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What do you guys think is the breakdown of the importance of different categories for admission into top schools (for a non recruit, minority, or legacy). In my opinion, courseload/transript=25%, SAT I/SAT II/ACT=20%, Essays=15%, Recs=10%, ECs/Awards=15%, Interview=5%, Other=10%? What do you guys think? I'm just curious, because I have heard totally contradicting figures.

By Serene (Serene) on Friday, August 15, 2003 - 11:41 pm: Edit

Does it matter? Will you say, "Wow interview is only 5% so I can totally bomb it?" Or will your grade miraculously increase by a grade point simply because you just found out courseload/transcript counts 25%? Don't worry about these figures. Just try your best in everything. =)

By Clickspring (Clickspring) on Friday, August 15, 2003 - 11:56 pm: Edit

If you're interviewed by an alum, not an admissions officer, the interview counts 0.

By Atpchik (Atpchik) on Saturday, August 16, 2003 - 05:24 pm: Edit

I agree with Serene!
THough I believe that alum interviews do count.

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Saturday, August 16, 2003 - 06:25 pm: Edit

I don't like it. It's totally relative to every individual. For example, if someone did very poorly on their SATs, it would count for more than 20% (not average, but really bad. Or, say they had some amazing ECs, it would count for way more than 15%.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, August 16, 2003 - 06:37 pm: Edit

I don't think you can make a hard and fast deterministic weighting. Everything I have ever read from any admissions officer suggests that it's a subjective, malleable, fuzzy-logic process. Otherwise they'd just assign a number to an EC, a number to a rec, etc., and let a computer crank and make a decision. For most of the schools, they don't.