<p>Can we read the essays?</p>
<p>^ Ha ha. :)</p>
<p>Lol @ BigWilly’s post. Maybe the OP needs to make up two hypothetical essays? ;)</p>
<p>Okay.</p>
<p>Applicant A Essay -
It is about how he/she was able to manage play three sports and keep a 3.0 Gpa in difficult classes at the same time.</p>
<p>Applicant B Essay -
Tells how seeing less fortunate people everyday made him/her work that much harder in school which helped him/her get his/her 4.0.</p>
<p>Snarky comments aside, if this were real we would actually have essays and other intangible stuff to go off of, which would help because clearly a unanimous decision can’t be made. If applicant B wrote a clever/unique/revealing/whatever essay that showed his/her personality and did an interview that gave further positive information, and applicant A wrote a bland, error written essay and did no interview I’d take B. </p>
<p>If applicant A wrote a baller essay and did an interview where he/she demonstrated all sorts of great stuff and B didn’t I’d prob take A, as that would help ease the “not so great grades” thing.</p>
<p>Also we don’t have school profiles for these applicants. A’s grades might be lackluster on an absolute, GPA based perspective but if it turns out that of the 20 kids taking his class that he has a B in the other 19 have Ds or lower that would make a difference, how he/she did on APs compared to how other kids from the same schools did on APs would also make something of a difference, stuff like. For applicant B if we see that the other 200 kids in his class have 4.0’s, or more likely that most of the other 200 kids in his class are within a few hundredths of a point GPA-wise from each other that he doesn’t seem so great. If he has a 4.0 and so do a few other kids and then the other 180 all have like 2.0s-3.0s he’s clearly distinguished.</p>
<p>All that said I’d take applicant A.</p>
<p>If this were a choice, I’d take neither. I’d take somebody in between, like 3.8-3.9 UW and 4.6 W and 2200 SAT and all that jazz. (provided they have an impressive essay, good interview, personality)</p>
<p>But if I HAD to, I’d MAYBE take A because he is probably smarter, but he is also clearly lazy (bad). If either A or B had something really good to offer or had a unique trait, I would take that one, but only if I had to.</p>
<p>B is an unlikely fit for the most selective schools. He would do reasonably well at the next tier schools or at the State flagship, and he’ll probably work very hard. I would definitely accept him at the next tier schools, especially for those in which athletics are not important.</p>
<p>The conclusion that A is lazy is a guess. He has a better than a B average, and he takes AP courses. If he were truly lazy he would stick with easier courses. And then he’s in three sports. There’s not enough information on how dedicated he is as an athlete, and how he’s viewed by his coaches. I’m assuming that the I’m supposed to think that he’s a jock – and a smart one at that. That would explain why he doesn’t do better in his classwork. He’s always in practice or competing. If all this is true, very selective colleges with athletics aspirations would pick him. If he’s a mediocre athlete than he I don’t think the most selective colleges would pick him. But the next tier will – after all only about 1000 test takers get 2400 each year.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Only 297 graduating seniors last year had 2400’s, and 294 the graduating class before that.</p>
<p>I’d definitely kick them both to the reject pile. Athlete who can’t handle sports+academics (or even worse, an arrogant/immature/lazy person), or a robo-grind who probs goes to a school with grade inflation? No thank you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Single-sitting, or superscored?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Since the College Board did not specify, I assume single-sitting.</p>
<p>Neither</p>
<p>But if I had to choose: Applicant A</p>
<p>Applicant A. Those test scores are just too telling. Depending on the size of the school you can take a few more fliers on the students who show immense academic potential, and that is clear with the 2400 SAT. There is also an argument to be made that a shift in focus from athletics to academics or vice-versa would cause Applicant A to be great at either Academics or Athletics, both of which are valueable to the university. Applicant A is lower overall academically than most applicants to top-tier universities, but they still wouldn’t be near the bottom level of athletic acceptances seen at even Ivies.</p>
<p>4.0 gpa but 500 on SATIIs? Really? It could be due to grade inflation, but then again, SATs aren’t everything.</p>
<p>Applicant A. </p>
<p>Applicant B’s low SATs relative to GPA suggest that he owes his high GPA to grade-inflation. </p>
<p>Applicant A has greater potential.</p>
<p>I would accept student A. He has more upside academic potential and likely will contribute more to campus life.</p>
<p>Candidate A has shown that he can manage time effectively…being an athlete takes up a lot more time than going to a club meeting. For example, being on the basketball team means two to three hours of practice after school every day for about 4 months, plus hours every week in the weight room, as well as playing in other leagues year round, with games two nights a week on school days and at least one game every weekend as well–including away games which mean bus rides to and from the game, generally having to accomodate the jv schedule as well–I know our team would leave for away games at 4 and get back around 10 pm. Compare this to band–which generally meets in school during a class period, and often gets academic credit as well. Add in maybe an hour of practice every night at home.</p>
<p>Candidate A also has shown that he can be a good team player and likely has good interpersonal skills.</p>
<p>From his scores, it is obvious that he has more than dabbled at his academics…and it’s not like a mix of As and Bs makes him a poor student.</p>
<p>Student B seems to have already reached his academic limits. He is getting his grades from maximum effort, which is admirable–but where is the upside potential ? And being teacher’s pet probably helps him when he is borderline on a grade–so he gets the A instead of the B–whereas student A, disliked by teachers, probably gets the B instead of the A (and so that could actually mean that A and B would have grade point averages much closer together if the grading was completely impartial).</p>
<p>This scenario also leads me to wonder if B is getting his grades for excelling at all the little things teachers do to appease diligent students to let them get their As even though they don’t really do A level work, such as notebook checks, lots of graded homework and quizzes, extra credit etc.–which would explain much of the discrepancy between B’s grades and test scores. </p>
<p>These “extras” go away in college. S3 just finished a semester of calculus–there was a ton of homework on the syllabus but it was not collected or graded or even gone over in class–if you had questions, you could go to office hours or to the math tutoring center. The class was graded on 3 quizzes at 10% each, a midterm for 30% and a final exam for40%. S felt this was the easier professor because the other professor had a midterm exam for 40% and the final was 60%.</p>
<p>I think Candidate A might shine in college because it would play to his strengths, while Candidate B might struggle more because elements that gave him success in high school would be missing.</p>
<p>by far applicant B because they show determination and care towards the college with their hard work, applicant A thinks they can start off good then slack off towards the end and just have fun like with the essay…</p>
<p>Applicant A - Didnt try and coasted through.</p>
<p>Applicant B - Studied everyday for hours and had no social life.</p>
<p>Applicant B. </p>
<p>Applicant A had a gift for smartness but didn’t take advantage of it. If B had the talent that A had he would go to Harvard. </p>
<p>So I’d mark off app A for wasting his gift and accept B for trying to live up to his full potential.</p>
<p>Applicant A is a jackass and probably will live the rest of his life bragging about his SAT and IQ scores while mopping up floors at Burger King.</p>
<p>“Applicant A is a jackass and probably will live the rest of his life bragging about his SAT and IQ scores while mopping up floors at Burger King.”</p>
<p>Yeah man, that hypothetical character sure is a jerk! I hope he doesn’t find happiness in life and never knows true love!</p>