Your chances of getting into an ivy

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>This is just a cautionary tale for all those who have their heart set on an ivy.
READ IT ALL
One day, at lunch, my friend and I were discussing the utter crap shooted-ness of getting into an ivy. As evidence we cited two of our close friends (they are both males so we will call them Friend A and Friend B). We started discussing how Friend A had applied to Brown, Harvard (ED but was deferred to RD), UChicago, Brown, and WashU after being deferred to RD for Harvard Friend A was lucky enough to be recruited by a swimming coach at Carleton College and was able to apply even though it was past due. Friend A was wait listed and rejected at all schools except Carleton. Now, Friend A was not a bad applicant. He had a 32 ACT (a bit low for the ivies, yes), had above average SAT subject tests (mid 700), had a 4.23 gpa (valedictorian of his class), was captain of the swim team 2 years and went to state every year of his HS career, volunteered like crazy, pres of NHS, student rep for district, boys state, actively involved in church. Had phenomenal essays written on the implications of being a twin. So on and so forth. As supplementary evidence, we cited Friend B: 2350 SAT, perfect subject SATs, 3.98 uw gpa, fluent in Latin, German and knew a bit of French, had an enormous amount of APs and college level classes. He was on academic and science teams, robotics club, volunteered, had done 2 college summer programs and even started a program to build libraries for inner city kids. Had good, sort of abstract essays. Rejected from Yale, Columbia, Harvard, Brown, Berkeley and Stanford.
These two friends are arguably the smartest people I know, and both had been rejected from all these ivies. It was astounding but wait! There's more. At this point, another friend chimes in, Friend C, he said "Yale is easy to get into."
I laughed and explained gently to this weed-smoking, sort of rude individual that Yale is an ivy with approx a 7% acceptance rate so no, it's not "easy".
Then to the surprise of the whole table he stated, "I got in. I bet you could too."
Friend C, pressured to apply by his father, got into Yale but turned it down for our state school with a 3.6 wgpa, 6 AP courses (got 4s and 5s and used this as his subject tests) and a 31 act. For ecs, he was on Knowledge bowl for 2 years, was in NHS and had a job which he openly hated. His essay was, as he put it, "some bull **** about accepting others." He claimed he just did very well on the interview. </p>

<p>So next time you feel like chancing someone on here for HYPS and other ivies remember this story and realize that whether you put safety, match, or reach next to that school's name: it won't make a difference.</p>

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<p>I think Friend C cares way more than he likes people to think he does.</p>

3

<p>And I think Friend C is probably either lying, amazingly lucky, or has a huge hook.</p>

4

<p>Friend C wouldn’t lie about it. He was very apathetic about this and actually seemed annoyed that he had been forced to apply.</p>

5

<p>Nothing is ever a guarantee. Safety, match, reach etc. just indicates the likelihood of being admitted. You could be accepted to a super-reach and rejected from a safety. It’s all chance, as your story highlights well.</p>

<p>However, safety, match, reach etc. does give an approximation of how big of a chance it is. So I would argue that no, it is not true that it “makes no difference”.</p>

6

<p>How can you be apathetic with a 3.6 GPA??</p>

7

<p>I would bet anything Friend C lied. No idiot would turn down an ivy for a state school – on another note, why would that guy even have applied if he wasn’t going to go there, regardless of what his father said? If his father was able to convince him to apply to Yale against his wishes, he would probably be able to convince your “friend” into going there as well.</p>

8

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<p>He could well just be having fun with you. I might have done the same when I was that age, after having to listen to a long lament about how impossible it is to get into these schools. </p>

<p>Or he had a major accomplishment outside of school that he never told anyone about – this stuff happens. Maybe he developed a new super high potency strain of weed to be sold in Colorado and Oregon and holds the patent rights? ;)</p>

9

<p>Was Friend C an URM? No offence, I am as well. xD If so, then my confidence just shoot into the stratosphere!</p>

10

<p>Friend A and Friend B were both way below what is expecting for any Ivy, though, so I think your point is moot. Three people who had all Ivys as impossible schools, and one slipped into Yale.</p>

11

<p>I’m sorry, you think Friends A and B were below Ivy league material?
Please outline what you think an Ivy League candidate should have, because you cannot get much better than those two.</p>

12

<p>^ agreed. I don’t know how anyone could do any better than these two. They may have been rejected because of personality? Maybe they appeared like robots.</p>

13

<p>^^ Low scores, imperfect GPA, no particularly prestigious ECs
While these things aren’t everything, not having them gets you ignored unless you are hooked, as Friend C likely was.</p>

14

<p>Why didn’t friend A apply to matches/safety schools?? Where was the Guidance Counsellor</p>

<p>Carleton is a fine school, but he didn’t think of applying there on time. He wasn’t well advised.</p>