My child is super intelligent and won't get into any good schools? What?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is now in college, but despite achieving perfect scores on the SAT, a perfect GPA, and taking 15 AP classes, he was still unable to gain admission to USC, Vanderbilt, or WashU. It just goes to show that there are many factors at play, including demographics, race, income, and more. You never really know what will influence the outcome.

You should also note "teacher recommendations" which can have a significant impact on an applicants chances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

I don't think you understand, your kid is basically a dime a dozen in these parts.

They need to figure out what sets them apart from the tens of thousands of other super smart, accomplished kids, and what they are going to contribute to the community they wish to be a part of. Just scores and GPA isn't going to be enough. There are super smart, accomplished kids who can catch a football, or sing different opera or musical theater parts, or who programmed their own AI platform.

I don't understand why people keep saying this when a vast majority of kids "in these parts" are very dim.

Not if they are applying to UVA, which is whatwe are talking about. Those kids are usually top 6 percent in their classes with a 4.4-4.5, great test scores and top ECs.

This GPA is far more common than it used to be...

[Anonymous]

Because he is boring as in super boring.

[Anonymous]

Not to take away from any kid’s strengths and accomplishments (not even my own!) but we live in a big world and there are thousands and thousands of bright, accomplished kids out there. As parents, we may want to think that our kids are unique in the context of college admission (note my reference to context) but they’re really not. They’re no more special that the kid on the other side of town or on the other side of the state (or country or world) whose parents may not have the time or resources to nurture a gifted kid.

[Anonymous]

There are hundreds of thousands of high school seniors applying to college with a 4.0, perfect or near perfect SAT's, 10 plus AP's with 5's, college courses taken in multivariable calculus, linear equations, upper division chemistry, etc.

The hundred thousand plus students are competing for at best 50-60 thousand slots at top colleges. So much more goes into a successful applicant.

[Anonymous]

"The hundred thousand plus students are competing for at best 50-60 thousand slots at top colleges."

The corrolary of this is that, each year, there are some 50,000 very high-achieving, bright, motivated students who — due to random luck, or for only being the 2nd best clarinetist in their state — don't get into Top 20-ish colleges. Most of these kids then choose to go to schools more in the 20–40 ranks of universities and LACs.

So those colleges, which in previous years were sometimes scoffed at as mere "targets," now have very bright, motivated student bodies, too. Maybe we should all be a little less rigid about thinking the top brains are only concentrated at a few schools.

[Anonymous]

The GPA and sailing through high school means he’s disciplined. He will do well anywhere however, colleges are interested in students who aren’t just disciplined but also change makers.
He may be amazing at school and loves learning but what colleges want are students who are going to make their school name go further than a classroom setting and on a diploma.

[Anonymous]

I meant to say and NOT just on a diploma

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

I don't think you understand, your kid is basically a dime a dozen in these parts.

They need to figure out what sets them apart from the tens of thousands of other super smart, accomplished kids, and what they are going to contribute to the community they wish to be a part of. Just scores and GPA isn't going to be enough. There are super smart, accomplished kids who can catch a football, or sing different opera or musical theater parts, or who programmed their own AI platform.

I don't understand why people keep saying this when a vast majority of kids "in these parts" are very dim.

Not if they are applying to UVA, which is whatwe are talking about. Those kids are usually top 6 percent in their classes with a 4.4-4.5, great test scores and top ECs.

This GPA is far more common than it used to be...

A weighted 4.5 /4.53 at William & Mary for 75th percentile means that 25% have even higher GPAs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are hundreds of thousands of high school seniors applying to college with a 4.0, perfect or near perfect SAT's, 10 plus AP's with 5's, college courses taken in multivariable calculus, linear equations, upper division chemistry, etc.

The hundred thousand plus students are competing for at best 50-60 thousand slots at top colleges. So much more goes into a successful applicant.

No. There are under 50K USA student with any of these, fewer with all. But there are foreign students with similar credentials, and they are USA students with "experience factors" and non academic credentials that also get substantial fraction of spots in these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

How many and what areas are his AP's? What are his dual enrollment classes in? What do the top studentsat his high school look like compared to him? Getting a perfect SAT and 5's in all AP classes is extremely common. As such it doesn't do much for your child's college chances except to get him a second look when they read the applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are hundreds of thousands of high school seniors applying to college with a 4.0, perfect or near perfect SAT's, 10 plus AP's with 5's, college courses taken in multivariable calculus, linear equations, upper division chemistry, etc.

The hundred thousand plus students are competing for at best 50-60 thousand slots at top colleges. So much more goes into a successful applicant.

Parents,
Let’s be real—there are not “hundreds of thousands” of high school students who are two or three years beyond BC calculus. That might seem normal in this area, but academic deans at two different very competitive private schools (including non-DC boarding school) told me point blank by that there are fewer than 20k or so students who graduate that ahead each year across the country.

The real issue is that college admissions care less about your kid ending up in BC calculus or linear algebra than the people on this board. Some kids don’t have access to the advanced coursework, and colleges will not ding them for that. Our kids are killing themselves to max out on certain advanced curriculum when they would are better off investing time in ECs. (My kids are guilty of the former and refuse to listen.) Let’s be realistic about the fact that there aren’t kids taking complex analysis at the top privates. Yet, kids from top privates get disproportionately admitted to top schools. Overindexing on stats seems like a waste of energy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are hundreds of thousands of high school seniors applying to college with a 4.0, perfect or near perfect SAT's, 10 plus AP's with 5's, college courses taken in multivariable calculus, linear equations, upper division chemistry, etc.

The hundred thousand plus students are competing for at best 50-60 thousand slots at top colleges. So much more goes into a successful applicant.

Parents,
Let’s be real—there are not “hundreds of thousands” of high school students who are two or three years beyond BC calculus. That might seem normal in this area, but academic deans at two different very competitive private schools (including non-DC boarding school) told me point blank by that there are fewer than 20k or so students who graduate that ahead each year across the country.

The real issue is that college admissions care less about your kid ending up in BC calculus or linear algebra than the people on this board. Some kids don’t have access to the advanced coursework, and colleges will not ding them for that. Our kids are killing themselves to max out on certain advanced curriculum when they would are better off investing time in ECs. (My kids are guilty of the former and refuse to listen.) Let’s be realistic about the fact that there aren’t kids taking complex analysis at the top privates. Yet, kids from top privates get disproportionately admitted to top schools. Overindexing on stats seems like a waste of energy.

It's not even about not having access to super advanced math. The kids at our school who get into the top colleges unhooked are not always the kids in the most advanced math class. A student with good grades across the board, including in whatever level of math they chose to take junior year is just as strong a candidate as the classmate with the same grades who happens to have taken a math course a year or two ahead. In fact, the math teacher may know and write that the kid a year ahead is not the strongest math student, and maybe the kid who took it slower is actually the better math student. People in this area are way, way, way, too focused on accelerating math unnecessarily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are hundreds of thousands of high school seniors applying to college with a 4.0, perfect or near perfect SAT's, 10 plus AP's with 5's, college courses taken in multivariable calculus, linear equations, upper division chemistry, etc.

The hundred thousand plus students are competing for at best 50-60 thousand slots at top colleges. So much more goes into a successful applicant.

Parents,
Let’s be real—there are not “hundreds of thousands” of high school students who are two or three years beyond BC calculus. That might seem normal in this area, but academic deans at two different very competitive private schools (including non-DC boarding school) told me point blank by that there are fewer than 20k or so students who graduate that ahead each year across the country.

If there are 20,000 students from the DMV taking a couple of years beyond Calculus BC, once you add in the other states, you can easily see a couple hundred thousand students taking maths like linear algebra and differential equations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are hundreds of thousands of high school seniors applying to college with a 4.0, perfect or near perfect SAT's, 10 plus AP's with 5's, college courses taken in multivariable calculus, linear equations, upper division chemistry, etc.

The hundred thousand plus students are competing for at best 50-60 thousand slots at top colleges. So much more goes into a successful applicant.

Parents,
Let’s be real—there are not “hundreds of thousands” of high school students who are two or three years beyond BC calculus. That might seem normal in this area, but academic deans at two different very competitive private schools (including non-DC boarding school) told me point blank by that there are fewer than 20k or so students who graduate that ahead each year across the country.

If there are 20,000 students from the DMV taking a couple of years beyond Calculus BC, once you add in the other states, you can easily see a couple hundred thousand students taking maths like linear algebra and differential equations.

Our fcps hs had ONE small section of multi var/linear algebra. Multiply that across all of the DMV and you don't get 20,000 🙄