Admissions Masterclass

In this episode, we dissect the candidacy of a student from the Wall Street Journal piece, “To Get Into the Ivy League, ‘Extraordinary’ Isn’t Always Enough These Days.”

Background

• Exceptionally focused and competitive from an early age; self-described perfectionist
• Started studying algebra in third grade, only girl in her advanced math classes
• 3.95/4.0 GPA (unweighted); 11 APs
• Ranked #23/668 in HS class (T3%)
• 1550/1600 SAT + “top marks” on AP exams
• Activities: Founder of Accounting Club, Performed in/directed 30 plays, Sang in school choir, Ran a summer camp, Part-time job

Colleges

• Applied to 12 schools
• Rejected (9): Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Cornell, Penn, USC, UC-Berkeley, and Northwestern
• Waitlisted (1): Rice
• Accepted (2): UT-Austin (auto-admit as Texas resident in T6% of class; rejected for business) & Arizona State (attends)

“I expected a bunch wouldn’t accept me,” she said. “I didn’t expect it to be this bad.”

Commentary on WSJ Analysis

• Much of the article’s analysis attributes this student’s outcomes to the role of recent application surges, test-optional policies, increased diversity, and being a “middle-class white female from a public high school.”
• We counter many of these points in favor of more controllable mistakes this student committed and the numerous ways in which she failed to tap into what top and highly selective colleges actually seek.

Mistakes

• Lower Grades: English (88) and AP World History (89) in 10th grade
• Activities: well-rounded, disjointed, and highly common among applicants
• Positioning: many schools to which Younger applied do not subscribe to a pre-professional academic philosophy and do not have specific undergraduate business programs, likely leading to miscalibration. For schools that possessed business offerings, Younger’s resume was extremely poor and decreased only further her odds of admission given the additional competitiveness of the business area
• Application/Essays: wasted critical application space discussing her two lower grades + due to lack of a substantial business resume, her applications were likely unable to highlight interesting, niche, or compelling evidence for business interests
• Decision Planning: no strategic use of binding early decision or other early pla

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“The Game” is hosted by Sam Hassell and brought to you by Great Minds Advising.

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