I agree that factors other than quantitative measures play a role in admissions, and that elite colleges often take top 5%ers who are strong on activities/extracurriculars over top1%ers who aren’t. And the hypothetical that I gave involving Kevin might be unrealistic.
There are still tradeoffs. What if Kevin had been just on the cusp of the top 10% in class ranking? (My impression is that the 10% threshold is more significant in admissions than the 1% threshold.) What if the molecular biology elective was slotted at the same time as AP US History?
As for what college admissions people say — note that “we look at the whole person and believe that people should follow their dreams” sounds much more pleasant than “we use heuristic shortcuts that enable people to game the system.” So admissions people would be more likely to say the former independently of whether or not it’s true.
I agree with Zvi’s comment.
I would be interested in corresponding. My email address is jsinick@gmail.com.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
I agree that factors other than quantitative measures play a role in admissions, and that elite colleges often take top 5%ers who are strong on activities/extracurriculars over top1%ers who aren’t. And the hypothetical that I gave involving Kevin might be unrealistic.
There are still tradeoffs. What if Kevin had been just on the cusp of the top 10% in class ranking? (My impression is that the 10% threshold is more significant in admissions than the 1% threshold.) What if the molecular biology elective was slotted at the same time as AP US History?
As for what college admissions people say — note that “we look at the whole person and believe that people should follow their dreams” sounds much more pleasant than “we use heuristic shortcuts that enable people to game the system.” So admissions people would be more likely to say the former independently of whether or not it’s true.
I agree with Zvi’s comment.
I would be interested in corresponding. My email address is jsinick@gmail.com.