Why would the college calculator give me up to a 60% chance of getting into Pomona when its acceptance rate is so low?Answered
4.0 gpa
Hispanic male
from suburban NY
7 AP classes
Average ECs, (p/t job, Track, Food Bank, Boy Scouts, NHS)
2 leadership positions
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2 answers
Hi there! I can understand why this may be confusing. Let me break this up into two parts:
1. Why your chances are high compared to Pomona's acceptance rate:
Individual acceptance rates can vary greatly, especially for students who are underrepresented minorities. You have a high chance of acceptance at Pomona because you're applying as a Hispanic student with a very strong GPA (4.0). The typical accepted GPA for a student with this background is a 3.89. Given that you're applying without a test score, your academics exceed Pomona's thresholds.
2. Why your chances are so high at Pomona relative to other similarly-competitive schools:
Other schools have a higher overall acceptance than Pomona and yet, mysteriously, your personal admissions chances are lower. Let's take Williams and Amherst, since you mentioned them in a comment. They have around a 13% acceptance rate (higher than Pomona's), but your chances are 30% there. This definitely feels unintuitive!
The answer is likely your extracurricular profile. For example, your EC profile may be "fair" at Pomona, but at Williams and Amherst, the profile could be “weak” (according to our chancing engine). So while Williams and Amherst have a slightly higher overall acceptance rate, they also have more rigorous/competitive EC requirements than Pomona, hence the difference in your chances.
I hope this helps! Let us know if you have more questions, and best of luck!
I believe it's because you are BIPOC applicant being Hispanic. If you change your chancing profile to CIS White Male, or CIS Asian (Chinese) Female), you will see the % percentage drop significantly to perhaps 10-20% or less.. You are part of an unserved marginalized group. Whether you are 1st generation to attend college or 3rd generation legacy at USC, you are part of an underserved population at elite LACs and universities. If you spend time informing yourself about the college admissions process on youtube, you will definitely see that most of the high achieving, high test scoring admits who post videos are Asian Americans, in particular Chinese and Korean Americans. Next down are CIS Caucasians, then BIPOC students. If you pay attention to the stats, you will see that Asians who get into Ivys and Elite colleges share scores like 1520-1590 SAT or 35-36 ACT scores. The Black or Hispanic students who share their stats about their Ivy admissions process, sometimes share scores of less than 1450 for the SAT and less than 33 for the ACT. This is not an anomaly. Admissions officers at Top schools give non-Asian BIPOC students more leniency when it comes to standardized tests because across the board, they have in general, fewer resources both financially and technically to prepare for such tests and often self-study rather than using expensive tutors, academies or other online resources that cost dearly. Also, they have less opportunity to take these tests 3 or more times due to cost or travel limitations.
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I’m not first gen. and no other similar competitive school was bumped up that much. I thought maybe being from East coast too?