How much does "who you know" affect college admissions?

[jackace]

LOL "who you know" plays a much bigger part than "what you know" in almost every area of life. "what you know" only qualifies you, it's "who you know" that closes the deal. Look at American politics, celebrities, business, etc. The people who are well connected socially are almost always at the top of the pack.

 

[darthsidious]

Originally posted by: eLiu
Princeton & Cornell have strong engineering programs. Princeton's is much smaller but they have some well-known profs there. Cornell has a pretty sizeable engineering program that's well-respected. The others... have nothing, lol.

You ignored Stanford.


Edit: I was dumb. Stanford is not ivy league.

 

[randumb]

Originally posted by: darthsidious

Originally posted by: IAteYourMother


what???!!! Harvard engineering held no sway for you?

Harvard Engineering???? *points at IAteYourMother and laughs* haha.

PS. As MIT students, me and eliu are honor bound to diss harvard's nonexistant engineeing programs 😉

But...but...we have Leslie Valiant! 😛

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: darthsidious

Originally posted by: eLiu
Princeton & Cornell have strong engineering programs. Princeton's is much smaller but they have some well-known profs there. Cornell has a pretty sizeable engineering program that's well-respected. The others... have nothing, lol.

You ignored Stanford.


Edit: I was dumb. Stanford is not ivy league.

:laugh:

Silly Californians.

 

[GoSharks]

Originally posted by: SLCentral
've played piano for 8 years, and will continue to do so until graduating from college. Not sure how much this helps, since I play with a private tutor outside of school, and rarely enter any sort of competitions, but I imagine it helps.

That isn't going to help one bit. I would say at least 50% of applicants at a top school have a similar background.

Try playing up your website. How many visits/month, was it profitable, etc.

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: joshsquall
Sounds like you're moderately intelligent from your SAT score, but you slack based on the GPA. You shouldn't expect to get in, unless your dad is really good "friends" with this guy.

and by "friends," what we mean here is "has a building named after you"

 

[wetcat007]

Does your dad have vast quantities money to donate? If so he can help, otherwise no such luck for you.

 

[wtfbbq]

A friend of mine applied to Princeton as well. He got a letter of reference from a professor who was roommates with the dean of admissions, and the professor also said he would call the dean to try to put in a good word for my friend. He also had a better GPA and SAT score than you as well, but in the end was still rejected.

There are very few major "hooks" to get into top selective colleges.

good luck anyways, though

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

It not what you know, but who you know. You'll have a better chance.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Work on your essays. Most people here spend a week on them. Tell me if I'm wrong. There's a lot more you can do than just treat it like a job application/interview. It's a lot more than that. It's your only shot at a good school now that your grades and SAT scores are set. This is pretty much what will make or break your admissions.

Think about those Asian kids who take 8-week prep classes for SATs and then burn through 5 test books before they take the test... do that for college essays.

With that said I had no hookups in terms of admissions. Maybe with Ivies that would've helped but I only applied to one. Legacy helps I suppose, but what kind of engineer goes to an Ivy league?

 

[SLCentral]

It's a 3.2 unweighted on a 4.0 scale. Weighted, it's somewhere around a 3.5. The most I've ever seen a student get at my school weighted is a 4.5, so I'm not sure why it goes up to 6 on that scattergram; I assume it's for other schools that weigh GPA differently.

 

[DrPizza]

Oh, one other piece of advice that I overlooked from the college admissions counselor: unless you got a 1600 on the SAT, take it again early in your senior year.

 

[theeedude]

I sure hope you have a good safety school picked out.

 

[mooglemania85]

George W. Bush was accepted into Yale solely on academic merit.











<snicker>

 

[Eeezee]

It's absolutely true. How do you think George Bush got accepted to Yale?

 

[JujuFish]

Only 3 of the Ivy universities matter. 😛

 

[randumb]

Originally posted by: DLeRium
Work on your essays. Most people here spend a week on them. Tell me if I'm wrong. There's a lot more you can do than just treat it like a job application/interview. It's a lot more than that. It's your only shot at a good school now that your grades and SAT scores are set. This is pretty much what will make or break your admissions.

Think about those Asian kids who take 8-week prep classes for SATs and then burn through 5 test books before they take the test... do that for college essays.

With that said I had no hookups in terms of admissions. Maybe with Ivies that would've helped but I only applied to one. Legacy helps I suppose, but what kind of engineer goes to an Ivy league?

I wrote all my essays in one day.

 

[yankeesfan]

Originally posted by: randumb

Originally posted by: DLeRium
Work on your essays. Most people here spend a week on them. Tell me if I'm wrong. There's a lot more you can do than just treat it like a job application/interview. It's a lot more than that. It's your only shot at a good school now that your grades and SAT scores are set. This is pretty much what will make or break your admissions.

Think about those Asian kids who take 8-week prep classes for SATs and then burn through 5 test books before they take the test... do that for college essays.

With that said I had no hookups in terms of admissions. Maybe with Ivies that would've helped but I only applied to one. Legacy helps I suppose, but what kind of engineer goes to an Ivy league?

I wrote all my essays in one day.

Me too. I also submitted my applications on the due date.