No one here has ever considered that maybe these Ivy leagues choose people with real life experiences who have not just had their nose in a book from preK to senior year?? To put it blatantly, this is a pity party where you can justify not getting into a Ivy as “oh shes black” or “the Ivy’s need diversity”.
I appreciate that last post, and hesitate to inquire, but I am ready for the onslaught.
How many of these are white males with no boxes checked (first gen, poor, etc)? Even with well above average scores and EC, I don’t thing this is a possibility.
Just askin’.
Of course. Know kids with 1800+ on their SATs at Ivy now.
However, they really did have good (decent) grades and other stuff to offer. Whatever you want to interpret that to be. Yes, they were among the traditional hooks, and, as others have said, if you don’t have them, you’ve got to question what place you will take in a class that needs to rounded, which may have 20 other kids who look exactly like you? What do you offer that’s different?
I love all the students who “check all the boxes” and then get upset when someone who did not do exactly the same things gets in…
when that is exactly the best way of actually getting in.
While everyone is checking the boxes at school, getting upset over whether someone can claim to be president instead of co-president of a school club that accomplishes nothing, many of the students who are “surprisingly” accepted are out there living interesting lives and becoming interesting applicants. The kids who are hyper-involved in the school scene dismiss these other kids as out of sight/out of mind.
But when it comes time to write the college applications, what do the adcoms see? yep, this kid is a great applicant. Great grades, great scores, got his name on lots of boxes at school…looks just like every other applicant…eeney, meenie, miney, mo…
The other “lesser” applicant comes along.
Good grades, good scores. Certainly good enough to succeed academically on campus. And this kid is INTERESTING. His essay isn’t cookie cutter. His letters of recommendation aren’t cookie cutter either. And it’s clear he’s been really, really involved in a major way in something off campus, which is why he wasn’t on the radar of all his super-competing classmates. And it’s also clear that he didn’t spend the last four years sweating out every hundredth of a point of GPA, or retaking the SAT four times. Maybe he had a compelling situation at home. Maybe he has had an interesting job. Maybe he has done some really interesting volunteer work. Maybe he has a really interesting hobby.
But to his classmates, he is not part of/not playing the game, he is off their radar, and therefore is considered “lesser” and therefore not competition
The important thing is, he is qualified, and he does not look like every other applicant.
Realize that if the average SAT of accepted students is 2200, that for each student with a 2400, there is one accepted with a 2000… and that if the school accepts a few with 2200+ scores, it likely also has accepted some with scores even lower that 2000. The scores published are not minimums, but averages or medians.
His file indicates that he will not be just another drone on campus. Easy choice. But it just makes the drones jealous.
I got into an Ivy last March with a 28 ACT and 4.4 weighted GPA…
Which Ivy did you get into?
My friend from my high school (pretty competitive, offers a lot of AP’s, a lot go on to top ranked schools, etc) got into Cornell ED.
He took no AP or honors classes last year and has no AP’s this year. He does get straight A’s in regular courses and isn’t evem taking calculus yet. His SAT was a 2150. I’m guessing his passion for politics oozed through his essay…
it would be nice if we had an actual “1900 guy” here with us to share his/her story. I think we have had enough speculations already. Most of the case we are wondering how our friends got into godlike schools even though they were “decent at everything”. I trust that the only explanation is that we haven’t known them quite well yet. Everyone has hidden attributes / experiences which can boost his or her chances significantly.
In my case, I got accepted ED to a top 30 school (sorry it’s not an Ivy, but for me and my friends top 30 is considered dream already). My friends were quite amazed as I only appeared to be a Math nerd who is not involved in any community service. That’s true, but not everything about me. 
So, if your friend is a magical 1900 guy, please invite him/her here.
I want to say that selective college admissions is HIGHLY numbers driven, and that any argument against this is incorrect. For example, Ivy League and other top tier schools LOVE valedictorians and salutatorians. Just see the admission statistics for Dartmouth, Williams and Brown. Over FIFTY PERCENT of admitted students were valedictorians or in the top ONE PERCENT of the graduating high school class. This may help explain why some people with 2300 SATs, but who are not in the top one percent, may get rejected over a valedictorian with, say, 2100 SAT. Also, race is a HUGE factor in admissions. I remember reading that black applicants get an equivalent of a 260 SAT point boost in admissions, and Chinese get negative 100 or something like that. Typically, the 25th percentile is saved for minority or other applicants alike (donators, etc). The average SAT score of the Ivy Leagues is around 2200, thus demonstrating the importance of numbers.
Now, this is the norm. And like any other statistical analysis, there are outliers. Of course, there will be students with 1600 who are accepted to Princeton. But I would say that there are more than 5% of such people in the Ivy Leagues.
Answering the thread question, I have know international students from Africa who get accepted to Ivy Leagues EVERY YEAR with SAT scores of 1700-2000. However, these students attend extremely prestigious programs in Africa and i would surmise that they are extremely rare cases in African academia. These are the type of people, along with minorities and others with stocking stories, who get accepted into Ivy Leagues.
Yea, yea, yea…“interesting applicant,” “broad experiences,” “unique perspective.”
@BigBanksBaby that is a pretty stupid perspective. Tell that to the people who suffered centuries of racism, slavery, abuse, suffering. We cannot be blind to the past and we have to change society so that blacks veto to be in the same social standing as whites. That is one of the reasons why affirmative action is set.
My best friend’s sister goes to Princeton now. She had no extracurriculars in school, worked 6 hours after school in iHop, got a ~1900 SAT. She had to take care of her family because at that time, their (single) mother was going through chemo.
My bestfriend Saud that when she received the letter, they called to double check haha.
I’m extremely sorry for the double post (I’m on mobile and cannot edit).
I just double checked with my friend and it turns out her sister had a 2200-ish SAT.
That being said, we were all still shocked because she had about a 85% average and no ECs at all!
Working 6 hours a day to help support your family is a hell of a lot more impressive to adcoms than joining some clubs at school.
What is a QB?
QB = QuestBridge.
Highly selective program for overachievers/high scorers from rural or inner city areas or lower-income or first gen families, who often have uninformed guidance counselors* and no idea what colleges are out there. Mentors them to know how the college application process works, then has a binding match program which is a little like ED for 8 colleges. There’s also a “regular” application system. Their admission results are very high but the students have been pre-selected and then mentored so they’re not quite your “normal” applicant. Highly selective colleges know that a QB applicant is a superstar.
(*see in the financial aid thread the valedictorian who was advised to attend community college, thus forfeiting thousands in possible merit scholarships…)
I had to write an article on a girl at my school that got matched with Dartmouth for QB and got a 1900 on her SATs. But she also worked really hard and self studied for about three AP test and made 5s on all of them, and she also was in nine different sports… sooOo
I find it interesting that there is a bit of a white male pity party here. Women and asians are the groups taking the hardest hits as colleges try to have classes that are racially diverse and gender balanced. White males benefit from diversity.
This thread is really vile for some reason. Must have to do with the intense subducted jealousy and the circuitously invasive meddling, like the kind done by fledgling.
Well there’s a reason why they ease it with minorities- they need diversity, duh. :-@
It’s really ignorant to claim it as being “racist.” If you were to go to HYP you could count the number of minorities per class. They want different cultures, so they accept among the best of minority groups. It’s stupid to say or even think the reasoning is based on “favoritism” of minorities. I know if I apply I’ll have it harder than say an AA male. But I understand.
Gosh people, think.