Did this kid get screwed?

[Anonymous]

NJ private school kid.
I know there’s a lot of NY/NJ here.
Thoughts?


https://www.reddit.com/r/collegeresults/s/eKzPzJrprw

[Anonymous]

I don’t think so. UCLA and northeastern are pretty good.

[Anonymous]

That kid did just fine. Tons of kids would love to attend UCLA.

[Anonymous]

They applied to 21 schools!!! I’d guess every top 20% kid did close to the same, which means the odds are fully and completely against you. 55,000 applicants for 1,800 spots and they are surprised by their admission results. 🙄

Yes, applicant, you truly overestimated the strength of your application.

[Anonymous]

Depending on the high school. If a feeder like Sidwell then yeah not an optimal result. If a non-feeder high school he is doing fine. UCLA is a dream school for many.

[Anonymous]

Yes

[Anonymous]

No, he was not screwed. I read the post and from my quick read, he made a poor rea choice. The college list looks like a kid shooting for prestige vs well thought out list. The kid should have targeted schools and programs that valued his expertise (jazz music). His strategy was not good. His stats are fine but not stellar for those schools. Given his pre existing relationship to princeton, I would have put that one early or another school with strong jazz program. His common app essay topic was risky, but I guess could be memorable if written well? Those top schools have many supp essays and those matter. Hard to make them all good if applying to 20+ schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depending on the high school. If a feeder like Sidwell then yeah not an optimal result. If a non-feeder high school he is doing fine. UCLA is a dream school for many.

Top private typically limits the number of applications per student to 10-15, the fact they are applying to 21 seems to indicate otherwise.

[Anonymous]

The post is now deleted but I read it. No he didn’t get screwed. He is going to UCLA. His list was a prestige list, and didn’t have any real targets or safeties. And he didn’t ED 1 or 2 anywhere.

[Anonymous]

It's not a great result but UCLA is a fun and worthy outcome.

The "romance novel" essay may have been a weak point. Two of the rec letters were self-rated 7/10. Candidate was not a NMF, but instead Commended.

I think it's possibly also because a jazz band is less of a campus thing than marching band or orchestra. And very talented musicians are probably not rare at Ivies. Jazz is more of an off-campus hobby.

I think the kid might get off a WL or 2.

So fair but disappointing. If the kid gets off 1 WL, I would say fair.

[Anonymous]

what were his stats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what were his stats?

IIRC 1520, all As with six A-, top 20% of class (informally school does not rank)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, he was not screwed. I read the post and from my quick read, he made a poor rea choice. The college list looks like a kid shooting for prestige vs well thought out list. The kid should have targeted schools and programs that valued his expertise (jazz music). His strategy was not good. His stats are fine but not stellar for those schools. Given his pre existing relationship to princeton, I would have put that one early or another school with strong jazz program. His common app essay topic was risky, but I guess could be memorable if written well? Those top schools have many supp essays and those matter. Hard to make them all good if applying to 20+ schools.

You have to write a different essay for each application?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what were his stats?

Post was deleted. Nat'l Merit Commended in NJ. GPA not calc'd by private school. Mostly As with some A- grades. Top 20% of private school class based on school recognition. 2 APs and a bunch of IBs. Typical IB senior classes with Math HL. 3 teacher recs, best one expected from Philosophy teacher. Also band teacher and math?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The post is now deleted but I read it. No he didn’t get screwed. He is going to UCLA. His list was a prestige list, and didn’t have any real targets or safeties. And he didn’t ED 1 or 2 anywhere.

Oh gosh. Was he outed by this post?