Stop the Speculations :)

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So how does the admissions team organize the applications for review. Are all the applicants sorted first by which high school attend so that that group of applicants are considered together (assuming that the college doesn't intend to take too may students from the same high school)?

Yes

This is concerning because it allows the schools to potentially push one kid over the other.

I suspect (have no proof) that the counselor letters provide all of the behind the scenes data, even for privates that don’t list a GPA or class rank. How else can colleges know who has the highest rigor, etc? Our school profile provides very little useful information. It has to come from somewhere!

Of course it comes from that letter! It’s not innocuous.

Even if there is no ranking, they have to check whether or not the student is “one of the most exceptional they’ve ever seen in the school” or ranks somewhere else. There also our quartiles for them to check, even if no ranking exists.

All of the info you describe is in the profile sent by the high school to the college. It takes all of a few seconds for a reader to figure how estimated rank and how rigorous the academic load

Have you seen a picture of the form? There are boxes for the counselor to fill out as it relates to the candidate. Very specific boxes of where the counselor would put the candidate.
I saw it on a zoom and took pictures of it.

Our private school leaves those ranking and quartile questions blank. Big3 private

Has that hurt admissions for non-hooked kids in the last year?

Non-DC private here and ours does the same, but there is speculation that it’s hurt admissions prospects for non-hooked kids.

Note- peer private school does complete that quartile info (even tho no rank) and had a bonanza/boom of best admissions process in decades last year (including lots of TO kids)….that’s the only thing that changed.

Ours doesn't fill it out either. In some settings it really makes no sense to provide a rank. When a school is tiny, selects for achievement, counsels out anyone who is getting to many Cs or worse, and grades on a traditional curve, providing a rank makes the kids in the bottom half of the class (who would be ranked #16-30 or so), seem like academically incompetent students even when their SATs are over 1400 and they have 5s on 8+ AP exams.

Your child is at a school with 30 students? Yes, admissions will be different from such an abnormally small school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What AOs keep saying, but no one wants to hear, is that they aren't ranking the students and taking the "best" by any metric. They are filling departments and filling the sports teams and the bands and they cannot and don't care about assigning some precise "quality score" to each student. The AOs care about their class. They don't care about any of your specific kids.
You can't game it by min-maxing your efforts to fit their metrics, because they don't have metrics. You can only game it by being different among equivalent options (bassoon not violin) and cheating to boost your scores and lying or uying fake achievements.

An applicant with an interest in actuarial mathematics or plant biology will have better odds than CS or pre-med applicants.

[Anonymous]

How does IB factor into admissions? Does the student need to get the diploma to be considered most rigorous? I've heard very mixed things about whether getting the diploma is worth the time and effort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does IB factor into admissions? Does the student need to get the diploma to be considered most rigorous? I've heard very mixed things about whether getting the diploma is worth the time and effort.

That is a great question.

But OP is a troll and even if they have a good answer they won't give it without spewing more malice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What AOs keep saying, but no one wants to hear, is that they aren't ranking the students and taking the "best" by any metric. They are filling departments and filling the sports teams and the bands and they cannot and don't care about assigning some precise "quality score" to each student. The AOs care about their class. They don't care about any of your specific kids.
You can't game it by min-maxing your efforts to fit their metrics, because they don't have metrics. You can only game it by being different among equivalent options (bassoon not violin) and cheating to boost your scores and lying or uying fake achievements.

An applicant with an interest in actuarial mathematics or plant biology will have better odds than CS or pre-med applicants.

Are Biology kids non existent these days? I thought that was a popular trend for pre-med kids? I thought that you don't apply into a major but into a school? Example School of Engineering, School of Liberal Arts, School of Nursing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^Well, many on here are paying THOUSANDS of dollars to basically have someone else write their kids’ essays. Where is the detector for that?

The whole college admissions is a scam. People with money can hire college counselors to cultivate the app; URM, first gen, legacies, athletes have a hook. Meanwhile, the leftovers fight for that .05% spot which is basically a lottery for a million dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does IB factor into admissions? Does the student need to get the diploma to be considered most rigorous? I've heard very mixed things about whether getting the diploma is worth the time and effort.

That is a great question.

But OP is a troll and even if they have a good answer they won't give it without spewing more malice.

No, it doesn't factor in because the IDBP results don't come out until after the acceptance. I think it came out in July for my DC.

IBDP is not "worth" it for college admissions, but the rigor of the classes can be worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does IB factor into admissions? Does the student need to get the diploma to be considered most rigorous? I've heard very mixed things about whether getting the diploma is worth the time and effort.

You submit a predicted score. Most of the IB stuff is completed by RD application period (all EE, IA, CAS, TOK). Seems if you are in IBDP with the predicted it is considered to be a rigorous curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On another note-can it help if a student takes the maximum rigor classes in their private school and takes the AP exams and gets all 5’s? My child was one of the few who took 4 AP exams and got 5’s on all in their school, where only about 1/2 of the students are even sitting for AP exams. The school no longer offers “official” AP classes which is a mistake IMO.

Well it probably helps them when the college compares them to other kids from their same high school class. It won't trump legacy or grades or other bigger hooks but maybe it will give them an edge over a similar kid without the AP scores. Who knows. Unless the other kid has an extracurricular or essay that really catches the eye of the admissions staffers. It's all a crap shoot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What AOs keep saying, but no one wants to hear, is that they aren't ranking the students and taking the "best" by any metric. They are filling departments and filling the sports teams and the bands and they cannot and don't care about assigning some precise "quality score" to each student. The AOs care about their class. They don't care about any of your specific kids.
You can't game it by min-maxing your efforts to fit their metrics, because they don't have metrics. You can only game it by being different among equivalent options (bassoon not violin) and cheating to boost your scores and lying or uying fake achievements.

An applicant with an interest in actuarial mathematics or plant biology will have better odds than CS or pre-med applicants.

Are Biology kids non existent these days? I thought that was a popular trend for pre-med kids? I thought that you don't apply into a major but into a school? Example School of Engineering, School of Liberal Arts, School of Nursing?

When a school has a particular major/minor that is a bit more focused than biology and the applicant is interested in the focus... that is a win-win

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Well, many on here are paying THOUSANDS of dollars to basically have someone else write their kids’ essays. Where is the detector for that?

The whole college admissions is a scam. People with money can hire college counselors to cultivate the app; URM, first gen, legacies, athletes have a hook. Meanwhile, the leftovers fight for that .05% spot which is basically a lottery for a million dollars.

Goodness. Why participate at all? There are literally hundreds of hooks. Why does this same list keep getting posted?

Grievance Politics.

Not much mileage in pointing out the "bassoon player" hook

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What AOs keep saying, but no one wants to hear, is that they aren't ranking the students and taking the "best" by any metric. They are filling departments and filling the sports teams and the bands and they cannot and don't care about assigning some precise "quality score" to each student. The AOs care about their class. They don't care about any of your specific kids.
You can't game it by min-maxing your efforts to fit their metrics, because they don't have metrics. You can only game it by being different among equivalent options (bassoon not violin) and cheating to boost your scores and lying or uying fake achievements.

An applicant with an interest in actuarial mathematics or plant biology will have better odds than CS or pre-med applicants.

100%.
Major absolutely matters. It’s why all of the CA college counselors tell Asian students to apply to schools were major switching is easy… so they apply as humanities majors and spend all of high school creating a humanities-based résumé. Though deep down they all want to be premed or computer science or something…..

It also matters if the kid has very specific and pointy interests that are not the same old same old. No one cares about student government and model UN anymore.

Unless you are the whole package. What is the whole package? The valedictorian who is the captain of the football team, who is one of the very best students the teachers have seen in their lifetime, who is also a genuine and nice kind, caring person out of their way in both every day and extracurricular activities to lend a helping hand..
It’s not all founding non-profits or publishing research….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Well, many on here are paying THOUSANDS of dollars to basically have someone else write their kids’ essays. Where is the detector for that?

The whole college admissions is a scam. People with money can hire college counselors to cultivate the app; URM, first gen, legacies, athletes have a hook. Meanwhile, the leftovers fight for that .05% spot which is basically a lottery for a million dollars.

Goodness. Why participate at all? There are literally hundreds of hooks. Why does this same list keep getting posted?

Grievance Politics.

Not much mileage in pointing out the "bassoon player" hook

Bassoon player is not a hook. At all.
That’s just filling an institutional need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does IB factor into admissions? Does the student need to get the diploma to be considered most rigorous? I've heard very mixed things about whether getting the diploma is worth the time and effort.

That is a great question.

But OP is a troll and even if they have a good answer they won't give it without spewing more malice.

I’m not the original poster, but I don’t see any malice here. It’s all really helpful.

If it’s pissing you off, just go somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Test scores are just that. If a student scores 1350 and their school reports that score is the top of the class, that would likely be a “5”. If the students scores a 1450 and that is in the 2nd quintile of his school’s reported scores, then that student may be rated a 4 or lower.

This was the most interesting comment by OP and I apologize if it was asked about in prior threads.

This would imply that your absolute score should not determine if you apply TO or not, but rather how it compares to others from your school.

That is an interesting take that I have not seen discussed before.