If your kid was a top student and didn’t get into a top college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s roughly 400 kids graduating from DCs school this year. The top kids have been in the same classes all 4 years and know each other’s ranking and test scores. The top 2% of graduating class (8 kids) all had 4.0 uw and 1500+ SATs. This is how acceptances went for them:

1. Carnegie Mellon (shut out of Ivies)
2. UMD (shut out of Ivies and top SLACs)
3. UMD (shut out of Ivies)
4. Johns Hopkins (recruited athlete)
5. Yale (first gen)
6. UMD
7. Penn (first gen)
8. Princeton (URM)

All great, hard working, top scores, excellent EC kids, but like PP said there just isn’t enough room for all high achievers at the tippy top.

Thank you for posting this.

Interesting enough my DD was in a similar position when she graduated - top 2% - 1550 - etc.

Was similarly shut out and elected to attend our State Flagship.

I remember move in day - she was in the honors cohort - and the other students were similarly academically credentialed.

My own observations regarding college admissions have been:

student athletes punch way above their weight. On the performance scale - academics vs athletics - ie both 99 percentile - the athlete has a much better shot at a top tier admit.

students from elite privates (Dalton, etc) - very strong placement.

Students whose parents are well placed in business and full pay - very strong placement.

I think there is a reality to admissions that we have to acknowledge.

If you are wealthy and/or influential your DC is going to have an advantage.

If you are full pay your DC will have an advantage.

I am ok with the above - but then perhaps colleges should not be not-for-profit and they should be paying their fair share in taxes on their RE holdings and endowments. If Harvard is the bastion of the ultra wealthy then it really shouldn't be non profit.

I will admit the upper tier rejections were hard on my DD and while my DD had very nice offers from the tier below it was hard to say no to the offer from our state flagship. It basically worked out that DD was paying for room and board. Not a bad deal these days.

And I tell her - sometimes it takes a little longer - but cream rises.

Excuse my ignorance as my kids are still young and I was not an athlete.

When everyone refers to athletes, you are referring to athletes who are recruited and play on the college team, correct?

I have a son who is an excellent tennis player. He is not yet in high school but I am sure he will be a starter. He does well in tennis tournaments for his age group. I am not sure if he will be good enough to be a tennis recruit but will still be a top tennis player at his school.

Possibly D3 but unless he’s playing national matches in high school, no chance of D1. Most D1 recruits are international now with a sprinkling of high ranked US kids. You would easily spend $40,000+ a year on coaching, camps, and competition to prepare for college tennis. And that assumes he has the talent and will, too. It’s a really hard path to scholarships now. Major money and lots of travel.

I don’t expect him to be a D1 athlete. I just wanted to confirm that when everyone refers to athletes when discussing college admissions, it means the kid was recruited to play on the college team.

My son would not be considered an athlete for college even though he plays tennis.

Be aware that not every kid who plays on the college team was given a recruiting spot for admissions. There are very few of those for most sports. The rest of the team are walk ons.

Most coaches - particularly for non-headcount sports - only get a few bids for recruits. That means if your student is recruited for their sport, that year the coach may only be able to recommend for admissions two or three students. It depends on the roster/sport. The year DS was recruited, his coach got two bids (due to size of roster/make up of years, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only 2,500 stand alone National Merit Scholars picked by the foundation have ALL one can achieve in this process. They screen all finalists and pick ones who have SAT/ACT, GPA, class rank, AP scores, course rigor, college courses, essay writing skills, school recommendations, extracurriculars, leadership skills, character, dedicated community service and vision of future.

So what? If you need a 224 in Maryland to become a NMSF but only a 207 in North Dakota or West Virginia, it’s not really based on merit.

Well, there are few, if any, brick and mortar SAT prep centers in ND or WV, so if you get a 207 there you've probably done the best compared to your peers and with what you have access to.

Oh wait I though everyone was able to use free test prep online or their public library? What if you live in western Maryland? A lot of test prep centers out there? Aren’t those all the reasons why test optional is such a terrible thing?

[Anonymous]

My white male perfect student got into 4 safeties and rejected/WL at 14 others for CS. It was insane. Saying he was a white male was application suicide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My white male perfect student got into 4 safeties and rejected/WL at 14 others for CS. It was insane. Saying he was a white male was application suicide.

Sure it was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My white male perfect student got into 4 safeties and rejected/WL at 14 others for CS. It was insane. Saying he was a white male was application suicide.

This is not really true anymore. So just stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s roughly 400 kids graduating from DCs school this year. The top kids have been in the same classes all 4 years and know each other’s ranking and test scores. The top 2% of graduating class (8 kids) all had 4.0 uw and 1500+ SATs. This is how acceptances went for them:

1. Carnegie Mellon (shut out of Ivies)
2. UMD (shut out of Ivies and top SLACs)
3. UMD (shut out of Ivies)
4. Johns Hopkins (recruited athlete)
5. Yale (first gen)
6. UMD
7. Penn (first gen)
8. Princeton (URM)

All great, hard working, top scores, excellent EC kids, but like PP said there just isn’t enough room for all high achievers at the tippy top.

And all eight are pathetic for knowing each other's grades, rankings, test scores, and college application choices and results -- and any parent who knows all of this about all eight is even more pathetic.

The kids share this information freely with each other and obsess over it for most of their senior year. Parents get the information without even trying. In fact, I think PP substituted UMD for another state school because it matches what I know about kids I’ve never met at our school.

Goodness gracious. Which HS is this?

I can almost -- almost understand kids "sharing this information freely." Almost. But "parents getting this information without even trying?" Nope. Certainly not to the point of remembering it all to the degree that this poster did. That takes effort. Unhealthy effort. Obsessive effort. Insane effort.

No one cares what you think. You have had your smug "I'm winning at life" moment to tell yourself tonight. Now go away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My white male perfect student got into 4 safeties and rejected/WL at 14 others for CS. It was insane. Saying he was a white male was application suicide.

Oh, come on; mine is far from perfect and got into 7 schools for CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid had perfect or close to perfect grades in AP classes, high SAT scores, strong extracurricular activities and got rejected from all the top schools, what do you think went wrong?

Kid was born into an Asian family could be the answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:being a well-rounded smart kid does not stand out anymore. encourage your child to go be successful and have a good experience where they got in.

This! Grad school matters more that undergraduate in almost all cases, if they are the sort of person who would be going to grad school in the first place. Encourage them to take full advantage of where they are going, whether that’s Purdue or Princeton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My white male perfect student got into 4 safeties and rejected/WL at 14 others for CS. It was insane. Saying he was a white male was application suicide.

Oh, come on; mine is far from perfect and got into 7 schools for CS.

Do you have to say your major?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s roughly 400 kids graduating from DCs school this year. The top kids have been in the same classes all 4 years and know each other’s ranking and test scores. The top 2% of graduating class (8 kids) all had 4.0 uw and 1500+ SATs. This is how acceptances went for them:

1. Carnegie Mellon (shut out of Ivies)
2. UMD (shut out of Ivies and top SLACs)
3. UMD (shut out of Ivies)
4. Johns Hopkins (recruited athlete)
5. Yale (first gen)
6. UMD
7. Penn (first gen)
8. Princeton (URM)

All great, hard working, top scores, excellent EC kids, but like PP said there just isn’t enough room for all high achievers at the tippy top.

And all eight are pathetic for knowing each other's grades, rankings, test scores, and college application choices and results -- and any parent who knows all of this about all eight is even more pathetic.

The kids share this information freely with each other and obsess over it for most of their senior year. Parents get the information without even trying. In fact, I think PP substituted UMD for another state school because it matches what I know about kids I’ve never met at our school.

Goodness gracious. Which HS is this?

I can almost -- almost understand kids "sharing this information freely." Almost. But "parents getting this information without even trying?" Nope. Certainly not to the point of remembering it all to the degree that this poster did. That takes effort. Unhealthy effort. Obsessive effort. Insane effort.

I'm PP who listed the class standings in the hope of showing that Ivy admissions is not the end all. There will be plenty of hard working and intelligent kids at your state school.

Unfortunately, I know that it is not like this at most schools, but I am so grateful for the experience that my DC had throughout school. Out of the 8 kids listed, 6 are routinely at my house. 5 of them have been together since 6th grade. What started out as mandatory group projects in my basement, evolved into weekly study sessions for whatever big test was coming up, to movie nights in my basement. Those 6 supported one another throughout high school. They were there for the sporting events, the break ups, and the poor grades. They studied for the SATs together and I even drove 3 to their testing days. They attended campus visits together and worked on applications. I was there with them since 6th grade celebrating their successes and being there for them in their defeats. I fed them, cheered them on at sporting events, and drove them everywhere imaginable just like their parents did for my DC.

I am so happy for these kids and I know that they will all go on to wonderful lives no matter where they go to college. They know the importance of teamwork and building others up. I wish that every kid had this opportunity in high school and for my DC as they head to college, I hope that they can find a similar group of people.

And I call complete and total BS although I congratulate you on your feeble attempt to back track and justify your obsession. It just so happens that the top 8 students in your kid's class of FOUR HUNDRED all happen to hang out at YOUR house and have been doing that since sixth grade? And, no, they're not competitive and neither are you and it's all about supporting each other yet they all know each others' precise GPAs, test scores, classes, college applications, acceptance/rejections, etc.?

Just. Stop. This is an anonymous forum. No reason to lie to us -- or yourself.

My eldest kid is a freshman in high school but my husband graduated from a public high school in 1992. He was #2 out of 400. His best friends and study group were numbers 1-8 (minus 1 or 2 numbers). he's still friends this group 35 years later! He could tell you now who got into Princeton and who did not (they were in NJ), who was a national merit finalist and who was not, etc.
the top kids tend to know each other, especially in schools where there aren't that many academically focused kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:being a well-rounded smart kid does not stand out anymore. encourage your child to go be successful and have a good experience where they got in.

This! Grad school matters more that undergraduate in almost all cases, if they are the sort of person who would be going to grad school in the first place. Encourage them to take full advantage of where they are going, whether that’s Purdue or Princeton.

Hate when people say this, because once again you lost me at the bolded. It’s misleads people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s roughly 400 kids graduating from DCs school this year. The top kids have been in the same classes all 4 years and know each other’s ranking and test scores. The top 2% of graduating class (8 kids) all had 4.0 uw and 1500+ SATs. This is how acceptances went for them:

1. Carnegie Mellon (shut out of Ivies)
2. UMD (shut out of Ivies and top SLACs)
3. UMD (shut out of Ivies)
4. Johns Hopkins (recruited athlete)
5. Yale (first gen)
6. UMD
7. Penn (first gen)
8. Princeton (URM)

All great, hard working, top scores, excellent EC kids, but like PP said there just isn’t enough room for all high achievers at the tippy top.

And all eight are pathetic for knowing each other's grades, rankings, test scores, and college application choices and results -- and any parent who knows all of this about all eight is even more pathetic.

The kids share this information freely with each other and obsess over it for most of their senior year. Parents get the information without even trying. In fact, I think PP substituted UMD for another state school because it matches what I know about kids I’ve never met at our school.

Goodness gracious. Which HS is this?

I can almost -- almost understand kids "sharing this information freely." Almost. But "parents getting this information without even trying?" Nope. Certainly not to the point of remembering it all to the degree that this poster did. That takes effort. Unhealthy effort. Obsessive effort. Insane effort.

No one cares what you think. You have had your smug "I'm winning at life" moment to tell yourself tonight. Now go away.

NP here, but I didn’t get that from the original pp posting. Just that they were sharing onto that they had to share.
Doesn’t it depend on if these kids were able to apply ED without any FA needs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid had perfect or close to perfect grades in AP classes, high SAT scores, strong extracurricular activities and got rejected from all the top schools, what do you think went wrong?

Kid was born into an Asian family could be the answer.

Oh, stop. Every Asian kid my kid knows got into a better school than her. If you think Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, and UVA are disappointments, that’s your problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid had perfect or close to perfect grades in AP classes, high SAT scores, strong extracurricular activities and got rejected from all the top schools, what do you think went wrong?

Kid was born into an Asian family could be the answer.

Oh, stop. Every Asian kid my kid knows got into a better school than her. If you think Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, and UVA are disappointments, that’s your problem.

Yup, similar at our school.