<p>Other than leadership, community service, good grades, high test scores, what does a school want in a student? </p>
<p>In other words, what do you have to offer at an ivy league school? (or what do they want students to offer?)</p>
<p>What do these schools want?</p>
<p>Above all, they want passionate, driven, self-motivated, genuine students. That’s what they want.</p>
<p>They also want you to use the Search Forums function.</p>
<p>^^^ rofl</p>
<p>"Other than leadership, community service, good grades, high test scores, what does a school want in a student? "</p>
<p>They don’t require community service. They do require high stats and a demonstrated strong interest and a high level of success in at least one passion of your choice.</p>
<p>What they want:</p>
<p>Legacies, development candidates, recruited athletes, URM’s, and 3-5% of the remaining applicant pool. But >20% of the pool will be virtually indistinguishable and fully qualified to attend. So in addition to all of the above, they require a little bit of magic. </p>
<p>So what you need:</p>
<p>A high GPA and class rank (if ranked);
Great test scores;
Extracurriculars that demonstrate commitment and achievement outside the classroom;
Great recommendations;
Eye-catching essays; and
A touch of pixie dust.</p>
<p>Or to put it even more simply: Why you instead of the other 100 people fully qualified to take the seat you want? They need to be wowed.</p>
<p>High GPA/Great test scores/outside achievement or URM</p>
<p>“or URM” ?</p>
<p>Sheesh. It’s a myth that low stat, non EC active URMs get into Ivies.</p>
<p>Sheesh to you. If you are seriously tyring to say that URMs do not get admitted based on a lower stat scale, then your are hopelessly naive.</p>
<p>You didn’t carefully read what I said: I said it’s a myth that low stat URMs get admitted to places like Ivies. The Ivies aren’t admitting anyone – including stellar athletes and multimillionaire donors’ kids – who lacks the stats to be able to succeed – graduate – at those colleges.</p>
<p>It may be a myth that LOW stat URMs are admitted…but it is absolutely true that LOWER stat URMs are admitted. The criteria are different. Did you read carefully what I said?</p>
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<p>This is no longer true. Do you have any sources to back yourself up? Don’t say “go read the results threads” because I have read most of them and the URMs who get in are essentially as qualified as the non-URMs.</p>
<p>I think URMs with low stats get in these days because of compelling essays and personal stories - this adds diversity and new experiences to campus, distinguishes the student, and ultimately makes them stand out in the admissions committee. </p>
<p>@ OP - They want people who will be leaders in the future. Show them you can be that and you’ll have a good shot.</p>
<p>I think URMs with low stats get in these days…</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>If there were white people with similar backgrounds who presented similar applications I’m pretty sure they would be given similar consideration. You are going nowhere. </p>
<p>I think CC as a whole sticks to the whole early 2000’s period where elite colleges had few qualified URMs applying so lower stat people go in. Since then, however, URMs have greatly risen in application size and the admitted URMs are either at the top of the pool or have something else that makes them stand out.</p>
<p>If you really want an answer to the OP’s question, a good place to begin to get an answer is in the results threads on the college-specific forums.</p>
<p>My observation is that the most selective schools want high grades and scores, as well as measurable achievement, preferably outside the school. There are certain hooks that allow students to be admitted even if one or more of these factors aren’t stellar (recruited athlete, URM, legacy, first generation)–but even these hooked students must have very high stats. It’s pretty clear, for example, that the most selective schools do take URMs with, on average, somewhat lower stats than non-URMs, on the average–but those URMs still have very high stats when compared to all high school graduates.</p>
<p>Urgh, not this whole Affirmative Action debate again. Believe me when I say that URM’s are admitted to Ivy League schools not SOLELY because of their race; their race is merely a factor that helps them in the admissions process. Their URM status isn’t everything. It’s not like the adcoms pick up their application and go, “Oh look! Here’s an African American student applying! Let’s admit him/her!” </p>
<p>In the Class of 2009 at my current HS, there was an African American girl who was VERY successful in the admissions process (was admitted to HYPSM and is currently attending Harvard). People around me talk as though she got in solely because of her race; however, when I asked about her, I found out that despite her solid but non-outstanding stats (3.83 UW and 2100 SAT), she had done some awesome science research that had gotten published in a nationally recognized journal. </p>
<p>Everyone who gets admitted to the top schools is admitted for a reason. Don’t think that that reason is necessarily their race/ethnicity.</p>
<p>It’s certainly true that the URMs–as well as the athletes and legacies–that are admitted to highly selective colleges have very impressive stats and achievements. But honesty requires recognizing that those “hook” characteristics add weight to the scales as compared to people who don’t have them. The colleges don’t deny this. Whether this is a good or bad thing is an entirely different question.</p>
<p>Look at the Common Data Set for each school. It will give you information, apples-to-apples what they look at, in order of importance, along with median GPA, SAT, ACT, etc. That will give you a good starting point. UVa is not an Ivy, however as an example, of the 7 things they consider ‘highly important’, 3 are legacy, race, & gender. These you can not change. Forget about those and move on. Deal with things you can.
Do not get hung up on the URM debate. As potential students, all the discussion isn’t going to matter. You CAN control your grades, scores, EC’s, etc. Focus on that.</p>
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<p>^ Second blueiguana wholeheartedly.</p>
<p>Agree. But also understand and accept that the playing field is not level.</p>