<p>i flatly disagree. calmom your daughter is an anomaly. That's why you posted it on the "surpise decisions" forum, becuase it's not normal. and would you care to talk about yoru daughter's other qualifications? hooks? EC's?</p>
<p>I am also surprised with cameliasinensis's rejections. I'm glad she's at Darthmouth, but it scares me that she got rejected at those other places. Her test scores are great, she sounds like she has at least half-decent EC's (from essay), and her essay is absolutely brilliant. Plus she has a really interesting and unique history of traveling. wow I would have thought she would have been accepted to most of the schools she applied to</p>
<p>JohnC, I don't understand your question. My d was an A student in high school and her college GPA is slightly lower than her high school GPA. She doesn't test well on SATs but did fine on AP exams, which I think are more reflective of the ability to do college level work. </p>
<p>Ivy League & many elite colleges are notorious for grade inflation, so it is not particularly surprising that once she figured out what was expected she would earn A's. I have read most of my daughter's papers and even sat in on a review session for one of her classes so I have an idea of what she has done to get an A. I am proud of her and think she has done good work, but I don't think it is amazing or would require someone to be brilliant -- it just requires a good understanding of the underlying material, which means basically doing the reading and showing up regularly to class. </p>
<p>I know that there are a lot of people on these boards that -- both students and parents -- who think that having a score of 1500 means the person is inherently smarter than someone with a score of 1200 -- but that just isn't the case. SATs are not valid as an IQ score; as briansteffy correctly noted, and validity they may have had as a an aptitude test is undermined by the practice of studying for and retaking the test; and the tests aren't a good measure of the foundational high school curriculum appropriate for most college courses. Basically the tests are used as a quick & dirty way for highly selective colleges to weed through a mass of applicants, and they also help keep the "elite" elite by preventing too many of the hoi polloi from qualifying simply because of the income and class bias built into the test. </p>
<p>The most significant predictor of success in college is simply motivation. The students who try harder will tend to do better over time. But there is no objective way to test for motivation -- though I am sure that in my daughter's case, her recs and essay were important factors in getting that message across.</p>
<p>Friend's D, a legacy at Brown, was deferred ED from Brown, then waitlisted.
She was accepted at Harvard RD, and politely took her name off the waitlist at Brown.</p>
<p>I couldn't agree with calmom more. My d performed similarly to her daughter on the math portion of the SAt.On cr & writing she was in line with scores it is presumed the ivy she attends wants.However 6 other kids from her school applied to the same ivy and most had a higher composite score on the SAT yet they were NOT admitted. Let me tell you there were some very angry parents and some unkind remarks made to my d because she was not deemed as "their conception" of the best candidate for this ivy. Be careful don't just assume every ivy is looking at some formula .My d has said after spending almost a semester at her school that she can see her ivy takes a certain type of student. They are friendly and unassuming and very hard working.It really was a pleasant surprise to her how very helpful students are to each other as are the professors.</p>