The Most Important Factors in a College Application

Applying to College
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<p>Which factor of the college admissions process has the most gravity or importance when it comes to admitting or rejecting a student: GPA, SAT, Essay, or Extra-curriculars?</p>

<p>Many people say that the GPA has the greatest weight, accounting for about half of your application. Next, they say that the SAT takes about a quarter of the application, and the rest of the application makes up for it. However, I feel inclined to disagree. I often find that students believe that their amazing essays and recommendations (or lack there of) will stand as the most important factor in their acceptances or rejections.</p>

<p>Essentially, what do you believe is the most important factor?</p>

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<p>The answer is going to vary from college to college. </p>

<p>Many state schools admit students just by GPA and SAT scores – they don’t even look at essays, EC’s, or teacher recommendations (you forgot to mention that one). </p>

<p>At private colleges, especially the more selective ones, GPA and test sores are a minimum threshold – everyone’s got to have that. Then Admissions will read your essays, teacher recommendations and EC’s and will compare them to all other applicants trying to choose students of good “character.” That’s an old fashioned word; it means the way you develop your inner qualities: intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning. Colleges learn of those things by comments made from your teachers and guidance counselor, as well as what your choose to write about in your essays and the “tone” and content of what you say.</p>

<p>To be admitted to a top 20 school – you need it all: A high GPA, great ACT/SAT scores, interesting EC’s, a thought provoking essay, stellar teacher recommendations. If one area is deficient, a student might be waitlisted or rejected – that’s how tough the competition is these days.</p>

<p>Have you watched this video from Amherst College: <a href=“College Admissions: Inside the Decision Room - YouTube”>College Admissions: Inside the Decision Room - YouTube;

<p>Prior to this Committee Meeting, about 8,000 applications were reviewed for transcript rigor, GPA and test scores. The top 1,000 students are then brought to the committee and students are either accepted or waitlisted. (The assumption is that the other 7,000 students who didn’t make it to committee are rejected.)</p>

<p>Notice the comments. Most of them are being read by Admissions Directors are comments from teachers or guidance counselors, except at the end where one Admissions Director says “This is a quote from his essay.”</p>

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<p>Heed wHat Gibby says. Your friends believe in myths.</p>

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<p>The answer varies by school. You can look up the relative importance of each school’s admissions criteria at <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com”>http://www.collegedata.com</a> or the school’s common data set (section C7).</p>

<p>When looking at the super-selective colleges, large numbers of applicants will have near-maximum academic credentials (course rigor, GPA, rank, test scores), so extracurriculars, essays, etc. get magnified in importance to distinguish between them. But applicants needed top-end academic credentials to be considered in the first place.</p>

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<p>That seems to indicate that it is luck of the draw in getting a counselor and teachers who will write more attractive recommendations (for a given student and his/her achievements) versus those who will write less attractive recommendations.</p>

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<p>I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest something completely different. GPA, test scores, and extracurriculars are undoubtedly an important part of getting into college. However, I would argue that they do not form the backbone of an application. Rather, I would say you need a ‘hook’ or a great story. That is, you need that missing variable X that will make your application stand out and shine above all the others.</p>

<p>As an example, consider a school like Harvard. Each year, Harvard gets plenty of applications from students with great GPAs, outstanding ECs, and ridiculously high SAT scores. They obviously can’t admit them all, so how do they pick students? The answer is in their ‘unique factor,’ something that makes their application completely different from the average. The best way to get into a great school is to have something like that–such as a great story about how you invented something that saves lives, how you turned a hobby or passion into something much more, etc.</p>

<p>Obviously not everyone has a great story like that. Most people have not built a school in Africa or cured cancer. For average person, then, I’d recommend focusing on a personal goal or struggle. Find something that you accomplished even though it was very daunting and required a lot of hard work. Show that you can commit yourself and work hard to achieve your dreams–no matter how humble those dreams might be. Just show that you have what it takes to be unique and different than everybody else. Write about it in your essays, talk about it in interviews, tell them how it has ‘shaped you as a person.’ If you can do that convincingly, admissions officers will lap it up and let you in.
Help me out? :wink: <a href=“Should I transfer? - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1656409-should-i-transfer.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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Some might call it luck, but most student’s choose which teachers will write their recommendation letters . . .and sometimes students choose unwisely. See: <a href=“Marymount California University's Admission Blog: When Recommendations Attack! (The Worst Letter of Recommendation We've Ever Seen)”>http://marymountcollegeadmissionblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-recommendations-attack-worst.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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Actually, that’s NOT how Harvard says they pick students: <a href=“Guidance Office: Answers From Harvard's Dean, Part 1 - The New York Times”>http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/harvarddean-part1/&lt;/a&gt;

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<p>@gibby, in my experience, the best way to demonstrate these qualities such as strength of character and good judgement is to have a great story about how you use these qualities to solve problems, accomplish your goals, etc.</p>

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<p>^^ I agree. I was disagreeing with your “unique factor” comment. if I had to pick one factor that was more important to Harvard, it would be “character” not “uniqueness.” </p>

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<p>Here’s the myth:
GPA counts by far the most.
SAT/ACT counts less that ECs
Rigor of program counts some
ECs count <em>a lot</em>
Essays and recs count quite a bit
Interviews don’t matter
Hooks are a “tie-breaker”</p>

<p>Here’s the reality:
Actual GPA counts less than you think
SAT/ACT counts <em>way</em> more than you think
Coming from a rigorous program counts almost as much as your GPA
ECs really only matter if they are truly unique or you’re a recruited athlete
Essays and recs count for almost nothing (unless the rec is from someone deeply connected to the school).
You <em>can</em> blow an interview and they are key to determining “level of interest” for those schools that care about it.
Hooks pretty much trump everything.</p>

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<p>@gibby Ah, yeah maybe that was poorly worded. A better way of looking at it might be this: The way you talk about your personal qualities should be unique, not the personal qualities themselves. Not sure if that makes more sense, but either way I get what you are saying.</p>

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<p>Think of it like sorting system. Every college has a line, specifically indicated or ‘imaginary’ that all candidates must pass to move onto the next section of the sort. Most obviously, those are for GPA and test scores. Once you clear those sections, the specifics of the GPA and test scores tend to mean little. Soze is pretty spot-on with most of the reality part. I would add that for some schools ‘Interest’ is an important factor. They can use a lot of data mining to determine how interested you really are in the school. Ultimately, you need to get into the ‘finalist’ pool and then the details of your ECs, interviews, recs, etc. start to rise to the top of the importance chart.</p>

<p>If scores and GPAs were really that important the top schools would fill every class with people in the 2300/35+ test scores and perfect GPA. There are about enough Valedictorians in the US alone to fill the admissions classes of every Ivy. Worst advice ever is for someone who has already high scores to keep retaking tests to get an even higher score. Better to spend the time on the other factors at that point.</p>

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<p>@soze: I would disagree with some of your myth vs. realities lists. As I look over your list, I see that some “realities” apply to some schools, some do not.</p>

<p>For instance, I interview for an HYP. I can categorically say that the interview matters in very few instances. Often, it’s just a confirmation of other things portrayed in the file. Demonstrated interest is not a factor whatsoever. That may be the key. If I were an admissions officer at a smaller LAC and a kid came on campus to visit and have an interview, I’m sure my summation of her interest in attending would matter GREATLY.</p>

<p>I think it’s very tough to generalize. Thus the popularity of CC!</p>

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<p>I met an alumna/ex adcom of UPENN who moved to NHV to work for a scholarship program funded by Yale in 2012. I happened to be wearing a UPENN hat that DD picked up on a tour the previous spring & she asked if I was a graduate…</p>

<p>Of course I began picking her brain to find out as much info as she could about the admissions process. She said that after the GPA & test score cuts were made, they then look at everything else. Each component of the app must connect with no missing pieces. She also stated that she was often stunned by how often high stat applicants would do a mediocre job on the essays. Yes, essays matter.</p>

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<p>HYP in general make their own gravity, the rules don’t apply to them.</p>

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<p>How would a high school student know before asking which teachers (in whose classes the student excelled in) will write good recommendations versus not-so-good recommendations?</p>

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<p>@‌gibby after reading your son’s(?) essay I would say 100% that how he got into Harvard is completely in-line with @Dzheims uniqueness theory. </p>

<p>I would expand on it one more step and say the essay has to emotional move the reader. . </p>

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<p>Our guidance counselor was able to give hints. When we met with her (family meeting, parents and student) in spring of junior year, we discussed options. Listed some teachers D2 was considering, and she suggested which ones to use. Often the GCs know who writes a good recommendation. Also, be wary of getting recommendations from teachers from other countries. The culture here is to write a positive recommendation. if there is anything negative, it is often found by reading “between the lines” and by what is NOT said in the letter. Teachers from other cultures will sometimes just list out a student’s weaknesses along with their strengths. While probably accurate, it is not helpful when stacked up against letters that don’t do that.</p>

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<p>@gibby So basically because I have a 3.7 GPA… my chances of getting into a top school are basically next to 0 because they won’t even take a glance at my EC’s? :’( There go all my hopes and dreams.</p>

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<p>But then it is the luck of the draw of getting a good counselor who knows which teachers write good recommendations, and whose idea of a “good” recommendation actually matches what college admissions readers are impressed by, right?</p>