How hard is it to REALLY to get into Ivy League?

[slamcity]

I only know two people who attend/attended Ivy League Schools. One is a rich Jew whose parents are bankers in NYC, the other is my cousin who is black, lived in South Central, grew up without a father, overcame Leukemia and got excellent grades.

I can understand how both got in. Both are in their own right, stories you are born into for the most part.

 

[doctorshoes]

I go to Yale right now, it's not out of the realm of possibility to go to an ivy league, you just have to work hard and have the grades and extracurriculars that show you work hard. And it's not like my family is super wealthy or I went to a prestigious high school, I grew up in Brooklyn and went to public school just like everyone else.

 

[al audi]

I knew ppl who went to columbia and yale.........honestly they were all smart as hell. Including my father who went to yale. Growin up he knew all the answers on jeopardy, I was always like why do you know all this?

 

[curbsideprophet]

Da rich white womenz who jog around campus though.....

 

[7thave btn 31stn33rd st]

I graduated from Notre Dame Law 2 years ago. My biggest achievement wasn't graduating from Law School, it was getting into ND Law. My undergrad GPA was never that great, probably on the lower end of my acceptance class. I murked out the LSATs, though. Someone earlier mentioned Notre Dame, everyone I knew at school had a legacy. I was just some Jew from a blue collar of blue collar families from NYC.


What I always wanted to know, was is it that hard to get accepted into Tufts? I always heard it was below like 20%, making it the hardest school to get into.

 

[tlrdx91]

If your white or asian with those stats and aren't a legacies then you would little to no chance in being accepted. I had a higher SAT but lower GPA and was rejected by HYP but got into Brown. I opted for NYU and transferred to a public school instead. The top ivies stress test scores and the high school you attended very seriously. I have a few friends in the top ivies and they are brilliant. It's not to say you don't find those kind of student elsewhere but you find them in smaller quantities in other schools.

 

[skyline]

I think the Class of 2012 was the last Class required to take SATs to get into college, and also, the bruh did not mention ACTs at all, when East Coast colleges love that statistic.

 

[heatpinoyboy]

I think the Class of 2012 was the last Class required to take SATs to get into college, and also, the bruh did not mention ACTs at all, when East Coast colleges love that statistic.

Wait what

 

[nicelikechrist]

What was her ethnicity?
Her essay had to have been AMAZING as well. Extra curricula's matter as well.
I know a few people who got into Columbia and they had about a 94 GPA and got a 1350 (out of 1600) on their SAT's.
My ex-gf went to Barnard (sister college of Columbia) and she told me that it was her essay that got her in.

Her 1700 was out of 2400 on the SAT. She was hispanic (I'm sure that helped a bit) and yea it wouldnt surprise me if her essay was great, she's a pretty good writer.

 

[soleasian]

I think the Class of 2012 was the last Class required to take SATs to get into college, and also, the bruh did not mention ACTs at all, when East Coast colleges love that statistic.

Colleges in the midwest like ACTs
It wouldn't hurt to take both and score high on them if you're applying to top schools

 

[skyline]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/sat-act-not-required-colleges_n_2206391.html

"More than 800 colleges and universities across the country no longer mandate score submissions from SAT or ACT college admissions exams, according to the latest survey by the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, otherwise known as FairTest and a longtime critic of the SAT."

I'm not sure if it applies to Ivy Leagues though, so apologies for the misinformation. 

 

[elderwatsondiggs]

[COLOR=#red]Nique, what school do you go to bro? I remember you mentioning that you went to a school that's bigger than mine. I was like if that's the truth then you must go to Ohio St or U of Texas or something cause there's over 50k on my campus.[/COLOR]

 

[youngdoc]

I applied back in 2001 with 1400 SAT, ~4.3 gpa, highly regarded HS, decent but not great ECs.

IIRC got into Princeton and Brown of the Ivies. Didn't get Harvard. Didn't apply to the others. Ended up at Stanford

 

[i lax bro]

I graduated from Notre Dame Law 2 years ago. My biggest achievement wasn't graduating from Law School, it was getting into ND Law. My undergrad GPA was never that great, probably on the lower end of my acceptance class. I murked out the LSATs, though. Someone earlier mentioned Notre Dame, everyone I knew at school had a legacy. I was just some Jew from a blue collar of blue collar families from NYC.
What I always wanted to know, was is it that hard to get accepted into Tufts? I always heard it was below like 20%, making it the hardest school to get into.

Thought I might be the only person on NT that goes/went here haha.

Plenty of great schools outside of the ivys. Schools like Georgetown, BC, Duke, Vandy, and a bunch of other state flagship schools are easily in the top 20-30. The ivys just open up plenty of amazing connections.

 

[alp]

I honestly don't know if being a legacy even plays that much of a role. A girl I dated in hs had a great gpa and a good, not incredible SAT score, her dad was an harvard alumni with $$$ and he donated every now and then and she still didn't get in.

that dude probably stopped donating after that

 

[timbo109]

I graduated from an Ivy last spring. Not trying to brag or anything, but I didn't find getting into the school that difficult. I was set up great though in terms of having highly educated parents, coming from an elite private school, nice mix of extracurriculars, 2200+ SATs, 3.7+ GPA in high school. I had a connection to the school that helped set me apart from other applicants with similar backgrounds/applications, so that was what sealed it for me.

I think what people need to realize about Ivy admissions is that these schools are accepting between 5-10% of their applicants. That's to say that if a school wanted to, it could fill itself completely with 4.0+ GPA valedictorians from public schools across the nation. The same goes for filling their class with underachieving private schoolers whose parents will donate a lot. Same goes for minority students. Same goes for smart kids who are also great athletes. However, the schools need balance, so they end up having to make a lot of tough choices between very similar candidates - all highly qualified for the school. These selections are pretty arbitrary and often depend on rather intangible factors including the parents of the applicant, personal interests of the admissions officer reviewing the application, etc..

As for the Yahoo answers kid, the biggest red flag is those PSATs. Sure, he hasn't actually taken the SATs but those scores are pretty low for an Ivy and unless he puts serious work in, spends a boatload of cash on a tutor, or wasn't even trying on the PSAt, he's probably not gonna improve his SATs that much and that could hold him back - regardless of the fact that schools are placing less value on SATs these days.

I think the biggest take away message is that there's a lot of randomness going into who gets in and who doesn't. There are some applicants that are locks and some that are automatically gonna be rejected, but within the large pool of qualified applicants, it's anyone's guess who gets in and who doesn't.

 

[c hanna]

pretty hard id say. knew a couple that went to columbia and princeton and they were pretty smart
Ive met some people at insanely smart people at UC Irvine, its not the college that makes the person

 

[mastamind033]

*Remembers when SATs were out of 1600* I feel old

 

[ilpadrino9]

I did my undergrad and post-doc at Cornell. Schools are looking for what you can offer that others can't. They want to see that you will represent the University well.

 

[Nawzlew]

I think the Class of 2012 was the last Class required to take SATs to get into college, and also, the bruh did not mention ACTs at all, when East Coast colleges love that statistic.

Wait what

I don't think so ...

Referring to SAT2s?

I know UCs don't require you take those anymore.

 

[mg140cd]

It's tough nowadays more than ever I think, especially with economy.

 

[eiddyfouw]

*Remembers when SATs were out of 1600* I feel old

lol for real I've been sitting here reading responses wondering wth man...

I had to go and google quick.

 

[therealpoblack]

I honestly believe if you work hard at reputable state school you will get to anywhere you want to go.

The key to success is having real world experience BEFORE you graduate (coop, internships, etc). Get a good internship and you will be ahead of the average IVY graduate. Trust me I know.

 

[cashusclay]

I started out at LSU since I BS'd my way through high school. Got my grades up and wound up at Tulane. Just because you don't get in out of high school, doesn't mean you can't wind up with a Top 50 degree. 

 

[girlslovewaffles]

I applied back in 2001 with 1400 SAT, ~4.3 gpa, highly regarded HS, decent but not great ECs.

IIRC got into Princeton and Brown of the Ivies. Didn't get Harvard. Didn't apply to the others. Ended up at Stanford

Damn homie, I graduated in 2005 with similar stats (1430 SAT, 4.2 GPA) and the only school I got into was UCI (I applied to only UCI, UCR, and UCSD). Maybe I should've aimed a bit higher .