Do normal smart kids get into ivy and T30 schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who has straight As, highest rigor, 1500+ SAT, 2 varsity sports that he should be captain senior year, summer internships, academic clubs and competitions but no national or international recognition in anything.

He is such a hard working kid. I thought a 1500 would be good enough but he is trying to get 1550 on his SAT. Not sure how big of a difference 1510 or 1550 is.

I have seen some superstar kids get rejected from all the top schools and making me nervous.

My nephew got into Yale (REA) and Harvard (RD) with a 1520. He had a very high (perfect) GPA and took most rigorous curriculum. I really don't think the SAT score going up 20 points here or there mattered. I think once you hit 1500, you clear a bar and it's about the rest of your application - GPA, recommendations, EC/activities, major, jobs, essay, full pay, etc.

I would put the additional energy into the rest of your son's profile, OP rather than wasting time trying to improve the SAT once you've already reached the 99th percentile.

This. I don't know why people keep thinking that there is a distinction between 1500 and 1550. The Harvard lawsuit explained that a 1500+ got the same as a 1600. Getting rejected with a 1500 will not be the reason for the rejection...

I’ve heard the cutoff occurs at 1520/1530/1540, depending on the source.

The cutoff is actually much lower to get your application read. Sometimes 1440.
The test score won't make your application - plenty of perfect test scores and 4.0uw aren't even waitlisted.

Now, having a higher test score can help bolster the case of a STEM candidate, but I know of a test-optional humanities applicant admitted to Northwestern this year in RD (private HS).

There is no clear line in the sand.

That cutoff I mentioned was the score below which AOs in top Ivies would think your SAT score is low!

It's all about context and peer group. Look at your high school's college counseling profile - it will list the average.
From West Virginia, a 1400 would be considered amazing to Yale (and they have explicitly mentioned it on their podcast). Always, it's about high school context.

The OP didn’t mention any hook (geographic or otherwise), so let’s just assume it’s the normal situation.

[Anonymous]

“Your college bound kid” podcast had admissions readers talk about this sort of “standard strong” student over 5 episodes beginning April 2nd. Worth a listen, OP.

[Anonymous]

I’ve seen “normal smart” kids get into Emory, Wash U, Georgetown, UVA, UCLA, UNC (oos), Michigan. ED and /or being a boy and/or full pay might have helped in some cases, but these kids didn’t have any real hooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who has straight As, highest rigor, 1500+ SAT, 2 varsity sports that he should be captain senior year, summer internships, academic clubs and competitions but no national or international recognition in anything.

He is such a hard working kid. I thought a 1500 would be good enough but he is trying to get 1550 on his SAT. Not sure how big of a difference 1510 or 1550 is.

I have seen some superstar kids get rejected from all the top schools and making me nervous.

Sounds like a great kid. It is a bit of a lottery at the most selective schools. Check your school's naviance to see where students have been having some success over the past few years. That should provide some guide. But also look at some safeties where the student would be happy at. And don't forget to consider the Canadian schools like Toronto and McGill, which are very stats heavy and you don't have to worry about most of the other stuff.

[Anonymous]

They absolutely do but you have to be able to showcase intellectual curiosity in a way that isn’t typical. That’s why the standard awards and research aren’t necessarily cutting it anymore.

[Anonymous]

Yes, normal smart kids are getting into Ivy and T30, even from our public. We're not in a district where families game the system - kids are doing their sports and their ECs and enjoying their high school lives. The Ivy and Stanford kids are great students + interesting kids.

[Anonymous]

Full pay and ED will help

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who has straight As, highest rigor, 1500+ SAT, 2 varsity sports that he should be captain senior year, summer internships, academic clubs and competitions but no national or international recognition in anything.

He is such a hard working kid. I thought a 1500 would be good enough but he is trying to get 1550 on his SAT. Not sure how big of a difference 1510 or 1550 is.

I have seen some superstar kids get rejected from all the top schools and making me nervous.

Sorry for being very direct and maybe harsh: all unhooked well rounded kid from public schools have about 0.1% chances to get into famous schools like Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford. Test scores, GPA, sport matter but not much after a threshold. There are many cases where kids with perfect GPA and SAT where rejected from these schools.

This is the reality.

Check where do the kids from your junior's hs get accepted in the last years:
https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/10/mcps-students-college/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, normal smart kids are getting into Ivy and T30, even from our public. We're not in a district where families game the system - kids are doing their sports and their ECs and enjoying their high school lives. The Ivy and Stanford kids are great students + interesting kids.

Tell this to superstar kids having max scores and national awards that did not get accepted to any ivy league schools but to top stem schools. Ivy schools have a questionable admission process that favors legacies and private school kids. Obviously, there are exceptions but not many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who has straight As, highest rigor, 1500+ SAT, 2 varsity sports that he should be captain senior year, summer internships, academic clubs and competitions but no national or international recognition in anything.

He is such a hard working kid. I thought a 1500 would be good enough but he is trying to get 1550 on his SAT. Not sure how big of a difference 1510 or 1550 is.

I have seen some superstar kids get rejected from all the top schools and making me nervous.

Sorry for being very direct and maybe harsh: all unhooked well rounded kid from public schools have about 0.1% chances to get into famous schools like Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford.

You should be sorry for being inaccurate. Every year our run-of-the-mill public high school of 2000+ students in a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb has 2-3 unhooked well-rounded kids going to HYPS and 3-5 to the rest of the Ivies/t15. Your "0.1%" is a gross exaggeration and is meaningless without context anyway. And your "public schools are trash" bias is showing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, normal smart kids are getting into Ivy and T30, even from our public. We're not in a district where families game the system - kids are doing their sports and their ECs and enjoying their high school lives. The Ivy and Stanford kids are great students + interesting kids.

Tell this to superstar kids having max scores and national awards that did not get accepted to any ivy league schools but to top stem schools. Ivy schools have a questionable admission process that favors legacies and private school kids. Obviously, there are exceptions but not many.

Cornell still takes smart kids from the burbs. And Princeton will take them for STEM. But otherwise, the Ivies generally don't for the unhooked. My personal feeling is that Ivy admission priorities are dumb and are killing their brand. But, whatever. Their choice to conduct admissions as they do.

But strong students still have a shot at MIT, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Stanford, Notre Dame, Rice, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, USC, Chicago, Michigan, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Emory and a lot of other very good schools. That's generally where the talent is these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is similar…but add in some volunteering. My kid got into two T20 and two WASP. Did not apply to any Ivys. We are full pay, so I’m sure that helped.

I’d say the thing to do now is create a story—show things he’s done to support his interests. Helps if he’s done things supporting what he thinks he’s going to major in and/or a big passion.

Yep - I agree with this too. The podcast "The Game" will help give you the general idea for how he can survey his interests and EC's and craft his story. It will stress you out but the advice is good. We've seen kids with a high GPA, coherent narrative, one or two EC's to support it, leadership (yes, even in sport), and assuming great LOR's (because the kids are extremely kind, collaborative, etc.) but not top SAT's do better with T20's lately than other academic star kids with top SAT's but a less coherent narrative and poorer soft skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a junior who has straight As, highest rigor, 1500+ SAT, 2 varsity sports that he should be captain senior year, summer internships, academic clubs and competitions but no national or international recognition in anything.

He is such a hard working kid. I thought a 1500 would be good enough but he is trying to get 1550 on his SAT. Not sure how big of a difference 1510 or 1550 is.

I have seen some superstar kids get rejected from all the top schools and making me nervous.

Sorry for being very direct and maybe harsh: all unhooked well rounded kid from public schools have about 0.1% chances to get into famous schools like Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford.

You should be sorry for being inaccurate. Every year our run-of-the-mill public high school of 2000+ students in a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb has 2-3 unhooked well-rounded kids going to HYPS and 3-5 to the rest of the Ivies/t15. Your "0.1%" is a gross exaggeration and is meaningless without context anyway. And your "public schools are trash" bias is showing.

You are contradicting but in the same time approving. 2 unhooked out of 2,000 is 0.1% exactly how much the post is saying.
And then you start assuming "a public school trash" when nobody had any comment about public school being bad.
So many characters on this forum. Anonymous geniuses at work.

[Anonymous]

DMV, SV, NYC, etc is too competitive. That's why those kids look around and think they know 10 kids who are more accomplished from their high school than who they meet in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, normal smart kids are getting into Ivy and T30, even from our public. We're not in a district where families game the system - kids are doing their sports and their ECs and enjoying their high school lives. The Ivy and Stanford kids are great students + interesting kids.

Tell this to superstar kids having max scores and national awards that did not get accepted to any ivy league schools but to top stem schools. Ivy schools have a questionable admission process that favors legacies and private school kids. Obviously, there are exceptions but not many.

Cornell still takes smart kids from the burbs. And Princeton will take them for STEM. But otherwise, the Ivies generally don't for the unhooked. My personal feeling is that Ivy admission priorities are dumb and are killing their brand. But, whatever. Their choice to conduct admissions as they do.

But strong students still have a shot at MIT, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Stanford, Notre Dame, Rice, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, USC, Chicago, Michigan, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Emory and a lot of other very good schools. That's generally where the talent is these days.

100% agree on this. Cornell is a larger ivy, not as prestigious as the rest and very rigorous and indeed, they are accepting more. That reflects in the acceptance rate. The schools you mentioned are amazing schools that are better in most of the cases than ivyes.