WL everywhere - Disappointed and Stressed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC waitlisted at most of their reaches. Rejected at a couple. Def a top 10 percent student at a top DC private. Counselor's indication was that DC was competitive everywhere and had "as good a chance as any one else from this school" at Ivy. Feeling very disappointed/stressed. Realize that WL has zero chance of moving. Sorry to vent.

1. It is well-known that only kids of alumni have a chance at Ivies and similar, when they come from top privates. This is because everyone has great stats at a top private! The difference is made on who your parents are, and since you're at a top private, a lot of parents will be Ivy alumnae.

2. When the counselor says "as good a chance as any one else from this school", it means "very low chance". Otherwise they would have said: "you have a BETTER chance than most people at this school". Logical reasoning!

3. Caveat to 2: don't put all your trust in any one counselor. There are things they can't say, like 1, and things they don't know in this changing landscape. You really need to do your own research and rely on no one but yourself.

Sorry for the tough love, but there way too many parents who think it's in the bag because they've paid the hefty tuition and someone else will do their thinking for them. No. Either you're super hands-on and own the process (with your kid), and are thus entitled to some expectations; or you're hands-off and accept whatever happens.

You have no idea what you're talking about. At the top 3-4 DC privates, you may have 10% of the class with a 3.9 and above. The Average GPA is roughly a 3.5. Now the average SAT is around 1500. So in that regard, everyone has top stats. But there are clear top academic kids. This is in contrast to public where everyone has an A average.

You're wrong, because I know kids in public who fail or have Cs and Ds and an abysmal gpa. What I meant was that, in public AND in private, there are more high stats kids than there are Ivy seats (or similar highly selective colleges). The difference is that there are a lot more parents in privates who are alumnae of these colleges, than there are parents in public who are Ivy alumnae. Therefore, who do you think colleges are going to choose, given they have quotas? The top private school kids who ALSO have an alumni parent, or the top public school kids who ALSO created a non-profit, or is a Regeneron winner, or whatever.

This is how the game is played. Maybe there will come a time when no Ivy considers alumni relations. But until that day, if you're not an alumni yourself, and your kid is in a selective private high school, you should know your kid is probably not getting in. Unless he or she is the valedictorian. Remember that Harvard rejects more valedictorians than it accepts...

I think the legacy numbers for Princeton are around 30 kids or 2% of their admitted students.
So the kids aren't getting in because there is a lot of competition, not because of legacy admissions

(reference:https://www.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2024/03/ad-hoc-committee-undergraduate-admission-031424.pdf)

I find it hard to believe there are only 30 legacy Princeton kids. The tour guide we had was legacy. And the biggest head scratcher admit from our school was a legacy.

Only 30 benefitted from the legacy boost (being give a spot over equally qualified non-legacy students). Rest were allegedly in on their own merits.

Thanks for clarifying that (I didn't read the PP's link) - but I certainly know one of the 30! They were NOT in on their own merits, no way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of these posters weren't in the game this year. It was a mess. I'm so sorry OP. Hopefully your kid can get excited about the safeties. But it's ok to be disappointed.

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are going to set the tone. You need to start talking up the pros of the safeties/targets that your kid go into. Act excited about them. Help your kid get excited about the schools that want them.

Exactly! My DD was rejected at 7 of the 10 schools he applied. One of the schools he did get in was a difficult admit and not really safety. We made a big deal and talked it up even though it was at least 5th and maybe even lower on his list. Well, he is 2/3 through freshman year and loves it, is doing well in all areas. That’s really the important thing, move quickly past the rejections for everyone’s sake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC waitlisted at most of their reaches. Rejected at a couple. Def a top 10 percent student at a top DC private. Counselor's indication was that DC was competitive everywhere and had "as good a chance as any one else from this school" at Ivy. Feeling very disappointed/stressed. Realize that WL has zero chance of moving. Sorry to vent.

1. It is well-known that only kids of alumni have a chance at Ivies and similar, when they come from top privates. This is because everyone has great stats at a top private! The difference is made on who your parents are, and since you're at a top private, a lot of parents will be Ivy alumnae.

2. When the counselor says "as good a chance as any one else from this school", it means "very low chance". Otherwise they would have said: "you have a BETTER chance than most people at this school". Logical reasoning!

3. Caveat to 2: don't put all your trust in any one counselor. There are things they can't say, like 1, and things they don't know in this changing landscape. You really need to do your own research and rely on no one but yourself.

Sorry for the tough love, but there way too many parents who think it's in the bag because they've paid the hefty tuition and someone else will do their thinking for them. No. Either you're super hands-on and own the process (with your kid), and are thus entitled to some expectations; or you're hands-off and accept whatever happens.

You have no idea what you're talking about. At the top 3-4 DC privates, you may have 10% of the class with a 3.9 and above. The Average GPA is roughly a 3.5. Now the average SAT is around 1500. So in that regard, everyone has top stats. But there are clear top academic kids. This is in contrast to public where everyone has an A average.

NP here - but don't let this fool you into believing you will have success at reaches if you have no hook. This will send you down a bad path... Unless you want to ED to Chicago (then you're set). Otherwise, be very thoughtful about an ED choice - don't waste that.

Yes this! Top 10% student without hooks can be leap-frogged by top 50% student with hooks. ED1 to Chicago is best bet if rankings matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I put my kids stats into collegevine for this last year, and the algorithm has been very accurate for kid. He got into all safeties and targets, so outperformed expectations in those two categories, but had a little worse results in reaches. Still, go into one reach out of 7 and is thrilled to go! Every other reach was a WL or denial.

Collegevine doesn’t adjust for majors, so you’ll need to reduce expectations if you’re CS or engineering boy.

It was not accurate for my kid because some of the universities admit by college/major and you can’t really account for that. He got into a super reach that was a sub 10% admit rate.

WL from all other reaches. Believe he had a strong app it was just a crazy tough year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC waitlisted at most of their reaches. Rejected at a couple. Def a top 10 percent student at a top DC private. Counselor's indication was that DC was competitive everywhere and had "as good a chance as any one else from this school" at Ivy. Feeling very disappointed/stressed. Realize that WL has zero chance of moving. Sorry to vent.

1. It is well-known that only kids of alumni have a chance at Ivies and similar, when they come from top privates. This is because everyone has great stats at a top private! The difference is made on who your parents are, and since you're at a top private, a lot of parents will be Ivy alumnae.

2. When the counselor says "as good a chance as any one else from this school", it means "very low chance". Otherwise they would have said: "you have a BETTER chance than most people at this school". Logical reasoning!

3. Caveat to 2: don't put all your trust in any one counselor. There are things they can't say, like 1, and things they don't know in this changing landscape. You really need to do your own research and rely on no one but yourself.

Sorry for the tough love, but there way too many parents who think it's in the bag because they've paid the hefty tuition and someone else will do their thinking for them. No. Either you're super hands-on and own the process (with your kid), and are thus entitled to some expectations; or you're hands-off and accept whatever happens.

You have no idea what you're talking about. At the top 3-4 DC privates, you may have 10% of the class with a 3.9 and above. The Average GPA is roughly a 3.5. Now the average SAT is around 1500. So in that regard, everyone has top stats. But there are clear top academic kids. This is in contrast to public where everyone has an A average.

NP here - but don't let this fool you into believing you will have success at reaches if you have no hook. This will send you down a bad path... Unless you want to ED to Chicago (then you're set). Otherwise, be very thoughtful about an ED choice - don't waste that.

^^^
Enough students succeed each year that the rising seniors want to take their shot at a T10-T20 school. Honestly, I don't blame them. These students have worked their tails off for four years and probably made a lot of sacrifices along the way. Of course no one is entitled to get into a top school and it's important to have target and likely schools on the list, but it seems strange to me to discourage a top student with great ECs from applying to ivy/ivy equivalent places. You miss 100% of shots you don't take. Maybe it's better to apply to those places and not get in than wonder what might have been.

And FWIW, my unhooked, UMC, private school student applied to plenty of reaches this admissions cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC waitlisted at most of their reaches. Rejected at a couple. Def a top 10 percent student at a top DC private. Counselor's indication was that DC was competitive everywhere and had "as good a chance as any one else from this school" at Ivy. Feeling very disappointed/stressed. Realize that WL has zero chance of moving. Sorry to vent.

1. It is well-known that only kids of alumni have a chance at Ivies and similar, when they come from top privates. This is because everyone has great stats at a top private! The difference is made on who your parents are, and since you're at a top private, a lot of parents will be Ivy alumnae.

2. When the counselor says "as good a chance as any one else from this school", it means "very low chance". Otherwise they would have said: "you have a BETTER chance than most people at this school". Logical reasoning!

3. Caveat to 2: don't put all your trust in any one counselor. There are things they can't say, like 1, and things they don't know in this changing landscape. You really need to do your own research and rely on no one but yourself.

Sorry for the tough love, but there way too many parents who think it's in the bag because they've paid the hefty tuition and someone else will do their thinking for them. No. Either you're super hands-on and own the process (with your kid), and are thus entitled to some expectations; or you're hands-off and accept whatever happens.

You have no idea what you're talking about. At the top 3-4 DC privates, you may have 10% of the class with a 3.9 and above. The Average GPA is roughly a 3.5. Now the average SAT is around 1500. So in that regard, everyone has top stats. But there are clear top academic kids. This is in contrast to public where everyone has an A average.

NP here - but don't let this fool you into believing you will have success at reaches if you have no hook. This will send you down a bad path... Unless you want to ED to Chicago (then you're set). Otherwise, be very thoughtful about an ED choice - don't waste that.

^^^
Enough students succeed each year that the rising seniors want to take their shot at a T10-T20 school. Honestly, I don't blame them. These students have worked their tails off for four years and probably made a lot of sacrifices along the way. Of course no one is entitled to get into a top school and it's important to have target and likely schools on the list, but it seems strange to me to discourage a top student with great ECs from applying to ivy/ivy equivalent places. You miss 100% of shots you don't take. Maybe it's better to apply to those places and not get in than wonder what might have been.

And FWIW, my unhooked, UMC, private school student applied to plenty of reaches this admissions cycle.

Understand that they might want to "take chances". However, by using their ED on a t10/20, they might be giving up access to a high target that accepts a significant percentage thru ED. So sometimes it is better to think what is the best fit/best school that you might actually get into. Some kids would rather ED1 to a 20-40 school that gives them a chance at a high target school (which they wouldn't have in RD wihich might be single digits vs 35%) than "wasting" their ED on a school that is really a lottery. It is definately a game. But kids should understand how it's played and make the choice accordingly.

My own kid ED1 to a T10, got deferred, so wanted "to wait and see" and didn't ED2 to their likely best fit. Well they got in in RD, but missed out on a few perks that are given to those who ED1/ED2. However, they also knew they were at 80% for stats at a school with 35% acceptance rate in RD and were truly a "great fit" for the unique students at this school. But we did wonder for a few months if they missed out on ED2 (got rejected ultimately from ED1 school). They are at this school now and thriving, but might have missed out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC waitlisted at most of their reaches. Rejected at a couple. Def a top 10 percent student at a top DC private. Counselor's indication was that DC was competitive everywhere and had "as good a chance as any one else from this school" at Ivy. Feeling very disappointed/stressed. Realize that WL has zero chance of moving. Sorry to vent.

1. It is well-known that only kids of alumni have a chance at Ivies and similar, when they come from top privates. This is because everyone has great stats at a top private! The difference is made on who your parents are, and since you're at a top private, a lot of parents will be Ivy alumnae.

2. When the counselor says "as good a chance as any one else from this school", it means "very low chance". Otherwise they would have said: "you have a BETTER chance than most people at this school". Logical reasoning!

3. Caveat to 2: don't put all your trust in any one counselor. There are things they can't say, like 1, and things they don't know in this changing landscape. You really need to do your own research and rely on no one but yourself.

Sorry for the tough love, but there way too many parents who think it's in the bag because they've paid the hefty tuition and someone else will do their thinking for them. No. Either you're super hands-on and own the process (with your kid), and are thus entitled to some expectations; or you're hands-off and accept whatever happens.

You have no idea what you're talking about. At the top 3-4 DC privates, you may have 10% of the class with a 3.9 and above. The Average GPA is roughly a 3.5. Now the average SAT is around 1500. So in that regard, everyone has top stats. But there are clear top academic kids. This is in contrast to public where everyone has an A average.

You're wrong, because I know kids in public who fail or have Cs and Ds and an abysmal gpa. What I meant was that, in public AND in private, there are more high stats kids than there are Ivy seats (or similar highly selective colleges). The difference is that there are a lot more parents in privates who are alumnae of these colleges, than there are parents in public who are Ivy alumnae. Therefore, who do you think colleges are going to choose, given they have quotas? The top private school kids who ALSO have an alumni parent, or the top public school kids who ALSO created a non-profit, or is a Regeneron winner, or whatever.

This is how the game is played. Maybe there will come a time when no Ivy considers alumni relations. But until that day, if you're not an alumni yourself, and your kid is in a selective private high school, you should know your kid is probably not getting in. Unless he or she is the valedictorian. Remember that Harvard rejects more valedictorians than it accepts...

I think the legacy numbers for Princeton are around 30 kids or 2% of their admitted students.
So the kids aren't getting in because there is a lot of competition, not because of legacy admissions

(reference:https://www.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2024/03/ad-hoc-committee-undergraduate-admission-031424.pdf)

I find it hard to believe there are only 30 legacy Princeton kids. The tour guide we had was legacy. And the biggest head scratcher admit from our school was a legacy.

The Princeton report makes it clear that 30 kids were given an explicit legacy benefit (meaning they were underqualified). Overall 30 percent of legacies who apply get in. Which is crazy.