Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.

[Anonymous]

Kids don't just saunter in to D3 schools varsity teams. They are every bit as recruited as D1.

[Anonymous]

I have lived in this area a long time and am a UVA grad. I have been harping on this awhile. The top unis simply have not expanded to keep pace with the skyrocketing population. Also, there is more of a concerted effort to recruit minority applicants (as there should be). There is a mentality of UVA or bust. Meanwhile, we get inundated with mail from hundreds of perfectly good unis who would love to have our children, even giving them scholarships. Stop being such snobs. Also, kudos to VT for building a campus in Northern Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have lived in this area a long time and am a UVA grad. I have been harping on this awhile. The top unis simply have not expanded to keep pace with the skyrocketing population. Also, there is more of a concerted effort to recruit minority applicants (as there should be). There is a mentality of UVA or bust. Meanwhile, we get inundated with mail from hundreds of perfectly good unis who would love to have our children, even giving them scholarships. Stop being such snobs. Also, kudos to VT for building a campus in Northern Virginia.

DCUM does seem to have a UVA or bust, but I've always thought UVA, VT Engineering, W&M, and art at VCU are all top tier options, and the number of top tier spots compared to the state population are actually pretty good compared to other states.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids don't just saunter in to D3 schools varsity teams. They are every bit as recruited as D1.

+1

From a parent of a DC who went through the D3 recruiting process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Disagree with OP.

At our school, the high performing kids are getting shut out at Ivys, NESCAC and other top tier private schools. They are lucky to get into flagships and "second tier" SLACs.

That is pushing the next rung of kids "down" and so on.

There are simply too many top GPA, top SAT/ACT high EC kids applying to the same 50-75 schools.

The numbers bare this out. 14,000 kids applying to Amherst for the same 400 seats. 85,000 kids applying to Michigan for the same 8000 seats. If you are out of state wanting to go to Michigan, the percentage is about the same as many of the very elite schools.

10 years ago, Michigan was a 30% school OOS. 25 years ago, it was a 50% school OOS.

That is a terrible metric. They don’t accept only 400 or 8000 students. You don’t understand yield z

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have friends with children at Big 3, FCPS and MCPS.

High GPA kids and/or high test kids all did great. Looks the same as 5, 10 and 15 years ago.

More unqualified kids applying are making the acceptance rates plummet. But the kids with the goods are doing as well as ever.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

As an immigrant, this entire school system was very foreign to me. So I decided to track from DC HS freshman year where kids in her adv. academic program (not NOVA) got in, in order to provide me an idea of how to guide DC (no, we can not afford a college counselor). Yes, her program always presents a slide show which shows where everybody is going to.

For graduates 2019 - 2021 (just around 100 graduates each year), the following committed for UVA (consistently 15), W&M (4/5), VT (12/15), JMU (now there was a shift downward from around 12 to 3), VCU (8, +/- 1). The top 5% make it in the end consistently into T10 schools. The top 10% make into T20.

Covid has not changed that and the kids performances (GPA, SAT/ACT, and EC are pretty consistently at the same level across the different classes. From the kid with 12 DE to the kid with "just" 6AP).

15% go to uva? What public school only has a class of 100? What are the schools for top 5%?


I find this very hard to believe. I know kids from elite boarding schools with double ivy degree parents who were shut out. I know kids from top publics around the country with ivy legacy shut out. The top 5% of our public did not make it in to top 10 schools.

Rich privileged kids were “shut out”? They’ll be okay. Cry me a river.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Most of these posts on so many of these threads will list some version of "varsity sports" and "captain senior year", etc, etc.
Unless the student is a recruited athlete, high school sports are not in any way a distinguishing EC. At all. Yes, of course your kid should play hs school sports if they like but do not encourage your kid in thinking it is something significant on any college application. Dime a dozen.

So much THIS.

Same deal with summer job. Believe it or not, there are kids out there working 20+ hours/week year-round in high school, so if you want that to be any kind of spike you’ll have to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Let me guess.. white male?

Being male is a huge admissions boost at most schools because so many more females apply. It’s much easier to get in as a male.

Sorry to burst your little grievance bubble.

+1

Acceptance rates by gender are published in the Common Data Sets. Most top schools tend to have little difference between rates for genders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole string is making me nervous… 4.8 wgpa, 1560 SAT ,captain of a varsity sport , 500+ hours ssl and summer job. Will she get into unc chapel hill? Emory? Duke?

Best to add some safeties there!

Agree. They’ll get thousands of similar apps- no guarantees. If you’re legacy or full pay at Duke that might help.

[Anonymous]

A lot more students are applying to more (and higher ranking) colleges and universities. And the tuition is so high that parents want name recognition for the money.

There are plenty of SLACs out there who could use applicants. Same with community colleges, which have been hit hard by their typical students going back to work full time.right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have friends with children at Big 3, FCPS and MCPS.

High GPA kids and/or high test kids all did great. Looks the same as 5, 10 and 15 years ago.

More unqualified kids applying are making the acceptance rates plummet. But the kids with the goods are doing as well as ever.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

The plural of anecdote is not data.

Congratulations to your kids.

Our guidance counselors disagree with you. They say everything has changed since the pandemic. Everything.

It's always been difficult to get into T20 colleges, but acceptance rates below of 5% for schools like Duke and Hopkins are new.

My older DD got accepted at two Ivies ten years ago. She would not get in today based on her test scores and GPA alone.

It's much harder to get into Ivies this year. More applicants, same number of spaces.

[Anonymous]

"Mathematically, they cannot both be true. It is literally impossible. As the article cited above states, the Ivies plus Stanford, Duke MIT and CalTech had 15,800 US high school graduates 20 years ago and have 16,300 today. The number of US graduates has gone from 2.8 million to 3.6 million. So these 12 schools used to have enough seats for 56% of the top 1% of US students, and now they have enough seats for 45% of the top 1%. It is more difficult even for those with ridiculously high numbers."

Just want to point out that the difference between 56% and 45% of the top 1% is pretty much meaningless, as in it's not worth losing any sleep over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot more students are applying to more (and higher ranking) colleges and universities. And the tuition is so high that parents want name recognition for the money.

There are plenty of SLACs out there who could use applicants. Same with community colleges, which have been hit hard by their typical students going back to work full time.right now.

I do mean this when I say that Nova CC is better than the vast majority of community colleges out there and if your child is motivated, they could do guaranteed admission to a good state school. The low grad rates do not take into account students who don't have to worry about their immediate health and safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel so bad for high stats kids in CA - applying to UC schools. 2022 is a nightmare for high stat kids in CA. UC only looks at grade 10 and 11 grade (no SAT). Most kids get pass/fail grade in public school in Grade 10. Grade 11 is easy grading - students who put in some efforts get A. Kids may take a bunch of AP classes with A's but do not take the test. UC doesn't look at AP exams. It is a lottery in CA this year. Many of my DD friends are rejected or waitlisted at UC. They came from tough private high school. Get accepted EA into Umich, Prudue, Georiga Tech computer science or engineering but rejected from all the UCs.

Then don't send your kid to a private high school. I can guarantee your kid's teenage experience is not as ''tough'' as most kids in public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High stats kids are getting rejected from VT and UVA, OP. Probably W&M, too. Results just aren’t out yet.

I don't know a single high stats kid that has gotten rejected from VT. They are waitlisted because VT thinks they are using it as a safety. If they stay on the waitlist they will get in because VT keeps space on the waitlist for this.

VT puts everyone on the waitlist because they are just terrible at predicting yield. Like, worst in the nation bad. Yes, it could be like last year where a bunch of kids were admitted from the WL. Or, it could be like a few years ago where they massively overenrolled and the entire WL was shut out. They never have a normal WL year. Either they are taking hundreds of kids. Or none. Add to That the fact that they are aiming for 40% disadvantaged and using the common app for the first time this year. You are giving them way to much credit if you think they are using the WL straigically, vs as a holding pen because their yield predictions suck. No one can tell you how their waitlist will go. Even they have no clue.

I do know that DD had a bunch of kids deferred in EA and they were denied or WL in RD. As in, most of he robotics team. None got in.

I am not sure what is worse. Is Va Tech wildly incompetent in what they do or gaming the rankings system? Either a way bad look.