Waiting for an admission decision from a college or university can be nerve-wracking, especially at Ivy League schools and institutions with selective admission rates. Many schools employ a broad-based criteria for admission that gives equal weight to an applicant's academic record, test scores, personal statement and extracurricular activities. If you're a prospective applicant or are waiting for an admission decision, there are some simple ways to calculate your chances of acceptance.
Instructions
1. Visit the websites of the schools where you've applied to find out what they look for in evaluating applicants. Check to see if extracurricular activities and your personal statement are weighed more heavily than academic record and test scores. Some schools may not even require test scores.
2. Research the freshman acceptance rates of the institutions that interest you. Understand what the figures mean. For example, a 15 percent acceptance rate means 85 percent of the people who apply will be rejected. Write down the acceptance rate.
3. Find out the average GPA and SAT/ATC scores, and the average high school class rank (top 10 percent, top 15 percent) for the last freshman class to be admitted to the schools where you've applied. Write down those statistics.
4. Compile a list of your GPA, SAT and ATC scores, your ranking in your high school class, the kind of classes you've taken in high school (AP, honors) and extracurricular activities. Write these figures down.
5. Compare the freshman admission rate statistics from each school to your own statistics to calculate your approximate chance of admission. For example, if the freshmen admission figures for New York University are 3.5 GPA, 15 percent acceptance rate, top 10 percent high school class ranking, 1100 SAT score, and your numbers are 3.8 GPA, top 5 percent high school ranking, 1200 SAT, you could make an educated guess that you stand a good chance of gaining admission. Though this isn't an exact science, comparing your figures with the averages of the last incoming class can give you a rough idea where you stand.
Tags: high school, acceptance rate, extracurricular activities, high school class, school class