All these smart kids are getting rejected across the board

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing about these kids who have near perfect grades, super high SAT scores and strong extracurricular activities and they are getting rejected across the board. The parents are well educated professionals. The kids are getting rejected from their parents’ alma maters.

I feel like this same kids would be ivy bound 20-30 years ago.

If they didn't get in anywhere, they haven't been paying attention. Nor have their counselors, parents, etc.

More likely they thought they were unicorns.

The issue is this phrase: "compelling personal narrative."
So and so had a compelling personal narrative, so they chose him or her or them over your child.

I have long maintained that the problem is that it's really hard to have a 'compelling personal narrative' when you grow up in the suburbs with your two parents who are still married to each other. I manned the table at a college fair for the selective college that I attended as an alum a few years back, and I watched the professional college admissions person get really excited about the adopted African child with two lesbian moms. And I agree -- she was interesting. She had a compelling personal narrative. The problem is that stable, traditional family life doesn't seem to produce the coveted 'compelling personal narriitve' the way that hardship and adversity and having non mainstream identity characteristics often does.

The girl from a traditional Muslim family wearing a hijab whose mother doesn't believe that women should be educated? That's a compelling story. It's very dramatic. I have no idea if it's actually true, but it's memorable, concise and the admissions people can feel really good about themselves for admitting her.

I assume that's what those highly paid college admissions consultants do -- help you mine your family's past to dig up a 'compelling personal narrative'. My kids were lots of things including academically prepared. They just weren't unique and compelling.

It feels more like you're auditioning for a role in a Hollywood production ("Oh, here's the girl who had to drop out of ballet school when she developed juvenile rheumatoid arthritis", "Here's the kid whose house burned down") than a seat in a classroom.

This is such a great post, and helpful for anyone trying to help their smart, hard-working kid deal with the disappointment of college rejections while also (hopefully) getting them to understand how fortunate they are to come from a stable home and have lots of their wants as well as needs met. I pulled up a post a made a while back about trying not very successfully to help my DD deal with admissions frustrations—see below. With the benefit of experience, now that she’s graduated from a college she loved and moving on to a PhD program (with multiple fellowship offers and a NSF grant), I’ll keep it simpler for my younger kids: Hard work is it’s own reward, and if you can succeed in the DMV rat race, you can succeed anywhere and probably have more fun doing it.

*****
My eldest had a 3.98 UW GPA in the most rigorous classes from a top public, took the SAT one time and got a 2400, aced all the other tests, etc.--your basic outstanding student from this area, but with no hooks. We were not surprised that she was turned down by most ivies and Stanford, but she mentioned it seemed kind of unfair that a lot of other less academically accomplished kids from her school (all with hooks) were getting in. I used the trail mix analogy, and talked about how the kids with hooks were like the chocolate covered cherries, coconut flakes, or M&Ms, while she was like the peanut. Cheap, nutritious, the cornerstone of most trail mixes, but something that needs to be limited because no one really gets too excited about them. She told me I was really terrible at pep talks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing about these kids who have near perfect grades, super high SAT scores and strong extracurricular activities and they are getting rejected across the board. The parents are well educated professionals. The kids are getting rejected from their parents’ alma maters.

I feel like this same kids would be ivy bound 20-30 years ago.

This is not happening. Stop the fear mongering.

It happened twice in my family: once with a nephew and once with my cousin's daughter.

My cousin's daughter graduated #1 in her class last year. Her SAT was in the high 1400s and ACT was nearly perfect at 35. She took a total of 10 AP courses and scored 5s on 6 and 4s on 4. She had strong extracurriculars including a research biology internship two summers in a row.

Rejected from UVA, which was her first choice, and also rejected from W&M, VA Tech, MIT, Stanford, the Ivies, and Duke. She got waitlisted at FSU, UCLA, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cal Tech, and Rice. She did get off the waitlist at Rice but she was scrambling while on the waitlist to apply to places with rolling admission. Her counselor was stunned.

My cousin and her husband consulted with a professional college counselor after the fact to see what went wrong in preparation for her younger sister when it was her turn to apply. Basically, she was a dime-a-dozen at places like UVA, the ivies, Duke, MIT, etc. and even with her excellent resume, there was nothing that made her stand out. Schools like FSU and UCLA looked at her incredible stats and grouped her as a "she's applying here as a safety" so they waitlisted.

My nephew had good stats but his downfall was parents who were a bit too out of touch with the college process. He's the youngest and there's a big 12 year age gap. Their next youngest was 30 when my nephew was a senior, so they were going off their experiences and expectations from years prior. Both of their older kids went to their alma mater UNC. They are all donors but not HUGE donors and thought he would get in no problem because compared to his siblings, he was a better student and he was also a two-sport athlete. He got rejected from UNC and all the others. Big gut punch for him. He did community college for 1 year and ended up transferring to Wake Forest.

Hmm. This cautionary tale ends with one kid at Rice and another at Wake Forest.

STOP. Go back to college confidential. You guys don’t belong here. There are hurting parents here and they don’t want to hear your daily tirades against “rich white” which you do over and over. Find another forum. If not I’m reporting you to Jeff who is already frustrated with the invasion of racists on this forum who have no purpose in life other than to Shame parents who want their kids to get into good colleges. Enough!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But, because DC is not URM, and we are not low income, that's a strike against DC.

This often repeated line just isn't true. Our private admissions counselor said only first gen kids are getting a bump (in addition to recruited athletes, major donors, geographic diversity etc). There are just so many variable now that you really can't predict what will help or hurt your kid. An Asian male applying to CS or Engineering with have tough competition from other Asian males, but that same kid might have an advantage if he wants to be a nurse or a teacher.

white people are going to blame URMs no matter what you say.

I think because there are "white people" (ie: not brown, not yellow) who were, just one or two generations ago, who were first generation, and they got nothing.

My father was the first in his family to go to college and he was not a stellar student but managed to Cornell on the GI bill. Perhaps your child should try 3 years of military service?

Black servicemen we're denied GI Bill benefits - because of their race

But continue...your white / anglo father was the first...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing about these kids who have near perfect grades, super high SAT scores and strong extracurricular activities and they are getting rejected across the board. The parents are well educated professionals. The kids are getting rejected from their parents’ alma maters.

I feel like this same kids would be ivy bound 20-30 years ago.

This is not happening. Stop the fear mongering.

It happened twice in my family: once with a nephew and once with my cousin's daughter.

My cousin's daughter graduated #1 in her class last year. Her SAT was in the high 1400s and ACT was nearly perfect at 35. She took a total of 10 AP courses and scored 5s on 6 and 4s on 4. She had strong extracurriculars including a research biology internship two summers in a row.

Rejected from UVA, which was her first choice, and also rejected from W&M, VA Tech, MIT, Stanford, the Ivies, and Duke. She got waitlisted at FSU, UCLA, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cal Tech, and Rice. She did get off the waitlist at Rice but she was scrambling while on the waitlist to apply to places with rolling admission. Her counselor was stunned.

My cousin and her husband consulted with a professional college counselor after the fact to see what went wrong in preparation for her younger sister when it was her turn to apply. Basically, she was a dime-a-dozen at places like UVA, the ivies, Duke, MIT, etc. and even with her excellent resume, there was nothing that made her stand out. Schools like FSU and UCLA looked at her incredible stats and grouped her as a "she's applying here as a safety" so they waitlisted.

My nephew had good stats but his downfall was parents who were a bit too out of touch with the college process. He's the youngest and there's a big 12 year age gap. Their next youngest was 30 when my nephew was a senior, so they were going off their experiences and expectations from years prior. Both of their older kids went to their alma mater UNC. They are all donors but not HUGE donors and thought he would get in no problem because compared to his siblings, he was a better student and he was also a two-sport athlete. He got rejected from UNC and all the others. Big gut punch for him. He did community college for 1 year and ended up transferring to Wake Forest.

Hmm. This cautionary tale ends with one kid at Rice and another at Wake Forest.

STOP. Go back to college confidential. You guys don’t belong here. There are hurting parents here and they don’t want to hear your daily tirades against “rich white” which you do over and over. Find another forum. If not I’m reporting you to Jeff who is already frustrated with the invasion of racists on this forum who have no purpose in life other than to Shame parents who want their kids to get into good colleges. Enough!

DP, but the racists here are the ones grumbling that black kids got in while their white and Asian little darlings miscalculated and got shut out.

[Anonymous]

“Compelling narrative” is horseshit. These kids are barely old enough to drive. Stop expecting 18 year olds to accomplish and overcome more than most adults ever do just to get into college. It encourages and rewards lying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing about these kids who have near perfect grades, super high SAT scores and strong extracurricular activities and they are getting rejected across the board. The parents are well educated professionals. The kids are getting rejected from their parents’ alma maters.

I feel like this same kids would be ivy bound 20-30 years ago.

This is not happening. Stop the fear mongering.

It happened twice in my family: once with a nephew and once with my cousin's daughter.

My cousin's daughter graduated #1 in her class last year. Her SAT was in the high 1400s and ACT was nearly perfect at 35. She took a total of 10 AP courses and scored 5s on 6 and 4s on 4. She had strong extracurriculars including a research biology internship two summers in a row.

Rejected from UVA, which was her first choice, and also rejected from W&M, VA Tech, MIT, Stanford, the Ivies, and Duke. She got waitlisted at FSU, UCLA, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cal Tech, and Rice. She did get off the waitlist at Rice but she was scrambling while on the waitlist to apply to places with rolling admission. Her counselor was stunned.

My cousin and her husband consulted with a professional college counselor after the fact to see what went wrong in preparation for her younger sister when it was her turn to apply. Basically, she was a dime-a-dozen at places like UVA, the ivies, Duke, MIT, etc. and even with her excellent resume, there was nothing that made her stand out. Schools like FSU and UCLA looked at her incredible stats and grouped her as a "she's applying here as a safety" so they waitlisted.

My nephew had good stats but his downfall was parents who were a bit too out of touch with the college process. He's the youngest and there's a big 12 year age gap. Their next youngest was 30 when my nephew was a senior, so they were going off their experiences and expectations from years prior. Both of their older kids went to their alma mater UNC. They are all donors but not HUGE donors and thought he would get in no problem because compared to his siblings, he was a better student and he was also a two-sport athlete. He got rejected from UNC and all the others. Big gut punch for him. He did community college for 1 year and ended up transferring to Wake Forest.

Hmm. This cautionary tale ends with one kid at Rice and another at Wake Forest.

STOP. Go back to college confidential. You guys don’t belong here. There are hurting parents here and they don’t want to hear your daily tirades against “rich white” which you do over and over. Find another forum. If not I’m reporting you to Jeff who is already frustrated with the invasion of racists on this forum who have no purpose in life other than to Shame parents who want their kids to get into good colleges. Enough!

DP, but the racists here are the ones grumbling that black kids got in while their white and Asian little darlings miscalculated and got shut out.

Ah- there’s quite a bit of anti-white racism on this thread. “All white people are privileged and entitled” is pretty racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But, because DC is not URM, and we are not low income, that's a strike against DC.

This often repeated line just isn't true. Our private admissions counselor said only first gen kids are getting a bump (in addition to recruited athletes, major donors, geographic diversity etc). There are just so many variable now that you really can't predict what will help or hurt your kid. An Asian male applying to CS or Engineering with have tough competition from other Asian males, but that same kid might have an advantage if he wants to be a nurse or a teacher.

white people are going to blame URMs no matter what you say.

I think because there are "white people" (ie: not brown, not yellow) who were, just one or two generations ago, who were first generation, and they got nothing.

Well, yeah. White people benefited MASSIVELY from New Deal policies aimed at creating a sustaining a white middle class, and those benefits were not equally distributed or even accessible to BIPOC.

Having a great-grandparent who didn't attend college is not a major disadvantage the way not having anyone in your family ever attend college is. As a (white) first generation college student, I faced some really specific challenges that my own kids will never have to face. It's fine with me that they don't get a bump up as a result, because their entire lives have been easier because I was able to access a college education.

You are fine with it. I am not. I was a true "first gen" student. I got nothing. Worked multiple jobs (and have worked since I was 14). I received zero parent/grandparent support. It was hard. Really hard. There were times i had, quite literally, hundreds of dollars as my savings. And that was after grad school and working full time. I sacrificed a lot of earning potential b/c of the things I had to do to get by.

Fast forward, my kid is dinged b/c of my hard work? We do well now but by no means are rich such that we can just bankroll college, at full cost, if DC even gets in. DC is just another UMC kid who gets painted as "privileged." It's bullsh--.

If colleges want to "shape" their class to reflect whatever their priorities are- fine. Just say it up front. They are not transparent. Not fair, either, imo (and I direct that to all sorts of classes including legacies). The whole process is effed up, imo, and to the advantages of the schools only.

Vast majority of 1st Gens get jack sh#t. They get to punch their ticket at community college and transfer into a 4-year college/university if they have the grades and swing the cost.

Go to California and check out the community colleges - Long Beach CC, Santa Monica CC, etc. They are awash in 1st Gen college Latino, Black, and Asian students.

The 1st Gen's who make it into an Ivy as their hook are the equivalent of winning lotto tickets. They took nothing away from your kid. To even get a look by an Ivy, their stats are absolutely blowing away the 1st Gen kids that make up most of the community college population. They aren't taking remedial English comp at Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But, because DC is not URM, and we are not low income, that's a strike against DC.

This often repeated line just isn't true. Our private admissions counselor said only first gen kids are getting a bump (in addition to recruited athletes, major donors, geographic diversity etc). There are just so many variable now that you really can't predict what will help or hurt your kid. An Asian male applying to CS or Engineering with have tough competition from other Asian males, but that same kid might have an advantage if he wants to be a nurse or a teacher.

white people are going to blame URMs no matter what you say.

I think because there are "white people" (ie: not brown, not yellow) who were, just one or two generations ago, who were first generation, and they got nothing.

My father was the first in his family to go to college and he was not a stellar student but managed to Cornell on the GI bill. Perhaps your child should try 3 years of military service?

Black servicemen we're denied GI Bill benefits - because of their race

But continue...your white / anglo father was the first...

You are an idiot and you don’t who you are talk to! I am here
On this planet only because a black service man saved my father on Korea. Can I tell you about that here or are you going to ghost me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing about these kids who have near perfect grades, super high SAT scores and strong extracurricular activities and they are getting rejected across the board. The parents are well educated professionals. The kids are getting rejected from their parents’ alma maters.

I feel like this same kids would be ivy bound 20-30 years ago.

This is not happening. Stop the fear mongering.

It happened twice in my family: once with a nephew and once with my cousin's daughter.

My cousin's daughter graduated #1 in her class last year. Her SAT was in the high 1400s and ACT was nearly perfect at 35. She took a total of 10 AP courses and scored 5s on 6 and 4s on 4. She had strong extracurriculars including a research biology internship two summers in a row.

Rejected from UVA, which was her first choice, and also rejected from W&M, VA Tech, MIT, Stanford, the Ivies, and Duke. She got waitlisted at FSU, UCLA, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cal Tech, and Rice. She did get off the waitlist at Rice but she was scrambling while on the waitlist to apply to places with rolling admission. Her counselor was stunned.

My cousin and her husband consulted with a professional college counselor after the fact to see what went wrong in preparation for her younger sister when it was her turn to apply. Basically, she was a dime-a-dozen at places like UVA, the ivies, Duke, MIT, etc. and even with her excellent resume, there was nothing that made her stand out. Schools like FSU and UCLA looked at her incredible stats and grouped her as a "she's applying here as a safety" so they waitlisted.

My nephew had good stats but his downfall was parents who were a bit too out of touch with the college process. He's the youngest and there's a big 12 year age gap. Their next youngest was 30 when my nephew was a senior, so they were going off their experiences and expectations from years prior. Both of their older kids went to their alma mater UNC. They are all donors but not HUGE donors and thought he would get in no problem because compared to his siblings, he was a better student and he was also a two-sport athlete. He got rejected from UNC and all the others. Big gut punch for him. He did community college for 1 year and ended up transferring to Wake Forest.

Hmm. This cautionary tale ends with one kid at Rice and another at Wake Forest.

STOP. Go back to college confidential. You guys don’t belong here. There are hurting parents here and they don’t want to hear your daily tirades against “rich white” which you do over and over. Find another forum. If not I’m reporting you to Jeff who is already frustrated with the invasion of racists on this forum who have no purpose in life other than to Shame parents who want their kids to get into good colleges. Enough!

You are going to report me to Jeff for saying that the two kids in PP’s example ended up at schools any rational person would think were excellent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of seniors at our school are using words like bloodbath to describe the seniors acceptances. Kids who worked hard and did everything they were supposed to are not getting in to top 20-50 schools. Too many white, UMC families who saved and can pay full price are not getting in whereas 10 years ago they would have. It's partly due to test-optional and partly due to more diversity (socio-economic and racial) being sought after at top schools.

No, it’s due to everyone “shooting their shot” at the same colleges. Stop blaming testing and diversity. Colleges have been looking for diverse classes for decades. It’s not new.

What’s new is clear. The applications are exploding at top schools and falling at the rest. The reason is probably layered, from subtle things like adults belittling good options that aren’t impressive (my gosh, even JMU gets ripped here) to grade inflation making parents think their middle of the pack student is at the top of the class…again there are many reasons.

Stop blaming stupid stuff that makes you made and use reason.

I'll start by saying I don't have a problem with what's going on currently in admissions.

I agree with you that everyone is too focuses on the same set of colleges. BUT, I do think that with COVID, test optional, and recent cultural changes that some schools have truly expanded their horizons on how they evaluate candidates. I think in the past that they were more skewed towards test scores aligning with grades and adding in some ECs. Now without test scores, I think they are genuinely looking at other parts of the application in a new way.. It could also be that they are simply recognizing that they have so many applicants who were "qualified" that they should really stop just skewing admissions to those with the highest GPA/test stats and put increased thought into what each applicant might bring to campus (they were doing this before but I think with a smaller pool of high stats kids).

I personally think this is a good thing and will create all kinds of diversity (including the type of white UMC kids they accept). It also means the tip top gpa/test stat kids may not have the same advantages they had before and definitely need to cast a wider net.

But to say that test optional and diversity didn't change anything isn't quite right.

I think it is hard for a student who got better grades and better test scores to see a fellow classmate with worse everything gaining acceptance because they are URM. I have heard it was a really bad year for many MC and UMC white and Asian students.

But there are so few URM students on these campuses and far more legacy kids getting in over your kid. Why not be frustrated with them. BTW my MC white kid did great. Some friends did as well, some good and one OK, but considered it bad b/c she only applied to Ivy/T10 and 1 state. I hear you that disappointment is hard, but don't look at URM kids here. The ones we know have faced much greater challenges than their white and Asian friends and deserve everything they've gotten.

NP. I do complain about legacy, athletes, and donors. And the kids I know have not faced greater challenges than my own.

Then make all those challenges clear in the application and interview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing about these kids who have near perfect grades, super high SAT scores and strong extracurricular activities and they are getting rejected across the board. The parents are well educated professionals. The kids are getting rejected from their parents’ alma maters.

I feel like this same kids would be ivy bound 20-30 years ago.

This is not happening. Stop the fear mongering.

It happened twice in my family: once with a nephew and once with my cousin's daughter.

My cousin's daughter graduated #1 in her class last year. Her SAT was in the high 1400s and ACT was nearly perfect at 35. She took a total of 10 AP courses and scored 5s on 6 and 4s on 4. She had strong extracurriculars including a research biology internship two summers in a row.

Rejected from UVA, which was her first choice, and also rejected from W&M, VA Tech, MIT, Stanford, the Ivies, and Duke. She got waitlisted at FSU, UCLA, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cal Tech, and Rice. She did get off the waitlist at Rice but she was scrambling while on the waitlist to apply to places with rolling admission. Her counselor was stunned.

My cousin and her husband consulted with a professional college counselor after the fact to see what went wrong in preparation for her younger sister when it was her turn to apply. Basically, she was a dime-a-dozen at places like UVA, the ivies, Duke, MIT, etc. and even with her excellent resume, there was nothing that made her stand out. Schools like FSU and UCLA looked at her incredible stats and grouped her as a "she's applying here as a safety" so they waitlisted.

My nephew had good stats but his downfall was parents who were a bit too out of touch with the college process. He's the youngest and there's a big 12 year age gap. Their next youngest was 30 when my nephew was a senior, so they were going off their experiences and expectations from years prior. Both of their older kids went to their alma mater UNC. They are all donors but not HUGE donors and thought he would get in no problem because compared to his siblings, he was a better student and he was also a two-sport athlete. He got rejected from UNC and all the others. Big gut punch for him. He did community college for 1 year and ended up transferring to Wake Forest.

Hmm. This cautionary tale ends with one kid at Rice and another at Wake Forest.

STOP. Go back to college confidential. You guys don’t belong here. There are hurting parents here and they don’t want to hear your daily tirades against “rich white” which you do over and over. Find another forum. If not I’m reporting you to Jeff who is already frustrated with the invasion of racists on this forum who have no purpose in life other than to Shame parents who want their kids to get into good colleges. Enough!

DP, but the racists here are the ones grumbling that black kids got in while their white and Asian little darlings miscalculated and got shut out.

Ah- there’s quite a bit of anti-white racism on this thread. “All white people are privileged and entitled” is pretty racist.

Anti-white racism? HA!

That's the oxymoron of the century.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing about these kids who have near perfect grades, super high SAT scores and strong extracurricular activities and they are getting rejected across the board. The parents are well educated professionals. The kids are getting rejected from their parents’ alma maters.

I feel like this same kids would be ivy bound 20-30 years ago.

This is not happening. Stop the fear mongering.

It happened twice in my family: once with a nephew and once with my cousin's daughter.

My cousin's daughter graduated #1 in her class last year. Her SAT was in the high 1400s and ACT was nearly perfect at 35. She took a total of 10 AP courses and scored 5s on 6 and 4s on 4. She had strong extracurriculars including a research biology internship two summers in a row.

Rejected from UVA, which was her first choice, and also rejected from W&M, VA Tech, MIT, Stanford, the Ivies, and Duke. She got waitlisted at FSU, UCLA, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cal Tech, and Rice. She did get off the waitlist at Rice but she was scrambling while on the waitlist to apply to places with rolling admission. Her counselor was stunned.

My cousin and her husband consulted with a professional college counselor after the fact to see what went wrong in preparation for her younger sister when it was her turn to apply. Basically, she was a dime-a-dozen at places like UVA, the ivies, Duke, MIT, etc. and even with her excellent resume, there was nothing that made her stand out. Schools like FSU and UCLA looked at her incredible stats and grouped her as a "she's applying here as a safety" so they waitlisted.

My nephew had good stats but his downfall was parents who were a bit too out of touch with the college process. He's the youngest and there's a big 12 year age gap. Their next youngest was 30 when my nephew was a senior, so they were going off their experiences and expectations from years prior. Both of their older kids went to their alma mater UNC. They are all donors but not HUGE donors and thought he would get in no problem because compared to his siblings, he was a better student and he was also a two-sport athlete. He got rejected from UNC and all the others. Big gut punch for him. He did community college for 1 year and ended up transferring to Wake Forest.

Hmm. This cautionary tale ends with one kid at Rice and another at Wake Forest.

OK this made me laugh

The kid who went to Wake Forest got experience a bit of adversity and thrived. He will now have a "compelling narrative" for grad school. Only 15% of students who start community college get a bachelor's degree within 4 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hearing about these kids who have near perfect grades, super high SAT scores and strong extracurricular activities and they are getting rejected across the board. The parents are well educated professionals. The kids are getting rejected from their parents’ alma maters.

I feel like this same kids would be ivy bound 20-30 years ago.

This is not happening. Stop the fear mongering.

It happened twice in my family: once with a nephew and once with my cousin's daughter.

My cousin's daughter graduated #1 in her class last year. Her SAT was in the high 1400s and ACT was nearly perfect at 35. She took a total of 10 AP courses and scored 5s on 6 and 4s on 4. She had strong extracurriculars including a research biology internship two summers in a row.

Rejected from UVA, which was her first choice, and also rejected from W&M, VA Tech, MIT, Stanford, the Ivies, and Duke. She got waitlisted at FSU, UCLA, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cal Tech, and Rice. She did get off the waitlist at Rice but she was scrambling while on the waitlist to apply to places with rolling admission. Her counselor was stunned.

My cousin and her husband consulted with a professional college counselor after the fact to see what went wrong in preparation for her younger sister when it was her turn to apply. Basically, she was a dime-a-dozen at places like UVA, the ivies, Duke, MIT, etc. and even with her excellent resume, there was nothing that made her stand out. Schools like FSU and UCLA looked at her incredible stats and grouped her as a "she's applying here as a safety" so they waitlisted.

My nephew had good stats but his downfall was parents who were a bit too out of touch with the college process. He's the youngest and there's a big 12 year age gap. Their next youngest was 30 when my nephew was a senior, so they were going off their experiences and expectations from years prior. Both of their older kids went to their alma mater UNC. They are all donors but not HUGE donors and thought he would get in no problem because compared to his siblings, he was a better student and he was also a two-sport athlete. He got rejected from UNC and all the others. Big gut punch for him. He did community college for 1 year and ended up transferring to Wake Forest.

PPs story regarding the number 1 ranked kid with 10 APs being rejcted by UVA and especially WM is highly unusual. Most likely PP is confused about the number of APs completed at the time of application or some other facts. Also lumping FSU and UCLa together and assuming the kid was waitlisted by UCLA due to yield protection adds to the impression that PP is just totally confused

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But, because DC is not URM, and we are not low income, that's a strike against DC.

This often repeated line just isn't true. Our private admissions counselor said only first gen kids are getting a bump (in addition to recruited athletes, major donors, geographic diversity etc). There are just so many variable now that you really can't predict what will help or hurt your kid. An Asian male applying to CS or Engineering with have tough competition from other Asian males, but that same kid might have an advantage if he wants to be a nurse or a teacher.

white people are going to blame URMs no matter what you say.

I think because there are "white people" (ie: not brown, not yellow) who were, just one or two generations ago, who were first generation, and they got nothing.

My father was the first in his family to go to college and he was not a stellar student but managed to Cornell on the GI bill. Perhaps your child should try 3 years of military service?

Black servicemen we're denied GI Bill benefits - because of their race

But continue...your white / anglo father was the first...

You are an idiot and you don’t who you are talk to! I am here
On this planet only because a black service man saved my father on Korea. Can I tell you about that here or are you going to ghost me?

That Black servicemen who served his country deserved the same GI Bill benefits as white servicemen. In addition to NOT receiving those benefits, Black servicemen where lynched when they dared to walk around in their uniforms. So.. it's easy for one to tout the GI Bill if you're not black in America. Systematic racism is real and impacts generations.

Remember that when you think of your grandfather. Yeah and stop blaming lacks if your Asian kids gets rejected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of seniors at our school are using words like bloodbath to describe the seniors acceptances. Kids who worked hard and did everything they were supposed to are not getting in to top 20-50 schools. Too many white, UMC families who saved and can pay full price are not getting in whereas 10 years ago they would have. It's partly due to test-optional and partly due to more diversity (socio-economic and racial) being sought after at top schools.

No, it’s due to everyone “shooting their shot” at the same colleges. Stop blaming testing and diversity. Colleges have been looking for diverse classes for decades. It’s not new.

What’s new is clear. The applications are exploding at top schools and falling at the rest. The reason is probably layered, from subtle things like adults belittling good options that aren’t impressive (my gosh, even JMU gets ripped here) to grade inflation making parents think their middle of the pack student is at the top of the class…again there are many reasons.

Stop blaming stupid stuff that makes you made and use reason.

I'll start by saying I don't have a problem with what's going on currently in admissions.

I agree with you that everyone is too focuses on the same set of colleges. BUT, I do think that with COVID, test optional, and recent cultural changes that some schools have truly expanded their horizons on how they evaluate candidates. I think in the past that they were more skewed towards test scores aligning with grades and adding in some ECs. Now without test scores, I think they are genuinely looking at other parts of the application in a new way.. It could also be that they are simply recognizing that they have so many applicants who were "qualified" that they should really stop just skewing admissions to those with the highest GPA/test stats and put increased thought into what each applicant might bring to campus (they were doing this before but I think with a smaller pool of high stats kids).

I personally think this is a good thing and will create all kinds of diversity (including the type of white UMC kids they accept). It also means the tip top gpa/test stat kids may not have the same advantages they had before and definitely need to cast a wider net.

But to say that test optional and diversity didn't change anything isn't quite right.

I think it is hard for a student who got better grades and better test scores to see a fellow classmate with worse everything gaining acceptance because they are URM. I have heard it was a really bad year for many MC and UMC white and Asian students.

But there are so few URM students on these campuses and far more legacy kids getting in over your kid. Why not be frustrated with them. BTW my MC white kid did great. Some friends did as well, some good and one OK, but considered it bad b/c she only applied to Ivy/T10 and 1 state. I hear you that disappointment is hard, but don't look at URM kids here. The ones we know have faced much greater challenges than their white and Asian friends and deserve everything they've gotten.

NP. I do complain about legacy, athletes, and donors. And the kids I know have not faced greater challenges than my own.

Then make all those challenges clear in the application and interview.

It’s considered whining and mental health flags if white UMC kids do it.