Every year about this time, students and their parents find themselves puzzling over why some kids get into Ivy League and highly selective colleges—and others do not.
They may wonder what Harvard saw in a student who had the same grades and test scores as another kid who did not get in. They may question why the star valedictorian at their school was rejected. Parents clamor for information on exactly which extracurriculars Ivy League-bound students pursued, so they can line up exactly those activities for their rising stars.
What can be learned from this year’s acceptances—and what remains a mystery?
Consider Statistical Comparisons, Not Individual Outliers
Demanding classes, excellent grades and, for colleges that require them, outstanding test scores are a given at the most highly-selective colleges. It’s tempting to focus on numbers, if only because numbers can be easily calculated and compared.
However, it would be a mistake to be laser-focused on numbers. A hair’s-breadth difference in numerical qualifications is unlikely to be a major factor in determining who is admitted over another student with comparable grades and test scores.
Less easy to quantify, but possibly more significant, is a student’s record of choosing the most challenging classes available at their school. Again, it’s tempting to oversimplify by thinking that the reason one student got in and another didn’t is that the admitted student took a particular Advanced Placement class. If that class is not offered at another student’s school, an admissions committee will not hold that against the applicant.
Of course, if a student goes out of their way to take an advanced course online or at a community college, that may show a level of intellectual curiosity prized by highly selective colleges. In the end, however, such colleges evaluate students in light of the opportunities that were available to them—academic, social, geographical, etc.—and not on an absolute checklist. As Yale Admissions explains:
Transcripts, test scores, essays, and recommendations help paint a picture not only of a student’s accomplishments to date but also of the ways in which an applicant has taken advantage of available opportunities. For example, does your school offer AP courses, an International Baccalaureate program, neither, or both? We only expect you to take advantage of such courses if your high school provides them.
Above all, it’s important to remember that comparing even the most quantifiable of qualifications is best done in the aggregate. It’s better to compare your student’s grades and test scores to those of an entire class of students admitted to a given school, rather than zeroing in on one particular student who got in this year versus another who did not.
Less Easily Quantifiable Factors
The internet buzzes with parents and high school students asking how many and which extracurricular activities were pursued by students who were recently admitted to Ivy League schools. This can lead to a rush by younger students to sign up for exactly those activities.
But no magic activity guarantees admission to highly selective colleges. As Kennedy Hamblen, a recent graduate of Dartmouth, writes in her blog for Dartmouth Admissions:
Our admissions officers also look at extracurriculars, as you may know. However, they are never looking for specific extracurriculars. It is far more valuable for you to do what you love outside of school than for you to try to guess what our office will find “impressive.” Why? Because if you do what you love, you’ll stick with it for several years, you may get leadership positions or awards while you do it, and those are things which can demonstrate your genuine investment in the activity.
Extracurricular activities give students a chance to show “leadership”: a quality that impresses admissions officers much more than a large and random assortment of activities. What matters is not the particular activity in which a student was engaged, but how much it meant to that student and what it tells the admissions committee about that student’s depth of purpose.
A Limit To Comparisons
Researching the statistics on grades and test scores of recently admitted classes can be useful for aspiring applicants. Anecdotal evidence of the nature and duration of admitted students’ extracurricular activities can suggest the achievements and leadership qualities highly selective colleges are looking for. But there is a limit to how much can be learned from individual data points taken in isolation.
Parents and students seeking to understand this year’s results often look for specific details to explain why some students were admitted and some were not. However, a specific detail may have mattered relatively little to the school. Rather, the overview of a student’s academic accomplishments and engagement–and what that suggests about a student’s future on campus and beyond–is what matters most to colleges like the Ivies, which practice “holistic admissions.”
The Ivy League admissions committee was looking at something outsiders may never see: the big picture.