Girl with 1370 SAT gets in to 5 Ivies

[Anonymous]

Ivy League bound: Bensalem student goes viral with 5 acceptances

https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/local/2025/05/08/bensalem-high-school-victoria-mathieu-yale-penn-bucks-county-ivy-league-ivy-day-tiktok-video-college/83391829007/

[Anonymous]

Hey, that's awesome. Good for her.

[Anonymous]

Amazing.

“She is unheard of. She is a unicorn,” Harrison said. “It’s one of the greatest achievements I’ve seen in my career.”

[Anonymous]

“She is going to change the world.” I love this story. Congrats to her!

[Anonymous]

I could not read all of the linked article, and hit a paywall when I went back. But based on what I read, she had good grades, about 4.36 GPA and ECs. The colleges saw that the 1370 in SAT probably correlated to family’s SES. Clearly, the colleges that accepted her thought that she had the goods, otherwise she would not have been accepted. These colleges already got their yield and full pay from earlier round of acceptances. Now they can afford to look for other attributes, like her race to shape the class of students. Regardless, congrats to her.

[Anonymous]

Both of her parents are college educated. She has lots of ambition and potential regardless of her score. I can see her going far. Congrats to her!

[Anonymous]

SAT is one data point.

Her GPA was great. Her essay was amazing. She had numerous INTERESTING extra curriculars…sounds like a great candidate for those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I could not read all of the linked article, and hit a paywall when I went back. But based on what I read, she had good grades, about 4.36 GPA and ECs. The colleges saw that the 1370 in SAT probably correlated to family’s SES. Clearly, the colleges that accepted her thought that she had the goods, otherwise she would not have been accepted. These colleges already got their yield and full pay from earlier round of acceptances. Now they can afford to look for other attributes, like her race to shape the class of students. Regardless, congrats to her.

She does seem like a great kid but you’re making assumptions here that are troubling.
- we don’t know her SES. While her parents are both immigrants, they are college educated. They live in a HNW community outside of Philly
- her parents met when her dad tutored her mom in math, so clearly the parents are bright and driven- this wasn’t a kid who didn’t have access to testing resources

Her ECs are wonderful and she does seem like a change the world type. But, she doesn’t check as many boxes as one would think and I’m actually surprised she had the successes she did. WL at both Harvard and Dartmouth which required SATs (were Penn and Princeton TO?) Maybe she submitted AP scores to Yale vs SAT?

Just trying to look at this as a case study and figure out what lessons we can take from this example.

[Anonymous]

Love this immigration story! Love the USA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I could not read all of the linked article, and hit a paywall when I went back. But based on what I read, she had good grades, about 4.36 GPA and ECs. The colleges saw that the 1370 in SAT probably correlated to family’s SES. Clearly, the colleges that accepted her thought that she had the goods, otherwise she would not have been accepted. These colleges already got their yield and full pay from earlier round of acceptances. Now they can afford to look for other attributes, like her race to shape the class of students. Regardless, congrats to her.

She does seem like a great kid but you’re making assumptions here that are troubling.
- we don’t know her SES. While her parents are both immigrants, they are college educated. They live in a HNW community outside of Philly
- her parents met when her dad tutored her mom in math, so clearly the parents are bright and driven- this wasn’t a kid who didn’t have access to testing resources

Her ECs are wonderful and she does seem like a change the world type. But, she doesn’t check as many boxes as one would think and I’m actually surprised she had the successes she did. WL at both Harvard and Dartmouth which required SATs (were Penn and Princeton TO?) Maybe she submitted AP scores to Yale vs SAT?

Just trying to look at this as a case study and figure out what lessons we can take from this example.

Lessons we can take? Case study? I dont think this is your genuine take on this article. Even if you aren’t admitting, you’re thinking that the only reason she was admitted was because she is a person of color.

What I saw was a student with really unique extra curriculars (way more interesting than that of my junior dd who has a lot of extra curriculars and some leadership roles in them too, but they’re not interesting) who apparently wrote a kick ass essay or more than one, who probably had fantastic recommendations from her teachers for the energy and interest she brings to the world.

Colleges want students who will make their campus and community vibrant and active. Clearly they see something in her. Just because you don’t doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve to be there.

[Anonymous]

She sounds wonderful. I do worry about kids with such perfectionism, because it’s impossible to sustain without some struggle but she absolutely earned her place at Yale; sounds like a no-brainer. I am more likely to question the schools that wait-listed her, like Dartmouth and Harvard. If not her, then who?

[Anonymous]

Btw I doubt it was SES; her house looks nicer than mine but I love that her parents were immigrants who valued education - the American Dream.This is what out country needs.

[Anonymous]

These are TO schools, I don’t understand why OP brings 1370 into the title. It’s irrelevant!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I could not read all of the linked article, and hit a paywall when I went back. But based on what I read, she had good grades, about 4.36 GPA and ECs. The colleges saw that the 1370 in SAT probably correlated to family’s SES. Clearly, the colleges that accepted her thought that she had the goods, otherwise she would not have been accepted. These colleges already got their yield and full pay from earlier round of acceptances. Now they can afford to look for other attributes, like her race to shape the class of students. Regardless, congrats to her.

She does seem like a great kid but you’re making assumptions here that are troubling.
- we don’t know her SES. While her parents are both immigrants, they are college educated. They live in a HNW community outside of Philly
- her parents met when her dad tutored her mom in math, so clearly the parents are bright and driven- this wasn’t a kid who didn’t have access to testing resources

Her ECs are wonderful and she does seem like a change the world type. But, she doesn’t check as many boxes as one would think and I’m actually surprised she had the successes she did. WL at both Harvard and Dartmouth which required SATs (were Penn and Princeton TO?) Maybe she submitted AP scores to Yale vs SAT?

Just trying to look at this as a case study and figure out what lessons we can take from this example.

Lessons we can take? Case study? I dont think this is your genuine take on this article. Even if you aren’t admitting, you’re thinking that the only reason she was admitted was because she is a person of color.

What I saw was a student with really unique extra curriculars (way more interesting than that of my junior dd who has a lot of extra curriculars and some leadership roles in them too, but they’re not interesting) who apparently wrote a kick ass essay or more than one, who probably had fantastic recommendations from her teachers for the energy and interest she brings to the world.

Colleges want students who will make their campus and community vibrant and active. Clearly they see something in her. Just because you don’t doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve to be there.

I didn’t say any of that and if I implied it, I didn’t mean it. The previous poster spoke about how this girl checked a bunch of boxes and i argued that there were too many assumptions about her background in that argument.

Take the emotion out of it. This is a message board where people come to seek advice. What can a person learn from this student’s success? What can they do to bolster their own application?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I could not read all of the linked article, and hit a paywall when I went back. But based on what I read, she had good grades, about 4.36 GPA and ECs. The colleges saw that the 1370 in SAT probably correlated to family’s SES. Clearly, the colleges that accepted her thought that she had the goods, otherwise she would not have been accepted. These colleges already got their yield and full pay from earlier round of acceptances. Now they can afford to look for other attributes, like her race to shape the class of students. Regardless, congrats to her.

She does seem like a great kid but you’re making assumptions here that are troubling.
- we don’t know her SES. While her parents are both immigrants, they are college educated. They live in a HNW community outside of Philly
- her parents met when her dad tutored her mom in math, so clearly the parents are bright and driven- this wasn’t a kid who didn’t have access to testing resources

Her ECs are wonderful and she does seem like a change the world type. But, she doesn’t check as many boxes as one would think and I’m actually surprised she had the successes she did. WL at both Harvard and Dartmouth which required SATs (were Penn and Princeton TO?) Maybe she submitted AP scores to Yale vs SAT?

Just trying to look at this as a case study and figure out what lessons we can take from this example.

Lessons we can take? Case study? I dont think this is your genuine take on this article. Even if you aren’t admitting, you’re thinking that the only reason she was admitted was because she is a person of color.

What I saw was a student with really unique extra curriculars (way more interesting than that of my junior dd who has a lot of extra curriculars and some leadership roles in them too, but they’re not interesting) who apparently wrote a kick ass essay or more than one, who probably had fantastic recommendations from her teachers for the energy and interest she brings to the world.

Colleges want students who will make their campus and community vibrant and active. Clearly they see something in her. Just because you don’t doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve to be there.

I didn’t say any of that and if I implied it, I didn’t mean it. The previous poster spoke about how this girl checked a bunch of boxes and i argued that there were too many assumptions about her background in that argument.

Take the emotion out of it. This is a message board where people come to seek advice. What can a person learn from this student’s success? What can they do to bolster their own application?

Okay I would believe you if not for two things:
—you didn’t say anything about learning from her case study in your message
—your subject line implied she shouldn’t have gotten in with that SAT score

If you were truly curious, your subject line may have been “girl who got into 5 ivies, what can we learn?”

But sure if that was your real intention, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Do you think you and I can both learn something about how to get our kids into college because of this article? What DID you learn and/or what do you hope that we the dcumers will learn?