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All these smart kids are getting rejected across the board
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Anonymous
Yes. And? |
Anonymous
If they’re getting rejected from EVERY school they applied to, they got bad advice on what their target and safety schools are. |
Anonymous
| Their list is unrealistic |
Anonymous
Actually, the average acceptance rate at most schools is about 68% so students shouldn't have any problem getting accepted. The problem you're referring to is the result of students applying to the same T25 schools. There are just aren't enough seats for all the kids applying to those schools, including international students. But the overall number of kids attending a traditional 4 yr school has declined slightly and is expected to continue on a downward trajectory given low birth rates. OP, your kids should be fine. |
Anonymous
+1 At a minimum, top stat students should be applying to the top 2 or 3 public schools in their state. If all they are doing is applying to the same T20 schools as every other top stat kid, they are not understanding the process. |
Anonymous
| My kid went to a competitive MD school where he never had a B, took several APs (probably not enough and this “hurt” him) and strong extracurriculars. Because of finances we didn’t apply ED anywhere. At the end of the process, he was rejected by 2 top 20 schools, waitlisted/rejected by 2 schools in the 20-30 range, accepted by 2 schools in the 30-40 range but with little/no merit, and ultimately accepted a mid-50 state school (think Pitt/Syracuse/UMD) with merit. He’s disappointed and feels that all his effort was for naught but moving forward and knows that there will be money for grad school. Personally I think he’ll have plentiful opportunities for grad school or employment if he excels there, but the DMV area is so competitive and can grind them down. |
Anonymous
| If they are getting shut out "across the board" they did not craft their list well. Getting into the TOP schools is difficult, getting into GOOD schools is not. |
Anonymous
Except the top schools accept applications from around the world, so the supply of applicants is limitless. |
Anonymous
| Parents of seniors at our school are using words like bloodbath to describe the seniors acceptances. Kids who worked hard and did everything they were supposed to are not getting in to top 20-50 schools. Too many white, UMC families who saved and can pay full price are not getting in whereas 10 years ago they would have. It's partly due to test-optional and partly due to more diversity (socio-economic and racial) being sought after at top schools. |
Anonymous
No, it’s due to everyone “shooting their shot” at the same colleges. Stop blaming testing and diversity. Colleges have been looking for diverse classes for decades. It’s not new. What’s new is clear. The applications are exploding at top schools and falling at the rest. The reason is probably layered, from subtle things like adults belittling good options that aren’t impressive (my gosh, even JMU gets ripped here) to grade inflation making parents think their middle of the pack student is at the top of the class…again there are many reasons. Stop blaming stupid stuff that makes you made and use reason. |
Anonymous
| You’re hearing the same anecdote amplified a billion times. Yes there are good, even exceptional students, who don’t get into a top ten school. But this is the norm not the exception. A student with a 1600 SAT will get into college; AP scholar with distinction will get into college; NMSF will get into college. Those students chances of getting into a top 10? About 3%. That’s the number of students those top ten accept each year. Stop being surprised that 90% of qualified students don’t get accepted at an Ivy or Stanford or Duke. |
Anonymous
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The only hope for these kids is Early Decision. Unfortunately not all schools offer it. My 9th grader has a dream school which is our alma mater and there is no ED. My hope is the will add this option in the next couple of years.
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Anonymous
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It's a very different world than it was for us in the 1980s and 1990s.
Ranking is now seen as prestige, and people have been fooled into thinking that a low acceptance rate means a good school. As a result, the schools are working to pump up their applications with a goal to simply rejecting more kids, because it makes their rate go down. Presto: "prestige". Add the basic demographics of a lot more kids. Then throw in the desire for schools to build brand (which also drives up applications) by signaling that they are at the forefront of social engineering and fixing the wrongs of the past, and URMs get prioritized, as do kids from places with few students. It means a non-URM kid from the DMV is second or third in line, and in some cases allegedly means that Asian kids are at an even greater disadvantage. Note that the above has F$$^# all to do with the quality of education. So if you build a good list with your kid based on the actual education likely received, it'll be just fine. |
Anonymous
| Applications were WAY up this year so schools could afford to be more selective. Example: Cornell had 70K applications this year. |
Anonymous
tell that to legacies. |