College Admissions Doesn't Need to Be So Competitive: Super High Stat Kids are not "a dime a dozen."

[Anonymous]

Sour grapes. My 1500+, full pay, high rigor, top 10% kid didn’t get into any T-25’s (waitlisted at 3, rejected at 1) and was happy with their T-30 to T-50 choices. No one is entitled to anything. The less selective schools all have labs, libraries, programs, student clubs/organizations and opportunities for involvement. It’s on the student to make the most of where they land instead of wasting time speculating on other people’s qualifications.

[Anonymous]

Sorry your kid didn’t get into HYPSM but move on. Who cares? I don’t spend my waking nights cursing students I’ve never met. Life is unfair. Learn that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. T20 universities and T10 lacs admit too many hooked applicants. If they are admitting over 20% QuestBridge, they should increase their class proportionally.

You could look at the data and realize that Ivies have 10-20% of kids (mostly white kids) who are being admitted because they're legacies, i.e. because they had the luck to be born to a rich alum. But I guess it's more convenient to blame the poor brown kids for being undeserving.

PP here. Agreed. Legacy too. If they are admitting 10-20% legacy and over 20% QuestBridge, they should increase their class proportionally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need/want to round out clubs, theater, sports, etc and their admissions are geared accordingly to ensure their campuses are filled with enriching students of varying backgrounds and contributions to their communities.

Give a break. Those contributions to communities stop as soon as they get the acceptance. Do you think the people working on wall st or silicon vally have time for ECs? hah

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sour grapes. My 1500+, full pay, high rigor, top 10% kid didn’t get into any T-25’s (waitlisted at 3, rejected at 1) and was happy with their T-30 to T-50 choices. No one is entitled to anything. The less selective schools all have labs, libraries, programs, student clubs/organizations and opportunities for involvement. It’s on the student to make the most of where they land instead of wasting time speculating on other people’s qualifications.

My 1580 SAT, 4.6 weighted, 4.0 unweighted, 15 AP, Merit Finalist can't wait to go to Penn State next fall. He applied to a few reaches but didn't really care because he was lucky enough to have fallen in love with Penn State and what he can do there since his APs transfer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. T20 universities and T10 lacs admit too many hooked applicants. If they are admitting over 20% QuestBridge, they should increase their class proportionally.

You could look at the data and realize that Ivies have 10-20% of kids (mostly white kids) who are being admitted because they're legacies, i.e. because they had the luck to be born to a rich alum. But I guess it's more convenient to blame the poor brown kids for being undeserving.

PP here. Agreed. Legacy too. If they are admitting 10-20% legacy and over 20% QuestBridge, they should increase their class proportionally.

And don't forget the 20% internationals!

The truth is there is VERY little room at these top schools (mainly the ivies) because of legacy, athletes, quest bridge, donors and celebrities and full pay internationals. The acceptance rate for your average middle income high stat kid has to be laughably low. LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your whole life revolves around a “top college” maybe you need to reevaluate your priorities. Life is more than college.

Life consists of a bunch of smaller events, college, job, marriage. Can’t say they are not priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sour grapes. My 1500+, full pay, high rigor, top 10% kid didn’t get into any T-25’s (waitlisted at 3, rejected at 1) and was happy with their T-30 to T-50 choices. No one is entitled to anything. The less selective schools all have labs, libraries, programs, student clubs/organizations and opportunities for involvement. It’s on the student to make the most of where they land instead of wasting time speculating on other people’s qualifications.

My 1580 SAT, 4.6 weighted, 4.0 unweighted, 15 AP, Merit Finalist can't wait to go to Penn State next fall. He applied to a few reaches but didn't really care because he was lucky enough to have fallen in love with Penn State and what he can do there since his APs transfer.

Sounds smart actually!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. T20 universities and T10 lacs admit too many hooked applicants. If they are admitting over 20% QuestBridge, they should increase their class proportionally.

You could look at the data and realize that Ivies have 10-20% of kids (mostly white kids) who are being admitted because they're legacies, i.e. because they had the luck to be born to a rich alum. But I guess it's more convenient to blame the poor brown kids for being undeserving.

PP here. Agreed. Legacy too. If they are admitting 10-20% legacy and over 20% QuestBridge, they should increase their class proportionally.

And don't forget the 20% internationals!

The truth is there is VERY little room at these top schools (mainly the ivies) because of legacy, athletes, quest bridge, donors and celebrities and full pay internationals. The acceptance rate for your average middle income high stat kid has to be laughably low. LOL.

PP. International are held on higher standards for admission. I am okay with that.

When colleges lower their standards to admit a group, they should do so by setting aside those quotas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In his Substack post "College Admissions Doesn't Need to Be So Competitive," Arjun Panickssery argues that the intense competition for admission to top U.S. universities is not inevitable.

He suggests that factors like affirmative action, legacy preferences, institutional priorities, and athletic recruitment, rather than a vast oversupply of talent, drive the "rat race."

He notes that the top 20 schools enroll about 49,000 students annually (1.3% of high school graduates), and, the talent pool with high SAT scores (e.g., 1550+) isn’t as large as perceived—there are actually not that many "high stat" kids.

He also compares US admissions to admissions abroad and that the colleges abroad make their stats and requirements clear and limit the number of colleges students can apply to which is way less stressful and is rooted in merit not holistic admissions.

https://arjunpanickssery.substack.com/p/college-admissions-doesnt-need-to

I've had two unhooked kids get into HYP who did not have a 1550. higher than 1500, but not 1550.

So move the needle down to 1500 and there are really a lot of high stats kids.

also, take out about 20% of the 49,000 kids for athletes.

[Anonymous]

The College board needs to release raw scores for the AP tests. That way MIT and Cornell can see whether your 5 on Physics EM was a 98% or a 61%.

We throw away a lot of information that could be useful for everyone in the process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The College board needs to release raw scores for the AP tests. That way MIT and Cornell can see whether your 5 on Physics EM was a 98% or a 61%.

We throw away a lot of information that could be useful for everyone in the process.

the kids who would get 98% raw on ap physics would be doing other stuff like science or physics olympiad .

What you are suggesting was accomplished with the SAT IIs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The College board needs to release raw scores for the AP tests. That way MIT and Cornell can see whether your 5 on Physics EM was a 98% or a 61%.

We throw away a lot of information that could be useful for everyone in the process.

Is that really how they are graded? I figured a 5 would be at least an 85% on the test. I think it matters because kids opt out of these classes. I'd want to know as a kid too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The College board needs to release raw scores for the AP tests. That way MIT and Cornell can see whether your 5 on Physics EM was a 98% or a 61%.

We throw away a lot of information that could be useful for everyone in the process.

Sure, if the goal is to assemble a class of kids who test well.

[Anonymous]

Who is this person and why should I care what they think?

I googled them and only saw "google scholar" and some random websites come up.