<p>Of the "top" schools, which place the highest importance upon academic performance and standardized test scores and the least upon ECs?</p>
<p>You can go to Collegboard website and check. Just go to search colleges, type the colleges name and the college profile will come up. There's a table that details what is very important and what is of least importance.</p>
<p>Well, it's not easy to draw conclusions from the type of categorical data displayed on CollegeBoard. For example, all criteria (including academic GPA, test scores, and ECs) fall under the heading "considered" for Harvard; thus, it is impossible to differentiate between the relative importance placed upon each. The same principle applies to a lesser extent to most "top" schools -- ECs are put on a equal footing with other considerations, making it impossible to determine which one takes precedence. I was wondering if some schools were known to put little emphasis on ECs, notwithstanding the CB categorization.</p>
<p>Nowadays schools want a well-rounded individual. There's another way to directly find out from the college.. they have the data sheets that the log each year but they are the same things that are on the collegeboard website generally. If you are that worried about it, email the colleges?</p>
<p>Well, colleges generally give the platitudinous response about looking at a candidate "holistically," not having any exact rubric for assessment, etc. That may be followed up by a discussion regarding the "ideal applicant" who tends to be a cross between Einstein, Superman, and Mother Teresa. On the other hand, it might be possible that bright but inactive students from someone's school typically were accepted to college X but rejected from college Y; that would give direct observational evidence about how important ECs are in the applications process at the two colleges.</p>
<p>Also, my main reason for wanting to know this is because I don't want to attend a college which places too much emphasis on ECs. To the extent that it's possible, I'd like the student population to consist of smart and unambitious people rather than highly determined people who aren't necessarily that intelligent.</p>
<p>One of the "top colleges" whose population consists of smart yet unambitious people? Hmm, that sounds like quite the oxymoron. Good luck finding that.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know -- all of them will be chock full with ambitious people. However, I'd like to aim for the least of those various evils. For example, I'm planning on applying to Oxford and LSE, since they don't consider ECs. Are there any good American colleges that are remotely like that?</p>
<p>No, not really. Most of the top American colleges want you to be involved in the community or have a dedicated passion to something, such as a sport or instrument. The people at my school that are accepted to places like Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Duke, Johns Hopkins, etc are the ones who are class presidents, volunteers at the hospital, 3-season athletes, pianists, etc. Guidance Counselors here in the US urge students to become active in the community if they hope to go to one of the top schools. Quoting what my guidance counselor said last year at our junior review "The top colleges are concerned with your grades but they don't want someone who just sits around and does nothing. To be blatant, the top colleges don't want bums."</p>
<p>If you browse through the "What Are My Chances" forum you will also see that the students who are most likely to be accepted at the top schools are students who have been involved in something.</p>