high sat score<\/a> if you\u2019re failing all your classes. while you do need to get a good score to even be considered by many of the most selective schools, you can\u2019t rely on the score to carry you through. your gpa is a more realistic indicator of what kind of student you are, and therefore, whether or not you will succeed academically in college.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
forget being well rounded<\/h2>\n
admissions officers always say it\u2019s good to be well rounded, but you can\u2019t be a star athlete, award-winning artist, and student body president all at the same time. i mean, i guess you could try, but you wouldn\u2019t really be able to excel at art, sports, and student government simultaneously because you simply wouldn\u2019t have enough time.<\/p>\n
instead, pick a specialty (or maybe<\/em> two) and try to focus all of your energy on that skill. you\u2019ll be able to do a better job and therefore achieve more. colleges will be impressed by actual accomplishments, not a list of 100 meaningless extracurricular activities. aim for quality over quantity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
colleges reject over-qualified students<\/h2>\n
sometimes, admissions officers can tell that their college is an applicant\u2019s safety school. they know that the student is unlikely to actually attend the school if admitted, since it is more of a back-up choice. colleges want to build the next class by accepting people who they believe will come to their school, so they will reject kids that will clearly end up going somewhere else. hence, the state school reject who gets accepted at harvard.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
colleges have to make random choices<\/h2>\n
this past year, 42,167 people applied to stanford, while only 2,145 got in. with applicant pools that large and class sizes that small, admissions officers will eventually have to start making choices between equally qualified students. in a system like this, getting rejected isn\u2019t any kind of reflection of you or your faults.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
the college admissions process has become increasingly mysterious over the years. why are debate champions with 2400s getting rejected? how come some kids get into harvard, but not into big state schools with higher acceptance rates? what\u2019s the deal? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[75],"ppma_author":[24903],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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