are the STA college admits this year as dismal as they appear?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an STA parents an I spent way too much time on Instagram and I'm surprised by the college admissions. I probably saw 60-70% of the class and there are just a very small handful of Ivys (6?) and of course all but 2 (or even more) are athletic recruits or legacy or both.
Which is fine. But the rest isn't good either.
There are a handful of Chicagos and a couple of other top 30 schools and then bam--the bottom falls out. Lots of kids going to school ranked 50-100. (Then there are a bunch of kids that don't have anything posted on Instagram yet).
What happened? I can't find ANY admits to places like Michigan, UCLA, Williams, Rice, Penn, Georgetown, Stanford, Hopkins, Wash U, Emory, Bowdoin, Wash and Lee and on and on. Most of the half-decent admits (Pomona, Colgate) are athletic recruits. It really appears that almost all the non-athletes are going to schools ranked 50+.
GDS and Sidwell seem to be having very good years. NCS is doing ok (not as good as GDS and Sidwell from what I can tell).
Is this STA class just not strong academically? Am I missing something?

Pomona is not “half decent”. It is far above UCLA, Rice, Wash U., Emory, etc and harder to get admitted into than Williams is. Colgate and Pomona are nothing alike. You don’t seem to know much about how these schools compare so your opinion means little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When has it not been like that? And who in the world does STA compete against that doesn't do the same? None of this is any different from any of the other privates.

Well locally they’re going against kids from GDS, Maret, Sidwell and several others in Maryland and Virginia. Not to mention all of the public school kids locally and then nationally hundreds and hundreds. Sports are wonderful and I love the sports aspect of STA. I think what parents are calling for is more of a balance with the timing. Kids getting home at 7:00-7:30 5 times a week is too late. By the time they shower and have dinner they’re not starting their homework and studying until 8 o’clock at night and then up past midnight if they’re in the AP classes because they require a lot of studying and some of them have daily tests and quizzes.

[Anonymous]

Right. Just like all those other kids at the schools you named.

[Anonymous]

OP you must know the answer. The Ivys and similar colleges look down on white affluent males from a prep school. It is that simple. If you haven’t had to deal with a major life crisis before 18, you are not getting in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you must know the answer. The Ivys and similar colleges look down on white affluent males from a prep school. It is that simple. If you haven’t had to deal with a major life crisis before 18, you are not getting in.

Keep telling yourself that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you must know the answer. The Ivys and similar colleges look down on white affluent males from a prep school. It is that simple. If you haven’t had to deal with a major life crisis before 18, you are not getting in.

Some STA student’s fitting your description did get accepted to Ivies and other top colleges.

[Anonymous]

^^^Then they are legacies, athletic recruits, or have some other hook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an STA parents an I spent way too much time on Instagram and I'm surprised by the college admissions. I probably saw 60-70% of the class and there are just a very small handful of Ivys (6?) and of course all but 2 (or even more) are athletic recruits or legacy or both.
Which is fine. But the rest isn't good either.
There are a handful of Chicagos and a couple of other top 30 schools and then bam--the bottom falls out. Lots of kids going to school ranked 50-100. (Then there are a bunch of kids that don't have anything posted on Instagram yet).
What happened? I can't find ANY admits to places like Michigan, UCLA, Williams, Rice, Penn, Georgetown, Stanford, Hopkins, Wash U, Emory, Bowdoin, Wash and Lee and on and on. Most of the half-decent admits (Pomona, Colgate) are athletic recruits. It really appears that almost all the non-athletes are going to schools ranked 50+.
GDS and Sidwell seem to be having very good years. NCS is doing ok (not as good as GDS and Sidwell from what I can tell).
Is this STA class just not strong academically? Am I missing something?

Pomona is not “half decent”. It is far above UCLA, Rice, Wash U., Emory, etc and harder to get admitted into than Williams is. Colgate and Pomona are nothing alike. You don’t seem to know much about how these schools compare so your opinion means little.

Admits rates don't mean anything. Pomona is a fine school but the schools mentioned are certainly comparable. To suggest otherwise is silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you must know the answer. The Ivys and similar colleges look down on white affluent males from a prep school. It is that simple. If you haven’t had to deal with a major life crisis before 18, you are not getting in.

Some STA student’s fitting your description did get accepted to Ivies and other top colleges.

No one said none get in. But it is small.

Same with other similar schools in the area.

And I am not even saying this is the wrong approach by the schools. To remedy past injustices.

But it is a FACT esp given the test optional rule. There is not a good way for these students to separate themselves anymore. Although I see that MIT is going the other waY now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^Then they are legacies, athletic recruits, or have some other hook.

That is true of almost, if not literally everyone, at an Ivy. If that wasn't your kid, he wasn't getting in from anywhere anyway. There aren't that many spots in the schools, and there are much better options for undergrad out there anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an STA parents an I spent way too much time on Instagram and I'm surprised by the college admissions. I probably saw 60-70% of the class and there are just a very small handful of Ivys (6?) and of course all but 2 (or even more) are athletic recruits or legacy or both.
Which is fine. But the rest isn't good either.
There are a handful of Chicagos and a couple of other top 30 schools and then bam--the bottom falls out. Lots of kids going to school ranked 50-100. (Then there are a bunch of kids that don't have anything posted on Instagram yet).
What happened? I can't find ANY admits to places like Michigan, UCLA, Williams, Rice, Penn, Georgetown, Stanford, Hopkins, Wash U, Emory, Bowdoin, Wash and Lee and on and on. Most of the half-decent admits (Pomona, Colgate) are athletic recruits. It really appears that almost all the non-athletes are going to schools ranked 50+.
GDS and Sidwell seem to be having very good years. NCS is doing ok (not as good as GDS and Sidwell from what I can tell).
Is this STA class just not strong academically? Am I missing something?

Pomona is not “half decent”. It is far above UCLA, Rice, Wash U., Emory, etc and harder to get admitted into than Williams is. Colgate and Pomona are nothing alike. You don’t seem to know much about how these schools compare so your opinion means little.

Admits rates don't mean anything. Pomona is a fine school but the schools mentioned are certainly comparable. To suggest otherwise is silly.

Not PP but the original post put Pomona and Colgate as "half decent" - I assumed the pp's argument was that Pomona should be in the original list (Michigan, UCLA, Williams, Rice, Penn, Georgetown, Stanford, Hopkins, Wash U, Emory, Bowdoin, Wash and Lee and on and on) and not relegated to a "half decent" list along with Colgate. Pomona is certainly a tier (or two) above Colgate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an STA parents an I spent way too much time on Instagram and I'm surprised by the college admissions. I probably saw 60-70% of the class and there are just a very small handful of Ivys (6?) and of course all but 2 (or even more) are athletic recruits or legacy or both.
Which is fine. But the rest isn't good either.
There are a handful of Chicagos and a couple of other top 30 schools and then bam--the bottom falls out. Lots of kids going to school ranked 50-100. (Then there are a bunch of kids that don't have anything posted on Instagram yet).
What happened? I can't find ANY admits to places like Michigan, UCLA, Williams, Rice, Penn, Georgetown, Stanford, Hopkins, Wash U, Emory, Bowdoin, Wash and Lee and on and on. Most of the half-decent admits (Pomona, Colgate) are athletic recruits. It really appears that almost all the non-athletes are going to schools ranked 50+.
GDS and Sidwell seem to be having very good years. NCS is doing ok (not as good as GDS and Sidwell from what I can tell).
Is this STA class just not strong academically? Am I missing something?

Pomona is not “half decent”. It is far above UCLA, Rice, Wash U., Emory, etc and harder to get admitted into than Williams is. Colgate and Pomona are nothing alike. You don’t seem to know much about how these schools compare so your opinion means little.

Admits rates don't mean anything. Pomona is a fine school but the schools mentioned are certainly comparable. To suggest otherwise is silly.

Pomona is basically Harvard West.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you must know the answer. The Ivys and similar colleges look down on white affluent males from a prep school. It is that simple. If you haven’t had to deal with a major life crisis before 18, you are not getting in.

Some STA student’s fitting your description did get accepted to Ivies and other top colleges.

No one said none get in. But it is small.

Same with other similar schools in the area.

And I am not even saying this is the wrong approach by the schools. To remedy past injustices.

But it is a FACT esp given the test optional rule. There is not a good way for these students to separate themselves anymore. Although I see that MIT is going the other waY now.

you realize that we can all scroll up the page and see "The Ivys and similar colleges look down on white affluent males from a prep school. It is that simple. If you haven’t had to deal with a major life crisis before 18, you are not getting in."

the fact that it's a small number is entirely consistent for schools with a sub 5% acceptance rate. Unless you think white affluent prep school boys should be admitted at a better rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^Then they are legacies, athletic recruits, or have some other hook.

That is true of almost, if not literally everyone, at an Ivy. If that wasn't your kid, he wasn't getting in from anywhere anyway. There aren't that many spots in the schools, and there are much better options for undergrad out there anyway.

tell me you've never been on the campus of a selective college without telling me you've never been on the campus of a selective college.

[Anonymous]

What is the point of this post? You say you are a STA parent, so am I, but other than outing semi-private information from seniors' instagram posts, what overall is your concern. Aren't Sidwell and GDS bigger school so therefore they may have "better" chances of getting into certain schools by sheer number? Are you nervous that your son won't get into a "good" school because you think he is on par with some of these seniors? Schools and colleges go in trends so do you even know that people applied to the many schools that you listed? If anything, take this information and learn from it. Let's say you want your child to go to Michigan - why don't you ask the CCO if any kids applied to Michigan and got in but made other choices? What you are doing is seriously unkind but also unclear what your motives are.