How Good is A Score of 31 on the ACT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgetown, shoe-in for your state flagship.

Not so for a girl. My daughter scored higher, had spectacular grades (straight As, 5s on APs, etc) and multiple awards. She was rejected by Vandy, and the main Emory campus rejected her as well. Waitlisted at Boston College.

For girls, it's BRUTAL!

I'm sorry to hear about your daughter's disappointment. But there are more data points to consider than just her gender and test scores. For example, many if not most schools take into account the program/major applies to. Her major may have been very competitive and she was weighed against all applicants aspiring to be a writer/nurse/engineer/etc...

Like the fact she's white? Yes. That was a huge factor.

True. Plus the fact that more women apply than men. So, PP, is correct, it is brutal for white women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I think UVA accepts based on looks. It really helps to be good looking at that school!

No photos in the application.

[Anonymous]

My kid with a 3.4 weighted GPA (2 APs, a bunch of honors classes, lots of Bs, some As, couple of Cs) and 30 ACT got into schools like University of Minnesota, Indiana University, etc. DC got generous merit from a College That Changes Lives School and a small merit scholarship from the OOS public university that he now attends.




Can I ask what field he is interested in?

He applied to schools with majors in animal science, wildlife/conservation biology (or biology departments with a strong zoology or marine biology focus). Not exactly popular majors on DCUM but they can't all be engineers or on Wall Street. Applying to an agriculture or natural resources college naturally resulted in easier admission than applying to an engineering or business college within a larger university.

The average ACT at my kid's FCPS HS was under is typically in the 26 to 28 range. The highest achievers in each high school might be getting 33+ but a 30/31 is still a good score that is above average even in a competitive high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgetown, shoe-in for your state flagship.

Not so for a girl. My daughter scored higher, had spectacular grades (straight As, 5s on APs, etc) and multiple awards. She was rejected by Vandy, and the main Emory campus rejected her as well. Waitlisted at Boston College.

For girls, it's BRUTAL!

I'm sorry to hear about your daughter's disappointment. But there are more data points to consider than just her gender and test scores. For example, many if not most schools take into account the program/major applies to. Her major may have been very competitive and she was weighed against all applicants aspiring to be a writer/nurse/engineer/etc...

Like the fact she's white? Yes. That was a huge factor.

PP here. We are not 'prestige over common sense' people, so name wasn't even a consideration to us, but DD, having been raised in this area were 'brands' seem important, insisted on applying to a lot of these schools. She really felt in the end she simply wasn't good enough and it broke my heart. It's exactly why I wanted out of this area when we started having kids. Husband would not budge on it.

The effect the DC area has on kids, in my opinion, is not healthy.


True. Plus the fact that more women apply than men. So, PP, is correct, it is brutal for white women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I think UVA accepts based on looks. It really helps to be good looking at that school!

No photos in the application.

Like they don't have access to google? Please!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgetown, shoe-in for your state flagship.

Not so for a girl. My daughter scored higher, had spectacular grades (straight As, 5s on APs, etc) and multiple awards. She was rejected by Vandy, and the main Emory campus rejected her as well. Waitlisted at Boston College.

For girls, it's BRUTAL!

I'm sorry to hear about your daughter's disappointment. But there are more data points to consider than just her gender and test scores. For example, many if not most schools take into account the program/major applies to. Her major may have been very competitive and she was weighed against all applicants aspiring to be a writer/nurse/engineer/etc...

Like the fact she's white? Yes. That was a huge factor.

True. Plus the fact that more women apply than men. So, PP, is correct, it is brutal for white women.

PP here. We are not 'prestige over common sense' people, so name wasn't even a consideration to us, but DD, having been raised in this area were 'brands' seem important, insisted on applying to a lot of these schools. She really felt in the end she simply wasn't good enough and it broke my heart. It's exactly why I wanted out of this area when we started having kids. Husband would not budge on it.

The effect the DC area has on kids, in my opinion, is not healthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgetown, shoe-in for your state flagship.

Not so for a girl. My daughter scored higher, had spectacular grades (straight As, 5s on APs, etc) and multiple awards. She was rejected by Vandy, and the main Emory campus rejected her as well. Waitlisted at Boston College.

For girls, it's BRUTAL!

+100 very hard this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I think UVA accepts based on looks. It really helps to be good looking at that school!

No photos in the application.

Doesn't the common app have a photo ?

[Anonymous]

Yeah I just googled DC yep they know what u look loke

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I just googled DC yep they know what u look loke

Neither of mine are - we've been very careful with that, and no, no photos in application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgetown, shoe-in for your state flagship.

Not so for a girl. My daughter scored higher, had spectacular grades (straight As, 5s on APs, etc) and multiple awards. She was rejected by Vandy, and the main Emory campus rejected her as well. Waitlisted at Boston College.

For girls, it's BRUTAL!

+100 very hard this year.

Make sure you tell your DD over and over again applying to college is like auditioning for a role in a movie or TV show, i.e. do you fit the costume they have for that particular role at that particular time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt, Emory, Georgetown, shoe-in for your state flagship.

Not so for a girl. My daughter scored higher, had spectacular grades (straight As, 5s on APs, etc) and multiple awards. She was rejected by Vandy, and the main Emory campus rejected her as well. Waitlisted at Boston College.

For girls, it's BRUTAL!

+100 very hard this year.

Better than being an Asian kid.

[Anonymous]

you'd better have good grades too. My kid had a 35 with very mediocre grades and didn't get in anywhere to cluck about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes I think UVA accepts based on looks. It really helps to be good looking at that school!

No photos in the application.

Like they don't have access to google? Please!

You think a public U, even a t 25 like UVA, has time to Google people? They probably don't even read the essays. Not kidding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:you'd better have good grades too. My kid had a 35 with very mediocre grades and didn't get in anywhere to cluck about.

100X THIS! the grades are actually more important than test scores. If you have mediocre grades and stellar test scores that can translate into being a lazy student.