<p>Does anyone have any stories of kids who somehow got into big reach school or was surprised by a college acceptance?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>i know a guy with a 1900 SAT score and 3.0 UW with no ECs and mediocre essays who got into UCLA for engineering.</p>
<p>UCLA AND engineering? With those scores? Sounds too far fetched unless he was Native American or a legacy or something.</p>
<p>I know someone rejected to Duke, WUSTL, and Georgetown.......and accepted to Harvard</p>
<p>One of my cousins is naturally intelligent, creative, curious, etc. but didn't apply himself in high school (essentially, he thought structured academics were dumb). He applied to mostly elite, "quirky" LACs and got a lot of rejections because of his grades. But he got accepted at Bard, and received a personal letter from the admissions office saying that they'd decided to take a chance on him because despite his grades, he seemed like a bright kid. He's now a sophomore there, doing fine...</p>
<p>I heard at Korean forum that one of the international applicant (Korean) got rejected from UC Davis when Stanford accepted him. I honestly think it's b-s... how could that be? even though UC's discriminate against OOS/int?</p>
<p>There was a girl in my AP Bio class last year who applied to Yale supposedly on a whim, but was accepted and now goes there. I don't know her scores, but she was doing pretty well in bio, although generally AP bio is taken mostly by juniors at my school.</p>
<p>There was one kid last year who thought Ithaca College's elite musical theater program would be a LOOONG shot, after his audition - but he made it. Then, weirdly, one of the most talented young performers I've encountered, an African-American male to boot, didn't get into Syracuse U's musical theater program!</p>
<p>I BSed my way through the UC application to placate my mom- Berkeley was her dream school (I guess she was living vicariously through me), and UCLA was always mine. I didn't really make much of an effort on the application - I couldn't even tell you what my essays were about - and come decision day, I was rejected from six Ivies and Berkeley... but I got into UCLA. My SATs were mediocre at best, but I guess they saw something in me that twelve amazing schools didn't.</p>
<p>I know a kid here at Bard who didn't even finish in the top half of his public school class, but he got a 36 on the ACT. Bard is testing-optional...</p>
<p>I knew this girl who had like a 1500 on her SATs and a gpa of 3.5 and she got into UCLA.</p>
<p>I know one guy from last year that got into Cornell, Amherst,Williams, and Yale with about 1500s SAT, a 26 ACT and ok EC. He was African American though, so I guess that adds a little. He's at Amherst now.</p>
<p>a girl from my school got into Dartmouth with a 1900 SAT, track/cross country, and co-editor of the yearbook...but she wasn't brilliant or anything. just a really nice person. i also think she did some church stuff with her youth group</p>
<p>Word up on the street is some Chem Olympiad kid got into MIT with a 2.7 or something...</p>
<p>But, with that hook, it's not sooo suprising.</p>