<p>ok i'll post 4 profiles here that i've copy-pasted from harvd threads on cc:all havard applicants, none are legacies/urms/atheletic recruits/etc...give me your opinions:</p>
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<p>Decision:ACCEPTED
Stats:
SAT I: V: 650 M: 690 W: 730---------------2070
SAT IIs: Math IIc 780 USHistory 710
ACT 31
GPA: 3.70 UW upward trend
Rank: 14/212
Other stats: School Math Contest Winner,
Subjective:
Essays: "Best theyve ever read"
Teacher Recs: didnt read
Counselor Rec: didnt read
Hook (if any): I've played piano for all my life, didn't send in a tape, but I wrote essays on it. I got a fee waiver
State or Country: IN
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Perceived Strengths/Weaknesses: My GPA was a little low, and I sucked on my SATs
My essays made my teachers cry
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: I dont know!!! Good teacher recs? Essays? My interview was awesome, and Ive won some piano awards
I love you all! THIS IS SO AMAZING</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted
Stats:
SAT I: 610V; 690M; 640W--1940
SAT IIs: French w/ Listening (480); Math 2C (690); US History (770)
ACT
GPA: 4.45 - 4.0 (unweighted)
Rank: top 2%; class of 472
Other stats: AP US History - 5
Subjective:
Essays: emotional & uplifting
Teacher Recs: didn't read - neither teacher has ever written a rec for an Ivy League before - 1 of the teacher was a 2nd year teacher (taught me in her 1st year)
Counselor Rec: didn't read - 2nd year counselor but she still knew me pretty well despite the large number of students
Hook (if any): live on my own; asian not interested in science; geographic location; crappy school; 1st person in family to go to college
Location/Person:
State or Country: southern VA
School Type: large & rural - no one has ever made it to an Ivy League, most drop out/go to community college; only top 50% take SAT (avg 961)
Ethnicity: SE Asian - Vietnamese
Gender: female
Perceived Strengths/Weaknesses: essays / College Board hates me - in all fairness, I only took the SAT I twice & the SAT IIs once. As for the French SAT score, I have taken French for 5 years and have always been top in my class. Unfortunately, French is not considered to be my school's top priority so a French 5 at my school is equivalent to, at most, French 3 at other schools.
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: the adcoms are in the holiday spirit
Other Factors: jobs take up a big part of my ecs. I worked 3 jobs in the summer - 2.5 (newspaper carrier is the .5) during school year (~40 hrs/week)</p>
<p>Decision: Rejected
Stats:
SAT: 1600--------------------2400
SAT IIs: 800/800/800
GPA: 4.4 W, 4.0 UW
Rank: 2/470
Other stats: 35 ACT, 5's on 3 APs
Subjective:
Essays: Good, did optional one too
Teacher Recs: Don't know
Counselor Rec: Good
Hook (if any): none
Location/Person:
State or Country: Nebraska
School Type: public
Ethnicity: white
Gender: female
major strength/weakness: lots of community service, but not much leadership
why you think you were accepted/rejected/defered: didn't show enough personality? showed too much personality? adcom had a bad hair day?
Other Factors: none
I have a smart email program, the admissions decision letter went straight to the spam folder </p>
<p>decision--Rejected
1590 800 800 780
5/5/5/5/5/5/4/4/4
National AP Scholar
300 hours volunteering ~ ER
Cancer Research
30 college credits (non-AP, taken at state univ)
Really good recs
I think essays were fine</p>
<h2>other factors: school isn't so good, but two people were recruited for athletics, so they prolly didnt want to take more. o well..."</h2>
<p>AboutTime: Why would you complete five A levels when most overachievers only take three or four at most. My dad attended Oxford and didn't take that many.</p>
<p>"if we put the ques this way: dont colleges(v selective ones) value the "demonstrated mastery of content"(sat2s) more than "ability to master content"(sat1s)?doesnt low sat1s and high sat2s show that u tried and excellled in studies, despite being not extremely smart?"</p>
<p>the main difference between the SATIIs and SATI is that you CAN do well on the SATI without studying. however, you CANNOT do well on the SATIIs without taking the class and studying.</p>
<p>unlesss everyone is taking the exact same physics, spanish, math, literature, ect. class there is no way to show that student A mastered the material better than student B. that would be like saying the college board dictates exactly what is important for students to know about chemistry or whatever....and SATIIs are very basic information. nothing at all equivalent to college level work/some peoples high school level work. its all about memorization really.</p>
<p>Can anyone answer my question about discrepancies between reasoning math and subject test math (level II)? They're different types of math - which is more important?</p>
<p>A debate on the relative merits of I and II is irrelevent to the issue of which is weighted more by colleges. I don't have much real evidence on this myself... but I do have one tidbit and it might help someone.</p>
<p>Some time ago I had 640 on the SAT I math, and 800 on the Math IIC subject test. I discussed my scores with an MIT admissions officer, Matt McGann, at an information session. He told me that, as long as I have "the grades," he was willing to (more or less) ignore "one outlier." I asked him how important it was to try to raise the 640 to 700+, and he told me that, on the whole, it wasn't very important - at least with respect to MIT. (I later re-took because I'm also applying to Caltech, and got 770. :-)</p>
<p>Moral of the story: it probably depends on the school, so all you can do is do your best on every test, apply, and see what happens.</p>
<p>qwilde--->why 5?(actually 6 considering 2 AS-levels;AS-levels are like half an A-level)----Because i liked the subjects; actually i dont really know why i took 5 when most took 2 or 3, and VERY few took 4. My teachers asked me to drop one,blah blah....but i stuck it out. It was hectic, all the exams and all.But i got As in the end, so i coped.</p>
<p>You can clarly understand that someone doing "further maths" would definitely be expected to get more than 660 on SAT1 math! but it was my 1st sat1, and maybe i messed up somewhere. The awkward part:this guy is doing 3 EASY A levels(and not math), and he got 760 in sat1 math; so u can see why i'm a little bit more than just "annoyed" with the importance they attach to sat1s!</p>
<p>Perplexitudinous --->great point!..so i think you understand my situation. I've always done advanced math, and i really love physics, and A level physics and maths are as advanced as they can get in HS. but a 660 in sat1 math. And i cant even take it again as i GOTTA take sat2s in january!--which makes it even sadder for me as i certainly can approach 800 if i took it again!</p>
<p>qwilde--->your dad attended oxford? how did he like it? i actually have 2 reasons for not applying there: expensive, and i had the idea it's VERY competitive. but maybe they'll consider 5 A levels. btw, my subjects were A2--physics/maths/english/econ/chemistry, AS-history/further maths--(A grades in all except B in furhter math)</p>