Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you are in Ivy or Ivy+ territory but everything else is on the table. It’s not all doom and gloom. Crafting a cohesive application with solid essays is key. What schools do they like? ED1 and ED2 if needed will be very helpful as well. You got this!!

Not true. If ED and with well defined/explained narrative, northwestern and Hopkins are possible.

Northwestern is looking for multiple spikes, not just top stats.

LOL

What was that for? Is that not true? NW does seem to want multi-talented kids. Kids from DC's school who got into NW were academically excellent (top 5% in a big urban public) with tons of public service, arts spike or something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
ECs: 2 somewhat competitive but pay-to-play pre college programs related to the intended major (done purely because they were interested in the subjects). School orchestra. School newspaper. Varsity sports, but not recruited athlete. Independent research (but not with a university professor). president of a school club related to their intended major. short unpaid internship in their intended major.

The only T20 school that does not seem to care as much about ECs is Rice. Have you considered it?

Pay to play programs are a complete waste of time for competitive college admissions. Varsity sports, newspaper, orchestra, all of that has been discussed to death on dcum. Unless the kid is being recruited or has achieved something truly exceptional, those activities usually carry very little weight. Research also seems to be out of fashion unless with some publication.

Mid ECs may be fine for kids at truly top tier private schools. But at your private, severe grade inflation makes it hard for any student to stand out. I also doubt colleges view the rigor from a tier down school the same way they view rigor from the top privates.

Good luck.

The comment on Rice seems true, as my neighbor’s valedictorian daughter got into Rice (but no other T20) with minimal ECs couple of years ago. Not sure if top 10% academically is enough though.

She said those pay to play programs are “somewhat competitive.” So perhaps they’re not completely useless?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC goes to a good private in the DMV (not a "Big 5" according to DCUM , but probably one tier below). We recently started working with an independent counselor and were told his ECs are average - lesson learned too late- he's our eldest and being expats, we were not very familiar with the college application landscape in the US where it is increasingly common to hire such counselors at the beginning of freshman year.

DC is in the Top 15% of the class, max rigor in math, 4.0 unweighted GPA, 1550 SAT.

ECs: 2 somewhat competitive but pay-to-play pre college programs related to the intended major (done purely because they were interested in the subjects). School orchestra. School newspaper. Varsity sports, but not recruited athlete. Independent research (but not with a university professor). president of a school club related to their intended major. short unpaid internship in their intended major.

We initially thought these ECs were good, but the independent counselor said that ECs like that do not make DC stand out. Apparently, the research should have been done with a university professor, the internship should have been longer and had a bigger impact, the pay to pay programs scream privilege, presidents of a school club are a dime a dozen at competitive colleges, school orchestra does not carry much weight if the student wasn't part of their county or state youth orchestra, varsity sports don't carry weight if the student isn't a recruited athlete ...

Honestly, the outlook the IC gave us was depressing ... we thought DC was in a strong position. We aren't shooting for ivies but hoping for a T30. We'd be full pay.
If you had a kid with a similar profile, where did they end up?

PUBLIC W SCHOOL
Michigan
Stanford
Georgia Tech
MIT
UMD

Major? I think that matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“ There is absolutely no need to ED if you are in state with these stats. Why do people keep saying this?”

You don’t “need” to but ED gets you an answer in December and if it’s admission then you’re done. EA doesn’t give you an answer until February and that is after the RD deadline for a lot of other schools so you have a lot of other applications you have to do “just in case”.

Obviously, but that locks you into UVA. Why not apply EA to UVA and then throw in a few applications to reaches in RD?

DS had a much more enjoyable Spring of senior year knowing that UVA accepted him. He had a lot to do (study for APs, spring sport and tough classes) the last thing he needed was to be doing more college apps and their wretched essays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“ There is absolutely no need to ED if you are in state with these stats. Why do people keep saying this?”

You don’t “need” to but ED gets you an answer in December and if it’s admission then you’re done. EA doesn’t give you an answer until February and that is after the RD deadline for a lot of other schools so you have a lot of other applications you have to do “just in case”.

Obviously, but that locks you into UVA. Why not apply EA to UVA and then throw in a few applications to reaches in RD?

DS had a much more enjoyable Spring of senior year knowing that UVA accepted him. He had a lot to do (study for APs, spring sport and tough classes) the last thing he needed was to be doing more college apps and their wretched essays.

RD essays were all done before ED results are out, or at least done during the winter break. No one is doing college apps in the Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“ There is absolutely no need to ED if you are in state with these stats. Why do people keep saying this?”

You don’t “need” to but ED gets you an answer in December and if it’s admission then you’re done. EA doesn’t give you an answer until February and that is after the RD deadline for a lot of other schools so you have a lot of other applications you have to do “just in case”.

Obviously, but that locks you into UVA. Why not apply EA to UVA and then throw in a few applications to reaches in RD?

DS had a much more enjoyable Spring of senior year knowing that UVA accepted him. He had a lot to do (study for APs, spring sport and tough classes) the last thing he needed was to be doing more college apps and their wretched essays.

Are you confusing EA with RD? My DS found out he was accepted to UVA January through EA. He also had an enjoyable spring knowing UVA accepted him. He was studying for APs, did a spring sport, etc. You do not need to apply ED to UVA as an in-state kid! It just is not necessary. DCUM fear-mongering. PP acts like her DC studied for APs in January. lol