<p>Triple 800s on the SAT 2s isn't that hard. I didn't study at all, and got that on my second try (after getting 780/790/760 first try :P). Just know the material from (hopefully advanced) courses well, and you're set.</p>
<p>Here is a kind of weird theory: it seems to me that people who seek out what admissions officers want and try to do things like are the people who...usually don't end up getting in. That sounds like a horrible generalization, but at least at my high school, the situation was quite similar. </p>
<p>If you spend your high school career trying to figure out what looks good on paper: if your essay should be quirky, if it should be risky, if it should be quirkily risky, if being quirkily risky will make you look like you're trying too hard, if you should list your dad as a CEO or a small business owner (because really you could interpret it either way), if you should list your ECs in order of actual importance or in order of this-looks-awesome importance, if you should volunteer at a hospital or at a tutoring center, if you should sacrifice the A+ you have in AP Chem to raise the B+ in AP Spanish to an A, if you should attach an extra activities list, if you should study more for one section of the SAT each time you take it with the hope that your final composite score will be perfect, so on, so forth.</p>
<p>We all are guilty of this to some extent, especially those of us on CC. We think about weird nitpicky details of our applications and such. But I think that, looking back, I'm really glad that I didn't use any of the "tips and tricks" in my application that I probably should have. I'm really glad that I didn't let anybody proofread my essays or my application, and I'm really glad that I send it exactly forty-six seconds before it was due (and that is really not an exaggeration). </p>
<p>My application was all me. It was raw and it had some mistakes, but it was pure and honest, and reading it after I was accepted made me so happy. So I don't really know why I'm posting this thing either, but I just want all the 2012ers to know that you are the most important thing you can put in your application.</p>
<p>a lot of people say that if you are a URM or come from a place like nebraska your in. true, it does help a lot, but i think people overestimate these facts. you still have to be a qualified applicant, as in solid gpa and test scores.</p>
<p>j07 what events do you swim and with what times?</p>
<p>And in the US are the distances in yards not meters (I'm Canadian)?</p>
<p>I hate the word "stunning" because it's overused. Unless it is so impressive that it literally renders you immobile and amazed, it isn't "stunning."</p>
<p>my opinion on college admissions is to do the obvious.. study hard for your grades, get high test scores on standardized tests, and pursue your interests. as vague as these may seem, I think they summarize the stats of nearly every successful college applicant. You certainly don't need any national awards or any sort of insane achievement (ie running a 1 min. mile) to get into Pton. I certainly did not. I'll admit that I had good grades, good tests scores, and wrote each of my essays with a lot of "heart", pouring every aspect of what makes me me into each of them. Beyond that, there's not much you can do. Don't hunt for quirky activities to pick up on unless you are genuinly interested in them.</p>
<p>i second SSRMAGNUM whole-heartedly. i was not an outstanding applicant in any way prticuarl, but i tried to portray myself as honestly as i could to the admissions office, through my extra rec and my essays.. (i did the odd poem one, banking on the fact that maybe most ppl woul dbe put off by that topic.. i dont know. got me in, anyway). "wrote each of my essays with a lot of "heart"" (SSRMAGNUM) is also really important... i think my essays for princeton were something i could be really proud of. (my other one i was proud of was penn, which i too got in as well). I think the essays where you can sit back and say... "this will seriously not get me rejected" and you can really be proud of.. those are the ones that could possibly get you in.</p>
<p>of cousre, that assumes your scores, your grades, your recs put you in "consideratiON' to that point.... there really sin't anything specific (if you want really specific, look at jon314 i htink his ideas are great and guaranteed admissions). after my interview ia lso honestly felt that that was my best interview, period. </p>
<p>live the process... feel i tcoming. i dunno, thats just how i felt.</p>
<p>i got into princeton ed this year (much to my complete and total surprise) and my best advice..BE YOURSELF.</p>
<p>honestly, you need the sat's and the gpa as a base requirement because i read somewhere that like approx 7000 applicants have sat's of 2100+ along with A range gpa's. </p>
<p>so what do you do once the academic stuff is settled? do what you love. it will come through so much more on your application that you are an intellectual, passionate, talented person if you do what makes YOU happy. </p>
<p>i made a decision at the beginning of high school to do what i truly loved and it paid off. i had to make some tough decisions: for example, not taking the intense ap science courseload that all the other "smart kids" took, quitting marching band so that i could commit myself to activities that i enjoyed more, etc. at times people thought i was crazy for taking a different courseload/quitting things midway through high school, basically for going against the status quo. but being genuine really paid off. i was able to reach my full potential in the things i chose to stick with and work hard at and realized my goal of going to princeton. hopefully this helps...</p>
<p>This is some great advice! I would add (from someone who did not really know what she "loved" until she started thinking about it to do college apps!) that the best piece of advice I was given was GET INVOLVED! No matter what that involvement includes, if you make an active effort to contribute to your school, community, church, whatever, it will pay off, both in your app and (MUCH more importantly) in your happiness during high school. </p>
<p>By getting involved in various activities/groups, you will sooner or later discover your "natural inclinations" to some activity or another (or maybe to all of them!).</p>
<p>yale: I had solid SATs and grades, etc. I had very strong recs and ECs (state champ in speech and debate, etc). I'm also a legacy (not a development case, my family is very, very middle class...just my mom went). If you want my whole profile look it up...haha I'm tired of writing it again and again...</p>
<p>I agree that you have to do what you want, because invariably that's something you'll do pretty well. At the beginning of my senior year I suddenly decided to do art - I'd always liked drawing though I'd given it up in middle school - and so during my senior year I attended lessons and made a portfolio, which I made slides of and sent with my applications. It wasn't, like, Art with a capital A but it was something I really enjoyed doing, as well as showing that I had a wide range of interests and talents. Same goes for my percussion club. My mum was so annoyed that I refused to miss any of my club practice sessions even during exam periods but I stuck with it and loved it. We still meet once a week to practise actually - we're all glad that we didn't quit this, not just because we all got into good schools (Brown, UC Berkeley, UPenn, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins) but because we all became really good friends too.
My interview with the Princeton alumnus was definitely the best one I had during the entire admissions process, we totally hit it off (actually the fact that I wanted to major in English Lit. and that she'd majored in Comparative Lit. was kind of a factor LOL).</p>
<p>yeah, i agree with lionsonaplane. An 800 is really not a big deal.</p>