ii can't belive it, i apllied to sveral selective schools in the u.s, my gpa average was a 4.8, my sat score was 1200, my god was rejected from 2 schools, but my friend, whose gpa was a 2.3, her SAT score was a 1890, we were both applying to the ssme schools, i got rejected but she was accepted what the hell!!!! my god maybe it's true what they say about the SAT, they are totaly unfair!
2006-12-11 04:52:05 · 4 answers · asked by garnessilva 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Higher Education (University +)
Here's a question for you:
Is your friend a minority? She definitely got in because of that over you.
Also, if your GPA was 4.8 that means it was on a 5.0 scale - some schools recalculate it back to a 4.0 scale, making your GPA lower than what you think.
I think SAT holds a great deal more weight than your GPA also.
Also, was there an essay involved? That could have made a big difference too. Or even an interview??
What are your extra curricular activities like compared to hers? Does she do more than you?
There are many more things to look at than just the two GPAs and SAT scores...
2006-12-11 06:44:18 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If they're selective, they might value things differently.
Take your scores. I assume it's a total out of 2400? If so, you got a crappy score compared to your friend. She had a crappy GPA compared to you.
When a school looks at the both of you, they see a student with a bad score in one area, good in another. Now, how to compare that to applicants from other high schools? The SAT is the equalizer. So, the admissions person might assume that your friend is actually smart, just didn't get good grades for whatever reason. Maybe she's from a lower socio-economic group or is an underrepresented minority? Something she wrote in her essay maybe. She can easily have some mitigating factor to explain away the grades. As for you. You have high grades, but how do we know you're actually smart instead of a teacher's pet? Or maybe you just took easy classes? The SAT is how to compare against other students from different schools. With yours low, it doesn't look good. If it just means you do horribly on standardized tests, that's bad too since they likely have standardized tests at the university as well. If you only had your GPA and SAT score without some other way of showing your intelligence to them, it's easier to take a chance on your friend instead of you.
2006-12-11 14:35:03 · answer #2 · answered by Linkin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In general the SATs are very important to most colleges...far more important than GPA. This is because it is hard for admissions officers to truly know how difficult your classes at your high school were. Class/course difficultly differs dramatically from school to school. They look more at your class rank/percentile and SATs particularly because SATs standardize everyone across the board. I've been told my admissions officers that SATs are also used to gauge how well you will do in your first 1-2 semesters in college. This is particulary bad for students are smart but are not good standardize test takers. Don't feel bad...a lot of people have this problem...including myself.
My suggestion (if you don't get into your tops schools) is to accept going to one of your safety schools, do very well at this school, and then try to transfer out. This is what I did. I had a 3.85/4.0 GPA in high school, was extremely involved in school, but got at 1200 on the SATS (the old ones). However, I did really well in my first three semesters of college and now I am transferring to Cornell.
Good Luck!!
2006-12-11 16:52:53 · answer #3 · answered by starsandcarrots 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hold on a second.
Name the college where Bill Gates graduated from?
Answer - None
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard.
Don't let that get you down. Go out and blaze your own path in the world.
But most of all, don't give up, and don't let them get the best of you. Appeal the ruling and ask for a face to face meeting.
Next, find out who the Dean of the school you are trying to get in to. The Dean of the Academic area you want to study. Example: Contact he Dean of Business school, if you want to get into the Business school, the Dean or Geology if you want to be a Geologist.
Ask this Dean to lunch, and ask him / her advice. Maybe once they get to know you, you'll have someone on the inside who can push for you.
What are your other qualtities outside of academics? Any outside successess? Did you start our own business? Did you volunteer? Etc.
2006-12-11 13:05:03 · answer #4 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋