Top schools for kids with perfect scores but minimal ECs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will be difficult for him to get into a top ivy if that is what you are thinking. Also we don't know what "near perfect " means.

OP here -- Yes i know he has super low chances at HYPS or MIT. Would he have any chances at the other ivies or places such as Duke, UChicago, Northwestern, Hopkins? What about any USNews top 20/top 25 school?

He has 1600 SAT, 3.98 UW GPA, 1st in his class, many APs and Math II 800, Bio 800, US History 790. His scores are impeccable it is just that his ECs are weak. He wants to do pre-med. He volunteered over the summer at the local hospital, and also spends 2-3 hours every week there during the school year. But other than this he has nothing else of substance. He is a member in a couple of clubs at school. That is it.

That's well more than enough substance. Geez, the kid is working at a hospital he doesn't have to play squash or be on the prom committee or whatever.

He does need to settle on a specific major - premed is a set of prepatory classes but not a major.
Hopkins?

+100
I can't believe OP is stressing about a kid like this. Good grief. He'll get in anywhere he wants. Good for him.

No, he won't, unless he's an URM.

OP, he has zero chance of getting into HYPS or MIT. What does your school's Naviance show? SLACs like STEM kids and your kid's numbers will help boost their averages. Do non-sports kids from his high school get into Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore or Pomona? Without looking at the Naviance, you might want to look at schools like Notre Dame, Wash U and Emory.

Also large state universities like out-of-state kids like yours - look at the UCs (Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD) and Univ of Michigan.

Notre Dame is hugely Catholic - why recommend that school if you don't know if he's Catholic or not?
And stop with the URM crap - just stop. You are racist and ignorant,

He won't bd getting into MIT because he hasn't done significant intellectual work outside of school.

Says the person who wouldn't recommend Notre Dame to non-Catholics....

A kid with just numbers and no other EC hook is not going to get into HYPSM unless they're a URM, recruited athlete or legacy. That's not racism, that's the facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will be difficult for him to get into a top ivy if that is what you are thinking. Also we don't know what "near perfect " means.

OP here -- Yes i know he has super low chances at HYPS or MIT. Would he have any chances at the other ivies or places such as Duke, UChicago, Northwestern, Hopkins? What about any USNews top 20/top 25 school?

He has 1600 SAT, 3.98 UW GPA, 1st in his class, many APs and Math II 800, Bio 800, US History 790. His scores are impeccable it is just that his ECs are weak. He wants to do pre-med. He volunteered over the summer at the local hospital, and also spends 2-3 hours every week there during the school year. But other than this he has nothing else of substance. He is a member in a couple of clubs at school. That is it.

Be sure to write good essays. I think he has a good chance at many schools like that. I think the schools know that high school rah rah stuff isn't for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will be difficult for him to get into a top ivy if that is what you are thinking. Also we don't know what "near perfect " means.

OP here -- Yes i know he has super low chances at HYPS or MIT. Would he have any chances at the other ivies or places such as Duke, UChicago, Northwestern, Hopkins? What about any USNews top 20/top 25 school?

He has 1600 SAT, 3.98 UW GPA, 1st in his class, many APs and Math II 800, Bio 800, US History 790. His scores are impeccable it is just that his ECs are weak. He wants to do pre-med. He volunteered over the summer at the local hospital, and also spends 2-3 hours every week there during the school year. But other than this he has nothing else of substance. He is a member in a couple of clubs at school. That is it.

That's well more than enough substance. Geez, the kid is working at a hospital he doesn't have to play squash or be on the prom committee or whatever.

He does need to settle on a specific major - premed is a set of prepatory classes but not a major.
Hopkins?

Hopkins or UChicago.

He’ll choose a major after a year or two in college. Not an issue at this stage.

[Anonymous]

Oxbridge.

[Anonymous]

Your child can get into most top colleges. Honestly. If essays and recommendations are excellent a lot will be interested.

[Anonymous]

Case Western, Rice, and WashU are all great for premed and really want high stats kids. Might be a less stressful path than Hopkins/UChicago. I’d also look at UWashington Seattle as a safety. Great school for bio sciences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will be difficult for him to get into a top ivy if that is what you are thinking. Also we don't know what "near perfect " means.

OP here -- Yes i know he has super low chances at HYPS or MIT. Would he have any chances at the other ivies or places such as Duke, UChicago, Northwestern, Hopkins? What about any USNews top 20/top 25 school?

He has 1600 SAT, 3.98 UW GPA, 1st in his class, many APs and Math II 800, Bio 800, US History 790. His scores are impeccable it is just that his ECs are weak. He wants to do pre-med. He volunteered over the summer at the local hospital, and also spends 2-3 hours every week there during the school year. But other than this he has nothing else of substance. He is a member in a couple of clubs at school. That is it.

My (white) child with almost identical stats and non-amazing ECs got into Rice, WashU, and Berkeley last year during the RD round, along with some top 10 SLACs. Based on her friends' results, agree that Chicago, Duke, and Northwestern are possibilities if he applies ED. As others have mentioned, Vandy, USC and Hopkins like high stats kids too, and MCGill is great for those who truly don't have much in the way of ECs. Consider Michigan and Cornell as well.

[Anonymous]

My DC had very similar stats, no ECs at all (not even over the summer). Is at Carnegie Mellon for engineering. Also got accepted at Duke, Brown, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, UVA. Was rejected at MIT and Princeton.

[Anonymous]

Any national awards?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC had very similar stats, no ECs at all (not even over the summer). Is at Carnegie Mellon for engineering. Also got accepted at Duke, Brown, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, UVA. Was rejected at MIT and Princeton.

I am the OP. This is very encouraging. thanks for sharing!

[Anonymous]

This is not a fact in any way. With his scores and grades, HYPSM will ALL keep him on the list for a long time. Eventually, they are only going to take about 5% of the kids who are grinds but THEY do take grinds, just not at a rate better than random. Since he has nothing that will knock him off or get him in, eventually, they will draw the names of a few like him from a hat. Seriously, they need a share of grinds to keep their score and GPA averages as high as possible while getting the others you list.

"A kid with just numbers and no other EC hook is not going to get into HYPSM unless they're a URM, recruited athlete or legacy. That's not racism, that's the facts."

[Anonymous]

OP, I hate to say this but at that level, your race matters a LOT. Whether you like it or not, that's how the game is played. My Asian kid with similar stats and over 1000 hours of volunteer hours got rejected by almost all of the top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I hate to say this but at that level, your race matters a LOT. Whether you like it or not, that's how the game is played. My Asian kid with similar stats and over 1000 hours of volunteer hours got rejected by almost all of the top schools.

probably because your child had poor essays

Lackluster/poor essays are a huge reason for why so many get denied. It's not the stats and it's not the ECs which make or break the app, it's the impression you create on the admissions officer such that they can support you

If you play the cards to their advantage, you'll get in. If you don't, it doesn't matter what you did, what scores you got, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I hate to say this but at that level, your race matters a LOT. Whether you like it or not, that's how the game is played. My Asian kid with similar stats and over 1000 hours of volunteer hours got rejected by almost all of the top schools.

probably because your child had poor essays

Lackluster/poor essays are a huge reason for why so many get denied. It's not the stats and it's not the ECs which make or break the app, it's the impression you create on the admissions officer such that they can support you

If you play the cards to their advantage, you'll get in. If you don't, it doesn't matter what you did, what scores you got, etc.

No, not that. His essays were fine but I realize it's easy to sit here and speculate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I hate to say this but at that level, your race matters a LOT. Whether you like it or not, that's how the game is played. My Asian kid with similar stats and over 1000 hours of volunteer hours got rejected by almost all of the top schools.

probably because your child had poor essays

Lackluster/poor essays are a huge reason for why so many get denied. It's not the stats and it's not the ECs which make or break the app, it's the impression you create on the admissions officer such that they can support you

If you play the cards to their advantage, you'll get in. If you don't, it doesn't matter what you did, what scores you got, etc.

No, not that. His essays were fine but I realize it's easy to sit here and speculate.

It's also easy to sit here and cry racism instead of understanding that other kids had spectacular essays and extracurriculars that brought their applications to the top.