Good luck for Ivy Day!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected for all ivy's for CS. Par for the course. 4.4 GPA (3.9UW), 1550 SAT single sitting. 12 APs- all 4s and 5s. College math through Calc 3 taken with As. Tons of incredible ECs in CS and athletics. Teachers and counselors said they raved. White male. Full pay.

Looks like he will be attending his 14th choice of college. He never felt he "deserved" anything- he is a gentle soul- but having been at the top of the class his entire life and working so hard and spending months on these applications, he is very quiet today, processing it.

Somewhat similar for DD's BFF: 4.0 u/w GPA in most rigorous classes, 1580 SAT, 2 800 SAT subject tests. No APs offered at school (see sundry threads on why rigorous independents do not offer APs). Good ECs, HS athlete/captain. Great writer. Full pay.

WLed @ Cornell, Duke, Harvard. Rejected @ Brown, Northwestern, Penn and Tufts. Most likely UVA or WashU.

Love this kid. Also hard to see when a couple kids in @ a few of the schools are enrolled in less rigorous classes, but do have connections.

So nice to see parents wish other kids would suffer or be punished when they have absolutely no idea what "a couple kids" go through, how they hard work, or what they have to offer. Such mean, nasty parents in this area.

Seriously. You are nasty people. you're talking about kids. You do realize that any kid with above about a 3.5 and 1400 will do more than fine at an Ivy. the admissions bar for most of much higher than it has to be for success at the universities. And the schools don't want classes full of 4.0/1600 super strivers who have never made an academic mistake in their lives. They simply don't and thankfully the Ivy universities and not parents are in charge of filling their classes with whichever flawed students tickle their fancies. For the love of everything holy, get a freaking life.

+100. I'm sure that kid is fantastic but, for better or worse, that profile is a dime a dozen. WashU and UVA are great and what I would have predicted with those stats. Assuming those other kids are less deserving based solely on "less rigorous classes" is the worst sort of sour grapes. According to DD, not one kid she knows that got into a top school with "connections" wasn't also a superstar in some way or another. But be self-righteous about it if it makes you feel better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected for all ivy's for CS. Par for the course. 4.4 GPA (3.9UW), 1550 SAT single sitting. 12 APs- all 4s and 5s. College math through Calc 3 taken with As. Tons of incredible ECs in CS and athletics. Teachers and counselors said they raved. White male. Full pay.

Looks like he will be attending his 14th choice of college. He never felt he "deserved" anything- he is a gentle soul- but having been at the top of the class his entire life and working so hard and spending months on these applications, he is very quiet today, processing it.

I say this gently, but did you look at Naviance? You DS sounds amazing, but his GPA seems low tbh. Maybe your DS is at a private, where grading is generally tougher and GPAs are definitely lower. My kid had a 4.5wGPA at good MCPS HS, but that wasn't remotely competitive for an Ivy (or many other top schools.)

I have to say I felt the same way about this profile. I actually don’t think there’s probably any difference between my DC and this profile other than they have a a higher Sat but again, anything over a certain number is treated all the same. Rest of the profile pretty similar and mine didn’t apply to a single Ivy.

NP here. Not saying you are wrong, but MCPS weights more than many other districts, including FCPS. In FCPS, an honors class is given 0.5 weight, not the 1.0 of MCPS. You can’t compare weighted GPAs across school districts.

that may be true but I am not on MCPS. We don't know this kids school or where that GPA put them but my NOVA kid was top 5 in their class (not percent, top five) and didn't even come close to applying to Ivies. They knew it was a crapshoot and frankly not worth the stress. Incidentally none of the top ten of that class is going to an Ivy. One got into Duke but chose another, the rest are going to UVA or another similarly ranked school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected for all ivy's for CS. Par for the course. 4.4 GPA (3.9UW), 1550 SAT single sitting. 12 APs- all 4s and 5s. College math through Calc 3 taken with As. Tons of incredible ECs in CS and athletics. Teachers and counselors said they raved. White male. Full pay.

Looks like he will be attending his 14th choice of college. He never felt he "deserved" anything- he is a gentle soul- but having been at the top of the class his entire life and working so hard and spending months on these applications, he is very quiet today, processing it.

I say this gently, but did you look at Naviance? You DS sounds amazing, but his GPA seems low tbh. Maybe your DS is at a private, where grading is generally tougher and GPAs are definitely lower. My kid had a 4.5wGPA at good MCPS HS, but that wasn't remotely competitive for an Ivy (or many other top schools.)

I have to say I felt the same way about this profile. I actually don’t think there’s probably any difference between my DC and this profile other than they have a a higher Sat but again, anything over a certain number is treated all the same. Rest of the profile pretty similar and mine didn’t apply to a single Ivy.

NP here. Not saying you are wrong, but MCPS weights more than many other districts, including FCPS. In FCPS, an honors class is given 0.5 weight, not the 1.0 of MCPS. You can’t compare weighted GPAs across school districts.

that may be true but I am not on MCPS. We don't know this kids school or where that GPA put them but my NOVA kid was top 5 in their class (not percent, top five) and didn't even come close to applying to Ivies. They knew it was a crapshoot and frankly not worth the stress. Incidentally none of the top ten of that class is going to an Ivy. One got into Duke but chose another, the rest are going to UVA or another similarly ranked school.

Generally, it seems like a challenging year for admissions. Anecdotally from my kid’s FCPS school, it sounds like a lot of kids got rejected/deferred/WL from UVA/W&M/VT that had pretty realistic expectations of getting admitted. Also, majoring in CS seems insanely competitive. Really, really tough major for acceptances.

How do you know that your kid is in the top 5 in an FCPS school? I have no idea where my kid stands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected for all ivy's for CS. Par for the course. 4.4 GPA (3.9UW), 1550 SAT single sitting. 12 APs- all 4s and 5s. College math through Calc 3 taken with As. Tons of incredible ECs in CS and athletics. Teachers and counselors said they raved. White male. Full pay.

Looks like he will be attending his 14th choice of college. He never felt he "deserved" anything- he is a gentle soul- but having been at the top of the class his entire life and working so hard and spending months on these applications, he is very quiet today, processing it.

I say this gently, but did you look at Naviance? You DS sounds amazing, but his GPA seems low tbh. Maybe your DS is at a private, where grading is generally tougher and GPAs are definitely lower. My kid had a 4.5wGPA at good MCPS HS, but that wasn't remotely competitive for an Ivy (or many other top schools.)

I have to say I felt the same way about this profile. I actually don’t think there’s probably any difference between my DC and this profile other than they have a a higher Sat but again, anything over a certain number is treated all the same. Rest of the profile pretty similar and mine didn’t apply to a single Ivy.

NP here. Not saying you are wrong, but MCPS weights more than many other districts, including FCPS. In FCPS, an honors class is given 0.5 weight, not the 1.0 of MCPS. You can’t compare weighted GPAs across school districts.

that may be true but I am not on MCPS. We don't know this kids school or where that GPA put them but my NOVA kid was top 5 in their class (not percent, top five) and didn't even come close to applying to Ivies. They knew it was a crapshoot and frankly not worth the stress. Incidentally none of the top ten of that class is going to an Ivy. One got into Duke but chose another, the rest are going to UVA or another similarly ranked school.

Generally, it seems like a challenging year for admissions. Anecdotally from my kid’s FCPS school, it sounds like a lot of kids got rejected/deferred/WL from UVA/W&M/VT that had pretty realistic expectations of getting admitted. Also, majoring in CS seems insanely competitive. Really, really tough major for acceptances.

How do you know that your kid is in the top 5 in an FCPS school? I have no idea where my kid stands.

Its LCPS and they rank.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected for all ivy's for CS. Par for the course. 4.4 GPA (3.9UW), 1550 SAT single sitting. 12 APs- all 4s and 5s. College math through Calc 3 taken with As. Tons of incredible ECs in CS and athletics. Teachers and counselors said they raved. White male. Full pay.

Looks like he will be attending his 14th choice of college. He never felt he "deserved" anything- he is a gentle soul- but having been at the top of the class his entire life and working so hard and spending months on these applications, he is very quiet today, processing it.

Somewhat similar for DD's BFF: 4.0 u/w GPA in most rigorous classes, 1580 SAT, 2 800 SAT subject tests. No APs offered at school (see sundry threads on why rigorous independents do not offer APs). Good ECs, HS athlete/captain. Great writer. Full pay.

WLed @ Cornell, Duke, Harvard. Rejected @ Brown, Northwestern, Penn and Tufts. Most likely UVA or WashU.

Love this kid. Also hard to see when a couple kids in @ a few of the schools are enrolled in less rigorous classes, but do have connections.

So nice to see parents wish other kids would suffer or be punished when they have absolutely no idea what "a couple kids" go through, how they hard work, or what they have to offer. Such mean, nasty parents in this area.

Again, this is is not my DC who didn't have a good day yesterday but my DC's BF.

Depending on the size of a graduating class (very different when it is 125 v 500+), if your DC has been a lifer, etc, it really isn't that hard to know what's going on, especially when one of the couple of kids bullied another one of my DCs for two years in middle school to the point where we had to consider a transfer.

How can you possibly infer that is being mean and nasty? It's being real.

[Anonymous]

So many students deferred due to Covid. Awful year. WL Yale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In at Harvard. Still in shock.

Congratulations to your DD or DS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to all who were admitted, and to those who weren’t, someone else said it very nicely - that the cream always rises to the top. I like that.
In another thread it was stated that parents of average kids have it so much easier. At first that annoyed me, being the parent of a better-than-average kid (by no means stellar) but it’s true. My kid was admitted to several state flagships (not quite UMD or UVA caliber) and is thrilled.
All of you have superstars. Good luck!

It’s not true and it’s weird to say that. Less than perfect students have dreams and reaches too. And their matches and reaches are needlessly harder because all the strivers use them as safeties. So their kid is crying and your kid doesn’t even really want to attend. Nothing “easier” about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WL at Cornell. Also WL at Vanderbilt and Wash U

Accepted at Rice (her top choice) , UVA, Case Wesrern, William and Mary, VTech, UMD CP.

Congrats!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In for Brown and Dartmouth!!!!

Out for Princeton.

So happy! Brown was #1 choice, but very excited about Dartmouth, Northwestern, Wesleyan and Vassar!

2 weeks ago, all she had was UMD and Muhlenberg (both great options, but this is a cornucopia)

Of course we are going to ask about stats, and if your child is from a magnet.

Blair magnet. 3.98/4.85, 1560. National and regional awards in speaking, theatre, music performance and music composition. State orchestra, decent service, NMF. Pro theatre credits. 5s on APs. Advanced math track.

Thanks, All, for the love. So happy for my hardworking kid. She never gave up, and I think it was updates of awards sent in March that clinched it for her. (2 days later, she had a bunch of FA docs downloaded in her portal for both Brown and Dartmouth). We have a busy couple of weeks. She is considering everything.

Are you the OP of the reading the tea leaves thread asking if the FA docs in the portal meant anything? And congrats to your DD!

I am!!!!! And the tea leaves were accurate! (A couple others on cc noted thus too)! Thank you so much! She is over the moon, and I can't focus on anything today. Just blown away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In at Harvard. Still in shock.

Congrats! Treat yourself today.

[Anonymous]

How can someone have 4.7 UW?

That should be weighted, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never hear of anyone getting into Princeton. Not here or real life. Who goes to Princeton?

I had an intern from Princeton.

The funny thing was, he was a great intern but nothing extraordinary. He told me his ‘Princeton thing’ was that he played the Oboe or something.

Sometimes, it really is just luck of the draw. Honestly.

True story:

I have four junior staff working for me right now (all a year or two out of college). One went to HYP; one went to the honors program at their state flagship; one went to a (mid-tier) SLAC; one went to a private university that is ranked somewhere in the 50-75 range.

The one who went to the SLAC is probably the best (in terms of writing, critical thinking, organizational skills, and being proactive/taking initiative). The other three are also very good. You would never be able to guess who went to which school.

This!!!! Ivies or top 20 schools are not a magical place. High stats kids will likely do well wherever they go. What is most important is what they put into the college (and life) experiences. I'd even argue that a high stats kid who goes to their state flagship (likely honors) because that's the most affordable will do exceedingly well.

[Anonymous]

DS in at Brown. Also in at UMich, UVA, Case Western, Middlebury.

WL at UNC and Vandy

[Anonymous]

I just read Harvard had a 3% acceptance rate in 65000 applications. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/4/1/admissions-class-of-2026/

At some point the odds will get so long that applicants will drop back down. I’m not encouraging my DS to even aim for them. He’s got another year and is likely in the ballpark on GPA (3.9UW) and test scores (1520/35) but if he’s going to apply to say, 10, schools, none of them should have <5% admit rate. Even <10% seems like a wasted app. Do people really think these schools offer magical experiences that can’t be equaled at schools with more reasonable odds? Because I’m not one of them.