WSJ article on your child's chances of getting into an IVY are slim

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid had a 4.0UW at TJHSST, a 1580 SAT, double digit number of APs with 5s on all the exams, state-level academic awards, club leadership, varsity athlete, and didn't get into HYPSM.

Should I call the WSJ?

Agree 100%. There are so many of these "average excellent" students like the subject of the article with all the grade inflation in HSs nationwide, and the vast majority won't get into the Ivy League. Straight A's, solid extracurriculars and top test scores just don't cut it for most students. My daughter graduated TJHSST in 2018, had a superscored 1600 SAT and was also a 2 sport varsity athlete with first or second team all conference honors (but not good enough to play either sport in the Ivy League D1) and was likely in the top 10% of the class at TJ. She had an excellent guidance counselor at TJ who gave her good advice about her chances and how she should present herself to the colleges she applied to. She too was shut out of Stanford and the 3 Ivys she applied to but she wasn't surprised and took it in stride. Still she had a fantastic outcome and was accepted to Duke, UChicago and UVA Echols and is now a few weeks from graduating from Duke w/a great job waiting for her. She wouldn't have traded her 4 years at Duke for ANY of the Ivys at this point. Outside of the covid year, she loved her 4 years at Duke and the group of friends she made there.

Congratulations to your daughter but with all of the changes in admissions such as TO, emphasis on recruitment of first-gen and/or URM students, increasing #s of applications, etc. the high school class of 2018 admissions aren’t relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course the WSJ picked a white girl from Texas for this so they could make it seem like the reason why she didn’t get in was because of “those” kids.

Yet a basically meh one in comparison to many HYPSM applicants. She is not a truly outstanding applicant when I think of the ones admitted in my DC's senior class this year, including published science research, running a relief operation for essential workers in COVID, etc. And for a kid focused on an Ivy, it's mystifying at why she wrote about her B grades and depression in her essay. College Confidential and nearly every college essay web site wave students off that topic, including "successful" stories of a student not getting a learning diagnosis until middle school/early high school and being able to turn around their learning trajectory after better understanding their strengths and weaknesses.

I think the girl's 300 plays she played in and/or "directed" goes to the issue of the veracity of her grandiose claim. PP's claim of HS classmate kids who are already published research scientists just takes it to another level. It's like forcing a 10 year old boy to tag along on a trek to the Himalayas to become the youngest ever. It's on the level of Greta Thunberg. It's cringey.

A close friend of mine has a kid who has a published research paper. It was 95% kid driven. It happens.

And did you call Greta Thunberg “cringey”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course the WSJ picked a white girl from Texas for this so they could make it seem like the reason why she didn’t get in was because of “those” kids.

Yet a basically meh one in comparison to many HYPSM applicants. She is not a truly outstanding applicant when I think of the ones admitted in my DC's senior class this year, including published science research, running a relief operation for essential workers in COVID, etc. And for a kid focused on an Ivy, it's mystifying at why she wrote about her B grades and depression in her essay. College Confidential and nearly every college essay web site wave students off that topic, including "successful" stories of a student not getting a learning diagnosis until middle school/early high school and being able to turn around their learning trajectory after better understanding their strengths and weaknesses.

I think the girl's 300 plays she played in and/or "directed" goes to the issue of the veracity of her grandiose claim. PP's claim of HS classmate kids who are already published research scientists just takes it to another level. It's like forcing a 10 year old boy to tag along on a trek to the Himalayas to become the youngest ever. It's on the level of Greta Thunberg. It's cringey.

A close friend of mine has a kid who has a published research paper. It was 95% kid driven. It happens.

And did you call Greta Thunberg “cringey”?

Wow. So you’re telling me the kid has their own research lab?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course the WSJ picked a white girl from Texas for this so they could make it seem like the reason why she didn’t get in was because of “those” kids.

Yet a basically meh one in comparison to many HYPSM applicants. She is not a truly outstanding applicant when I think of the ones admitted in my DC's senior class this year, including published science research, running a relief operation for essential workers in COVID, etc. And for a kid focused on an Ivy, it's mystifying at why she wrote about her B grades and depression in her essay. College Confidential and nearly every college essay web site wave students off that topic, including "successful" stories of a student not getting a learning diagnosis until middle school/early high school and being able to turn around their learning trajectory after better understanding their strengths and weaknesses.

Yeah she was from the Manassas of Texas and probably didn’t have access to any of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course the WSJ picked a white girl from Texas for this so they could make it seem like the reason why she didn’t get in was because of “those” kids.

Yet a basically meh one in comparison to many HYPSM applicants. She is not a truly outstanding applicant when I think of the ones admitted in my DC's senior class this year, including published science research, running a relief operation for essential workers in COVID, etc. And for a kid focused on an Ivy, it's mystifying at why she wrote about her B grades and depression in her essay. College Confidential and nearly every college essay web site wave students off that topic, including "successful" stories of a student not getting a learning diagnosis until middle school/early high school and being able to turn around their learning trajectory after better understanding their strengths and weaknesses.

I think the girl's 300 plays she played in and/or "directed" goes to the issue of the veracity of her grandiose claim. PP's claim of HS classmate kids who are already published research scientists just takes it to another level. It's like forcing a 10 year old boy to tag along on a trek to the Himalayas to become the youngest ever. It's on the level of Greta Thunberg. It's cringey.

A close friend of mine has a kid who has a published research paper. It was 95% kid driven. It happens.

And did you call Greta Thunberg “cringey”?

Wow. So you’re telling me the kid has their own research lab?

I knew the resource bar to some of the resume padding was high, but being able to afford to equip and staff a lab is next level

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid had a 4.0UW at TJHSST, a 1580 SAT, double digit number of APs with 5s on all the exams, state-level academic awards, club leadership, varsity athlete, and didn't get into HYPSM.

Should I call the WSJ?

Agree 100%. There are so many of these "average excellent" students like the subject of the article with all the grade inflation in HSs nationwide, and the vast majority won't get into the Ivy League. Straight A's, solid extracurriculars and top test scores just don't cut it for most students. My daughter graduated TJHSST in 2018, had a superscored 1600 SAT and was also a 2 sport varsity athlete with first or second team all conference honors (but not good enough to play either sport in the Ivy League D1) and was likely in the top 10% of the class at TJ. She had an excellent guidance counselor at TJ who gave her good advice about her chances and how she should present herself to the colleges she applied to. She too was shut out of Stanford and the 3 Ivys she applied to but she wasn't surprised and took it in stride. Still she had a fantastic outcome and was accepted to Duke, UChicago and UVA Echols and is now a few weeks from graduating from Duke w/a great job waiting for her. She wouldn't have traded her 4 years at Duke for ANY of the Ivys at this point. Outside of the covid year, she loved her 4 years at Duke and the group of friends she made there.

Congratulations to your daughter but with all of the changes in admissions such as TO, emphasis on recruitment of first-gen and/or URM students, increasing #s of applications, etc. the high school class of 2018 admissions aren’t relevant.

First gen students and URMs that manage to get in are qualified as hell. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

The more interesting question is why didn’t UT Austin business school didn’t accept her? If she wasn’t seen as a top candidate at that school then that tells you all you need to know. Also why not attend UT and major in economics or math?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course the WSJ picked a white girl from Texas for this so they could make it seem like the reason why she didn’t get in was because of “those” kids.

Yet a basically meh one in comparison to many HYPSM applicants. She is not a truly outstanding applicant when I think of the ones admitted in my DC's senior class this year, including published science research, running a relief operation for essential workers in COVID, etc. And for a kid focused on an Ivy, it's mystifying at why she wrote about her B grades and depression in her essay. College Confidential and nearly every college essay web site wave students off that topic, including "successful" stories of a student not getting a learning diagnosis until middle school/early high school and being able to turn around their learning trajectory after better understanding their strengths and weaknesses.

I think the girl's 300 plays she played in and/or "directed" goes to the issue of the veracity of her grandiose claim. PP's claim of HS classmate kids who are already published research scientists just takes it to another level. It's like forcing a 10 year old boy to tag along on a trek to the Himalayas to become the youngest ever. It's on the level of Greta Thunberg. It's cringey.

A close friend of mine has a kid who has a published research paper. It was 95% kid driven. It happens.

And did you call Greta Thunberg “cringey”?

It's cringey, as in the girl's parents are pulling all the strings behind the scene. It sounds abusive. When a snotty-nosed HS kid becomes a published research scientist, it $ounds $hady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The more interesting question is why didn’t UT Austin business school didn’t accept her? If she wasn’t seen as a top candidate at that school then that tells you all you need to know. Also why not attend UT and major in economics or math?

Because accounting is more of a sure thing for job purposes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course the WSJ picked a white girl from Texas for this so they could make it seem like the reason why she didn’t get in was because of “those” kids.

Yet a basically meh one in comparison to many HYPSM applicants. She is not a truly outstanding applicant when I think of the ones admitted in my DC's senior class this year, including published science research, running a relief operation for essential workers in COVID, etc. And for a kid focused on an Ivy, it's mystifying at why she wrote about her B grades and depression in her essay. College Confidential and nearly every college essay web site wave students off that topic, including "successful" stories of a student not getting a learning diagnosis until middle school/early high school and being able to turn around their learning trajectory after better understanding their strengths and weaknesses.

I think the girl's 300 plays she played in and/or "directed" goes to the issue of the veracity of her grandiose claim. PP's claim of HS classmate kids who are already published research scientists just takes it to another level. It's like forcing a 10 year old boy to tag along on a trek to the Himalayas to become the youngest ever. It's on the level of Greta Thunberg. It's cringey.

A close friend of mine has a kid who has a published research paper. It was 95% kid driven. It happens.

And did you call Greta Thunberg “cringey”?

How is it possible this girl even participated in 300 plays? First, timewsie that seems impossible. Also, you can't have leading roles if you are in 300 or directing 309 plays. What matters is quality, not quantity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The more interesting question is why didn’t UT Austin business school didn’t accept her? If she wasn’t seen as a top candidate at that school then that tells you all you need to know. Also why not attend UT and major in economics or math?

?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The more interesting question is why didn’t UT Austin business school didn’t accept her? If she wasn’t seen as a top candidate at that school then that tells you all you need to know. Also why not attend UT and major in economics or math?

UT Austin is not cheap. We have no idea if she had any parental college funding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid had a 4.0UW at TJHSST, a 1580 SAT, double digit number of APs with 5s on all the exams, state-level academic awards, club leadership, varsity athlete, and didn't get into HYPSM.

Should I call the WSJ?

Agree 100%. There are so many of these "average excellent" students like the subject of the article with all the grade inflation in HSs nationwide, and the vast majority won't get into the Ivy League. Straight A's, solid extracurriculars and top test scores just don't cut it for most students. My daughter graduated TJHSST in 2018, had a superscored 1600 SAT and was also a 2 sport varsity athlete with first or second team all conference honors (but not good enough to play either sport in the Ivy League D1) and was likely in the top 10% of the class at TJ. She had an excellent guidance counselor at TJ who gave her good advice about her chances and how she should present herself to the colleges she applied to. She too was shut out of Stanford and the 3 Ivys she applied to but she wasn't surprised and took it in stride. Still she had a fantastic outcome and was accepted to Duke, UChicago and UVA Echols and is now a few weeks from graduating from Duke w/a great job waiting for her. She wouldn't have traded her 4 years at Duke for ANY of the Ivys at this point. Outside of the covid year, she loved her 4 years at Duke and the group of friends she made there.

Congratulations to your daughter but with all of the changes in admissions such as TO, emphasis on recruitment of first-gen and/or URM students, increasing #s of applications, etc. the high school class of 2018 admissions aren’t relevant.

First gen students and URMs that manage to get in are qualified as hell. Thanks.

Most of the discovery from the Harvard case has shown the opposite

Nope.

Average scores and GPAs were all lower for URMs

The SAT is basically a rich white kid test.

[Anonymous]

I find the title of “your child” in the post interesting. How do you know my child is or isn’t a first generation student, a URM etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid had a 4.0UW at TJHSST, a 1580 SAT, double digit number of APs with 5s on all the exams, state-level academic awards, club leadership, varsity athlete, and didn't get into HYPSM.

Should I call the WSJ?

Agree 100%. There are so many of these "average excellent" students like the subject of the article with all the grade inflation in HSs nationwide, and the vast majority won't get into the Ivy League. Straight A's, solid extracurriculars and top test scores just don't cut it for most students. My daughter graduated TJHSST in 2018, had a superscored 1600 SAT and was also a 2 sport varsity athlete with first or second team all conference honors (but not good enough to play either sport in the Ivy League D1) and was likely in the top 10% of the class at TJ. She had an excellent guidance counselor at TJ who gave her good advice about her chances and how she should present herself to the colleges she applied to. She too was shut out of Stanford and the 3 Ivys she applied to but she wasn't surprised and took it in stride. Still she had a fantastic outcome and was accepted to Duke, UChicago and UVA Echols and is now a few weeks from graduating from Duke w/a great job waiting for her. She wouldn't have traded her 4 years at Duke for ANY of the Ivys at this point. Outside of the covid year, she loved her 4 years at Duke and the group of friends she made there.

Congratulations to your daughter but with all of the changes in admissions such as TO, emphasis on recruitment of first-gen and/or URM students, increasing #s of applications, etc. the high school class of 2018 admissions aren’t relevant.

First gen students and URMs that manage to get in are qualified as hell. Thanks.

Most of the discovery from the Harvard case has shown the opposite

Nope.

Average scores and GPAs were all lower for URMs

That doesn’t say anything about qualification. In fact Ivies should be accepting way more bright motivated kids from underprivileged backgrounds.