Rejections

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Need to stop banking on high test scores as the path to top schools especially if the grades don't match. A lot of them are holistic and prioritize grades and class rigor. My kid got into most of the schools they applied to (IU Kelley, OSU, UMD, Pitt, Penn State, VT, etc.) with a high GPA and great ECs while not submitting test scores for most of them. I also think that not going to a crazy competitive high school helped along with having a good balanced and realistic list consisting of primarily targets, a couple reaches, and a few safeties.

These schools are not top schools.

The OP’s son has okay grades (with high rigor and a high SAT score). He couldn’t get into VT on this list, and I doubt he could get into UMD. Most of the low targets/high safeties for normal high stats kids are reaches for him, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Need to stop banking on high test scores as the path to top schools especially if the grades don't match. A lot of them are holistic and prioritize grades and class rigor. My kid got into most of the schools they applied to (IU Kelley, OSU, UMD, Pitt, Penn State, VT, etc.) with a high GPA and great ECs while not submitting test scores for most of them. I also think that not going to a crazy competitive high school helped along with having a good balanced and realistic list consisting of primarily targets, a couple reaches, and a few safeties.

These schools are not top schools.

The OP’s son has okay grades (with high rigor and a high SAT score). He couldn’t get into VT on this list, and I doubt he could get into UMD. Most of the low targets/high safeties for normal high stats kids are reaches for him, unfortunately.

Schools want high GPAs, and if OP's son is going to a school with lots of kids with much higher GPAs than him, then that's his competition. We've had multiple AOs tell us that GPA and high rigor are the most important criteria to them. My kid got into UMD and VT (with merit) with a 3.8 UW, 4.6 weighted and didn't submit test scores.

[Anonymous]

As getting in even top 100 schools gets more unpredictable, the importance of finding safeties the kid would actually want to attend increases.

It seems that people often pick safeties that are just watered-down versions of their target schools. I think it’s important to find safeties that have at least one characteristic the kid can get excited about, such as it’s near ski resorts, near beaches, has excellent sports, has a particularly pretty campus etc.

[Anonymous]

This is heartbreaking. But also a good lesson in only applying to schools that you actually be happy to attend. Building a solid college list is something so many people get wrong. Reaches are reaches. Period. This would help the overall mess of admissions to a degree too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here,

I think had his gpa been even 4.3 he could have gotten in to couple more… he has 4.1

He has top rigor classes like AP Physics C and Multivariable Calculus BC. But he never took 4 years of a foreign language.

Yes, he is also in a very competitive NOVA high school.

Just so baffled to see the string of rejections come in.

Maybe a waitlist will happen that is meant to be.

What’s the unweighted gpa?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC had a 1590 SAT, 4.95 WGPA, stellar internships and recommendations. Accepted at just 1 Ivy, WL in 2 and rejects at others. flagship state schools were either a WL or acceptances. Surprised with the outcome.

This is a realistic outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here,

I think had his gpa been even 4.3 he could have gotten in to couple more… he has 4.1

He has top rigor classes like AP Physics C and Multivariable Calculus BC. But he never took 4 years of a foreign language.

Yes, he is also in a very competitive NOVA high school.

Just so baffled to see the string of rejections come in.

Maybe a waitlist will happen that is meant to be.

What’s the unweighted gpa?

Read the thread, she said it was 3.6.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having such a high SAT score with a relatively low GPA makes him look low effort.

Agree this was the issue.

My kid had a GPA/score mismatch (only 3.3uw, 34 ACT) and didn’t apply to CRWU specifically because of his GPA, even though I think it would have been a good fit. Our SCOIR indicated he’d never get in with his GPA, which CWRU seemed to be focused on even more than some other schools.

It can be tough to figure out targets bc these kids (always boys, btw) are sitting in that upper left quadrant as an outlier in SCOIR/Naviance. My DS had better luck with smaller schools which maybe looked more holistically at his app.

Not always! I have an ADHD girl with a GPA/score mismatch. (3.1uw, 34 ACT)

Often boys struggle with executive functioning/organization in 9th and 10th and have lower grades than girls for those years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3.8uw is kind of the minimum……rigor isn’t as important as everyone thinks

Minimum for what? Many kids get into college with lower GPAs than a 3.8uw. The problem seems to be that OP’s kid applied to 2 safeties and bunch of reaches. Why would he apply to VCU and GMU but not JMU? Is OP trolling?

Op here.

Highly regret not having applied to JMU.

UVA came through as a deferral first round at ED results and we then had hope for some positive results for the other colleges then.

It was dumb to waste ED on UVA with that gpa. I always feel like I could be doing more as a parent, then I read things like this and figure I’m doing alright. At least I knew enough to not have my kid do a throw away ED app.

I see people on here ignoring the advice of— whole package, essays, sat, grades, targeted ECs, 4 years math, science, English, history, language over and over again. If you want your kid in at top schools, YES this is all necessary. If you don’t care, that’s fine, just stop wasting everyone’s time whining about how your kid can’t get into a top schools with his crap grades.

And yes, his recs were probably crap. No teacher is excited to write a rec for a kid who underperforms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yeah you reached. and you assumed the test scores would carry the day. they don't. they never do. DCUM always pops a boner over test scores but they really aren't as important as people think. a 3.58 is as many Bs as As and that ain't gonna cut it.

Agree. Test scores don’t get you in. They just prove that you can meet a school’s threshold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3.8uw is kind of the minimum……rigor isn’t as important as everyone thinks

Minimum for what? Many kids get into college with lower GPAs than a 3.8uw. The problem seems to be that OP’s kid applied to 2 safeties and bunch of reaches. Why would he apply to VCU and GMU but not JMU? Is OP trolling?

Op here.

Highly regret not having applied to JMU.

UVA came through as a deferral first round at ED results and we then had hope for some positive results for the other colleges then.

It was dumb to waste ED on UVA with that gpa. I always feel like I could be doing more as a parent, then I read things like this and figure I’m doing alright. At least I knew enough to not have my kid do a throw away ED app.

I see people on here ignoring the advice of— whole package, essays, sat, grades, targeted ECs, 4 years math, science, English, history, language over and over again. If you want your kid in at top schools, YES this is all necessary. If you don’t care, that’s fine, just stop wasting everyone’s time whining about how your kid can’t get into a top schools with his crap grades.

And yes, his recs were probably crap. No teacher is excited to write a rec for a kid who underperforms.

Are you this nasty in real life or only on anonymous message boards? Her kids could be super engaged and curious and all sorts of wonderful things that aren't reflected in his grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People need to stop referring to OP's kid as 3.5 when everyone else uses the weighted scale. It is very misleading. I agree that comparing different school system's weighted GPAs is comparing apples and oranges but referring to unweighted when all anyone hears otherwise is weighted is worse.

The kid had high rigor and a 4.1W from (I think you said? sorry not to reread) FCPS. That is definitely too low for UVA. It is a maybe for William and Mary. And if not Engineering or Business, last year would have been in at Virginia Tech. I am not surprised that OP's kid assumed a yes at Virginia Tech. From everything I have seen on DCUM and in real life, Tech got MUCH harder this year.

Another school that has gotten MUCH harder this year if you're from NOVA is Tennessee. It wasn't that long ago (last year?) that Naviance showed everyone with a 4.0 and above getting in. And a very misleading school on Naviance is Penn State. Naviance shows it as a sea of green at many GPAs but they seem not to distinguish among between satellite campus and University Park.

I am afraid, OPs kid counted on schools that would very recently have been Targets or even Safeties per Naviance and had very bad luck with everything moving quickly. This should be a lesson to all of us with younger kids.

Nope. Delusional. Schools don’t care about how your school fake weights grades—they report those made up GPAs because it makes the school look good. But, it really comes down to how many Bs little Johnny has. OP’s little Johnny had almost half Bs, that’s crap for UVA and CWRU.

[Anonymous]

You made a good list if he has options.

I hope he is happy with his ultimate choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rigor matters at my child’s school. Remember you are competing against your own hs peers first. If you have the extra rigor and someone else does not, often you are in and they are deferred. Especially don’t slack off senior year.

Of course rigor matters. People here are falling into a trap of grades and rigor being an either/or.

It’s not, you need both, because there are plenty of kids who took BC calc, AP physics, etc and have all As.

[Anonymous]

OP, hopefully this will teach him that he needs to get serious and work to his potential. He can do/be anything he wants coming out of either of those schools. If he can get a 1540 the potential is there, he just needs to figure out how to live up to that potential.