Girl with 1370 SAT gets in to 5 Ivies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

This. DCUM defines kids by reference to test scores. “My one and done 1550….” Ugh.

How about titling the thread “girl with 4.36 GPA, extensive afterschool activities list, summer legal internship and outside advocacy work gets into 5 Ivies”? Doesn’t quite grind OP’s axe though, does it?

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Because there are test required schools.
It's very relevant.

You seem to assume it’s the job of these universities to collect the highest achievers. I disagree. That’s too much of what they do already. Their job should be to make and mold them, not collect them.

It actually is the job of these schools to collect the highest achievers, and that's certainly what they've done in accepting this young woman. She is a rock star.

Test required means just that: test scores required. It does not mean: we only accept students above a certain score. That 1370 indicates that she is perfectly capable of doing well in her studies at Yale and everywhere else she applied. And all her other accomplishments indicate she will thrive there and be a big contributor to her college community.

Colleges have done the research. Standardized test scores are predictive of how well a student will do. You may not like this conclusion but the pandemic was a real case study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Because there are test required schools.
It's very relevant.

You seem to assume it’s the job of these universities to collect the highest achievers. I disagree. That’s too much of what they do already. Their job should be to make and mold them, not collect them.

It actually is the job of these schools to collect the highest achievers, and that's certainly what they've done in accepting this young woman. She is a rock star.

Test required means just that: test scores required. It does not mean: we only accept students above a certain score. That 1370 indicates that she is perfectly capable of doing well in her studies at Yale and everywhere else she applied. And all her other accomplishments indicate she will thrive there and be a big contributor to her college community.

Colleges have done the research. Standardized test scores are predictive of how well a student will do. You may not like this conclusion but the pandemic was a real case study.

Correct. And 1370 puts her at the 96th percentile of SAT takers. As I said, it indicates that she is perfectly capable of doing well in her studies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Because there are test required schools.
It's very relevant.

You seem to assume it’s the job of these universities to collect the highest achievers. I disagree. That’s too much of what they do already. Their job should be to make and mold them, not collect them.

It actually is the job of these schools to collect the highest achievers, and that's certainly what they've done in accepting this young woman. She is a rock star.

Test required means just that: test scores required. It does not mean: we only accept students above a certain score. That 1370 indicates that she is perfectly capable of doing well in her studies at Yale and everywhere else she applied. And all her other accomplishments indicate she will thrive there and be a big contributor to her college community.

Colleges have done the research. Standardized test scores are predictive of how well a student will do. You may not like this conclusion but the pandemic was a real case study.

Correct. And 1370 puts her at the 96th percentile of SAT takers. As I said, it indicates that she is perfectly capable of doing well in her studies.

I think she will do fine because colleges have changed their standards. So if you have a high stats student, don't think you are missing out on classmates like yourself. They are being forced to go elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just read the piece, and she seems like a completely wonderful person. Did you see that the Yale admissions
Officer hugger her because her essay left such a deep impression?

This is admissions working the right way. This is the kind of person who really should be given the best educational opportunities.

1370 is one data point, and it's also a respectable score, when balanced by all the other things she is doing with her time. She's a star.

She wrote about the Black community. She's not stupid. She made sure to let admissions know her race. Played the game well.

She is most certainly not stupid. She also did a legal aid internship which is unique based on my experience. Most of the kids I know with a law theme in their college application got an internship through their parents with a friend who was a judge or a corporate lawyer or a tax attorney.... But most definitely not with legal aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Her parents went to Bucknell and Temple. Unlikely they are low SES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just read the piece, and she seems like a completely wonderful person. Did you see that the Yale admissions
Officer hugger her because her essay left such a deep impression?

This is admissions working the right way. This is the kind of person who really should be given the best educational opportunities.

1370 is one data point, and it's also a respectable score, when balanced by all the other things she is doing with her time. She's a star.

She wrote about the Black community. She's not stupid. She made sure to let admissions know her race. Played the game well.

She is most certainly not stupid. She also did a legal aid internship which is unique based on my experience. Most of the kids I know with a law theme in their college application got an internship through their parents with a friend who was a judge or a corporate lawyer or a tax attorney.... But most definitely not with legal aid.

Legal aid internship
Big deal LOL

[Anonymous]

I think the question is this:

If all race references were scrubbed from the app and the identical app was submitted by someone with an Asian sounding name or a name where it is not possible to make a good guess on race or heritage, would the results be the same for another kid? And also, if those stats were posted on here or chanceme on reddit, would people say the kid would be admitted?

- we are Hispanic and I can answer this honestly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just read the piece, and she seems like a completely wonderful person. Did you see that the Yale admissions
Officer hugger her because her essay left such a deep impression?

This is admissions working the right way. This is the kind of person who really should be given the best educational opportunities.

1370 is one data point, and it's also a respectable score, when balanced by all the other things she is doing with her time. She's a star.

She wrote about the Black community. She's not stupid. She made sure to let admissions know her race. Played the game well.

She is most certainly not stupid. She also did a legal aid internship which is unique based on my experience. Most of the kids I know with a law theme in their college application got an internship through their parents with a friend who was a judge or a corporate lawyer or a tax attorney.... But most definitely not with legal aid.

Legal aid internship
Big deal LOL

Maybe it is common to do legal aid work in high school. As I said, all of the high school students I know that did some kind of legal work or internship did not do it at legal aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Because there are test required schools.
It's very relevant.

You seem to assume it’s the job of these universities to collect the highest achievers. I disagree. That’s too much of what they do already. Their job should be to make and mold them, not collect them.

It actually is the job of these schools to collect the highest achievers, and that's certainly what they've done in accepting this young woman. She is a rock star.

Test required means just that: test scores required. It does not mean: we only accept students above a certain score. That 1370 indicates that she is perfectly capable of doing well in her studies at Yale and everywhere else she applied. And all her other accomplishments indicate she will thrive there and be a big contributor to her college community.

Colleges have done the research. Standardized test scores are predictive of how well a student will do. You may not like this conclusion but the pandemic was a real case study.

Correct. And 1370 puts her at the 96th percentile of SAT takers. As I said, it indicates that she is perfectly capable of doing well in her studies.

These people are insane -- 1370 is a very capable score. Did you know that SAT tracks pretty closely to IQ? So you are talking about a person who likely has a 130s IQ. She doesn't need "easy majors"!

I'd love to know what all these people got themselves, that makes it so easy to say that 1370 is bad.

I happen to have a lot of exposure to SAT and ability. I myself got a 1470 with no prep class and did pretty poorly in college bc I never learned how to study, but I'm fairly accomplished in adult life. My husband got a 1500s score and works in middle management consulting. I also was an SAT and GRE teacher for many years and I know that many intelligent people get 1200 or 1300 scores before prepping. Another long term boyfriend was the first in his family to go to college and sat down and got a 1350 with no prep (or guidance of any kind) and now he's owns his own law firm and is super accomplished. If he had been UMC, he would have had a mid 1400s score after prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Because there are test required schools.
It's very relevant.

You seem to assume it’s the job of these universities to collect the highest achievers. I disagree. That’s too much of what they do already. Their job should be to make and mold them, not collect them.

It actually is the job of these schools to collect the highest achievers, and that's certainly what they've done in accepting this young woman. She is a rock star.

Test required means just that: test scores required. It does not mean: we only accept students above a certain score. That 1370 indicates that she is perfectly capable of doing well in her studies at Yale and everywhere else she applied. And all her other accomplishments indicate she will thrive there and be a big contributor to her college community.

Colleges have done the research. Standardized test scores are predictive of how well a student will do. You may not like this conclusion but the pandemic was a real case study.

Correct. And 1370 puts her at the 96th percentile of SAT takers. As I said, it indicates that she is perfectly capable of doing well in her studies.

These people are insane -- 1370 is a very capable score. Did you know that SAT tracks pretty closely to IQ? So you are talking about a person who likely has a 130s IQ. She doesn't need "easy majors"!

I'd love to know what all these people got themselves, that makes it so easy to say that 1370 is bad.

I happen to have a lot of exposure to SAT and ability. I myself got a 1470 with no prep class and did pretty poorly in college bc I never learned how to study, but I'm fairly accomplished in adult life. My husband got a 1500s score and works in middle management consulting. I also was an SAT and GRE teacher for many years and I know that many intelligent people get 1200 or 1300 scores before prepping. Another long term boyfriend was the first in his family to go to college and sat down and got a 1350 with no prep (or guidance of any kind) and now he's owns his own law firm and is super accomplished. If he had been UMC, he would have had a mid 1400s score after prep.

No need to deny the obvious facts and try hard. People are not stupid. They know the truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Because there are test required schools.
It's very relevant.

You seem to assume it’s the job of these universities to collect the highest achievers. I disagree. That’s too much of what they do already. Their job should be to make and mold them, not collect them.

It actually is the job of these schools to collect the highest achievers, and that's certainly what they've done in accepting this young woman. She is a rock star.

Test required means just that: test scores required. It does not mean: we only accept students above a certain score. That 1370 indicates that she is perfectly capable of doing well in her studies at Yale and everywhere else she applied. And all her other accomplishments indicate she will thrive there and be a big contributor to her college community.

Colleges have done the research. Standardized test scores are predictive of how well a student will do. You may not like this conclusion but the pandemic was a real case study.

Correct. And 1370 puts her at the 96th percentile of SAT takers. As I said, it indicates that she is perfectly capable of doing well in her studies.

These people are insane -- 1370 is a very capable score. Did you know that SAT tracks pretty closely to IQ? So you are talking about a person who likely has a 130s IQ. She doesn't need "easy majors"!

I'd love to know what all these people got themselves, that makes it so easy to say that 1370 is bad.

I happen to have a lot of exposure to SAT and ability. I myself got a 1470 with no prep class and did pretty poorly in college bc I never learned how to study, but I'm fairly accomplished in adult life. My husband got a 1500s score and works in middle management consulting. I also was an SAT and GRE teacher for many years and I know that many intelligent people get 1200 or 1300 scores before prepping. Another long term boyfriend was the first in his family to go to college and sat down and got a 1350 with no prep (or guidance of any kind) and now he's owns his own law firm and is super accomplished. If he had been UMC, he would have had a mid 1400s score after prep.

The easy major comment was uncalled for.

But…zero rejections to any ivy would not happen to an unhooked applicant. That is a legitimate comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I wasn’t the OP…

[Anonymous]

My white HS boyfriend was admitted to an Ivy with a good but not great SAT score in 1985. He majored in engineering (last i checked, not an "easy" major) and was a good but not great student. He is now a managing partner at a large and well known IT consulting firm.

He had a couple of obvious hooks that surely paved the way for his admittance to an Ivy. But his grades and test score correctly indicated that he was capable of doing the work, his life story correctly indicated that he would work hard, and his ECs correctly indicated that he would make a positive contribution to campus life. The admissions office likely didn't hesitate for a minute to admit him, and they were absolutely right to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just read the piece, and she seems like a completely wonderful person. Did you see that the Yale admissions
Officer hugger her because her essay left such a deep impression?

This is admissions working the right way. This is the kind of person who really should be given the best educational opportunities.

1370 is one data point, and it's also a respectable score, when balanced by all the other things she is doing with her time. She's a star.

She wrote about the Black community. She's not stupid. She made sure to let admissions know her race. Played the game well.

She is most certainly not stupid. She also did a legal aid internship which is unique based on my experience. Most of the kids I know with a law theme in their college application got an internship through their parents with a friend who was a judge or a corporate lawyer or a tax attorney.... But most definitely not with legal aid.

Legal aid internship
Big deal LOL

Maybe it is common to do legal aid work in high school. As I said, all of the high school students I know that did some kind of legal work or internship did not do it at legal aid.

I know several who worked in Legal Aid.