My child is super intelligent and won't get into any good schools? What?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

It’s not that he has no shot, is that the odds are low. Actually good to know this going in. My kid had similar profile but was also a varsity athlete and won some CS competitions. WL at GT. My advice is to make sure to visit and apply to a big range of schools.

The good news is that it’s actually not necessary to go to one of these selective schools to get a good education. My kid is having more opportunities than if he was at an “elite” School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

Sorry about the stupid racist above. Foreign students are a net benefit for our universities.

They are not a net benefit to American students though. And American universities should serve American students first and foremost, rather than existing to milk rich foreigners.

Everyone who is there adds value. Having international students at school is a great thing for our kids intellectually.

The days are over when foreign students would enlighten our spoiled youth about what it’s like to live in a war-torn country or to walk miles to fetch clean drinking water.

Now they are more likely to tell our students which Swiss ski resorts they prefer.

It is not about enlightening US students, it is about being highly intelligent peers who push the US students to be their best and (for the top US students) vice versa.

No, it’s about $$$$.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

Sorry about the stupid racist above. Foreign students are a net benefit for our universities.

They are not a net benefit to American students though. And American universities should serve American students first and foremost, rather than existing to milk rich foreigners.

Everyone who is there adds value. Having international students at school is a great thing for our kids intellectually.

The days are over when foreign students would enlighten our spoiled youth about what it’s like to live in a war-torn country or to walk miles to fetch clean drinking water.

Now they are more likely to tell our students which Swiss ski resorts they prefer.

Uh, this is not new. You never met an international student before?

Uh, don’t you have some arithmetic homework you should be doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

Sorry about the stupid racist above. Foreign students are a net benefit for our universities.

They are not a net benefit to American students though. And American universities should serve American students first and foremost, rather than existing to milk rich foreigners.

Everyone who is there adds value. Having international students at school is a great thing for our kids intellectually.

The days are over when foreign students would enlighten our spoiled youth about what it’s like to live in a war-torn country or to walk miles to fetch clean drinking water.

Now they are more likely to tell our students which Swiss ski resorts they prefer.

It is not about enlightening US students, it is about being highly intelligent peers who push the US students to be their best and (for the top US students) vice versa.

It's about pushing highly intelligent US students to earn $200/hr taking exams for children of the world's oligarchs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

Sorry about the stupid racist above. Foreign students are a net benefit for our universities.

They are not a net benefit to American students though. And American universities should serve American students first and foremost, rather than existing to milk rich foreigners.

Everyone who is there adds value. Having international students at school is a great thing for our kids intellectually.

It adds value to that particular school not to Americans or American society. We need to cater to our own people.

We need foreigners to do the jobs Americans are not smart enough to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

absolutely! international students raise the game for all students: they are so incredibly talented at my kid's elite school--they have enjoyed having them as friends and class peers.

They cheat to get in and then cheat to stay in

+1
And degrade the culture of integrity adding a win at all costs element

Take us back to the days when real honest men like Donald Trump and George Bush and Ted Kennedy filled out universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

I wouldn't say "no shot", but yeah - there's a decent chance he won't get admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

They are not a net benefit to American students though. And American universities should serve American students first and foremost, rather than existing to milk rich foreigners.

I agree completely when discussing public colleges. I wish Virginia state schools were required to take more in-state students.

I think if a university takes state funds they need to prioritize state students. Period. It's not xenophobic or racist to expect something in return for tax dollars. I hate that people are so quick to call out xenophobia or racism to something that just plain is not.

I think it a university takes foreign funds they need to prioritize foreign students

Goes both ways.

Those state funds literally pay for state students. Foreign students pay for themselves and the state students.

[Anonymous]

Just want to say, the entire process can be so super random. My daughter who is now at UVA, had a 4.6 in very challenging courses, 1530 SAT score and solid EC's. She did not get into JMU's Honors program. It was definitely our biggest WTF? moment when she was applying, but these weird things happen. So your kid could luck out and get admitted to a school that they might not necessarily have great odds for.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Well my kid who got a 1580, had a 4.4 weighted gpa and has a 145 IQ didn’t get into VT or UVA. But he got in elsewhere and is loving it. Apply wisely with good safeties and a range of targets. Reaches are unlikely.

That’s insane. I assume he was in-state? I’m hoping my child might get into William and Mary when the time comes, but I suspect he’ll be a smidge lower on the scale than your child. The current process is crazy.

Sorry. I don’t believe that. From our rigorous private in NJ kids who aren’t nearly that credentialed get into VT.

I don’t know what to tell you. That was my kid and he didn’t get into VT (engineering) and no A+ on our scale and he had good EC and a very rigorous schedule. He is an Asian/white male in STEM and he applied before AA was ended. But he is from NOVA and it is hard to get into our top state schools because of the number of great students here trying for these schools. Much easier from out of state, I suspect.

+1
It is extremely difficult to get in from NoVa. The expectations are just much higher, and the competition is far greater.

My DS had this exact GPA and SAT score from Langley HS. My nephew had 4.1 GPA with 1490 from South County in FCPS and he got accepted into UVA for CS. Both my DS and nephew were members of the school varsity tennis team as EC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well my kid who got a 1580, had a 4.4 weighted gpa and has a 145 IQ didn’t get into VT or UVA. But he got in elsewhere and is loving it. Apply wisely with good safeties and a range of targets. Reaches are unlikely.

That’s insane. I assume he was in-state? I’m hoping my child might get into William and Mary when the time comes, but I suspect he’ll be a smidge lower on the scale than your child. The current process is crazy.

Sorry. I don’t believe that. From our rigorous private in NJ kids who aren’t nearly that credentialed get into VT.

I don’t know what to tell you. That was my kid and he didn’t get into VT (engineering) and no A+ on our scale and he had good EC and a very rigorous schedule. He is an Asian/white male in STEM and he applied before AA was ended. But he is from NOVA and it is hard to get into our top state schools because of the number of great students here trying for these schools. Much easier from out of state, I suspect.

+1
It is extremely difficult to get in from NoVa. The expectations are just much higher, and the competition is far greater.

My DS had this exact GPA and SAT score from Langley HS. My nephew had 4.1 GPA with 1490 from South County in FCPS and he got accepted into UVA for CS. Both my DS and nephew were members of the school varsity tennis team as EC.

Was your nephew recruited for Tennis? I'm from a more rural part of Virginia, and NOVA folks love to tell everyone about how much harder it is for kids from NOVA to get into UVA than kids from other parts of the state. I have never heard of anyone from my daughter's Podunk high school getting into UVA with a 4.1, the lowest I've heard is a 4.4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well my kid who got a 1580, had a 4.4 weighted gpa and has a 145 IQ didn’t get into VT or UVA. But he got in elsewhere and is loving it. Apply wisely with good safeties and a range of targets. Reaches are unlikely.

That’s insane. I assume he was in-state? I’m hoping my child might get into William and Mary when the time comes, but I suspect he’ll be a smidge lower on the scale than your child. The current process is crazy.

Sorry. I don’t believe that. From our rigorous private in NJ kids who aren’t nearly that credentialed get into VT.

I don’t know what to tell you. That was my kid and he didn’t get into VT (engineering) and no A+ on our scale and he had good EC and a very rigorous schedule. He is an Asian/white male in STEM and he applied before AA was ended. But he is from NOVA and it is hard to get into our top state schools because of the number of great students here trying for these schools. Much easier from out of state, I suspect.

+1
It is extremely difficult to get in from NoVa. The expectations are just much higher, and the competition is far greater.

My DS had this exact GPA and SAT score from Langley HS. My nephew had 4.1 GPA with 1490 from South County in FCPS and he got accepted into UVA for CS. Both my DS and nephew were members of the school varsity tennis team as EC.

Was your nephew recruited for Tennis? I'm from a more rural part of Virginia, and NOVA folks love to tell everyone about how much harder it is for kids from NOVA to get into UVA than kids from other parts of the state. I have never heard of anyone from my daughter's Podunk high school getting into UVA with a 4.1, the lowest I've heard is a 4.4.

m
Agree—4.4 is not always top 10% and generally from nova publics UVA only admits from the top 10%. 4.1 is average or even below so that has to be hooked from that district.
Top private schools often have 20-25% get into uva but even there 4.1 is usually borderline (weights are usually 0.5 for AP/honors at many privates so 4.1 would be top 25% but barely—4.4 is top 5% and they all get into uva easily)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

Sorry about the stupid racist above. Foreign students are a net benefit for our universities.

They are not a net benefit to American students though. And American universities should serve American students first and foremost, rather than existing to milk rich foreigners.

Everyone who is there adds value. Having international students at school is a great thing for our kids intellectually.

It adds value to that particular school not to Americans or American society. We need to cater to our own people.

We need foreigners to do the jobs Americans are not smart enough to do.

We are a nation of 330 million people and the best country innthe world - the latter isnwhy smart foreigners want to come here. We don't need to provide opportunities to smart foreigners we need to provide them to our people - plenty of people of all kinds (smart and otherwise) already live here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

Yes, assuming there's nothing to demonstrate his intelligence (e.g. USACO, USAMO, USNChO, USAPhO, research, participation in programs like RSI, SSP, Ross, PROMYS, etc). How do you expect him to demonstrate his intelligence to colleges? They can't tell whether he really sailing through his 4.0 at a rigorous CC or just barely scraping by with lots of "tutoring" (paid homework completions), retaking, and general grade-grubbing, the latter of which is particularly common among those with 4.0s. They also don't want students who just focus on coursework.

It's not too late though (SSP and RSI and other summer programs are still available), but if you're in VA you should realistically consider VTech a match, assuming the 1550+ SAT comes through (which he should absolutely prep for, by the way).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

Yes, assuming there's nothing to demonstrate his intelligence (e.g. USACO, USAMO, USNChO, USAPhO, research, participation in programs like RSI, SSP, Ross, PROMYS, etc). How do you expect him to demonstrate his intelligence to colleges? They can't tell whether he really sailing through his 4.0 at a rigorous CC or just barely scraping by with lots of "tutoring" (paid homework completions), retaking, and general grade-grubbing, the latter of which is particularly common among those with 4.0s. They also don't want students who just focus on coursework.

It's not too late though (SSP and RSI and other summer programs are still available), but if you're in VA you should realistically consider VTech a match, assuming the 1550+ SAT comes through (which he should absolutely prep for, by the way).

Is DS even interested in STEM? None of these activities are required if you are interested in business or liberal arts/humanities.