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Anonymous wrote:Which T25 selective colleges are most highly focused on EC achievement - impact, depth, national recognition?
Kid has tremendous (non-Stem) achievement in one humanities area + congressional internship + co-founder of school club + leadership in student govt + national level awards in a non-recruitable sport. And one more impact-driven local humanitarian activity w/news coverage (dont want to reveal too much).
Along with unique volunteer work for underprivileged population, aligned w/sport.
And another internship.
Which schools score highly for ECs in the review process?
Stanford, I think?
Anyone else?
The main cutoff is being in the top 5% in terms of academics. Not just GPA, but taking the most demanding courses possible.
Last year a kid with patents, two published "best selling books" in humanities, venture capital funded startup in STEM, 1570 SAT, volunteer work and a ridiculous amount of other stuff shut out of T20. The parent surmised it is likely because they are not in the top 10% of the class although it is close. Private school and they were very confident of recommendation letters.
Not true at our private for the top 5%….
Your example shows a scattered kid? Stem startup and humanities books? And patents? Sounds confused about what they’re interested in?
Hopefully this kid knew not to apply as a stem major???
CDS shows that 95%+ of admitted class at many of these are in the top 10% of their class. So a kid in the top 5% is fine. Sorry, I did not quite understand your point here.
The scattered part is what first came to my mind, but the parent had a very expensive counselor to help, so I would assume they probably had a very well put together application.
I wonder if it the app may have come across as ‘too produced’. Of course, don’t know any context but the list reads a bit like there may have been fingerprints from parents and counselor. Private school, connections, etc.
Prob also a red flag? Maybe in the LOR?
Also, why so many different "high achieving but unrelated things"? It looks like a kid who read r/applying2college and did what everyone else was doing?
Patents? Really? That's so 2015.
Also sounds like a STEM kid. Which will screw you from certain privates. Know your lane, how your high school is viewed, and pick majors appropriately.
The parent was pretty sure it is not the LOR. They did apply to STEM but the idea is the kid is also ridiculously strong in humanities and that is why the published book is supposed to address.
My question is if not being in the top 10% of the school would ding a student like this. I thought the kid would be admitted just based on this, and even if academics are not tippy top the EC's would overcome that.
Usually, when this happens, there’s a stronger kid from the same school applying. Is that possible?
Public or private school?
Over represented state? Which schools did kid apply to?
You really need something that’s truly unique and stands out. The major choice did not help this kid. They would’ve been better off majoring in something humanities… Like digital humanities, or something with the whole narrative surrounding it.
Having both the strong stem and the published humanities is confusing. Would’ve been better off focusing on just one.
Great points!
I think it is unlikely there would be someone from the same school with even stronger application. Even if there is a stronger student from the same school, is from an over represented state, I was just flabbergasted that a student was rejected with that level of EC's.
They applied to almost all the T20s if I remember correctly and got into a T25-30 school.
Dont the T20 schools want a strong humanities footprint even from STEM students?
There are lots of reasons why this kid may not have gotten in.
- disconnect btw grades and scores (if there's a mismatch in test scores and grades, did anyone (CCO) explain why in the LOR? were lower grades in the STEM major or in humanities?)
- oversubscribed major (STEM) and he just didn't stand out enough from his peer group (context is important - see the other post)
- they want to know what a kid is going to do when they get there and maybe kid had no in-school leadership?
- tone: maybe this kid came off the wrong way (braggy, not introspective enough, overly confident) or something else?
- embellishment or over-polished: sometimes when things seem "too good" it looks like an adult did the application or the kid lied?
- not distinctive enough: If coming from a strong STEM school, and then being a STEM major, and male (and likely ORM), this kid "reads" like a generic kid and is not distinct. There's nothing you've said that stands out.
- did kid have 4 years of all 5 core subjects?
What could have made this kid more interesting or attractive to top schools:
- apply to a less popular major
- did the patents, books or volunteer work connect their STEM work with humanities? If not, they should have connected the STEM to societal impact.
- was the volunteer work random? not aligned with the kid's core academic interests (ex. if kid is passionate about AI, then volunteering with org to develop assistive technology for people with disabilities)
- how did they show their intellectual curiosity inside and outside of school - there should be clear examples? if the patent is the only evidence of IC, was the patent done with others? are parents both scientists or researchers (if so, that's a red flag too bc it may show lack of independence and risk taking and frankly parents may have done the work on patents with their technical knowledge)
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