What to put on my kids ED radar?

[Anonymous]

Brown has an awesome classics department that goes a bit against the grain of the rest of the school's sensibility in a good way. Sounds great for this kid. Otherwise agree with others that UChicago is the way to go.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like Swarthmore to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the ECs?

List of “possible” areas of study?

Location preference?

Size preference?

ECs are boring - two jv sports fresh and soph year. One for junior and dropped the others. No clubs. Did two biology focused summer camps but nothing else to show interest.

Possible study - he is gifted at Latin and will take the AP exam this year. So could apply as a Latin major just to be unique. Ultimately he has no idea what he wants to do in life. He’s really smart. He will likely do what smart kids did in the 90s which is go to college and figure out what to really do by going to grad school. Maybe law eventually?

He wants an east coast or Chicago city OR a semi rural SLAC. He liked bowdoin. He is anxious about the nescacs because he is a nerd and they have a lot of athletes. He doesn’t present nerd, he is tall and have average looks and dresses well, but he has limited social skills.

Size- not huge but would be fine with a variety.

Classics major.

Add some heft to ECs:
- join or form the high schools Latin/classics club
- Have him enter some of the Latin Olympiad’s (Certamen team)
- do private Latin tutoring for other kids
- Summer plans: Paideia institute or Calder Classics
- summer internship (auction house; antiquities collectibles) or summer Ancient Rome archeology program

Also get a part time job!

All of this gets a full pay male into Brown ED.

Helpful post. Great specific suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Or Grinnell or Bowdoin, just don't put too much assurance into the 1550. The smaller SLACs really look at the whole picture of the kid including ECs, recs and personal attributes.

[Anonymous]

Macalester and St Andrews would both be good fits and are safeties for him if that gives you some confidence

[Anonymous]

invest in a UChicago summer program.

then do ED0 there, ED1 at williams, ED2 at Bowdoin. RD to ivies.

[Anonymous]

I second (or third?) Brown.

[Anonymous]

Brown ED1; Chicago ED2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What t30 universities or t15 lac give the best boost for a competitive public school boy, likely top 5 in his class of 300, sat 1550 who is full pay. DS wants Ivy but he doesn’t have a hook or good enough ECs to realistically get in. He doesn’t have a set major he wants to pursue. His main goal is “name brand” and prestige 🙄.

What we are trying to avoid… wasting ED on a school he would really want, like Penn, where he would be fine academically but realistically won’t get into.

This doesn't sound like a kid who will get into the top schools, given the lack of ECs, no passion for anything, no dedication, no leadership.

He's smart but so are other kids. He wouldn't bring anything to the school.

So the advice is to look for lower ranked schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What t30 universities or t15 lac give the best boost for a competitive public school boy, likely top 5 in his class of 300, sat 1550 who is full pay. DS wants Ivy but he doesn’t have a hook or good enough ECs to realistically get in. He doesn’t have a set major he wants to pursue. His main goal is “name brand” and prestige 🙄.

What we are trying to avoid… wasting ED on a school he would really want, like Penn, where he would be fine academically but realistically won’t get into.

This doesn't sound like a kid who will get into the top schools, given the lack of ECs, no passion for anything, no dedication, no leadership.

He's smart but so are other kids. He wouldn't bring anything to the school.

So the advice is to look for lower ranked schools.

I had a boy like this. Late bloomer. Had one niche interest (with no related activities) and 2 sports. A pt summer job.

Junior year - with some prodding and planning from us and counselor - went all in and had 3-4 ECs in the works/summer programs/internships. Really took off in a niche academic area.

Ended up at Ivy.

[Anonymous]

Realistically I wouldn't waste ED on ivies except for Cornell. But as mentioned by many pps, Chicago is a much easier shot for ED. If you can afford their summer programs, you also get a chance at ED0. So

ED0 Chicago
ED1 Cornell
ED2 Washu/Emory
RD everywhere else, all T10, all ivies, lottery

[Anonymous]

I had a high stats boy who did what they wanted across a wide range of things and in the end was able to retrofit a "story" out of all of it. At HYP.

If you take enough things OFF your application, the story makes more sense. for example, my kid also played sports for a couple years and that stuff just never goes on the applications. it just confuses things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a high stats boy who did what they wanted across a wide range of things and in the end was able to retrofit a "story" out of all of it. At HYP.

If you take enough things OFF your application, the story makes more sense. for example, my kid also played sports for a couple years and that stuff just never goes on the applications. it just confuses things.

This is not what OP has. If you have a spike sure take things off the application so a story would emerge more clearly. OP's problem is different, I suspect he doesn't even have sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What t30 universities or t15 lac give the best boost for a competitive public school boy, likely top 5 in his class of 300, sat 1550 who is full pay. DS wants Ivy but he doesn’t have a hook or good enough ECs to realistically get in. He doesn’t have a set major he wants to pursue. His main goal is “name brand” and prestige 🙄.

What we are trying to avoid… wasting ED on a school he would really want, like Penn, where he would be fine academically but realistically won’t get into.

This doesn't sound like a kid who will get into the top schools, given the lack of ECs, no passion for anything, no dedication, no leadership.

He's smart but so are other kids. He wouldn't bring anything to the school.

So the advice is to look for lower ranked schools.

This is why I started the thread. We have all read the boards about how its impossible for unhooked kids to get into t whatever schools, and how the top schools have been dumbed down because only hooked kids can get in. So trying to strategized where my smart kid who isnt a leader can get into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What t30 universities or t15 lac give the best boost for a competitive public school boy, likely top 5 in his class of 300, sat 1550 who is full pay. DS wants Ivy but he doesn’t have a hook or good enough ECs to realistically get in. He doesn’t have a set major he wants to pursue. His main goal is “name brand” and prestige 🙄.

What we are trying to avoid… wasting ED on a school he would really want, like Penn, where he would be fine academically but realistically won’t get into.

This doesn't sound like a kid who will get into the top schools, given the lack of ECs, no passion for anything, no dedication, no leadership.

He's smart but so are other kids. He wouldn't bring anything to the school.

So the advice is to look for lower ranked schools.

This is why I started the thread. We have all read the boards about how its impossible for unhooked kids to get into t whatever schools, and how the top schools have been dumbed down because only hooked kids can get in. So trying to strategized where my smart kid who isnt a leader can get into.

Your state flagship.
Otherwise, get your kid to do a few things; hire professional help if you can’t do the strategic work.
Great ideas in this thread.