What factors affect the chance of being accepted into IVY leagues? (as well as private universities)?

Answer 1

Grades, but everyone applying has straight A's. So volunteer work is HUGE. And as many after-school activities as possible will help your chances too. If you've ever seen a scholoarship application form, where it asks for activities you've been involved in, you need to be able to fill out every single line. And it's like 5-10 lines. Leadership things are also very big. School's want the person who is going to be the next president. So leadership is a big factor. Also the SATs and ACTs you should take them twice. And while it's not the only thing they look at, it's important to have a good score. Finally, your essays, get some books on college entrance essay writing techniques, trust me, thye will help you. Good luck!

Answer 2

ESSAYS. you NEED to show individuality through an essay. Your essay needs to STAND OUT from the rest, so the admission officer puts your application on the side to accept.

Trust me. my friend, the salutatorian... 4.47 GPA out of 4.5 took almost all AP classes, tons of extra curricular activities and leadership roles. A lot of volunteer work. She was an intel finalist! She got waitlisted / rejected from all her ivys. My other friend who went to a practice essay writing course over the summer. Still smart and all, but not as smart/well qualified ... she got in to most of her ivys.

TAKE A COURSE OR READ A BOOK ON HOW TO WRITE A GOOD COLLEGE ESSAY! it WILL help!!!

Answer 3

There are two main ways to impress your college admissions staff (sorry, this will be long because I'm trying to be thorough):

1) Be absolutely astounding at one thing. Winning an Olympic gold medal, making your first million dollars by age 16, and starting a national hunger relief program that allowed you to meet the President of the United States when he personally thanked you are good examples. You still need good grades, but you can be forgiven if you don't have more extra-curriculars. Most of us don't fall into this category, so that leaves the alternative:

2) Have all of the following:

a) SAT or ACT scores that are comparable to or better than the median for that college. Most colleges publish what scores made up the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of their previous year's applicants. If you are applying for a particular program that requires its own test, you should do well on that too, and if English isn't your first language, your TOEFL and essays should demonstrate you have no problem dealing entirely in English.

b) Have a 4.0 GPA or darn close. (That's an adjusted GPA, if your school gives 5 or 6 points for some classes.) Oh, and if your school offers AP classes and you took the regular ones instead, that's a black mark, even if you got an A in the regular class. Things like gym and sewing are a bit more lenient on grades, but in general you should have taken the most vigorous course of study that your school offers. (One or two "regular" subjects are fine, like taking regular math instead of advanced math, because you don't always have a choice with scheduling and all - but the majority of your classes should be advanced.) If your school doesn't offer advanced classes, that doesn't count against you, but you need to impress the admissions officers in other ways.

c) Compelling extra-curriculars. Good ones are: student council, school play, academic competition team, sports of some sort (either on the school team or an independent sport like gymnastics), tutoring local children, heavy involvement in your church or synogogue, solid work experience (your summers should be spent either working or doing something else worthwhile), or extensive community service. Not-so-impressive ones are: National Honor Society (EVERYONE that applies to Ivy League schools is in National Honor Society, and they know that doesn't necessarily mean much), generic things like "band" where you didn't hold a leadership position, and unquantifiable things like "I taught myself guitar" or "I like to garden." If you really have put work into guitar or gardening, mention songwriting competitions you've won or garden shows you organized.

d) Absolutely excellent essays. The kind that make the admissions person say "Wow, that sounds like a fascinating person!" or "This student sounds really passionate about X" or "They really sound like they would be a good fit at our school." Write your essays with plenty of time to spare, proofread them yourself, get a parent or teacher to proofread them for you, put them away for a week, then pull them out and read them over again. Good topics include "How my mom's battle with breast cancer inspired me to organize a community-wide awareness campaign" or "How raising my own horses taught me independence." Bad topics include "How my friends and I got drunks one night, got thrown in jail, and met an interesting guy who taught me lots of life lessons" (actual essay sent in while I was working in the admissions office) or "Why my parents suck" (another actual essay). Sending in a "why I want to go to [different school]" essay is supposedly okay, too, but I wouldn't recommend it!

e) Leadership skills. In all of these things, Ivy League schools will be looking for evidence that you are a person who Makes Things Happen, and who will contribute to the student body when you get to their school. Find a way to list as many of your leadership positions as you can (including things like teaching sunday school, technical director of the school play, your Eagle Scout project, and any events or organizations you started, in addition to obvious ones like "basketball team captain"). If a simple title doesn't do your position justice, elaborate if you can - "secretary for the student council" may be a dime a dozen among their applicants, but if you outline what you did when your High School was evacuated for Hurricane Katrina and how you got your student council to fundraise to help Katrina victims, that scores points.

Okay, so yeah, that got really long, but part of the reason they're looking for so many things is they are hard to fool. If you are a well-rounded person and would be a good fit at their school, you probably could do all this effortlessly - and if you have trouble thinking of things to say for some of those categories, you may not be the best fit for a very exclusive school.

Answer 4

Grades, extracuricular activities
Involvement in school and the community