Here’s a little story:
Little Johnny started his application the January before it was actually due, just to get a REALLY BIG HEAD START, when Johnny finished school around May, he was told he got a B in Physics and in June a Score of 3 on an AP Test. Horrible thoughts went through his head “Will I ever get into *Insert Ivy league here?!?”
“Now Johnny,” His mother says, “You have a 36 ACT and a 3.98 GPA, there’s nothing to worry about.”
“But mom, ITS A B IN PHYSICS!!!,” said Johnny.
Fast forward to application review
Admissions Officer - “A B in physics, hmm I guess its a hard class at his school, yo board this kid has a 36, is a URM and a Band Major!”
Board- “Yo lets accept that dude to our prestigious schooly school”
SOOOOO, I got carried away a little bit, but the main Idea is still the same, if you are applying to high ranking schools, you need to realize a few things. 1. An Admissions officer spends 10-15 minutes on your application, she / he doesn’t obsess over the details. 2. For the majority of the time, schools do not care if you retake a test only to bump it by a point and in general actually group the scores in two categories 29-32 33-36, or so I’ve heard from an ex admissions officer. 3. FINALLY BUT MOST IMPORTANT, don’t obsess over the little things, I do chance threads to get advice but I don’t glue my face to my computer to wait for replies and you shouldn’t either, go live life, go start a club, go have fun, because in the end that 3 won’t change a thing when applying to a schooly school.
This is where I leave you and good luck, hats off to you all
Good to know haha. Just wondering, at which school did that ex admissions officer work?
I understand the point of this thread, but it’s not the student that makes them worried about admissions it’s the college itself. Harvard turns down many applicants who have a single flaw, along with other ivy leagues and top notch schools. Stanford with a 3-4% admit rate turns down many applicants who do not have perfect scores because there are more qualified candidates(they do accept some flawed people). A B here and there is definitely OK, but it can hurt your chances because the person who wants to attend that school has all As. (this is why people go nuts these days)
People, you always have a chance when you apply to an ivy league, but the better the stats the better the chance. Sometimes essays play a big role for admissions to some colleges, such as Dartmouth(so I’ve heard).
Also, if you’re one of those kids that cannot tolerate failure don’t even bother applying for an IVY league. You will stress 100x more than you did in HS(Source is from researching on this site). It’s like playing High School football as a JV, than heading into the NFL. Prepare to fail, and have a method to allow you to recover.
@ThatDeafkid First off, I totally agree with the second half of your post, but the first half it totally wrong. No college “Harvard turns down many applicants who have a single flaw” like that is completely wrong. Ivies are holistic meaning they use your scores for so little of the process. They use them to get you in the doors and after that barely glance at them, they focus more on you as a person and not on you on paper.
@ap012199 Kinda don’t want to give that info away, but I will say a fairly high ranked school
No, I’m simply stating the fact if YOU do have a flaw there are applicants who do not. Not saying the college won’t accept you but you’re now not in the top end of the pool.
@ThatDeafkid Just totally not true, but O.K.