schools that left a bad taste

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1 for UMD. DH and I are alumni and love the school, but our 4.4gpa/29 ACT/solid ECs kid didn’t even bother applying from her W school because almost no one with less than a 4.8w/1550 SAT gets in from their school and writing all those essays for a near-certain rejection didn’t seem worth her time. About a 30% acceptance rate from the school and only about 20% of the 30% actually go. I wish they would yield protect!

PS: I’m with the PP in wishing there were other strong in-state options. I’m so jealous of my friends in VA, though it sounds like it’s gotten hard for kids from the equivalent of W schools in NOVA to get into JMU and Va. Tech, too.

What is that UW? If in VA, I dont think that gets you into UVA, WM or Tech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First time mom in this process. A lot of wins and a few hard losses. All losses hard but some felt 'cleaner' than others. Some made sense/fair enough and others left a bad taste with seemingly non transparent admissions policies, agressive marketing, all the 'we care about the kids' bs, evident yeild managment, games etc. Anyone else have a bad taste for particular schools or the entire process in general? I have another dc about to apply and man I am not looking forward to it. This are big businesses, they do not 'care about the kids.'

Have gone through it with two kids and feel the same about most US schools, especially the private ones. It is a business, and the ultimate focus is fundraising to ensure the system continues as is.

[Anonymous]

^ Nothing to do with admits or rejects btw. We didn’t have any dream schools or assumptions about legacy admissions. But all in all, the process and the cost is grotesque. The US needs to take a long hard look at this system. Of course we won’t bc we never fix things that are broken (gun control etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The university of Maryland system. Kid got rejected. 3.9uw, 3.6w from a Catholic with a tough grading scale. Taking 5 ap classes senior year. Captain of 2 varsity sports teams. Volunteered for 4 years. Great recommendation letters. Mature kid. We know lots of kids like this that didn’t get in. It wasn’t even their first choice but it ticked me off as a taxpayer.

For kids like this there is nowhere else to go. Umbc is a commuter school. Towson seems like huge step down. So it’s oos for her.

I’m not sure how Maryland selection works but it doesn’t seem right. And if it’s going to be like this they need a second university with some name recognition.

Same for my DD. Great stats, but rejected by UMD. I did something that I never in my life thought I'd do: I went to college park and asked to meet with someone at admissions to try to understand this. She told me that because the number of applications has grown so exponentially, they find themselves having to reject kids who got a C or similar freshman year in high school. She said literally their entire incoming class will be made up of kids who have never gotten anything below a B, and even then, the Bs would have come freshman year. It's ridiculous. So we get to pay OOS tuition for him to go to a virginia school.

So all 30K students admitted last year had all As and if they had a B it was from freshman year? I know UMD is very competitive, and I believe this may be the criteria for kids coming from Whitman, Churchill, B-CC, etc., but I find it hard to believe that a school with a 45% acceptance rate is only accepting kids with straight As except for maybe a B or two in 9th grade.

https://irpa.umd.edu/CampusCounts/Admissions/apps_ug.pdf

Im not from MCPS, but don't the schools heavily weight advanced classes? Like a 4.0UW, could be a 4.9W? In that case, a student could have a 3.5UW, (multiple Bs each year or even a C) and STILL earn a 4.4W?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The university of Maryland system. Kid got rejected. 3.9uw, 3.6w from a Catholic with a tough grading scale. Taking 5 ap classes senior year. Captain of 2 varsity sports teams. Volunteered for 4 years. Great recommendation letters. Mature kid. We know lots of kids like this that didn’t get in. It wasn’t even their first choice but it ticked me off as a taxpayer.

For kids like this there is nowhere else to go. Umbc is a commuter school. Towson seems like huge step down. So it’s oos for her.

I’m not sure how Maryland selection works but it doesn’t seem right. And if it’s going to be like this they need a second university with some name recognition.

Same for my DD. Great stats, but rejected by UMD. I did something that I never in my life thought I'd do: I went to college park and asked to meet with someone at admissions to try to understand this. She told me that because the number of applications has grown so exponentially, they find themselves having to reject kids who got a C or similar freshman year in high school. She said literally their entire incoming class will be made up of kids who have never gotten anything below a B, and even then, the Bs would have come freshman year. It's ridiculous. So we get to pay OOS tuition for him to go to a virginia school.

So all 30K students admitted last year had all As and if they had a B it was from freshman year? I know UMD is very competitive, and I believe this may be the criteria for kids coming from Whitman, Churchill, B-CC, etc., but I find it hard to believe that a school with a 45% acceptance rate is only accepting kids with straight As except for maybe a B or two in 9th grade.

https://irpa.umd.edu/CampusCounts/Admissions/apps_ug.pdf

Look at your school profile. There are some MCPS schools with huge amounts of students with high GPAs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The in-state results coming out of the UCs were the most nonsensical I saw. It certainly left a bad taste.

Agree, they are nonsensical, but then DC got into Berkeley, which made us think they actually read his application.

But many deserving kids were rejected or waitlisted from our southern CA school. Rejected but accepted to Ivies, Hopkins, etc.

Yes, similar situation at my DC’s school. I was prepared for it because I had heard all the stories. But seeing it happen stinks. Lots of kids skipping on rigor got happy news. Meanwhile kids maxing rigor got rejected. Yes, I know they have more applicants than available spots. But so do other schools and they seem to manage this process better. I’ll also say, the way the UCs roll out decisions creates extreme anticipation and stress.

Do you mean the lower rigor kids had higher GPA than the max rigor kids? So Berkeley accepted more based on GPA not rigor? Otherwise it doesn't make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 for UMD. DH and I are alumni and love the school, but our 4.4gpa/29 ACT/solid ECs kid didn’t even bother applying from her W school because almost no one with less than a 4.8w/1550 SAT gets in from their school and writing all those essays for a near-certain rejection didn’t seem worth her time. About a 30% acceptance rate from the school and only about 20% of the 30% actually go. I wish they would yield protect!

PS: I’m with the PP in wishing there were other strong in-state options. I’m so jealous of my friends in VA, though it sounds like it’s gotten hard for kids from the equivalent of W schools in NOVA to get into JMU and Va. Tech, too.

What is that UW? If in VA, I dont think that gets you into UVA, WM or Tech.

Va. Tech would be a solid target with these stats if not a STEM major. UVA and WM are much more competitive than Va. Tech. But this is exactly the issue for Maryland residents. A student with those stats have two solid targets in VA - Va. Tech and JMU - while in Maryland a student with those stats either has safeties (Towson, UMBC, Salisbury, St. Mary's College, etc.) or a high reach (UMD).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The university of Maryland system. Kid got rejected. 3.9uw, 3.6w from a Catholic with a tough grading scale. Taking 5 ap classes senior year. Captain of 2 varsity sports teams. Volunteered for 4 years. Great recommendation letters. Mature kid. We know lots of kids like this that didn’t get in. It wasn’t even their first choice but it ticked me off as a taxpayer.

For kids like this there is nowhere else to go. Umbc is a commuter school. Towson seems like huge step down. So it’s oos for her.

I’m not sure how Maryland selection works but it doesn’t seem right. And if it’s going to be like this they need a second university with some name recognition.

Same for my DD. Great stats, but rejected by UMD. I did something that I never in my life thought I'd do: I went to college park and asked to meet with someone at admissions to try to understand this. She told me that because the number of applications has grown so exponentially, they find themselves having to reject kids who got a C or similar freshman year in high school. She said literally their entire incoming class will be made up of kids who have never gotten anything below a B, and even then, the Bs would have come freshman year. It's ridiculous. So we get to pay OOS tuition for him to go to a virginia school.

So all 30K students admitted last year had all As and if they had a B it was from freshman year? I know UMD is very competitive, and I believe this may be the criteria for kids coming from Whitman, Churchill, B-CC, etc., but I find it hard to believe that a school with a 45% acceptance rate is only accepting kids with straight As except for maybe a B or two in 9th grade.

https://irpa.umd.edu/CampusCounts/Admissions/apps_ug.pdf

Im not from MCPS, but don't the schools heavily weight advanced classes? Like a 4.0UW, could be a 4.9W? In that case, a student could have a 3.5UW, (multiple Bs each year or even a C) and STILL earn a 4.4W?

Right, but they wouldn't get into UMD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The university of Maryland system. Kid got rejected. 3.9uw, 3.6w from a Catholic with a tough grading scale. Taking 5 ap classes senior year. Captain of 2 varsity sports teams. Volunteered for 4 years. Great recommendation letters. Mature kid. We know lots of kids like this that didn’t get in. It wasn’t even their first choice but it ticked me off as a taxpayer.

For kids like this there is nowhere else to go. Umbc is a commuter school. Towson seems like huge step down. So it’s oos for her.

I’m not sure how Maryland selection works but it doesn’t seem right. And if it’s going to be like this they need a second university with some name recognition.

Same for my DD. Great stats, but rejected by UMD. I did something that I never in my life thought I'd do: I went to college park and asked to meet with someone at admissions to try to understand this. She told me that because the number of applications has grown so exponentially, they find themselves having to reject kids who got a C or similar freshman year in high school. She said literally their entire incoming class will be made up of kids who have never gotten anything below a B, and even then, the Bs would have come freshman year. It's ridiculous. So we get to pay OOS tuition for him to go to a virginia school.

So all 30K students admitted last year had all As and if they had a B it was from freshman year? I know UMD is very competitive, and I believe this may be the criteria for kids coming from Whitman, Churchill, B-CC, etc., but I find it hard to believe that a school with a 45% acceptance rate is only accepting kids with straight As except for maybe a B or two in 9th grade.

https://irpa.umd.edu/CampusCounts/Admissions/apps_ug.pdf

Look at your school profile. There are some MCPS schools with huge amounts of students with high GPAs.

Yes, my kid is at a W school, which is why I said the criteria makes sense for those types of schools, but I don't believe UMD is only accepting kids with straight As except for may 1-2 Bs in 9th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The in-state results coming out of the UCs were the most nonsensical I saw. It certainly left a bad taste.

Agree, they are nonsensical, but then DC got into Berkeley, which made us think they actually read his application.

But many deserving kids were rejected or waitlisted from our southern CA school. Rejected but accepted to Ivies, Hopkins, etc.

Yes, similar situation at my DC’s school. I was prepared for it because I had heard all the stories. But seeing it happen stinks. Lots of kids skipping on rigor got happy news. Meanwhile kids maxing rigor got rejected. Yes, I know they have more applicants than available spots. But so do other schools and they seem to manage this process better. I’ll also say, the way the UCs roll out decisions creates extreme anticipation and stress.

Do you mean the lower rigor kids had higher GPA than the max rigor kids? So Berkeley accepted more based on GPA not rigor? Otherwise it doesn't make sense.

I can’t speak directly to Berkeley, but gaming the gpa is what a lot of kids are doing. Taking regular in the harder subjects and selectively choosing the “easy a” ap an honors classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The UCs prize GPA above all else. They’re more likely to admit a kid who gets an A in a CP class than a student who gets a B in tough AP class. I find it incomprehensible. The student with a B is leaps and bounds more academically prepared than kids in CP classes.

They don’t seem at all interested in changing the system either.

Absolutely not true. UCs count how many UC approved honors/AP/community college classes a student has taken.

Additionally the top UCs also calculate uncapped GPA alongside capped GPA.

They also look at strength in schedule and how rigorous your schedule was in comparison to the opportunities at your high school.

DP how do UCs (esp Cal and UCLA) treat applicants from private schools with high rigor but do not offer AP classes and the students did not take any AP test? Will they take the rigor into consideration if the student takes the highest rigor available (equivalent or more advanced than AP) at their school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt won’t seem to accept anyone from our school (well regarded private). Every year we have dozens of students accepted to multiple Ivy’s and top 10s but it’s been years since a Vanderbilt acceptance. This year our valedictorian applied ED and didn’t get in. She ended up getting into Stanford, Uchicago, Penn, Dartmouth, and Yale! But not Vanderbilt…
The college counseling department pretty much warns families not to bother with Vanderbilt since they seem to have a weird dislike of our school.

Maybe someone broke ED

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Princeton. The SCOIR graph for our Big3 private school is comical. All of the admits are REA and hover around the 3.6-3.7 and 1400-1470 range. Anyone else, including tippy top stats kids, was waitlisted or denied except 1 person. They obviously bootlick legacies and will drop all standards for them. Applying is pointless unless legacy.

Um, they rejected my legacy, and her stats were much much higher than these. Read the forum, princeton does NOT leave the door open for unqualified legacies at most schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The in-state results coming out of the UCs were the most nonsensical I saw. It certainly left a bad taste.

Agree, they are nonsensical, but then DC got into Berkeley, which made us think they actually read his application.

But many deserving kids were rejected or waitlisted from our southern CA school. Rejected but accepted to Ivies, Hopkins, etc.

Yes, similar situation at my DC’s school. I was prepared for it because I had heard all the stories. But seeing it happen stinks. Lots of kids skipping on rigor got happy news. Meanwhile kids maxing rigor got rejected. Yes, I know they have more applicants than available spots. But so do other schools and they seem to manage this process better. I’ll also say, the way the UCs roll out decisions creates extreme anticipation and stress.

Do you mean the lower rigor kids had higher GPA than the max rigor kids? So Berkeley accepted more based on GPA not rigor? Otherwise it doesn't make sense.

I can’t speak directly to Berkeley, but gaming the gpa is what a lot of kids are doing. Taking regular in the harder subjects and selectively choosing the “easy a” ap an honors classes.

Yep. And, taking online or independent study classes to get easy A’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The in-state results coming out of the UCs were the most nonsensical I saw. It certainly left a bad taste.

Agree, they are nonsensical, but then DC got into Berkeley, which made us think they actually read his application.

But many deserving kids were rejected or waitlisted from our southern CA school. Rejected but accepted to Ivies, Hopkins, etc.

Yes, similar situation at my DC’s school. I was prepared for it because I had heard all the stories. But seeing it happen stinks. Lots of kids skipping on rigor got happy news. Meanwhile kids maxing rigor got rejected. Yes, I know they have more applicants than available spots. But so do other schools and they seem to manage this process better. I’ll also say, the way the UCs roll out decisions creates extreme anticipation and stress.

Do you mean the lower rigor kids had higher GPA than the max rigor kids? So Berkeley accepted more based on GPA not rigor? Otherwise it doesn't make sense.

I can’t speak directly to Berkeley, but gaming the gpa is what a lot of kids are doing. Taking regular in the harder subjects and selectively choosing the “easy a” ap an honors classes.

I doubt this works for UC STEM applicants. Some may also have fewer AP courses at their high school giving the false appearance of less rigor. Social science and humanities applicants aren’t gaming the system if their APs are non-STEM.