Our motivation for creating this presentation was to give
students who have aspirations for these institutions the
information they need to become viable candidates by
the time they reach senior year. It is heartbreaking for
us when students come into our office as juniors with
the hopes of going to one of these schools and it is too
late for them. By reducing the uncertainty of what needs
to be done, we hope to lower the anxiety of our
students. Though the numbers are daunting, the main
points
of the
program
are 1) it’s just
grades and test
Tips
and
suggestions
to not
becoming
scores; andan
2) attractive
don’t think, “it’s
impossible.”
applicant
atInstead, take
action and here’s what you can do to make your goals
extremely selective colleges and
happen.
So You Want to Go to Harvard?
(or Stanford or Vanderbilt or
UNC or…)
universities
Why?
With these next two
slides, we wanted students
to think about why they might set out to pursue
What
some
potential advantages
to attendingcollege
a highly
theare
goal
of attending
a highly selective
school?
toselective
make sure
they are doing it for the right
reasons.
•
•
•
•
•
The name does open some doors
Students enjoy top-notch education and professors
Schools are generally wealthy and offer many
opportunities
Will be surrounded and motivated by other highly
intelligent and motivated students
Opportunity to make connections and draw upon
influential alumni network
Why not?
What are some disadvantages to attending
a highly selective college or university?
•
•
•
•
Often expensive
Often far from home
Might be intimidating or competitive
This isn’t really a disadvantage---but
there are no guarantees. You still have to
perform well while there
Inside
the Numbers
Although
the number
of high school 2012
students
has leveled off, the acceptance rates continue
to plummet.
Reasons include:
the this
Internet,
the
Some
overall acceptance
rates
year:
Common Application, stronger international
competition and availability of financial aid. As a
Harvard
5.9%
result, it’s
importantStanford
not to pick6.6%Yale
one school 6.8%
as
Princeton
7.9%
Dartmouth
11%happy.
the only one
that will
make a student
Let’s U.
be optimistic,
but understand that,
with
Wash
15.4% Northwestern
15.3%
these kind of numbers, disappointment is also
Amherst 11.9% Duke 11.9%
part of this game, if one chooses to play it.
U Chicago 13% Vanderbilt 14.5%
UNC (out of state) 14%
Vanderbilt
This slide is included to demonstrate one
particularly
dramatic
change
in the
admissions
2012
Acceptance
Rate:
14.5%
(28,300
picture at a school prized by many of our
applications)
students. During this time period, Vanderbilt
Early
Decision:
22%
doubled
the size
of their admissions staff and
charged
them to find
students across the
Regular
Decision
12.5%
country and around the world. They have done
Average SAT: 1451
that, which explains the results you see on this
slide. The positive thing is that Vanderbilt has
become
a more diverse
2000
Acceptance
Rate: and national university,
but the downside is that it has become much
55.1%
(9,754
applications)
harder for our students to be admitted.
Average SAT: 1321
Stanford
(McCallie)
These slides
are included
to show that strong
grades and test scores are usually a
prerequisite for, but not a guarantee of
admission at these institutions. Something more
is needed to get the applicant out of the large
pool of academically qualified students.
Students should aim for these high marks, but
also remember to develop their passions to
keep them healthy and happy, as well as
increase their chances of admission.
Princeton (McCallie)
Vanderbilt (GPS)
University
of Virginia
(GPS)
It’s
good to remember
here and other
state
universities like UNC-Chapel Hill that a
student’s state of residence may make a big
difference. While you can’t access that
information, we can. So students should
definitely seek their counselor’s help in
analyzing these scattergrams.
Davidson (McCallie)
This scattergram is a good example of how
smaller liberal arts colleges are often a little less
hung up on numbers and choose to emphasize
personal and extracurricular contributions. This
makes sense because they are crafting a small
community where relationships matter and
where they can’t simply rely on numbers to
achieve diversity of backgrounds and talents.
They need to make sure, for example, that they
have a tuba player or a soccer goalie or a
community service leader.
The following slides are profiles of students
who applied to highly selective colleges
and received results of varying degrees of
success. The idea is to help students
understand the types of profiles that are
attractive to these colleges and to help
them think about how to develop their own
extracurricular passions to the fullest.
Thenumbers
All-Around
Great academic
and a variety of
activities resulted in some excellent
4.15
GPA, 1540Probably
SAT (800the
Math)
acceptances.
lack of an
8overwhelmingly
AP classes with outstanding
all 4’s and 5’sextracurricular
passionScholar
is why some of the super-highly
Honors
selectives
JV
baseballsaid no.
•
•
•
•
• Mock Trial
• Resident Advisor – nice comments about
performance
• Science Bowl
• Accepted: BC, BU, Central Florida, Chicago,
Dartmouth, Penn
• Denied: Harvard, Yale, Princeton
Very good, The
but notTennis
spectacular
GPA. Athletic
Player
recruitment plus early decision probably made
difference
in this SAT
decision.
•the
3.69
GPA, 1450
(on Though
first try),Division
III 9
schools
like Middlebury, Washington & Lee
AP classes
and Sewanee don’t offer athletic scholarships,
• Applied early decision, recruited by coach
recruiting can definitely be a big help in gaining
•admissions.
Voracious reader outside of class
• Original thinker
• Top six tennis player at McCallie for two
years, ranked #2 in Tennessee
• Not many applicants from Tennessee at
Middlebury
• Accepted: Middlebury
The Test
Whiz
Standout academic
numbers,
but fairly limited
extracurriculars. As a result, student did well at
large GPA,
state universities
engineering
• 3.92
1510 SATand
(780
Math), three 4’s
programs
value
and
nine that
5’s on
12numbers
AP testshighly, but less
well at the schools that practice the most
• Climbing
team
holistic review.
• Surfer
• Computer Science major
• Accepted: Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon,
Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Southern Cal
• Denied: Cornell, Harvard, Stanford
TheVery
Intellectual
Musician
strong academic
numbers. Lots of
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
academic enrichment and passion beyond just
3.88
1520 SAT,
7 AP classes
hardGPA,
classes.
Student’s
real standout feature,
Member
though,ofisMENSA
his initiative and dedication to
Classical
guitar
quartetand the national-level
community
service
Completed
BChe
Calculus
as soph
recognition
received
for it. Colleges really
Attended
Harvard and that
Stanford
summer
programs
value experiences
students
create
for
Took
Advancedover
Italian
at UTC
asare
a senior
themselves
those
that
“packaged” for
RA, excellent comments about contributions
them. Also pays to notice that even getting into
National Prudential Spirit of Community award, project
Ivies and
Stanford
guarantee
admission
playing
guitar
to earn $doesn’t
for houses
in Nicaragua
everywhere.
Perhaps
heCarnegie
didn’t demonstrate
Accepted:
Brown,
Cal Tech,
Mellon, Chicago,
enough interest
in Johns
Columbia,
Harvey Mudd,
MIT,Hopkins…
Northwestern, Stanford
• Denied: Hopkins (WL), Princeton
The Servant-Leader
Obviously this student has very good academic
• 4.08 GPA, 35 ACT, 7 AP’s
butScout
his success
probably results from
•numbers,
Earned Eagle
at 12
•his
State
winner of dedication
Prudential Insurance
Spirit
incredible
to community
service
of Community
Awardrecognition
in middle school
AND
the national
he received--• State Eagle Scout of the Year
national
awards,
onefood
state
In bank
•three
Founded
a non-profit
to collect
for aaward.
local food
the formation
of his
own Award
non-profit
•addition,
Awarded Presidential
Volunteer
Service
•shows
National
winner
of Prudential Insurance
spirit ofto
Community
the
independence
and initiative
create
award in high school
own opportunities,
notFood
just Bank
takeatadvantage
•his
President
of Toys for Tots and
McCallie School
thosefor
provided
him.
•ofHabitat
Humanity,for
Boys
Club, Deacon of Student Vestry,
Science Bowl
• Resident Advisor, Drama
• Handbells student leader
• Accepted: Duke, Harvard, UNC, Stanford, Vanderbilt
• Denied: Yale
•
Workhorse
Great guy,The
hard worker.
Perhaps his lower test
scores hurt at the most selective places. Also,
4.00
GPA,
1340 SAT,
8 AP where
classes,
he was
successful
at places
he mostly
could
3’s
4’s on
playand
football
or AP
helpTests
the track team, but those
Two-way
varsity
abilities didn’t
get football
as muchstarter
“credit” at places like
Varsity
track
shot-putter
Vanderbilt
where
he could not contribute. It’s
important for students to find the right match.
TEPS
•
•
•
• NHS
• Young Democrats
• Accepted: Emory, Furman, Rhodes,
Sewanee, UTK, Wake
• Denied: Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt
The Scholar
It’s still
possible
overwhelm
• 4.24,
2400
SAT, 36 to
ACT,
16 AP’s, even the
Harvards
worldtests,
withmore
flat-out academic
three
800’sof
onthe
subject
academic
than you
canplaces
count reject a
brilliance.awards
BUT, since
those
• National
MeritofSemi-finalist
MAJORITY
both valedictorians and
• Speaks
fourwith
languages
applicants
perfect test scores, it may well
• Yearbook Editor, Model UN (Multiple Best Delegate,
be that
her academic
activities
and awards
Best
Position
Paper Awards),
Selected
for National
MUN
Conference,
Spectrum
editor,
outside
the classroom
were
whatScience
got her in.
Club/Science Olympiad
Demonstrating academic passion outside the
• Summer Science Program @ New Mexico State, had
classroom
is huge.
research
paper
submitted to Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics
• Summer internship at Rockefeller University in the
neurobiology and behavior lab
• Chattanooga Youth Leadership Program - chair of
the marketing and corporate sale committee
• Accepted: Harvard, MIT, Princeton
The Admissions Decision:
Colleges
expect
students tolook
take every
What don’t
these
colleges
for
single AP course their school offers, especially if
it overloads
them
into poor
performance. They
• Grades
and
Course
Selection
do expect students to fully explore the most
– take the most challenging courses you can in
challenging courses in the areas they say they
the areas you demonstrate interest and
are passionate about and good at. As stated
aptitude
previously, going above and beyond the
– make A’s and A+’s as often
asacademic
you can
classroom---independent
study,
enrichment opportunities, etc---weighs heavily.
The Admissions Decision:
It’s easy to criticize colleges for using test
What
these
colleges
look
for
scores since they are not great predictors of
college
success. But, it’s also easy to see why
• Test
scores
they use them: they really provide the only
– read a lot to increase your chances for high
standard point of comparison across thousands
scores on the SAT, ACT
of high schools. Many colleges like to say that
– doscores
individual
preparation
test
aren’t
“that important”…until they
– take Subject
tests
after the
relevant
class
explain
to us why
a student
didn’t
get accepted!
They
important
andearly
worthenough
the time
takes
– startare
testing
process
to ithave
to time
prepare.
That said, there are a growing
to retake
number of schools that are test-optional, mostly
small liberal arts colleges. These can be a good
option for students who continue to struggle
with their test scores.
The Admissions Decision:
Colleges really value activities and
What thesethat
colleges
accomplishments
student arelook
truly for
about because these are the ones
• passionate
Activities
they will continue to pursue on the college
– pursue your interests with great passion
campus. Students should not try to do a little of
– create your
own
opportunities
everything,
but to
focus
on their true interests.
– have
interest
you pursue
This
leadsantoacademic
health and
happiness,
as well as
beyond the
classroom
an attractive
resume.
– aim for recognition at McCallie/GPS,
Chattanooga and beyond
– talk to your coach about what is required to
be recruited as an athlete
The Admissions Decision:
This slide is mostly self-explanatory. I will say
What
these
look
that
colleges
tell us colleges
that applications
fromfor
• McCallie
Essaysseem “natural” and not overly
processed. It is important to show the true voice
– practice the craft of good writing
of the student (not a parent or counselor), but it
– keep
journal,
practice
introspection
should
beathe
best voice.
This
is one area that
– good too
activities
lead to good
essays
students
often neglect:
giving
themselves
enough
time the
in their
busy schedules
craft the
– consider
Common
Applicationtoquestions
bestahead
writingofthey
timecan. Very often these essays
and
shortearly
answers
areyourself
the tie-breakers
among
– start
to give
time to rewrite
highly qualified students, so they are highly
important.
The Admissions Decision:
Accessibility to teachers through small classes,
What
these colleges
look isfor
dorm
life, coaching
and extracurriculars
one
the great advantages of a school like
• ofRecommendations
McCallie. Students should definitely fully avail
– participate in class
themselves of this great resource.
– interact with your teachers beyond
classroom discussion
– be open to the idea of a teacher as a mentor
or friend
– prepare a resume/information packet for
teachers
The Admissions Decision:
These activities demonstrate interest on behalf
these
colleges
ofWhat
a student
and allow
the school look
to get tofor
know
student better.Interest
Colleges know that students
• the
Demonstrated
who
file the
“stealth
are the
– visit
schoolapplications”
officially with a (those
tour andthat
information
first session
contact a college has from the student) are
much
less
likely to representatives
matriculate at when
that school,
so
– meet
admissions
they travel
cultivatestudents
a relationship
theylocally
want and
to accept
who demonstrate
– get
on the mailing
their
interest
in and list
knowledge of the university.
It– should
cultivate
beaGENUINE
relationship contact,
with a professor
not by rote just
because
a student
is “supposed”
docalling,
it.
– cultivate
a relationship
with a coachtoby
–
emailing or filling out recruiting questionnaire
apply Early Decision if it’s offered and if it’s the right
move for you and your family personally/financially
The Admissions Decision:
For the most part, connections play a lesser
What
these
colleges
for is
role
than they
did 30,
40, 50 yearslook
ago, which
good thing. For the most part, the process is
• a Connections
the most fair and democratic that it’s ever been.
– be related to Bruce Springsteen, Bill Gates
There are circumstances where a connection
or President Obama
might help, and we are happy to help you utilize
– have
parents
donate
a dorm
one
effectively.
If you
don’t
have any
– do household
college
connections,
don’tchores/babysitting
panic. Most peoplefordon’t
and
counselors
mostly
it doesn’t matter.
– rely on connections with people who actually
know you
Remember
We hope this presentation
helps students
understand what is required of them if they are
interested
in being
a competitive
applicant
at
• The
school
with the
‘biggest’ name
is not
these schools.the
When
students in our
necessarily
bestwefittalk
for to
you.
offices and help them create a prospective list
• There
is more
than
“great
fit” school
of schools,
we are
alsoone
certain
to help
them see
for
get great
too hung
up similar
on oneto
thatyou.
thereDon’t
are other
schools
these but but
a little
easier
to get into.
college,
early
decision
can sometimes
be a good option if you settle on a favorite.
• This is fun…sometimes…if you decide that
it is.