAT, you will need to stand out in some other way.
As an international student, I can say that such instances are not very common for students applying from other countries. But i do remember a particular case - two years back, a guy from my school got into Brown with 2030, and last year, a girl got admission at Cornell (ED). She had an 1800, but her dad was some hotshot at Cornell during his time, so…
I just wanted to clarify that not all QB students come from a horrible background.
A girl at my previous HS is currently a freshman at Harvard. She didn’t have a 4.0, her SAT score was around a 2170-2180 (ACT was a 32), no legacy, no multimillionaire donations, not a URM, not a recruited athlete. Granted, she was pretty involved at school (editor-in-chief of newspaper, organized school’s annual talent show, directed a bunch of plays, played varsity tennis) and she played the piano decently, but nothing about her EC’s was eye-popping. I had no idea her SAT/ACT scores were relatively low compared to the other applicants until I went on my school’s Naviance. I’m still confused as to how she got in, because apparently she also got into Yale SCEA but chose Harvard over Yale.
Not to mention, I was also pretty surprised when I learned that she was only in Pre-Calc during her senior year of HS, lol.
Remember that the numbers are just numbers; while they have significant meaning, they aren’t a full picture of a student and cannot be the end-all, be-all. Schools will always have to chose between applicants who have all the numbers but has nothing that “differentiates” his or her app in terms of ECs and applicants who have all the qualifications besides the numbers. Granted, students with > 4.0 GPA with 2400 SAT/36 ACT will still have a great shot at any Ivy-type school and the student who spent 1 year feeding the needy in Africa with horrid stats won’t have such a chance, but if numbers dictated everything than no one below a 4.0 GPA would have a shot at Harvard or Yale.
That said, I haven’t personally heard of anyone who has had such a success story. At least where I live, Ivy schools scare all but the top 1% of a graduating class from applying.
My friend got in with an 1800-1900 SAT. No significant EC, no significant achievments etc. However, her essay was amazingly kick-ass and she got personal letters from every college she applied to letting her know that they enjoyed her essay. She was also Val with a pretty sweet GPA though. She got into Harvard, Yale (where she now attends) and everywhere else she applied.
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^ Was she a URM/recruited athlete?
She’s black.
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^ That’s what I suspected… sounded too good to be true 
^Haha. :-).
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“too good to be true” And we suppose that her acceptance into every college applied and even personal notes from the admissions officers was “just luck” or solely because she was black. Yeah right.
I don’t think it’s just luck. or just because she’s black.
Mind sharing what sort of topic she wrote? curious…
(don’t worry. not a copy-cat here. obviously, if H admitted a person with that story, they probably won’t need the same person. Plus, everyone has different stories, and should be proud of that)
There’s one thing I worry about writing a unique essay though, either it works superbly,
or I fear I might write something that’s not very acceptable or preferred by them.
@stanleyy. quite agree with you… and yes, am curious about PrinceMuzic’s friend’s amazing essay idea too.
I know this guy who didn’t have much EC’s or talents, but he studied away from home for high school, and he worked extremely hard, both in academics as well as to fit in the diff environment. He’s the first generation of his family to pursue tertiary education, and I think he is pretty sincere with his applications. He got into Cornell.
But then again, these ‘shocking’ examples might not be so shocking after all. They’re just not the ‘check each criteria off the list’ kind of applicant. They just got in with a diff way… but they’re great.
and it’s no wonder that they could get in since they’re great.
My cousin whos white, in the 35% tile of his class, 21 on his ACT, 600 + on SAT 2s, 88 gpa, involved in summer programs, founded a club, worked in a lab, father in the military, adn 1st generation college student got into Cornell. No connections, no sports, eagle scout though. So it makes you think. He applied RD by the way.
One senior got into Princeton, Yale, Northwestern, Dartmouth, and a bunch of universities in the UK with an 1840 SAT. It really shows that scores are not everything and that perhaps there is hope after all.
A friend of mine got accepted at Cornell, Caltech and a lot of top schools he applied to. He had an SAT score of 1930, 3.6gpa but his EC’s were quite ordinary and he had no awards in high school. I’m still trying to figure out how he did it
That’s pretty surprising given that universities in the UK are entirely numbers driven. Obviously you don’t get into Oxbridge with an 1840.