Disappointment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Entitlement much? How this idea that all high stats automatically gets into to reach 10% schools. Same conversation year after year.

How was UVA, VT, or UNC CH a reach for her?

UNC out of state is a reach for all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She has 4 good choices. I understand that she's disappointed, because she's a teenager without perspective, but it's your job to provide that perspective, not be disappointed yourself and encourage comparison with others.

Go to accepted student day of those 4 schools, get excited about them, and choose one. There was a reason she applied to them, right?

+1

Disappointment is natural. Try to avoid grievance and the blame game.

Yes disappointment is "natural". But going into this, she and her parents should have known that everywhere she was Rejected/WL is a REACH. So you know the odds are low and you apply to more Targets. The time to find the right school is before you apply, not apply to 10-15 reaches and 5-6 targets and safeties and hope the reaches work out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
+1

Especially students who are "that smart"

And if they are truly that naive, well then they did this to themselves. It's not a balanced list of schools at all. And if she wants BME, why is W&M? Very few kids do a 3+2 program, because nobody wants to leave their college after 3 years and go somewhere different.

It's unfortunate, because there are many many many excellent engineering schools in the 30-70 range, many that would have given her $$$ as well.
For example:
Case
URochester
WPI
RPI
NEU (tough admit, but might have given her NUIn or Global Scholars with those stats)

Had she shown interest, she would have gotten into all of those except NEU---that is the only Reach.

W&M was at at the bottom of her list but chose to apply because Columbia really appealed to her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has to be fake. People cannot be this naive.

+100
How utterly ridiculous - she "thought she had it in the bag."

Right? Who thinks like this?

In her position, how would you not think that you had at least VT + UNC CH in the bag? I'm obviously not referring to the Ivies/higher-ranking schools...

She was accepted at VT. Chapel Hill has an 8 percent acceptance rate for OOS. It also sounds like she is at a NoVa public with grade inflation.

Again with the public grade inflation crap. I’m sure she had more 5s on APs than your kid.
So freaking over the assumptions!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your DD was at least accepted by one or two T20, and rejected by most, that's normal. However, she was rejected by all T20s, that makes me believe there is something in her application that is seriously wrong. There are a few possibilities.

First, there is a red flag in her profile. Nowadays colleges sometimes verify the ECs provided by the applicant.

Second, are you confident that all her recommendation were good? Is it possible one of her teachers wrote a lukewarm letter?

Third, if none of the above occurred, most likely her essays were lacking.

Her stats are outstanding. However, she doesn't have a spike. For this type of applicants, if you ED Chicago or Northwestern, you might just get accepted.

Use ED and ED2 wisely.

Congratulations on Lehigh Pitt and WM! Those are really good schools.

From a statistical viewpoint, it is totally normal to be rejected at all of those. Each one is an independent school, and each is rejecting 90-95% of their applicants, and each has probably 85%+ of their applicants being "highly qualified"

[Anonymous]

I'm so sorry, OP.

I have an Asian 14 year old who will likely have that sort of profile. It's disheartening to know of your daughter's experience!

Give her a big hug. She was totally ready for the top schools, and they missed out on a great student. Their loss.

[Anonymous]

Your daughter sounds like a smart kid without a hook. Your mistake is that you've been chasing prestige, which everyone else is chasing..and for the Ivies (or near Ivies) her stats are within range, but her achievements don't stand out.

When will people understand that Princeton takes in 1 out of 20. At her stats, even if it is 1 in 10, those are not good odds. OPs list of universities is so heavily ivy weighted, a little less would have allowed more bandwidth to apply to other great schools for biomed - Georgia Tech, UMichigan, [e-mail], UCSD.

My view is that each application takes a lot of effort. And even if some essays can be repurposed, it is still a lot of work to tailor them for each university. In this situation, being practical is a useful skill, especially if your kid is smart but has no hook. Look at Naviance for admit data from your school to the University. Write down the probabilities of admittance for your stats in general, recognizing that popular majors have even lower chances. Then by all means do reach, but be selective based on probabilities and don't heavily overindex on reach as the OP list indicates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has to be fake. People cannot be this naive.

+100
How utterly ridiculous - she "thought she had it in the bag."

Right? Who thinks like this?

In her position, how would you not think that you had at least VT + UNC CH in the bag? I'm obviously not referring to the Ivies/higher-ranking schools...

She was accepted at VT. Chapel Hill has an 8 percent acceptance rate for OOS. It also sounds like she is at a NoVa public with grade inflation.

Again with the public grade inflation crap. I’m sure she had more 5s on APs than your kid.

Thank you, her school is pretty competitve + rigorous... Wouldn't say that there is "grade inflation".
So freaking over the assumptions!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call me crazy, but personally, I think schools see kids with 15 APs (all 5s) and think "she'll graduate early so that's a year less of tuition." It's a business.

No---most of the Top schools don't even allow that. My kid's school only allows you to utilize 4 AP courses for credit. You can use more, but then you have to take an advanced course to replace it (or at least some course)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm so sorry, OP.

I have an Asian 14 year old who will likely have that sort of profile. It's disheartening to know of your daughter's experience!

Give her a big hug. She was totally ready for the top schools, and they missed out on a great student. Their loss.

Thank you, and wishing your DC all the best! I do think this year especially was a very tough cycle, seen it with friends as well. Like many people here said, it's definitely a lottery - Very little spots and many qualified applicants. All you can do is hope for the best!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry.
Agree that it’s the major. My kid experienced this last year except did get in one of your kid’s WL schools. I’m surprised about the UVA WL with her stats. Did your daughter apply EA to UVA? What kind of high school does she attend?

VT, Pitt, Lehigh all were in the running for engineering for our kid. VT would be fantastic, Pitt too. Lehigh was in the running until the very end. Hopefully she can get excited at the admitted student days. Tough process for sure.

Yes, we were honestly shocked that she didn't get in - She applied RD. Many classmates with far lower stats + less impressive ECs got in. She attends a mid-sized public high school, pretty competitive. I know the cycle was very tough this year, but we definitely didn't see this coming.

Why wouldn't you use EA at UVA? Or really at ANY SCHOOL WHERE EA is avaialable?!?!

Using EA signals the university that your kid is serious about attending, organized and can get their applications in by Nov 1/15. It's a well known fact that you must do that at most schools that offer EA to gain admissions, but especially at highly competitive schools.

So if you are not a troll, then you didn't do basic homework

[Anonymous]

If you’re so upset about not getting into UVA just have her go to NOVA and transfer. Life isn’t fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has to be fake. People cannot be this naive.

+100
How utterly ridiculous - she "thought she had it in the bag."

Right? Who thinks like this?

In her position, how would you not think that you had at least VT + UNC CH in the bag? I'm obviously not referring to the Ivies/higher-ranking schools...

She was accepted at VT. Chapel Hill has an 8 percent acceptance rate for OOS. It also sounds like she is at a NoVa public with grade inflation.

Again with the public grade inflation crap. I’m sure she had more 5s on APs than your kid.
So freaking over the assumptions!

It’s not a knock on your kid. Grad inflation buries the extraordinary kid among the ordinary kids because they all have the same gpas. I don’t understand why parents don’t complain more about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes. Bad personality maybe. But also just a very competitive cycle.

I'm definitely biased but she's a very motivated, hardworking girl... Always willing to help someone out. Watching decisions crush a lot of her confidence is so painful. I told her that she shouldn't compare herself to her peers, but idk how most people wouldn't be incredibly upset if a classmate w/ lower stats and less effort made it in instead of you.

You need to stop this part, the comparing. Neither you or your daughter know what the entire application packet of her peers with "lower stats" actually looks like. You think that you know the stats but you quite possibly do not. And, you don't know what the rest of the application looks like.

Your daughter looks like a great student and she had the academics to get over the bar and into the game which is a great accomplishment but comparing to others only leads to frustration because you don't really know yet you assume. Don't let that kind of angst consume your daughter. She has some great options and it is time to work on loving one of those options.

+1

Also, you have to realize, that someone with only a 1520 is NOT "lower stats". To most Top universities, once you cross their "minimum score" they don't distinguish between the Min score and a 1580/1600. You're smart, you met that bar, now they want to see the rest of your resume

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry.
Agree that it’s the major. My kid experienced this last year except did get in one of your kid’s WL schools. I’m surprised about the UVA WL with her stats. Did your daughter apply EA to UVA? What kind of high school does she attend?

VT, Pitt, Lehigh all were in the running for engineering for our kid. VT would be fantastic, Pitt too. Lehigh was in the running until the very end. Hopefully she can get excited at the admitted student days. Tough process for sure.

Yes, we were honestly shocked that she didn't get in - She applied RD. Many classmates with far lower stats + less impressive ECs got in. She attends a mid-sized public high school, pretty competitive. I know the cycle was very tough this year, but we definitely didn't see this coming.

Why wouldn't you use EA at UVA? Or really at ANY SCHOOL WHERE EA is avaialable?!?!

Using EA signals the university that your kid is serious about attending, organized and can get their applications in by Nov 1/15. It's a well known fact that you must do that at most schools that offer EA to gain admissions, but especially at highly competitive schools.

So if you are not a troll, then you didn't do basic homework

This is laughable. She spent a lot of time on her applications and some classmates that applied RD got in. UVA was not her top choice by any means but we were told by her counsellor that it was almost guaranteed with her stats.