My kid isn't getting in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP! But why such hate for UMD? Lots of kids got rejected by UmD this year. I get you have a high stats kid and hoped to get into a selective school. But unfortunately, high stats are not enough. 3 years ago my kid 1580 SAt, 800 on physics, math2, history, 15 APs and 2 beyond AP classes, software entrepreneur, rejected by MIT, Stanford, CMU, Cornell, Penn and Princeton. Only got acceptance from his safety schools UMD, Michigan and Georgia Tech. All honors. My nephew had a similar story, high stats but rejected everywhere. He was beyond depressed when he realized other lower stats kids getting into these schools. That was it for me. For me DC2, we didn’t apply to any school with less than 30% acceptance rate and it has been good so far!
Hang in there. It will be fine. UMD is a good school. Goal is to get an education… it will be met

This is almost the same as my friend's son, SAT 1600, 15 APs all 5, Presidential service award, sports team captain, cello first chair, rejected from dream schools Stanford, MIT, CMU and other top schools, only got accepted from his safety UVA. It took more than a year for the parents and kid to recover from the disappointment.

That's kind of messed up. It took a year for the parents and kid to recover?

I believe it took them that long. It is not messed up. You have no clue because you don't have a high achieving kid like that who worked his a@@ off for YEARS to get top grades and scores. You think achieving academic success like that is easy? Of course they were disappointed. Their reaction is entirely expected and quite human. If they weren't disappointed I would be amazed. You know nothing about this.

DP...we all have high achieving kids. Seriously, your kid is a dime a dozen in this context. Get over it.

[Anonymous]

We hired a college consulting firm and they were a waste of money. We didn’t do any SAT prep but outstanding scores and GPAs don’t seem to matter anyway. At this point my 4.5+ kid will prob take a gap year and consider completely diff schools next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’ve confirmed something I’ve long suspected. My kid goes to a lesser ranked public high school and the neighborhood just nearby is a much higher ranked high school. I always suspected that he would end up in the same place as the rich kids nearby, but they would be disappointed they ended up there while he will be satisfied. He would really like to go to CP and doesn’t know anyone at his high school who would make him feel ashamed of it.

We go to a high school with "rich kids" and no one at our schools makes other students feel ashamed of going to UMD. A lot of the "rich kids," as you say, were rejected this year. So not sure why you think being rich has anything to do with whether kids approve or don't approve of UMD. You honestly sound jealous.

PP made a very good and true point, you seem to have missed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: We hired a college consulting firm and they were a waste of money. We didn’t do any SAT prep but outstanding scores and GPAs don’t seem to matter anyway. At this point my 4.5+ kid will prob take a gap year and consider completely diff schools next year.

Your kid will do fine wherever they end up. They changed the SAT distribution and more students have high scores, so nothing has really changed vs prior years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: We hired a college consulting firm and they were a waste of money. We didn’t do any SAT prep but outstanding scores and GPAs don’t seem to matter anyway. At this point my 4.5+ kid will prob take a gap year and consider completely diff schools next year.

That deserves its own thread. Haven’t heard anyone doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: We hired a college consulting firm and they were a waste of money. We didn’t do any SAT prep but outstanding scores and GPAs don’t seem to matter anyway. At this point my 4.5+ kid will prob take a gap year and consider completely diff schools next year.

Your kid will do fine wherever they end up. They changed the SAT distribution and more students have high scores, so nothing has really changed vs prior years.

The SAT percentiles changed in 2019 and hadn't changed since 2006 before that. The 2019 charts aren't very different from 2006 at all. They're enormously different from pre-1995, if that's what you mean. But things have changed quite a bit since then.

You're right that they'll do fine wherever they end up, though, as long as their ability to deal with emotional disappointment improves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP! But why such hate for UMD? Lots of kids got rejected by UmD this year. I get you have a high stats kid and hoped to get into a selective school. But unfortunately, high stats are not enough. 3 years ago my kid 1580 SAt, 800 on physics, math2, history, 15 APs and 2 beyond AP classes, software entrepreneur, rejected by MIT, Stanford, CMU, Cornell, Penn and Princeton. Only got acceptance from his safety schools UMD, Michigan and Georgia Tech. All honors. My nephew had a similar story, high stats but rejected everywhere. He was beyond depressed when he realized other lower stats kids getting into these schools. That was it for me. For me DC2, we didn’t apply to any school with less than 30% acceptance rate and it has been good so far!
Hang in there. It will be fine. UMD is a good school. Goal is to get an education… it will be met

This is almost the same as my friend's son, SAT 1600, 15 APs all 5, Presidential service award, sports team captain, cello first chair, rejected from dream schools Stanford, MIT, CMU and other top schools, only got accepted from his safety UVA. It took more than a year for the parents and kid to recover from the disappointment.

That's kind of messed up. It took a year for the parents and kid to recover?

I believe it took them that long. It is not messed up. You have no clue because you don't have a high achieving kid like that who worked his a@@ off for YEARS to get top grades and scores. You think achieving academic success like that is easy? Of course they were disappointed. Their reaction is entirely expected and quite human. If they weren't disappointed I would be amazed. You know nothing about this.

DP...we all have high achieving kids. Seriously, your kid is a dime a dozen in this context. Get over it.

The kids described above are not a dime a dozen in this context. Their disappointment at having to 'settle for' Maryland, Michigan or Georgia Tech reveals expectations out of touch with reality, though. Median SAT scores at those three schools are in the 96th, 98th and 97th percentiles respectively. Any kid with the stats outlined above will thrive at any of those schools and will have a bright future ahead of them if they continue to work so hard.

[Anonymous]

They are a dime a dozen in the context of the number of qualified kids applying to top 20 schools with the corresponding frustration expressed by the PP.

The schools generally haven't gotten bigger. What has grown are the number of kids applying and also the number of kids who have the 1% qualifications being described.

It's just reality that there are many more kids applying for the same number of seats and as a result, a lot of kids who would have been a shoe-in 20 years ago, are getting aced out now.

Parents are simply going to have to adjust to the reality that their kid, despite stellar records and years of hard work, are not getting into T20 type schools, and they and the students, are going to have to adjust to the new reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not being full pay is huge. I wish Naviance separated kids into full pay or not.

What does this mean? How would the UCs know if you are full pay or not, for example. Or for that matter you could be full pay at UVA. The common app does not have any way to indicate and everyone does FAFsA

The Common App asks if you are applying for need based aid. And not everyone fills out the FAFSA. We didn’t. We knew we wouldn’t get aid.

Not sure about this. Besides aren’t the schools OP is talking about supposedly need blind?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are a dime a dozen in the context of the number of qualified kids applying to top 20 schools with the corresponding frustration expressed by the PP.

The schools generally haven't gotten bigger. What has grown are the number of kids applying and also the number of kids who have the 1% qualifications being described.

It's just reality that there are many more kids applying for the same number of seats and as a result, a lot of kids who would have been a shoe-in 20 years ago, are getting aced out now.

Parents are simply going to have to adjust to the reality that their kid, despite stellar records and years of hard work, are not getting into T20 type schools, and they and the students, are going to have to adjust to the new reality.

+1 And the reality (not sure how new it is) is that it makes no sense for even extremely capable kids to focus on only 20-30 schools. There are well over 100 schools where smart, hard-working students can get an education that will prepare them well for whatever comes next, whether it be grad school or work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op...you are not making sense.

UMD is a better school than UofSC or Alabama or Miami of Ohio. And it’s cheaper since you’re in state.

Your son get into his target school thwt ias affordable, plus eh tried for some reaches.

Seems like a good strategy to me.

I agree. I know a lot of kids in my neighborhood that would love to have been accepted to UMD. And there are many annoyed parents that are going into debt to send their kids to lesser OOS schools. The college admissions process is ruthless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’ve confirmed something I’ve long suspected. My kid goes to a lesser ranked public high school and the neighborhood just nearby is a much higher ranked high school. I always suspected that he would end up in the same place as the rich kids nearby, but they would be disappointed they ended up there while he will be satisfied. He would really like to go to CP and doesn’t know anyone at his high school who would make him feel ashamed of it.

We go to a high school with "rich kids" and no one at our schools makes other students feel ashamed of going to UMD. A lot of the "rich kids," as you say, were rejected this year. So not sure why you think being rich has anything to do with whether kids approve or don't approve of UMD. You honestly sound jealous.

PP made a very good and true point, you seem to have missed it.

Kids at our rich public school do not approve of umd. They sneer, they look down, they judge you. The assumption is you didn’t get in anywhere else because you are not that smart or you are too poor to pay oos or go private college. I am sure it’s coming from their parents. Deciding to attend umd if you go to our school is like going against the tide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, thanks for not blaming the URM boogeyman like most of the grievance-,filled DCUM posters do when their DC doesn't get admitted to his/ her college of choice.

God damn it. Some of you act like admissions standards aren't quantifiably lower for URMs and first gens. The data is readily available: they are. And each of those acceptances means one fewer acceptance for students -- many of them sons and daughters of people who post here -- not in favored demographic groups but with much higher stats. It's bull crap. And just to preempt the response I'm sure is coming, yes, legacies have gotten the same favorable treatment for many years. That's bull crap too.

+1. The stats are out there. Harvard and UNC have to defend the practice of URM preference admissions due, precisely to the fact the qualifications are not the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, thanks for not blaming the URM boogeyman like most of the grievance-,filled DCUM posters do when their DC doesn't get admitted to his/ her college of choice.

God damn it. Some of you act like admissions standards aren't quantifiably lower for URMs and first gens. The data is readily available: they are. And each of those acceptances means one fewer acceptance for students -- many of them sons and daughters of people who post here -- not in favored demographic groups but with much higher stats. It's bull crap. And just to preempt the response I'm sure is coming, yes, legacies have gotten the same favorable treatment for many years. That's bull crap too.

A poor brown kid did not steal your kid’s spot. Try harder next time.

You have no idea, do you?

[Anonymous]

This area is warping people's brains and perceptions. I know we are talking about college here, and I am sympathetic to OP, but look at the post.

We are framing our kids as numbers...GPAs SATs and percentages. They're people who are going to do very well in life no matter what school they go to.

But we are so conditioned here to program our kids and their lives toward the great colleges and "ensuring" their futures, that we are forgetting what's important: education, happiness, and perspective.