Where do all the bright kids who have great test scores, good grades, but mediocre class ranks go? I’m talking about kids with, say 1500 sat, 3.9 gpa, but ranked maybe 20/200, or 70/800. Do they still get into ivy league schools? Despite not even being in the top 10 of their class?
<p>bump......................</p>
<p>top 10% or top 10 students?</p>
<p>I'm either going to Michigan (accepted) or Northwestern (the dreaded March decision). I have a 3.9643 UW GPA, 28 ACT (slightly lower than what I originally wanted but eh..), and am ranked 19 out of a class of 246. I didn't even try for the ivys mainly becaise I wasn't interested but also because I wasn't sure if I could take that type of atmosphere and wasn't sure if I was really good enough for them. I know of several people that have been accepted into the ivys or elite schools at my schools (yes, I go to two schools) so I'd say it's possible even though I know those people are also extremely smart as well as have a great sense of individualism. Some of the places where I know of people that have been accepted (some went, some didn't) are Harvard, Yale, Northwestern, Michigan (a ton of them), Notre Dame, and the University of Chicago (this one I heard from someone recently about someone else in my class that got accepted there EA - I really should ask the person himself about it). I also know of several people in my class that have gotten calls from Harvard and/or are at least applying there. Probably the reason why I've seen or at least heard of so many college admission successes is that one of the schools that I go to is a magnet school in math and science so my info may be slightly biased as a whole. Most of the people that i'm thinking of are highly ranked and well rounded academically. Again, I don't think it's impossible to get admitted at these schools (it gets harder though the lower your stats are), but it also depends on the student's strength of curriculum, etc. I don't know if I'd "put all of my marbes" into one basket," especially the ivy league basket, if I were them because they're a risk for any student.</p>
<p>I had a 1520 SAT, an unweighted 3.81, and in the top 10% of my class (school didn't rank except for deciles). I'm now at Brown; so, yes, those types of students get into the ivy league.</p>
<p>i meant students that were clearly out of the vicinity of the actual top 10 in their class (not top 10 percent)
i mean, all the time we talk about rank 1,2,3, but never rank 50.
Obviously rank 50 out of 200 is not good at all, but I was wondering, if you were 50 out of say 800, would that look as good as say 10/200?</p>
<p>Obviously the higher number you are, the better. But your entire class size is an important factor also, and also how your School does their rank.</p>
<p>Don't dwell so much on rank. It's not a major factor in decision, not even in the Ivies as much.</p>
<p>Accepted to Cornell ED with 1520 on my SAT's and ranked about 65 out of about 500. </p>
<p>So yes, people not in the top 10% can still get into Ivies.</p>
<p>SATs I think are more important than rank, but grades/course schedule is more important than SATs so I hear</p>
<p>(They want to make sure you aren't lazy and can handle college I suppose)</p>
<p>It's not all about SAT and gpa. Last year, a student I know, who was probably in the third decile (maybe #80 out of 300), with 1150 or so SAT, got into Princeton ED. Not a URM, no fancy EC's or community service. BUT, the student was State and Regionalwinner, and even placed in the top 10 nationally for their singing talent.</p>