<p>A few days ago, I bumped into a girl who graduated from our school about a year and a half ago. I'd heard she applied to princeton, and I thought she'd gotten in, but when I talked to her the other day I found out that she had actually been rejected and is currently attending McGill.This shcoked me because this girl was at the top of her class and-- well here's everything:</p>
<p>Although her grades were really low in Grade 10, and sorta low (by Ivy standard) in G11, she was appointed valedictorian. </p>
<p>Scores:
SAT1: 2350 2nd test date (800M, 800W, 750R)
SAT2: 800MII, 730 US history, 780 Bio M</p>
<p>ECs:
-University support prefect (helped about half of her graduating class with their college applications) (G12)
-Head of Drama club, which was mostly 7th and 8th graders, and organized a recital for them at the end of the school year (G12)
-regular volunteer at the local Autism center (G 12 and 13) about 500 hours before application season
-worked 10hs/wk for a renowned publishing company translating books. The stuff she translated actually got published!
-She was also considering founding/ leading an organization called Teens 4 Positive action, where high school kids can join and arrange fundraising events and stuff but she never got the time.</p>
<p>Had she actually created the organization, would her application have looked much better? would she have been- perhaps- accepted?
She was also supposed to be Newsletter editor in grade 13 but that didn't work out either, would that too have made the diffrence between acceptance and rejection?
Or was it the fact that her Grade 10 and 11 grades were too low?</p>
<p>Honestly, I think it is difficult to give a single reason why a person is rejected from schools like Princeton. Obviously, she was very bright. But, instead, just look at her situation a little closer - she’s up against a lot of kids that can write a lot of similar or even better things on their applications. Also, was she in a very competitive area? How were her essays? Did she take advanced courses? A lot of things can hurt an applicant’s chances, but few can pointed out as the obvious reason why someone was rejected. Things like that are more like plagiarism in school, a criminal record, etc.</p>
<p>I don’t see a specific hook, and competition is fierce in the hookless category. She just might not have been what P was looking for at the time. Rejection of such top candidates is due to the school, not the candidate. P is a reach for everyone.</p>
<p>She had mediocre grades her first two years and was competing against many thousands of applicants who had perfect or near-perfect grades for all four years. That’s a definite smudge on her record. Her ECs were okay but not remarkable and hence probably not strong enough to compensate for her slow start academically.</p>
<p>“Her ECs were okay but not remarkable and hence probably not strong enough to compensate for her slow start academically.”</p>
<p>Had she been head of newsletter and/or created and lead the group she wanted to create, teens 4 positive action, would it have made up for her slow academic start?</p>
<p>It’s impossible to say if any particular change in her ECs would have made the difference. I will say, though, that many, many applicants to top schools have started their own organizations.</p>
<p>^and they actually don’t end up accepted? or atleast, waitlisted?</p>
<p>Oh ya that reminds me, she was also offered an internship at a local newspaper but she let it go cuz she wanted to do volunteer work. The editior thought she was a really good writer and was willing to publish her work. would this perhaps have been considered a hook?</p>
<p>I’m really worried since princeton i my #1 choice, I have similar stats and I’m appointed USP- just like she was.I also work at the same publishing office she worked at. However; the rest of my EC’s are alot worse than hers.</p>
<p>All you can do is the best that you can, and apply to a range of schools. Don’t get too emotionally attached to any one school, especially a highly selective school that rejects many highly qualified applicants.</p>
<p>And when you do the best you can, worrying doesn’t help. Just don’t expect to be admitted to Princeton. Compare your stats to those in the Common Data Set of various schools; your “match” schools (50/50 chance?) are roughly where you hit the 67th %ile, but it’s just a first approximation.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s definitely strange, i agree with colinization though. Grades and standardized test scores are absolutely important, but so are the essays you write for the application. I visited princeton recently, and one of the admission officers[ a princeton alum of '07] was telling all of us how important it is to write a good essay, because the university really wants to get to know you as a person..so that could be why? It could be anything, but she did very well overall so idk</p>
<p>Our local valedictorian 2 years ago got rejected at Harvard and Princeton - she was a straight A student all 4 years, State AP scholar, tons of other awards. Princeton and Harvard are reaches for all students including those with perfect Stats. Even with perfect scores all 4 years no one is a shoo in. Those grades the 1st 2 years would definitely have a big impact.</p>
<p>My daughter, though not interested in Princeton, desperately wants to attend Yale. I’ve advised her to write “The Great American Novel”. The application process to these selective schools is capricious and there are no guarantees.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how the grades translate (these appear to be Canadian high school grades), but in the U.S. 78% would be a C average, and 85% is a B average. Although the grades improve in the next two grades, schools would want to know why they were that low in the earlier grades.</p>
<p>To clarify, I didn’t mean she wrote a BAD essay, (based on her 800 writing this seems highly improbable), but its possible she said something, maybe political or too personal, or made a joke in poor taste that the adcoms didn’t like.
Also, when I was talking to my interviewer at Johns Hopkins, she said that sometimes a kid tries to stick out too much or seem endearingly eccentric and so they end up writing a weird, pointless essay in a misguided attempt at creativity. I’m not insulting this girl, I’m just putting the possibility out there.</p>
<p>That’s a good point. We had a kid the other year who was a URM with awesome grades/SATs/ECs/teacher recs/community service/essays/awards, etc. who got into Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, but not Princeton. sometimes kids just get rejected.</p>