<p>Variation - 2400/4.0 with average ECs, great recs, and average essays? How would that work out? (I may or may not be talking about myself LOL)</p>
<p>Personally, as a college professor, I would always prefer a person with "reading" listed under EC over "president of ...". Note: I am not in admission though.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I've read that Harvard only accepts about 1/2 of perfect score candidates.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And many of the 2400's have 3.6's Unweighted. Or they are valedictorians. Or they just don't know anything about the admissions process. Or they wrote a terrible essay.</p>
<p>I think Harvard would reject 75% of 2400's and 4.0's, minimum. They probably accept a great deal more of them, especially those applying SCEA.</p>
<p>
[quote]
oh come on. if that person wrote really good essays, i'm sure he has a fighting chance at the lower tier ivys.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The 2400/4.0 no EC perfectly describes someone in my grade (a very good writer no doubt). We was taken at:</p>
<p>Yale
Dartmouth
J. Hopkins
NWestern
All UCs
USC</p>
<p>and several others.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, he also held 3 800 SATII scores.</p>
<p>IMO a 2400 + 3 perf. SATIIs IS a hook. A near perfect without ECs won't do it. Perfect numbers attract the human eye.</p>
<p>IMHO people on this board tend to concentrate too much on EC's since this is something everyone (or almost) feels one can control. How many people can manage perfect SATs even with intensive (and/or expensive) SAT prep? A few.
Now, how many people can join 10 clubs? A lot.
I think that it is important to remember that the EC part of application was invented to give universities additional degree of freedom to admit whom they want and reject whom they do not. And they want to admit a 2400/4.00
student just as they want to admit an athlete, since one makes their team stronger (good for publicity) and the other will boost their in-coming class statistics (good for rankings).
I know three girls who were accepted into Yale, Columbia, and Stanford correspondingly having only one EC
activity (a time-consuming sport). They were accepted because the schools NEEDED them on their teams.
They were very good academically as well, but that is not the point. You want to get admitted, make yourself needed.</p>
<p>I'll bump this thread since I think it's interesting.</p>
<p>I agree with fizik. As much as we love to say that college admissions is more personal than it was and ECs matter more, there's only so much truth to this. Colleges do want passionate, original, motivated kids for sure. But they also want hard core intelligence. Somebody with a 2400 and 4.0 is going to get in to a top tier school, provided they don't totally screw up their essay and their teachers don't hate them (and with a 4.0, neither of these is likely). The trouble is when kids have perfect scores AND cured cancer or something, but these people are few enough so that even Harvard can't fill up its classes with them.</p>
<p>For one thing, admissions officers, especially at big schools, don't always have time to look at it that thoroughly.</p>
<p>but they try to look everything thoroughly, and I realized that your essay is important, that is the thing that can bend the whole situation</p>
<p>and one more thing, based on the real students (only 3) that I know in top colleges, they all tend to be nearly perfect scores with few ECs, and they told me there are not as many EC-oriented students as academic-oriented kids</p>
<p>I like this thread. I participate in only a small number of clubs because they're kinda time consuming and I'm always busy.. and im always freaked out in the what-are-my-chances therad: all those major awards and 500 ECs :/</p>
<p>I think the only problem with perfect score is you might be a geek, so I think you need to prove that you r not by EC or essay or whatever, personally, I am pretty score type too, but my ECs are ok</p>
<p>i think the person with perfect scores, but absolutely 0 ECs will get into any state school s/he desires, but looking at top tier ivys etc it gets more complicated than just scores. s/he has a legit shot, but 0 ECs could be equal to having a slightly lower GPA or SAT. at this point, essays and recs will make or break the applicant. the SATs prove that s/he is smart (and not a 4.0 that beat the system), but how many kids who dont get into the top schools feel they are smart enough to be admitted? </p>
<p>all i can say is a 4.0/2400 with few to no ECs is more realistic than a 4.0/2400 with an insane amount of solid ECs like some of the kids on the "What are my chances" boards, but s/he should have won some award for his outstanding scholastic reacord.</p>
<p>Most people wouldn't post unless they were confident about their stats, which explains the suspiciously awesome threads on those boards. Personally, I think some of them are embellished. We'll never know.</p>
<p>desagree, they are not all confident but needed reassurance</p>