Where do top students who got rejected early from Ivy/T10 land?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don't think feeder schools are working well at all this year. My kid goes to one in DC and we know others in NYC and results at the elite universities are way down this year. Tons of deferrals. The pool of schools that the elite colleges are taking kids from is wider each year.

OP, I have a kid in a similar spot and I'm not feeling particularly optimistic. If prestige is important to you I would 100% take the Chicago spot. That is what our college counselor advised as well. my kid is not (she is fine with a school ranked 40).

Disagree with this 100%. OP's kid is clearly a standout (Yale only defers maybe 15% of applicants). If your kid isn't in love with Chicago, don't do it. They WILL have other amazing options. Worst case Cornell, Georgetown, or Duke (hardly a worst case...).

FWIW I have a kid w similar stats who did ED1 Chicago and will go there in the fall. In a best case scenario he would have loved to take a shot at Penn and Yale but he genuinely loved Chicago too. So it made sense to take the bird in the hand, and he's thrilled to be done. But if he hadn't loved Chicago, we wouldn't have done ED for the prestige.

LOL you’re talking like OP’s kid will just get accepted to Duke, Duke is pretty much as selective as Yale these days

Or here. In our school probably 80% of the super high stats kids who get shut out of HYPSM land at Duke, Georgetown, or Cornell. But you're right that 20% don't. So that's a risk you take if you don't do a safer ED2. Personally I think it's worth taking that risk. Real worst case, your kid goes to a state school for a year and transfers to Ivy.

Transferring to an Ivy is not easy.

Transfer acceptance rates at four-year colleges can range from less than 1% at Ivy League universities to more than 80% at some public institutions.

Transfer rates:
Princeton University 3.1%
Dartmouth College 1.6%
Yale University 1.2%
Harvard University <1%

Columbia is 52.5%

This can’t be right- please show your source for Columbia.

It's not right. That figure is for Columbia's professional/non traditional General Studies college. Regular admittance to Columbia is under 4%

CGS has much more generous admissions standards. It’s a lot of military, but also troubled students who withdrew from other undergraduate programs for various reasons. I also know a former adult film actress who went there (unclear whether she graduated).

[Anonymous]

Back to the question: I looked at where all NMSSF from my kid's school from the past couple of years ended up, as a proxy for "top students." Sample size is about 60 (this is a very strong private not in the DMV). The vast majority ended up at T15 private uni or one of the best flagship public unis. Very small number ended up at slacs, which surprised me. One Williams, one Swarthmore.

Now, these results could reflect judicious use of ED for the kids at Penn, Cornell, Brown, UChicago, and Hopkins. And at least some of the HYPSM kids were exceptional math students (think MOP) or musicians. Most of these kids were not legacies; a few were recruited athletes.

[Anonymous]

I remember a classmate in high school years ago who applied early to Brown and was rejected. She then applied to schools RD and before decisions were even due - in January - heard from Dartmouth saying she’d been accepted. That’s where she ended up.

My husband was rejected ED from Princeton and ended up at Williams (where we met).

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What is Columbia General Studies?

it's a non traditional degree program usually for older students or ex military. Not the same as columbia college although similar classes. Your classmates and social scene (dorms etc) will be older so not exactly ideal.

Think of it as a backdoor to columbia. Other ivy backdoors include the dual bachelor degree stem program agreements ivies have with certain SLACs (Reed college with Columbia Engineering, Mt. Holyoke with dartmouth, bates with dartmouth and columbia, or davidson with the same schools) - less competitive admissions to get in where you get degrees from the SLACs and the ivy engineering school with time on both campuses.

That is a generous comparison. It’s basically a fake degree so Columbia can make money. The students are mediocre. I guess the goal is to be able to pass off that you “went to Columbia” and perhaps most of the time no one follows up. Reminds me of those 4 week Harvard Business executive things people with shitty educational pedigrees like to throw on their resume.

You are an idiot. That FAKE degree is a Columbia Degree. Students take classes alongside every other Columbia College of Sciences and Engineering students. THIS IS NOTHING like the BS HBS executive diploma mill….. I’m an MD at a top IB in NYC. I have 4 Columbia “kids” working in my division. 2 Columbia College, 1 GS and 1 Dual BA with SciencePo. The top performing associate is a the Dual BA Columbia/Science Po and the second one is the other GS kid……Don’t be an idiot spreading fake information here…

Are the admission standards nearly as high for GS?

No, admissions standards are not nearly as high. That being said, the students take (nearly) all classes side by side with "regular" Columbia admits. Sometimes they are clearly weaker students and sometimes they are standouts - the most interesting of these students have had very interesting paths before college - professional dancers, etc. - that have well prepared them for hard work. And, unsurprisingly, given their older age, many of these students are more mature in how they approach their studies.

[Anonymous]

Dated a few years but for our kids:

ED Emory ended up at Barnard
ED Dartmouth ended up at Cornell

Both graduated now, gainfully employed in Wash, DC type jobs (think political). Going top 14 Law Schools next year. One of the two to a top 4 one.

Works out in the end.

[Anonymous]

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“My kid has 1590/4.0 top rigor (school doesn’t weight or have AP classes but took three APs 5/5/4). I think essays show kid’s strengths, ECs are strong but not amazing. White, not legacy or big donor. Deferred at Yale early. College counselor says if kid doesn’t ED2 at UChicago there’s a strong likelihood of ending up in RD only having options at a large public or a school that’s a lot lower ranked than kid’s hoping for. Is college counselor being overly conservative? Kid likes Chicago well enough but would prefer HYSPM”

In answer to questions, high school doesn’t rank. Kid has 4.0, so no one has a better average, but I think there are approx 20 other kids who do too. High school is most selective/rigorous in our non dmv city. Used to send lots of kids to ivies; these days, it’s one or two a year each to HYPSM. No one got in early to Yale, Harvard, or Princeton this year, which is unusual for school.

This seems to be the case at all top DMV privates this year as compared to class of 2024. Only 3 Ivys at our school and 2 were legacy, compared to about 12 last year early (still mostly legacies). Seems like a harder year all around in ED. Will see how it pans out in RD.

THIS. It was a horrible ED/SCEA round at our top private. Outside of Cornell, the only Ivies were a couple of legacies and 1 sports recruit. Otherwise the school went about 0/20. This is in marked contrast to prior years.

Pretty sure I know the school and you don’t have all the info. There were more ivy unhooked acceptances.