Where do unconnected, top academic kids from a feeder private go to college?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:If she attends a school like Sidwell, NCS, STA or GDS and she is truly in the top 10 students in the class and has decent rigor and resume then any school is possible. If she is top 5 at one of these high schools then HYPMS is almost probable if she has half way decent extracurriculars.

These schools differ than public because the kids are really stratified by grading (there is no bunching at the top). There may be one kid with a 3.95 And then 5 with grades above a 3.9. So when you are in those top kids you are highly desirable to elite colleges.

what about a level down, maybe top 20% so 3.75 - 3-9?

3.85-3.95 generally all get top25.

3.75 can get top40. At DC's Big3 school 3.8 is sort of the "line in the sand" for a top30 school. The top30 colleges don't really take the 3.7s regardless of how high their SAT score is, how great the extracurriculars are, etc. (I'm talking unhooked kids here).

3.8uw is the line at our non-DC private too

How many percent got in T25?

50%+

Among the 50% + T25, how many are hooked and below 3.8 uw?

At our private school, the legacy typically are above that gpa. The athletes are borderline. Recently the URM are at the line or above.

So 3.8 is the average gpa.

Rampant grade inflation.

Sidwell averages at 3.5.
PP's 3.8 average is way too high. Sounds like a school similar to BIM?

STA has a higher average. Not sure about BIM, the AP thing?

STA has a numerical GPA (not a 4.0 scale). The class average is generally around an 87-88, sometimes lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she attends a school like Sidwell, NCS, STA or GDS and she is truly in the top 10 students in the class and has decent rigor and resume then any school is possible. If she is top 5 at one of these high schools then HYPMS is almost probable if she has half way decent extracurriculars.

These schools differ than public because the kids are really stratified by grading (there is no bunching at the top). There may be one kid with a 3.95 And then 5 with grades above a 3.9. So when you are in those top kids you are highly desirable to elite colleges.

what about a level down, maybe top 20% so 3.75 - 3-9?

3.85-3.95 generally all get top25.

3.75 can get top40. At DC's Big3 school 3.8 is sort of the "line in the sand" for a top30 school. The top30 colleges don't really take the 3.7s regardless of how high their SAT score is, how great the extracurriculars are, etc. (I'm talking unhooked kids here).

3.8uw is the line at our non-DC private too

How many percent got in T25?

50%+

Among the 50% + T25, how many are hooked and below 3.8 uw?

At our private school, the legacy typically are above that gpa. The athletes are borderline. Recently the URM are at the line or above.

So 3.8 is the average gpa.

Rampant grade inflation.

Sidwell averages at 3.5.
PP's 3.8 average is way too high. Sounds like a school similar to BIM?

STA has a higher average. Not sure about BIM, the AP thing?

STA has a numerical GPA (not a 4.0 scale). The class average is generally around an 87-88, sometimes lower.

That's like 3.3 if converted. Lower than Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she attends a school like Sidwell, NCS, STA or GDS and she is truly in the top 10 students in the class and has decent rigor and resume then any school is possible. If she is top 5 at one of these high schools then HYPMS is almost probable if she has half way decent extracurriculars.

These schools differ than public because the kids are really stratified by grading (there is no bunching at the top). There may be one kid with a 3.95 And then 5 with grades above a 3.9. So when you are in those top kids you are highly desirable to elite colleges.

what about a level down, maybe top 20% so 3.75 - 3-9?

3.85-3.95 generally all get top25.

3.75 can get top40. At DC's Big3 school 3.8 is sort of the "line in the sand" for a top30 school. The top30 colleges don't really take the 3.7s regardless of how high their SAT score is, how great the extracurriculars are, etc. (I'm talking unhooked kids here).

3.8uw is the line at our non-DC private too

How many percent got in T25?

50%+

Among the 50% + T25, how many are hooked and below 3.8 uw?

At our private school, the legacy typically are above that gpa. The athletes are borderline. Recently the URM are at the line or above.

So 3.8 is the average gpa.

Rampant grade inflation.

Sidwell averages at 3.5.
PP's 3.8 average is way too high. Sounds like a school similar to BIM?

3.8 average is unheard of in DC's private, sounds more like a public school where As are given out like candy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she attends a school like Sidwell, NCS, STA or GDS and she is truly in the top 10 students in the class and has decent rigor and resume then any school is possible. If she is top 5 at one of these high schools then HYPMS is almost probable if she has half way decent extracurriculars.

These schools differ than public because the kids are really stratified by grading (there is no bunching at the top). There may be one kid with a 3.95 And then 5 with grades above a 3.9. So when you are in those top kids you are highly desirable to elite colleges.

what about a level down, maybe top 20% so 3.75 - 3-9?

3.85-3.95 generally all get top25.

3.75 can get top40. At DC's Big3 school 3.8 is sort of the "line in the sand" for a top30 school. The top30 colleges don't really take the 3.7s regardless of how high their SAT score is, how great the extracurriculars are, etc. (I'm talking unhooked kids here).

3.8uw is the line at our non-DC private too

How many percent got in T25?

50%+

Among the 50% + T25, how many are hooked and below 3.8 uw?

At our private school, the legacy typically are above that gpa. The athletes are borderline. Recently the URM are at the line or above.

So 3.8 is the average gpa.

Rampant grade inflation.

Sidwell averages at 3.5.
PP's 3.8 average is way too high. Sounds like a school similar to BIM?

3.8 average is unheard of in DC's private, sounds more like a public school where As are given out like candy.

Thats original.

[Anonymous]

OP: Your DD sounds somewhat like my DD, who just finished her first year at Pomona. She was in the top 5% of her public HS, 1550, 12 APs. I find it extremely difficult to compare ECs, but my DD had several ECs in which she had meaningful, demonstrable contributions. Many sports, volunteering, part-time job, art, etc. These ECs weren't individually spectacular or pointy/focused. DD was just interested in a lot of different things. She had awards but I'm not sure if any of them were national level. But, and this is only speculation, I think what made her particularly appealing was the intangible stuff. She was very friendly and popular with faculty and students alike and her participation in ECs was authentic and not for application credit. I think her application conveyed sense of authenticity. (We didn't use a consultant.)

Anyhow, she did well in RD: Pomona, another WASP, a couple Ivies, a couple Ivy+'s, and other top LACs. Having read the pessimistic takes here and on CC, we had no idea how she would do beforehand though. Also, and I mean this, there are so many good colleges out there. DD also really liked a lot of great colleges that people on this forum often turn their nose up at. I'm pretty sure DD would have gotten a great education and had a great experience somewhere like Macalester, Scripps, or W&M. So getting into prestigious colleges was wonderful for DD, but it never felt make or break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: Your DD sounds somewhat like my DD, who just finished her first year at Pomona. She was in the top 5% of her public HS, 1550, 12 APs. I find it extremely difficult to compare ECs, but my DD had several ECs in which she had meaningful, demonstrable contributions. Many sports, volunteering, part-time job, art, etc. These ECs weren't individually spectacular or pointy/focused. DD was just interested in a lot of different things. She had awards but I'm not sure if any of them were national level. But, and this is only speculation, I think what made her particularly appealing was the intangible stuff. She was very friendly and popular with faculty and students alike and her participation in ECs was authentic and not for application credit. I think her application conveyed sense of authenticity. (We didn't use a consultant.)

Anyhow, she did well in RD: Pomona, another WASP, a couple Ivies, a couple Ivy+'s, and other top LACs. Having read the pessimistic takes here and on CC, we had no idea how she would do beforehand though. Also, and I mean this, there are so many good colleges out there. DD also really liked a lot of great colleges that people on this forum often turn their nose up at. I'm pretty sure DD would have gotten a great education and had a great experience somewhere like Macalester, Scripps, or W&M. So getting into prestigious colleges was wonderful for DD, but it never felt make or break.

NP: Sounds like you have a great kid - congrats. This restores some of my faith in the system that good, truly nice, well-rounded kids get into good schools and not just manufactured robots whose lives are totally curated by their tiger parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know where connected/legacy/big donors’ kids go. How about academic superstars who are unconnected and full pay with top teachers’ recs? This is a kid loved by teachers in the toughest most advanced subjects, asked to be TA where 95% of classes don’t have a student TA, who has 3.9 GPA where no one gets a 4.0. Otherwise unconnected, no sport, not URM, nothing special ECs (head of robotics club, part-time job type stuff). We know it won’t be Ivies, Stanford, MIT, but where? School sends at least 20% to top 10 schools each year, 50% to top 25; we imagine they are mostly legacy.

The ones that are at the top of feeder privates and fit the description above (toughest classes, top scores) go to ivies or Stanford and such, as long as they convey in ECs and essays that they care about something outsidebof class and they have made an impact. This can be done with more routine ECs. You said the school sends 20% to top 10, no way most of those are hooked! You need to ask how many are unhooked. Harvard-westlake high school publishes data on unhooked v hooked but many other schools will tell the parents in conference.
Our less-feederish-than-yours HS sends about 10-12% of a 105 student class to ivies/t15 and just over half each year are hooked(legacy, recruit, questbridge, urm). Counseling verbally goes through the scattergram differences but does not put the hooks in writing. Result has been 5% of the class goes to T15/ivy unhooked, most in ED but the very top ones get in RD often to more than one. The students at the very top with top everything are told to apply to several reaches and encouraged to reach high, and are not encouraged to ED of they do not have a favorite. The ones who are in range but near the edge of threshold of being the very top are discouraged from anything other than ED to a t15. You realize the counseling differences when you have gone through it with a superstar unhooked 2023 kid (got in RD to multiple t10/ivy) and then a top-rigor 3.9uw but not superstar top of class kid (ended up ED to an ivy typically ranked usnews 15-18 and they got deferred ED then in RD). We appreciated the honesty with both.
The problem is most parents who have the latter excellent amazing kid do not have personal experience with the former, a true superstar academic outlier, and they do not realize they are different even from feeders.
Our school has never sent 20% to top 10 as yours does thus it should be easier from your high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok I took our private's published matriculation for the last 8 years (inputted it into paid AI) along with the "private" data on admissions last 3 years (our CCO gives a list of how many were admitted to each school in a cycle - not attending but admitted - only have that outside of Naviance for last 3 years).

AI examined all of the results and gave me some great analysis (also gave me reaches and targets where everyone wasn't applying). You should do the same.

If you have the data to do this, absolutely do this and then ask pointed questions to CCO (whether to REA or ED at certain schools).

We instead took the Naviance data, did some of this by hand last year, and asked CCO the following based on data for the last 3 years:
- chances for REA to Harvard or Yale if not hooked (0% early and 30% after a deferral)
- chances for ED to Penn if unhooked (25% early and 50% after a deferral)
- chances for ED to Duke if unhooked (10% early and 25% after a deferral) - better chances in RD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know where connected/legacy/big donors’ kids go. How about academic superstars who are unconnected and full pay with top teachers’ recs? This is a kid loved by teachers in the toughest most advanced subjects, asked to be TA where 95% of classes don’t have a student TA, who has 3.9 GPA where no one gets a 4.0. Otherwise unconnected, no sport, not URM, nothing special ECs (head of robotics club, part-time job type stuff). We know it won’t be Ivies, Stanford, MIT, but where? School sends at least 20% to top 10 schools each year, 50% to top 25; we imagine they are mostly legacy.

The ones that are at the top of feeder privates and fit the description above (toughest classes, top scores) go to ivies or Stanford and such, as long as they convey in ECs and essays that they care about something outsidebof class and they have made an impact. This can be done with more routine ECs. You said the school sends 20% to top 10, no way most of those are hooked! You need to ask how many are unhooked. Harvard-westlake high school publishes data on unhooked v hooked but many other schools will tell the parents in conference.
Our less-feederish-than-yours HS sends about 10-12% of a 105 student class to ivies/t15 and just over half each year are hooked(legacy, recruit, questbridge, urm). Counseling verbally goes through the scattergram differences but does not put the hooks in writing. Result has been 5% of the class goes to T15/ivy unhooked, most in ED but the very top ones get in RD often to more than one. The students at the very top with top everything are told to apply to several reaches and encouraged to reach high, and are not encouraged to ED of they do not have a favorite. The ones who are in range but near the edge of threshold of being the very top are discouraged from anything other than ED to a t15. You realize the counseling differences when you have gone through it with a superstar unhooked 2023 kid (got in RD to multiple t10/ivy) and then a top-rigor 3.9uw but not superstar top of class kid (ended up ED to an ivy typically ranked usnews 15-18 and they got deferred ED then in RD). We appreciated the honesty with both.
The problem is most parents who have the latter excellent amazing kid do not have personal experience with the former, a true superstar academic outlier, and they do not realize they are different even from feeders.
Our school has never sent 20% to top 10 as yours does thus it should be easier from your high school.

Add to your comment:
A large share of hooked applicants did very well academically.
A small to medium share of legacy kids did poorly academically and are not going to ivies.
Some legacy kids matriculate to school that is not parents' college.

Academic powerhouse always stood out regardless how many connected kids in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know where connected/legacy/big donors’ kids go. How about academic superstars who are unconnected and full pay with top teachers’ recs? This is a kid loved by teachers in the toughest most advanced subjects, asked to be TA where 95% of classes don’t have a student TA, who has 3.9 GPA where no one gets a 4.0. Otherwise unconnected, no sport, not URM, nothing special ECs (head of robotics club, part-time job type stuff). We know it won’t be Ivies, Stanford, MIT, but where? School sends at least 20% to top 10 schools each year, 50% to top 25; we imagine they are mostly legacy.

The ones that are at the top of feeder privates and fit the description above (toughest classes, top scores) go to ivies or Stanford and such, as long as they convey in ECs and essays that they care about something outsidebof class and they have made an impact. This can be done with more routine ECs. You said the school sends 20% to top 10, no way most of those are hooked! You need to ask how many are unhooked. Harvard-westlake high school publishes data on unhooked v hooked but many other schools will tell the parents in conference.
Our less-feederish-than-yours HS sends about 10-12% of a 105 student class to ivies/t15 and just over half each year are hooked(legacy, recruit, questbridge, urm). Counseling verbally goes through the scattergram differences but does not put the hooks in writing. Result has been 5% of the class goes to T15/ivy unhooked, most in ED but the very top ones get in RD often to more than one. The students at the very top with top everything are told to apply to several reaches and encouraged to reach high, and are not encouraged to ED of they do not have a favorite. The ones who are in range but near the edge of threshold of being the very top are discouraged from anything other than ED to a t15. You realize the counseling differences when you have gone through it with a superstar unhooked 2023 kid (got in RD to multiple t10/ivy) and then a top-rigor 3.9uw but not superstar top of class kid (ended up ED to an ivy typically ranked usnews 15-18 and they got deferred ED then in RD). We appreciated the honesty with both.
The problem is most parents who have the latter excellent amazing kid do not have personal experience with the former, a true superstar academic outlier, and they do not realize they are different even from feeders.
Our school has never sent 20% to top 10 as yours does thus it should be easier from your high school.

what distinguished your two kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she attends a school like Sidwell, NCS, STA or GDS and she is truly in the top 10 students in the class and has decent rigor and resume then any school is possible. If she is top 5 at one of these high schools then HYPMS is almost probable if she has half way decent extracurriculars.

These schools differ than public because the kids are really stratified by grading (there is no bunching at the top). There may be one kid with a 3.95 And then 5 with grades above a 3.9. So when you are in those top kids you are highly desirable to elite colleges.

what about a level down, maybe top 20% so 3.75 - 3-9?

3.85-3.95 generally all get top25.

3.75 can get top40. At DC's Big3 school 3.8 is sort of the "line in the sand" for a top30 school. The top30 colleges don't really take the 3.7s regardless of how high their SAT score is, how great the extracurriculars are, etc. (I'm talking unhooked kids here).

3.8uw is the line at our non-DC private too

How many percent got in T25?

50%+

Among the 50% + T25, how many are hooked and below 3.8 uw?

At our private school, the legacy typically are above that gpa. The athletes are borderline. Recently the URM are at the line or above.

So 3.8 is the average gpa.

Rampant grade inflation.

I don't know. We have a lot of kids who get into T25, and 3.75 is kind of the line too. The 3.9+ are HYPSM; 3.8 are the next tier and 3.7+ are the Michigan, Emory, WashU, Georgetown schools.

Aren't these the T25 schools

[Anonymous]

What do the activities /EC lists look like for private school T20 admits (think Northwestern, or Duke or Vanderbilt)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at Emory/Tufts/Wash U/Rice

Emory, WashU have many well connected students. Rice, John Hopkins, Caltech, MIT, the publics are better options.

[Texanviadelco]

Late to the party, but from description of your child’s diverse interests including scientific research and humanities, my alma mater, UChicago, may be a consideration. “She wants to solve problems with science.” That IS UChicago. But if she changes her mind from the sciences as an undergrad and wants to get rich, UChicago College as a target for investment banking and consulting firms can make that happen too. Scientific bent but a creative writing scratch to itch, that is UChicago too. Virtually every academic department in the top ten nationally per US News rankings whether in the sciences, social sciences or humanities. In the last few years UChicago has established molecular engineering majors, but does not have traditional engineering.

[Anonymous]

Unconnected unhooked kid at an ivy in a popular major and other top 10s. The other ivy admits were questbridge or other hooks. Unhooked in RD definitely happens for the very top kids.