Do ivy league and other highly selective colleges make exceptions for minority students with low SAT scores?

The only actual exceptions normally made at such schools are for legacy applicants, the applicants with parents who graduated from there — even then it is probably not correct to say they are exceptions. This is not a simple issue.

First, you say you are hispanic, but hispanic is not a race of people — just an often helpful term. The legally protected minority group often referred to by that term is actually considered caucasion, but caucasion, hispanic surnamed. This means that if you are completely brown and born in Mexico of Mexican parents but you inherited a great-great-great-great-great-grandfathers name of Schmidt, you do not enjoy this legally protected status.

If you are still “hispanic” (I mean no disrespect, my two daughters are half Honduran), things will vary somewhat from school to school, but we are still not in the realm of “exceptions.” The legal climate today is not such that one can count on the quotas of real affirmative action programs of years past. Some schools continue to use them in the interest of diversity, but most do not. The simpler thing to keep them out of the court system today seems to be to ignore race completely and simply look for the best overall candidate. This is not based completely on SATs.

You listed a number of things that might be considered. If your track standing is such that you are likely to make the Olympic team, we can move you to the front of the line IF your SAT scores meet the school’s advertised minimums.

You said nothing about religion. Some of the best schools were founded and are operated by churches or religious organizations.

You said nothing about your high-school or economic circumstance. If you are the #1 student of the top high-school in the country, move to the front of the line. If you are in the top 15th percentile of the worst high school in the country, back of the line.

Your competitive position (class standing) will be weighed against the overall school quality.

If you come from a poor family and have achieved despite adversity of some type, this will help. If you are bilingual, this will help. If you spoke only Spanish until you were 12 but overcame that limitation to be part of the top 5% of the graduating class of a good high school, that will help.

Sounds like you are a good, complete kid doing good things. Apply all over the place and take the best opportunity. Do not expect many exceptions to be made anywhere. The top schools reject 85-90% of all applicants, and few unqualified applicants bother to apply. The best you can realistically hope for it to use the race card as a tie breaker between equally qualified applicants. The way to do this is not to “play the race card” but to use your application essay to mention the adversity you had to overcome to achieve what you have. If points are actually given to your race itself, that will be part of the internal scoring process of your application.

The fact is, however, there are probably way too many minority applicants in need of no exceptions to grant any simply on the basis of race. It can give you an extra point or two in their deliberations, and it can break a tie between qualified candidates, but expect no exceptions.

Hope this helps.

In order to bring in a diverse class, they may make some minor adjustments (SAT scores aren’t perfect measures of capability, and they know this), as is the case with many colleges (being male may help you in this way too, by the way). This doesn’t mean, however, that if the average score for incoming freshmen is 2250, they would take someone with a 1500 just because they were a person of color. Realize that they have a range along each of the factors they consider, so that they can look for compensatory factors to make up for a lower score within each of the ranges. For example, if your GPA were a little lower, but you went to an extremely competitive high school, it might be looked at a little differently than the same GPA from a school which gave everyone As.

Know that your SAT scores are very good, not low. They may not be perfect, but they will get you into most schools in this country. Whatever happens in college admissions, and they are very unpredictable, know that you did extremely well and have a very strong future ahead of you. Even if you don’t get admitted to your first choice school, you can go somewhere good and, if you do well, go on to grad school, perhaps at the place you felt you missed out on earlier.

If you want MIT, you need to take the math SAT II exam. You can’t get in without it. Your GPA is fine. Yes, it could be higher, but I don’t see it as a concern. It’s not about any one factor – not just your GPA, for example. It’s your entire package that matters. If everything else about you is amazing, then a 3.5 or 3.6 will not keep you out. That doesn’t mean you are guaranteed to be admitted – only about 11% of applicants get into Columbia, and most of those applicants are academically qualified for admission. Make sure your application shines re: your essays, recommendations, etc. In other words, you’re on the right track – keep going. But be smart in your applications, and have backup schools.

If the class they plan to admit has enough kids with better scores, then no your probably won’t get in. But if your in the range of kids with the same relative SAT scores and GPA and your a minority you stand a better chance. But nothing is guarented. With school like Harvard or Yale their are other circumstances, such as the family’s ability to pay the cost. Or if you have had family attend the school. If someone’s father attended Harvard, they are more likely to get in.

Yes they do. They need to have a certain amount of high scoring SATs, top 5 % of your graduating class for example. However, once they’ve gotten this fulfilled they’ll most assuredly let you in with the SAT scores you have.

yeah they do. it’s called affirmative action.