Harvard, Princeton or Yale?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Only in this forum people think that most kids will be like that....

NMSF are obviously not a dime a dozen, but 90-percentile ACT/SAT scorers with all the other GPA and extracurricular checkmarks are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale

I went to none of them, but I work in fields where I've come into contact with grads from all of them. I always like the Yale grads.

I feel the same way.

It's probably that whole Yale thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This forum may not be the best place to ask this in general but the HYPS crowd would the the right audience. Does anyone have a kid who "undershot" college? The highest of stats, incredible resume and really the ideal candidate, but who decided not to even apply for the ultra elite? Visited 3 ivys + stanford but DC isn't in to it. People are surprised. I see it as DC's choice but I do wonder if there will be regret one day.

In my experience parents are delusional and don’t realize their rockstar kid is literally a dime a dozen globally. In short, it’s unlikely anyone’s non-hooked kid can get in. Really, no unhooked kids should be gunning for HYPS; waste of time.

+1. Parents really don't get that there are 100,000+ seniors every year with 4.0 gpa, 95+ percentile SAT, National Merit Finalist, AP Scholar, captain of teams, president of clubs on their app.

NMSF is the top .5% of SAT scorers. There are about 1.5 million kids who take the SAT, so that's about 15,000 kids. I'm sure the list of kids who match all your criteria is significantly shorter than that.

Nope. NMSF is based on PSAT scores. PRELIMINARY, as in does not count, as in practice, as in who cares.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This forum may not be the best place to ask this in general but the HYPS crowd would the the right audience. Does anyone have a kid who "undershot" college? The highest of stats, incredible resume and really the ideal candidate, but who decided not to even apply for the ultra elite? Visited 3 ivys + stanford but DC isn't in to it. People are surprised. I see it as DC's choice but I do wonder if there will be regret one day.

If your kid is as qualified as you suggest, I'd trust his or her judgment as to appropriate fit. There are many other high-quality colleges and institutions, and I'd be grateful that my kid was self-aware enough to know he or she didn't want to spend four years in a HYPS-like environment.

My DC refused to tour, let alone apply, to HYPS. Applied to Columbia (similar admit rate, in fact lower admit rate than Princeton), got in, and was happy there. For a very short period, a tiny corner of me wondered “what if?” and then I saw how great Columbia was for DC and stopped thinking about it.

If your DC thinks another top school is a great fit, let him tell you why. Don’t let him undershoot by going to state-satellite-U if he could get a better education elsewhere. But the fact is, there are, what, 20, 30 or even 50 top universities that provide excellent educations and almost all (if not 100%) of the “status” of HYP. In the end, it’s not about status, it’s about fit.

Thanks for your response. Not undershooting that far, but definitely walking from the highest opportunities. Interesting yours wouldn't tour HYPS but still stuck within ivy. I'd like to say it's about fit, and everyone talks about that, but seems hard to gauge to me.

I had a similar situation with my kid. Did tour all the Ivies. None really resonated with my kid so he threw in a few apps, got some Ivy offers but didn't accept. Went to a non-Ivy elite and very happy. I admittedly was worried that he chose a tougher path but given his opportunities since, he chose the best path for him.