<p>Idk if this is like a jokey term, or a derogatory one, but I am curious to knwo if anyone has honestly gotten in at a school where their scores and whatnot are below the middle 50 %. If so, what school and what were your scores? Did you have any sort of hook? Thanks!</p>
<p>This is a ridiculous question.</p>
<p>Half of the people admitted to any school were below the 50th percentile. That’s the definition.</p>
<p>Confusing thread title.</p>
<p>And obviously.</p>
<p>A better question would be if an unhooked person got in with stats at the 25 percentile.</p>
<p>to our OP: </p>
<p>FYI: Trolls are those who like to stir up trouble on the internet.</p>
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<p>I doubt that 25% of admitted students are hooked at very many (if any) schools.</p>
<p>Redseven, your statement is correct – but more appropos to OP’s question, approximately 25% of enrolling students fall below the middle 50% (grin)</p>
<p>OP was looking for those admitted, not those who enrolled.</p>
<p>Sorry all!
That is what I meant-- to clarify-- that bottom 25% below the middle 50.
Thanks.</p>
<p><a href=“http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/562900/facepalm_medium.jpg[/url]”>http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/562900/facepalm_medium.jpg</a></p>
![http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/562900/facepalm_medium.jpg[/url]](http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/562900/facepalm_medium.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>I honestly would like to know if if anyone has gotten into a school when having stats in the bottom 25%. And if so, did you have a hook of any sort?</p>
<p>Obviously, they must have. If every class has a 50% and below ranking on the admitted student profile, than those kids are there. The problem is that those numbers are averages, and so it’s hard to quantify exactly what is a typical GPA below a 50% mark. You add them all up and average it out and that’s what you will come up with - a range. </p>
<p>Add in some athletes that are highly recruited but not academic, and you might skew the field. Or legacy kids. Or whatever. </p>
<p>Not everyone is a superstar in high school and hits the trifecta of academics, athletics or arts and EC involvement. Some are hardworking kids who are undiscovered gems. They do well in school but not so well in testing, or vice versa. Kids grow up and for some of them, will shine beyond their high school achievement once they matriculate to college. </p>
<p>And do you want the most selective schools like MIT and Harvard for that below 50% number, or a small liberal arts school that is less selective? The numbers will be wildly different for an assortment of schools, depending upon what you are interested in.</p>
<p>If you are asking for someone to come on and give their hook and stats, you might run into trouble. Because few people would admit to being in the bottom 50% on CC. Everyone here has a perfect SAT, hooks galore and has done a gajillion hours of community service. </p>
<p>And right now is studying for the SAT. ;)</p>
<p>@ SamuraiLandShark-- thank you for your very legitimate response!! I suppose I am asking people to admit to low scores, but I am honestly curious. Who are they? What are the odds? I am considering very strong liberal arts colleges, where a certain section of my SAT falls below the norm; hence my reasoning and curiosity. Good luck on your SAT!!</p>
<p>I am well beyond my SAT tests and am getting ready to send a 3rd kid through the college application round! But I will tell you, that you can’t believe everything you read on this site. Lots of people DO brag about their scores and their GPA and everything else. You just never know what people will say. </p>
<p>If you pm me your info, I am happy to give any advice or suggestions that I can.</p>
<p>CC is a statistically biased sample. For various reasons, the people who are in the bottom 50% are either not here or not inclined to speak up about it.</p>
<p>That does not mean that those people does not exist. It just means they aren’t on CC.</p>
<p>Yes, people have gotten into schools with stats in the bottom 25%. In fact, 25% of the admitted students had stats in the 25% at every single school.</p>
<p>The lower your scores are in the range, the less likely you are to be admitted. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible.</p>
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<p>Yet, somehow, they’ll always describe half the admitted students.</p>
<p>Fact: Half of any population is below the 50th percentile.</p>
<p>Laddydah </p>
<p>Obviously, with any statistic, it’s axiomatic to say 1/4 of the population (e.g., accepted students) is at or below the 25th percentile. However, I think it’s a bit more complicated than that. For example, schools indicate that they look at several objective factors. SAT-CR, SAT-M, SAT-W, GPA (unweighted), GPA (weighted), Class Rank, ACT, SAT II, etc.</p>
<p>My guess is that absent a hook when we see a student who is accepted below the 25 percentile in one category, they are probably significantly above it in other categories, or they have something significant to offer the school (whether we classify it as a hook or not). Someone with 800 on the SAT-M might be admitted even if their SAT-W score is below the 25th percentile (assuming that the rest of the application is outstanding).</p>
<p>There are many High Grade/Low Test students (and vice versa), and they do get into excellent schools.</p>
<p>When you look at these students, their overall numbers (however a school chooses to weight them) is closer to the mean. Again, as a pure guess, I suspect that very few students (without hooks) are in the 25th percentile across the board in the objective stats.</p>
<p>In talking to friends about our kids stats and where everyone got in, I know that in a number of cases, this has occurred – including at top 15 schools.</p>
<p>As you have noted, a problem with CC is that people with no knowledge of the admissions process will make blanket statements that someone doesn’t have a chance because they are weak somewhere. If you look at the ‘acceptance’ threads (and even these are not representative) you will see that these assertions are clearly not true.</p>
<p>Hope this is of help.</p>
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<p>This is probably true to the extent that these students probably have compelling ECs, essays, hooks, or factors otherwise enhancing their application. I would, however, challenge that a statistically significant portion of students have some standardized test scores above the 75th percentile while others are below the 25th (it defies the logic of standardized testing).</p>
<p>Red –</p>
<p>I’m not a testing expert … but let’s look at the following – I pulled the 2009-10 Common Data Set for Northwestern. and we get the following</p>
<p>SAT CR – 25th %ile 670 75th %ile 750
SAT M – 25th %ile 690 75th %ile 780
SAT W – 25th %ile 670 75th %ile 760</p>
<p>Now going to the SAT’s published charts </p>
<p>SAT CR 670 92 %ile, SAT M 690 92 %ile SAT W 670 93%ile
SAT CR 750 98 %ile, SAT M 780 99 %ile SAT W 760 99%ile.</p>
<p>Though I’m not an expert, I would’t think it statistically unusual to find that someone is in the 99th percentile in math, but only the 92 or 93d percentile in CR or W. (or vice versa).</p>