How did your DC fare applying to top colleges from privates that don't rank or weight grades/GPA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Has he done or will he do any of his activities at a state and/or national level of recognition? Has he done something unique? Please tell more.

Anonymous wrote:My son does competitive chorus and lots of plays and artsy things - not a real athlete! But very involved with school in lots of ways. Also expect him to make National Merit semi-finalist cut-off (if the number doesn't go up again!)

Was the SAT score north of 2300+. If not, get in line.

I disagree - if you look at even the 75% of accepted students to the Ivies, as long as the child scores 750+ on each section (2250) they have a great shot if the grades and school line up. This is where all that tuition you have paid should help - the better schools definitely know the Big 3 and know that they don't offer a lot of AP courses. But your son should still have taken several AP exams and done well - like 5s.

[Anonymous]

the top tier colleges/universities generally have an unspoken quota range for students from any given elite school in this area (so like H/Y/P will accept around 5-12 +/- kids from all the top schools in the area - so depends on who has applied where from your school)

[Anonymous]

OP. If your kid stands where you say he or she stands academically, the weighted, unweighted isn't an issue. The grades and the test scores back each other up. The difference is going to be other variables including recommendations from teachers, where your kid applies and where classmates apply. You to also consider the other issues colleges consider including extra curriculars, diversity etc. I don't know what school you are referring to, but I know our school has a new college counsel and parents were generally pleased this year with the results.

[Anonymous]

For all parents considering - this is why I say private for lower grades through middle school and Wilson or Mont County public for High School. Best of both worlds if elite college is what you are looking for.

[Anonymous]

New poster - does anyone feel that a child close to what the OP has described would stand a better chance going ED? I saw some stats in the NY Times last fall that some of the Ivies especially have 25-30% acceptance rate on a much smaller pool of applicants, and some schools like Harvard, U of Chicago, Penn, Hopkins and Cornell fill more than 40% of the incoming freshman class from early admits. Especially schools that can lock kids in early. Seems like it is a game changer - and harder to get in regular admit if you guess wrong and don't get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the top tier colleges/universities generally have an unspoken quota range for students from any given elite school in this area (so like H/Y/P will accept around 5-12 +/- kids from all the top schools in the area - so depends on who has applied where from your school)

Harvard took 4 Sidwell kids early admissions this year, and I am sure that there were kids from the other DC privates also got in. So maybe if there is an unspoken quota, early is the way to go?

[Anonymous]

Four kids from Harvard? Are you sure that's right? I know that people are talking about Sidwell placing six kids to Stanford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New poster - does anyone feel that a child close to what the OP has described would stand a better chance going ED? I saw some stats in the NY Times last fall that some of the Ivies especially have 25-30% acceptance rate on a much smaller pool of applicants, and some schools like Harvard, U of Chicago, Penn, Hopkins and Cornell fill more than 40% of the incoming freshman class from early admits. Especially schools that can lock kids in early. Seems like it is a game changer - and harder to get in regular admit if you guess wrong and don't get in.

Yes, it is good to apply early -- it does increase the odds and at some schools, like UPenn, it increases them significantly. All colleges, even the most elite, pay a lot of attention to U.S. News & World rankings, and their yield is an important factor. The early application process, even where it is "Early Action" (like Yale, where you can still apply to other places regular admission) and not "Early Decision" (where you commit that you will not apply elsewhere regular), helps colleges manage their yield. This is the reason why selective colleges use their waiting lists more than in the past as well.

With that said, it's important to know if your child has a good profile for Early acceptance at a given school. If your child is strong, but six other kids with stronger grades/scores plan to apply early to the same school, that will lengthen the odds for your child. Do listen to the hints the college counselors give you -- they don't want to discourage kids from reaching, but the Early application coin is valuable and shouldn't be "wasted" either by applying to a school where the odds are very long or a school that the student doesn't really want to go to (but thinks they will get into).

Agree with the posters who say not to worry about unweighted grades and class rank. The reps are indeed familiar with these schools -- as another poster said -- sometimes even down to the level of what teachers are the toughest graders. One Ivy has had the same person responsible for the DC privates since the early 1980s -- that rep knows the transcripts inside and out and the teachers to boot. (I once saw a rep from a top college beam from ear to ear at a school function upon meeting face-to-face a teacher recommender who was apparently famed at that particular college for the insightfulness/eloquence of the recommendations.)

This seems daunting but there really are a wealth of superb schools out there. It is more important than ever before not to obsess about 1-2 specific schools, because the admissions rates are so low that there is a "margin of error" built in, but to build a good list. There's so much information out there now that I do think it's possible to put together a great and balanced list. And with the advent of Naviance, you don't just have to take a counselors' word for the typical profile of an admittee from your school, you can see some data.

Good luck, it can be stressful but it all works out!

Signed,

A Veteran

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks for the great comments and insight. Our child's school has a new college counselor heading the office and she doesn't seem to have a lot of connections. Georgetown only took 1 kid in this year's graduating class EA, and parents were shocked. I wasn't sure if it was because of the rank/GPA situation. A PP is right - none of the DC Independents that I know of rank or calculate GPAs

Our kids (2 grads and 1 current student) were/are at a Big 3 with a new counselor; maybe the same one as yours, maybe not. You know what, there are always junior class parents who get freaked out or irrationally exuberant when they hear the news about the seniors. The problem is, though, that much of this info is incomplete and unreliable.

OP, keep calm and carry on. Help your kid identify what s/he is looking for and come up with a list of 9 schools balanced among reaches, likelies and safeties, including one super-safety. Make sure your DC gets some work done on the apps before fall. Help him/her suss out whether to apply EA/ED. (Yes, of course, it's advantageous, but only if your kid really has his/her heart set on a favorite. This is true even of EA b/c kids will often just go with the EA option out of inertia and relief over having the process over with.)

Most important, try to keep things on an even keel so that you're not adding to DC's stress. Really, your child sounds like s/he is bright, self-motivated and blessed with many advantages. If s/he gets into only the second choice school or third choice, or heck, even 5th choice -- all will be well. Many of your friends, neighbors and colleagues were not accepted at their first-choice school and have gone on to live happy, purposeful and succesful lives. It is your responsibility as the adult in this process who knows your child best and loves him/her the most (together with his/her dad) to bear this in mind.

[Anonymous]

got (and took) hints to apply early to Penn - if your kid is in the top tier but there are still kids with 'more perfect' grades & scores & activities (& connections/legacies with schools) in his class, it can be a good option to show the school you are will take the spot that's given (ie. Penn & some of the other 'tier 2 ivies & similar like to take lots of their kids from this area early so they don't get seen as the 'safety school' for the Harvard pool)

[Anonymous]

If your kid is applying to highly competitive colleges from a well-known private, the colleges will know what their GPA means. Theses schools all have longstanding relationships. Amherst understands what a 3:8 at St. Albans means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the top tier colleges/universities generally have an unspoken quota range for students from any given elite school in this area (so like H/Y/P will accept around 5-12 +/- kids from all the top schools in the area - so depends on who has applied where from your school)

Not part of a Big X, but my sense is that except maybe for St. Albans, the days are long gone where a singly ivy would take up to 12 kids from a local private. I think I've heard of 4 who got into Yale from Sidwell and GDS this year -- that's still a lot -- but some of them are cross admits to Stanford and other schools. But anything near 12 from one high school class of maybe 120 kids accepted into a single ivy -- up to 10% of the high school class? I think those days are long past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the top tier colleges/universities generally have an unspoken quota range for students from any given elite school in this area (so like H/Y/P will accept around 5-12 +/- kids from all the top schools in the area - so depends on who has applied where from your school)

Not part of a Big X, but my sense is that except maybe for St. Albans, the days are long gone where a singly ivy would take up to 12 kids from a local private. I think I've heard of 4 who got into Yale from Sidwell and GDS this year -- that's still a lot -- but some of them are cross admits to Stanford and other schools. But anything near 12 from one high school class of maybe 120 kids accepted into a single ivy -- up to 10% of the high school class? I think those days are long past.

I read the post as saying that Harvard, Yale and Princeton collectively will accept 5 - 12 from top schools. That would make sense -- I agree that definitely none of the most selective schools is accepting 12 kids from any one relatively small school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine got into Princeton and it's a lot harder for girls to do that than boys nowadays since boys aren't doing as well grade wise and SAT wise. You should be fine OP. What activities is your son doing?

Congrats to your daughter. Just have to say how annoying I find it that it is more difficult for girls to gain admission since boys aren't doing well. Doesn't anyone realize how absurd that is? How many decades women were barred from elite schools because they couldn't cut it, but now when they can, the bar is positioned differently. What BS. Again, congrats to your daughter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New poster - does anyone feel that a child close to what the OP has described would stand a better chance going ED? I saw some stats in the NY Times last fall that some of the Ivies especially have 25-30% acceptance rate on a much smaller pool of applicants, and some schools like Harvard, U of Chicago, Penn, Hopkins and Cornell fill more than 40% of the incoming freshman class from early admits. Especially schools that can lock kids in early. Seems like it is a game changer - and harder to get in regular admit if you guess wrong and don't get in.

Absolutely yes. It is much more competitive getting in regular decision. You are competing with lots of other factors including lots of foreign (full pay) applicants.