<p>Hi I am a High School senior from a town in New Jersey. I am in the top 11% of my class and I have a 2010 sat score with 1400 on the 1600 scale. This week I received 2 response letters from college. One of the college deferred me, while the other flat out gave me a rejection letter. My stats were above the 50th to 75th percentile averages for both of these schools. I am applying for business schools. I was always under the impression that SAT and GPA were by far the most important for applications. My extracurricular are average and definitely not nonexistent. Thus I believed I had a good chance at being accepted to both these schools, but I was clearly wrong and was wondering if anyone could provide me any insight on this matter. I have a friend who was accepted to the school which deferred me who is in the top 23% of our school with 2080 sat. Could it possibly be the SAT score?
I would really appreciate any responses thank you.</p>
<p>There are a lot of things that could trip you up, but you may never really know. Some I can think of:
- Do the schools take demonstrated interest into account? You can tell from their Common Data Set (search <college name=""> Common Data Set to find this). Maybe they did not think you were truly interested.
- Maybe your teacher recommendations or counselor recommendations had something in them that put the colleges off. You can’t really know. But if you have any disciplinary issues, that could be a factor.
- Maybe the other student has a hook – 1st generation, URM, skill like athletics the college wants, legacy.
- Maybe the other student interviewed and knocked the socks off the admissions person.
- Maybe the other student has ECs that are stronger or in some way impressed the admission committee.
- Maybe the school has a very low acceptance rate, thus making your odds of admission slim in general.
- Maybe the school is not need blind, and you needed more aid.
- Maybe something was off in your application. Typos or essay comments that did not come across as you expected or intended them to.
- Gender balance can affect acceptance rates. At many schools boys have a better acceptance rate these days due to more applications from girls. But at STEM schools that is generally reversed, with girls have an easier time getting accepted.
- Maybe the other student wrote a killer essay that made the admissions committee feel they would be a fantastic addition to the class.</college></p>
<p>This happens all the time. Class rank and test scores are not everything in the admissions process, lots of other factors can come into play.</p>
<p>it depends on the schools</p>
<p>Has anyone else had this experience with either Fordham or Babson</p>
<p>also i really appreciate the response @Nsantore and @intparent</p>
<p>Did you apply to Babson EA? If so, I think they may be protecting yield, but that is just my own speculation. Take a look at the Babson forum and you will see plenty of other deferrals. Did you visit and interview, as I believe they emphasize both.</p>
<p>I truly do not know why schools offer both EA & ED simultaneously as Babson does. I do not have a feel for Babson as there are few posts here on CC about the school and I cannot locate their CDS. </p>
<p>Do you have great financial need? Just noticed that intparent noted that point above. Actually, intparent did a great job outlining many possible variables.</p>
<p>Fordham is a bit more perplexing, assuming you visited. If you did not visit, they may view that poorly since you live relatively close.</p>
<p>More important than GPA and test scores is course rigor. Did you and the accepted student take the same courses, or did one of you take the more difficult route? If he took the tougher course load, while you took the easier route, he was likely admitted for that reason, despite the lower GPA. (I’m assuming unweighted GPAs.)</p>
<p>The course rigor requirement often comes as a shock to people, if you weren’t aware of it, you aren’t alone.</p>