Does going to a Big 3 school really help with college admissions?

Anonymous wrote:Moving to a state with less than 5M population or no large 2M pp urban areas would help.

Applying from this area is a crapshoot, but you'll get something good within your GPA and ECs band.

Only other thing I'd add is the as a top 10%-er in private school, if you have a top pick college (say MIT) and a big donor kid with similar stats as you has the same college (not even same program necessarily), the HOS and Counselor will give the nod to the donor kid. That sux but your runner up colleges will be Ivy anyhow and you'll get in.

Secondly, top 10% kids of private schools are pushed to apply to 5 or 6 max colleges. No hoovering up all the spots, leave some for others.

Public schools do not play that game. You want to go there, you apply. Counselors won't throttle down your app #, nor push two top students against each other when MIT AdCom calls. Private schools (everywhere in the country) will.

DH went to an Ivy from a very small state, in the 1990's. He found it a bit amusing how often his peers at the Ivy would make some reference to the admissions advantage he must have had by being from a small state. No matter, DH is a very chill person, and didn't let it bother him.

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12/01/2019 10:09

Subject: Re:Does going to a Big 3 school really help with college admissions?

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Anonymous

^ well- it’s true. My Midwesterner husband readily acknowledges that it definitely gave him a boost. A good majority of his HS didn’t go to college after graduation.

Was my husband smart/deserving? Yes- near perfect SATs and all As in AP courses—but this described at least 1/4 of the population at my very large Fairfax Co HS. who did not get into Ivies and were wait listed at places like UVA, W&M.

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12/01/2019 10:13

Subject: Re:Does going to a Big 3 school really help with college admissions?

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Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:Very few McLean kids went to Harvard according to the Highlander

At our diverse wealthy County HS, it’s the minorities that get into the Ivies. It’s why our HS has a much larger percentage of kids getting into Ivies than the nearby 98% Caucasian HS. Same advantages, academic record and intelligence- but Hispanic or AA definitely helps.

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12/01/2019 10:24

Subject: Does going to a Big 3 school really help with college admissions?

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving to a state with less than 5M population or no large 2M pp urban areas would help.

Applying from this area is a crapshoot, but you'll get something good within your GPA and ECs band.

Only other thing I'd add is the as a top 10%-er in private school, if you have a top pick college (say MIT) and a big donor kid with similar stats as you has the same college (not even same program necessarily), the HOS and Counselor will give the nod to the donor kid. That sux but your runner up colleges will be Ivy anyhow and you'll get in.

Secondly, top 10% kids of private schools are pushed to apply to 5 or 6 max colleges. No hoovering up all the spots, leave some for others.

Public schools do not play that game. You want to go there, you apply. Counselors won't throttle down your app #, nor push two top students against each other when MIT AdCom calls. Private schools (everywhere in the country) will.

DH went to an Ivy from a very small state, in the 1990's. He found it a bit amusing how often his peers at the Ivy would make some reference to the admissions advantage he must have had by being from a small state. No matter, DH is a very chill person, and didn't let it bother him.

Except.. it did give him an advantage, all else being equal. who cares?

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12/01/2019 10:26

Subject: Does going to a Big 3 school really help with college admissions?

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a very hard time believing that the top 10 or 20 percent of MCPS graduates (for example) are consistently getting admitted to the so-called top colleges.

Exactly. If a typical MCPS class is about 800 kids, that would be 80 or 160 kids, which seems unlikely.

It's not. The top 10% of public school graduates is not equivalent to the top 10% at an elite private school. The private school admits only the top x% of its applicant pool, which is itself a top y% of the general public (since these kids have parents who care enough to make the application, even irrespective of HHI).

This is why its so hard to answer OP's question, since it would take a lot of data and number crunching to compare apples to apples.

If you are in a wealthy, high SES area with good publics—the top 10% does not vary from the top 10% at private. There are enough kids that are all extremely high performing. And the schools are huge—2500 so there are many more to compete with. You don’t have a class 50% or more legacy- some of which are dumb as a bag of rocks. A class of 700 students vs a class of 200 can equal much more competition.

This is correct.

The top students at private and the top students at public aren't going to be significantly different academically if at all (and the public ones in that case likely have an advantage - less coddling etc). I say this as a private grad.

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12/01/2019 11:05

Subject: Does going to a Big 3 school really help with college admissions?

quote

Anonymous

I agree that the top students at a high SES public are going to be as inherently smart and hard-working as those in private, but I do think the ones in private will probably have stronger writing skills simply because the smaller class sizes allow the private school teachers to assign more writing assignments and give more individualized attention. It’s a huge burden on a teacher to grade 30x5 papers than to grade 12x3 or 4.

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12/01/2019 11:08

Subject: Does going to a Big 3 school really help with college admissions?

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school is good of you are happy to later be full pay at Elon, Davidson, Kenyon, or Wesleyan.

One of these schools isn't in the same league as the others.

Elon acceptance rate 54%. And my kid is at one of the others mentioned and not "full pay."

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12/01/2019 11:21

Subject: Does going to a Big 3 school really help with college admissions?

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving to a state with less than 5M population or no large 2M pp urban areas would help.

Applying from this area is a crapshoot, but you'll get something good within your GPA and ECs band.

Only other thing I'd add is the as a top 10%-er in private school, if you have a top pick college (say MIT) and a big donor kid with similar stats as you has the same college (not even same program necessarily), the HOS and Counselor will give the nod to the donor kid. That sux but your runner up colleges will be Ivy anyhow and you'll get in.

Secondly, top 10% kids of private schools are pushed to apply to 5 or 6 max colleges. No hoovering up all the spots, leave some for others.

Public schools do not play that game. You want to go there, you apply. Counselors won't throttle down your app #, nor push two top students against each other when MIT AdCom calls. Private schools (everywhere in the country) will.

DH went to an Ivy from a very small state, in the 1990's. He found it a bit amusing how often his peers at the Ivy would make some reference to the admissions advantage he must have had by being from a small state. No matter, DH is a very chill person, and didn't let it bother him.

Except.. it did give him an advantage, all else being equal. who cares?

PP here. Yes, it probably gave him an advantage. But was it possibly a little bit petty of his peers to make snide comments about how "easy" it was for DH to get in from a small state? Fortunately, DH is genuinely self-deprecating, which has served him well.

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