<p>How can one try the hardest, do the most work, get the most rigorous schedule, achieve in everything, and go onto CC, and see that their chances are "Slim"? Is anyone else irked about this? I mean, you can strive your entire high school 3 years to be the best, and still be labeled "your chances are a crapshoot" , "it goes down to luck" chances are slim....?</p>
<p>dasdui</p>
<p>I haven’t seen your scores, but let me comment --</p>
<p>The top 15 or so schools (USNWR reports) have acceptance rates of <20%. Many have acceptance rates <10%. They literally reject thousands of students with SAT CR+M of 1500 or greater. Further, no one here really understands what goes on in the admissions offices, and no one here can predict who will get in and who can’t.</p>
<p>Like it or not, that’s the unforunate truth.</p>
<p>So, here is the advice – </p>
<p>First, we see ‘cross rejections’ all the time. For example, a student who gets into Wash U may get rejected at Tufts (or vice versa). What this probably means is that different schools are looking for different things – but they don’t tell us what the magic formula is.</p>
<p>Second, apply to many schools. Though you may not be a lock at any one, if you apply to 7 or 8, the law of averages begins to work a bit in your favor.</p>
<p>Third, take the application process seriously. When a school asks why you want to go there, do not give canned answers. Spend the time, come up with examples specific to that school. Visit if possible.</p>
<p>Fourth. Do have ‘matches’ and ‘safety’ schools. Some students overrate their own chances, write a so-so essay, etc. Make sure you have a plan B.</p>
<p>Fifth. Believe it or not, the process as a whole works pretty well in the end. When you look at the results the qualified students rejected at a specific top school are generally getting into at least one comparable peer school. Most people really do wind up at the right level.</p>
<p>Finally – And I mean this from the bottom of my heart – Screw them!!! You’re taking advice from a bunch of students and parents we (and I include myself as part of we) really don’t know what we’re talking about very much. Really, you’d be a fool not to apply to a school just because some other HS Senior, who you don’t know tells you your chances are slim - I’m serious. Screw them. Talk to the professionals, talk to your Guidance Counsellor, get a good list of schools together, but if you REALLY REALLY want to apply to a specific school – APPLY. You either get in or you don’t. If you don’t apply, you certainly don’t.</p>
<p>@zephyr15</p>
<p>When people say that other people’s chances are slim, that shouldn’t discourage someone from applying. They’re slim for everyone. For the highest tier of schools (<10%), even applications with great credentials are often turned down.</p>
<p>@ambitious2</p>
<p>agreed</p>
<p>OP: you shouldn’t be angry at the “slim chances” opinion. I would posit that for ultra selective schools (with tiny admit rates), any prudent person would look at the statistics and correctly conclude the chances are slim. Just because you may be the best of the pack, your pack is one of thousands of packs.</p>
<p>Again, I’m not telling you not to apply – but to Quixotically charge at windmills that clearly shout to everyone that “it’s doggone tough to be admitted” because it is – well, is going down the wrong path.</p>
<p>OP, feel free to logoff from CC at any time.</p>
<p>Would you rather have people fill you full of false hope?</p>
<p>The “slim” is simply reality borne out by what is seen annually. You can just go to threads on this site for the ivies and other high ranks from prior years and review the posts where everyone reports whether they were admitted and what their stats were. Annually, those with super high grades, lots of APs, super high test scores, and impressive ECs report being rejected by high ranked colleges and many are rejected by all such colleges they apply to. The belief you have that your great work should be awarded by admission to a high ranked college is not a belief shared by any of those high ranked colleges. The problem you have is that despite how good you think you are, that college is seeing thousands who look just like you on paper, and out of every ten of those they will take one and ultimately the choice becomes subjective, i.e., they just believe they like one a tad more than nine others despite that objectively they all look equally capable.</p>
<p>I think that trying to assess your chances from CC is just plain foolish, but a lot of people find it fun and it creates drama which everyone loves. </p>
<p>Most people on here, even people with thousands and ten thousands of posts, don’t really know YOUR chances. They are just trying to be helpful and doing the best they can. Many have pessimistic tendencies, and some have optimistic tendencies, which leaves you with very little actual information. </p>
<p>Your school’s Naviance, if you have it, is a much better indicator of your actual chances. </p>
<p>Without Naviance, what I would do is look at the schools actual admissions rate for ED or RD, best you can. Round to the nearest 0.1, and then if your stats are somewhat above average, double your chances, if they are somewhat below average multiply by 0.5, if they are way below average, multiply by 0.33 If they are way above average, triple your chances. Then if your ECs are world class, add 0.2, if your ECs are national/state class, add 0.1, if your ECs are lousy or non-existent, subtract 0.1. At the end, round to the nearest 0.1. Note that for the most selective schools, for just a slightly below average RD applicant, it’s pretty easy for MY estimate of your chances to round down to 0. Sucks doesn’t it.
Then come up with an admissions strategy of reaches, matches and safeties that makes it likely that you can go to a college that you’d be happy with. </p>
<p>But I don’t really know what I’m talking about either, I just like to have fun with probability. :-)</p>
<p>Somehow, almost everyone on here goes to college and is eventually happy, so suck up your frustration.</p>
<p>There is no shame in going to a non-Ivy school. You can be very successful in life if you go to a lower tier school, or even, yes, a state college.</p>
<p>One thing that I heard from a Stanford admissions officer:</p>
<p>“If we were to deny all of the students that we accepted and accepted the next best applicants, you wouldn’t see much of a difference around campus or in the freshman profile.”</p>
<p>Harvard admissions office says that they admit not on “Accomplishments” (all those stats), but on potential. SHOW the Admissions Office how and why you feel your experiences give evidence of your POTENTIAL. Again, the office admits on what they see you becoming in the future, not on the basis of the laundry list of what you have done in the past.</p>
<p>That’s some pretty self-serving high quality BS from the Harvard admissions office as one should expect to hear from such a distinguished institution. </p>
<p>The reality is that the chances for an unhooked applicant with Harvard average stats is less than 1 in 20, and I would venture to say that the potential of those other 19 out of 20 students is probably as high as the one they take. </p>
<p>Studies have shown that future income is more correlated with the highest ranking of a school that rejected you than with the school you actually go to.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Ivies and other top schools are a crapshoot for everyone.</p></li>
<li><p>Selective schools are tough to get into. There’s tons of people applying to each top school who have worked hard and done everything right, so the problem is that you have to stick out among a pool of qualified applicants.</p></li>
<li><p>If everyone else slacked off, and you worked really hard, this would be a different story. The fact of the matter is there’s hundreds (and probably thousands) of other students who have also worked hard, done well, and taken rigorous courses.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>It’s not that you’ve done anything wrong. It’s that everyone else is doing everything right, too - and there’s always someone who’s done better.</p>
<p>Actually what’s really irksome is that lots of people who didn’t work like dogs in high school frequently do very well in life. Bummer right? Might cause you to rethink your entire approach to high school, hmmm?</p>
<p>First of all, do not accept CC as the ultimate authority on the subject. Remember, many of those posting are potential rivals (or parents of rivals) for admission to the same schools you are applying to, and they have a vested interest in discouraging you. The competition is fierce, nevertheless, and so nobody, regardless of talent and accomplishments, should assume that acceptance into Harvard is certain. I read somewhere, though, that over 90% of college-bound high school seniors are accepted into at least one of the colleges they apply to, and - even more encouragingly - roughly 75% are accepted into one of their top 3 choices. You are setting yourself up for disappointment if you feel that life will end should Harvard or Yale reject you, or if you refuse to apply to any schools with higher acceptance ratios, but your chances of getting into a good college, where you will thrive, are excellent if you are willing to open your mind and heart to a broader range of options.</p>
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<p>I guess applications to HYPSM will go up to a million a year now!</p>
<p>People on this website have utterly ridiculous measures of excellence, so don’t sweat it. I think it’s more important to be interesting than have a 2400 on the SAT. Impress schools with your personality and how you stand out from the crowd. </p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>
<p>Actually, some Princeton Professors did a study comparing Ivy League students with students who were accepted by an Ivy League School, but went elsewhere. I believe that they found no statistcally significant difference in career success.</p>
<p>The subjective element of the application (essays, recs) does not come through on CC, so people just see others with good stats getting rejected and call it a “crapshoot,” or assume that ECs that aren’t groundbreaking are nails in the coffin.</p>
<p>Chancing is incredibly pointless since you can do as much yourself. It’s easy to tell whether a school is a reach, match, or safety - look at the numbers, and see where you fall. Some schools are considered “reaches for everyone” or for most people, so that can be taken into account as well.</p>