IMHO This is by far the most overlooked aspect of the application process. Kids are different each year. Adcoms read thousands of applications. The few consistent factors are the reputation of the high school and its staff. If a well respected HS guidance counselor says "This is the smartest, nicest kid I have had in years" and the stats support that, I believe that is the ultimate catalyst. Congrats to your kid! |
How do you know this? At DC's school, the recs were sent directly to the colleges and DC not allowed to see them. |
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3.5 GPA
26 ACT no Ap's, no honors recruited athlete, decided to go D1 over NESCAC, going to Patriot League |
| Youngest is off to college. University of Florida. 3.8 GPA 32 ACT. Florida is his dream school and has been since forever. GO GATORS! |
My friend's daughter is playing lacrosse there! |
I'm so excited for him! |
DP but my kids’ teachers allowed them to see the recs before they were sent to the colleges in a “is this what you were loooking for? Everything you want discussed in here included?” way. |
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3.85 UW GPA
31 ACT Varsity XC and track 400 volunteer hours MCPS Off to UW-Madison! |
That's fantastic. So you could shop around for the best recs. DC just had to guess at who would give the best recs; not sure he/she guessed right.
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No offense but those stats would only get into the very bottom NESCACs, if that |
Because they told us what they think about DC and what they wrote (after the fact). We did not read the actual recs. |
I know right, I never thought it would work but he never lost faith that his sport would get him where he wanted to go. The NASCAC asked if he would retake and get a 28 (which he could have done, actually practice and study for it) and he decide to stick with the other school. |
+1 I don't think those stats would get into any NESCAC school, including the bottom-ranked ones. |
But it did. See that is the thing, it's a game, you play it your way, he played it his way. |
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Just want to thank participants on this thread, because as a recent transplant to this country, I have no idea what colleges are looking for and how my children measure up. |