All Episodes

July 10, 2024 66 mins

Many students and families heavily rely on the college acceptance data (GPA/test scores vs. college outcomes) of past applicants from their high school to make high-stakes decisions about their school list, selection of early decision colleges, and likely overall college outcomes. 

In this episode, we break down how past college acceptance data is reported at many high schools, and the significant limitations and shortcomings of using such data for students applying to the most selective colleges. In particular, we cover the following:

  1. The Limited Predictive Power of GPA/Scores When Applying to Top Colleges
  2. The Necessity of Only Comparing to Past Applicants Who Applied Under the Same Decision Plan (ED, EA, RD, etc)
  3. Why Graph Averages Can Be Misleading
  4. How To View Outliers and Avoid Wishful Thinking
  5. Data Expiration: What HS Graduating Classes You Should Be Using
  6. The Imperfections of Self-Report Data and Various Inaccuracies/Missing Information
  7. The Importance of Sample Size and the Tradeoff With High Quality Comparison Cases
  8. Complexities of Test Score Reporting: Test-Optional, Superscores, and Beyond
  9. Limitations of GPA, Accounting for Senior Year Grades, and Why The GPA Admissions Officers See Is Often Not The One Reflected in HS Data Systems


Final Takeaways: Best Practices for Analyzing and Using High School Acceptance Data

——

“The Game” is hosted by Sam Hassell and brought to you by Great Minds Advising.

Great Minds Advising’s unique, hands-on mentorship program and its deep strategic insight into the application review process have earned the company a nation-leading track record of excellence, with 100% of its students gaining admission to a top-choice school in the 2024–25 application cycle.

Its students have recently gained admission to Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, and WashU (among many others) and are admitted to the Ivy League at a rate 14x the national average (90% when applying early).

Contact Form: https://tr.ee/contactgma
Web: https://linktr.ee/greatmindsadvising
Email: info@greatmindsadvising.com
FB: www.facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising
IG: @greatmindsadvising

Mark as Played

Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
The Joe Rogan Experience

The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.