Where are your kids Getting in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have seen alot of posters mention Pitt. Has that become a very popular school?? Can someone tell me what makes it so desirable? Sorry to derail!

Pitt is also popular because it’s one of the few schools that has rolling admissions beginning in late summer. You can apply very early and get an answer. Knowing that you’ve been accepted somewhere can be a great stress reliever in this process.

Our DD did that this past year and had an acceptance in hand from Pitt before the end of Sep. It has taken out a lot of the stress this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: We have been looking closely at UMass for a particular highly ranked program and the only potential issue I see is with my child's continued interest in a lesser taught foreign language.
The Five college interchange looks good on paper but there seem to be few advanced language courses available at those institutions.

Which language? My son is going there to study computational linguistics

[Anonymous]

Russian

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Russian

My son has a friend taking Russian there and she feels it’s quite good

[Anonymous]

GPA 4.3 from FCPS (weighted, rigorous courseload), SAT 1420, White female, no particular hooks
In: UVA (in state), W&M (likely postcard), VT, UMd-CP (oos), Pitt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:36 ACT 4.2 WGPA 3.89 UW

Accepted:
Notre Dame (invited to scholars and merit semifinalist)
BC
Villanova
Fordham (Dean’s Scholarship)
UMCP (B/K Scholarship)

Denied:
UVA

Let the record show that UVA reject kids with perfect ACTs and only 1 or 2 Bs on their high school transcript.

OMG, imagine having those stats and getting rejected by UVA. Kid has amazing other choices and it will all work out but that is just jaw dropping. I hope it was not first choice.

It was likely as an OOS applicant which I believe would have something to do with it. Doesn't UVA weight in-state applicants differently?

Yes. I’m a college counselor from another state. When I moved to Virginia and first started seeing the UVA accepts roll in, i fell off my chair. HUGE difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:36 ACT 4.2 WGPA 3.89 UW

Accepted:
Notre Dame (invited to scholars and merit semifinalist)
BC
Villanova
Fordham (Dean’s Scholarship)
UMCP (B/K Scholarship)

Denied:
UVA

Let the record show that UVA reject kids with perfect ACTs and only 1 or 2 Bs on their high school transcript.

OMG, imagine having those stats and getting rejected by UVA. Kid has amazing other choices and it will all work out but that is just jaw dropping. I hope it was not first choice.

It was likely as an OOS applicant which I believe would have something to do with it. Doesn't UVA weight in-state applicants differently?

Yes. I’m a college counselor from another state. When I moved to Virginia and first started seeing the UVA accepts roll in, i fell off my chair. HUGE difference.

As it should be.

[Anonymous]

My kids are younger but I remember years ago a woman in my class who was all-around amazing (4.0 gpa, played in a youth symphony, excelled at a sport etc) was rejected by the ivy she applied to early. We were all shocked.

A mother of another student, who worked in an admissions office at an elite university, told her she should reapply in the “regular” round. Apparently that’s allowed if you’re rejected (vs waitlisted). The mother was saying it was possible they didn’t receive part of her application.

In December that year she applied to a different Ivy (Dartmouth) and got an acceptance letter from them about a two weeks later (right when we all got back from winter break). She was very confused since she wasn’t expecting a letter yet, so she brought it to class and asked our chem teacher what it meant. I remember the chem teacher saying “it means you got into Dartmouth” and we were all so excited - including the woman who got the letter. I never understood why the other university rejected her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:re: uva rejection of high stats kid.
decades ago they rejected me, and Duke accepted me. We all heard they did not want Maryland kids.

Similar story here. Waitlisted at UVA, admitted to Harvard. No joke. Applying from MA though.

my son was wait listed Cornell but admitted MIT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:re: uva rejection of high stats kid.
decades ago they rejected me, and Duke accepted me. We all heard they did not want Maryland kids.

Similar story here. Waitlisted at UVA, admitted to Harvard. No joke. Applying from MA though.

my son was wait listed Cornell but admitted MIT

Can you share his stats PP?

[Anonymous]

Admitted to Elon and JMU after being deferred in EA round.
Also admitted to VT.
Waiting on U of Miami.

[Anonymous]

3.8 uw; 1430 SAT

admitted: Vermont, Pitt, UMass Amherst
waiting on: Penn State, Michigan, BU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s just recalculating. It is not the same thing as using the high school’s weighting.

Exactly. They don’t use the high school weighting. They use their own.

Well I have yet to see any student under a 4.0 get into UMCP this year on college confidential unless their weighted was above 4.0. I highly doubt the kids admitted here are smarter than these top schools with lower GPA averages. Something doesn’t add up here.

Looking at average GPA here:

UMCP 4.3

Penn 3.9
Brown 4.0
UC Berkeley 3.8
Harvard 4.1
UMich 3.8
MIT 4.1
Wisc 3.8
Notre Dame 4.0
BU 3.6
Georgetown 4.0
USC 3.7
Williams 4.0
UVA 4.1

If you’re using College Confidential as your data source you’re doing it wrong.

This data may come from Common Data Sets, though, which comes directly from the colleges. What I've seen is publics like UNC Chapel Hill may have higher GPAs than any top private. (UNC-CH also has higher GPAs than UVA and W&M, BTW.) This may just mean those states have grade inflation at the high school level.

Colleges are permitted to submit GPA data in their common data set as they see fit. Some reports contain unweighted, while others have weighted, recalculated, or no GPA data at all. The UMCP average GPA is obviously weighted and is pretty worthless considering all of the MCPS kids with ridiculously inflated GPAs in the mix.

Oh good lord, why do people have such a hard time understanding this? If the colleges weren't recalculating GPAs to ensure they're comparing apples to apples - which they all do - then a school district should just change its grading system to a 6-point scale. Most kids would have a 5.0 or higher and could get in anywhere they applied!

I don't think you understand. You can recalculate weight. So yes, MCPS gives a whole point just for honors classes and a whole point for AP's. They can recalculate that. What they can not recalculate are the fact that everyone but remedial kids in MCPS take honors and AP's and that is not the same in other districts or privates. And most importantly, they can not recalculate the games given the kids. MCPS does not post number grades, just letter grades. They have a system that no matter that an A+B will ALWAYS (ALWAYS!!) equal an A. They also no longer make kids take final exams. They also curve grades, they allow retakes of tests and don't combine the grades, just take the highest one. They give participation points as extra credit as well. These are things that UMCP can not recalculate because they do not know.

If Sally gets a 79.5 and an 89.5 and gets an A for her final grade. Not a B, not even an A-. An A. How do you differentiate another kid in the same school that got a 95 and a 98 for final grades, which also equals an A? They look EXACTLY the same on paper. There is no way to differentiate kids in MCPS. And then when you have other counties and private school kids getting lower GPA's, they are in the first cuts. It isn't like UMCP decides to take a few from every school. That isn't how it works. And if you think UMCP actually doesn't have 1 or even 2 rounds of non-holistic cuts to lower the number of apps before looking at anything else, I have a bridge to sell ya. They received over 40K applications this year. You think they did the "26 step process" on all of them? Yeah right. GPA is the first thing state schools look at. Always have and always will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:36 ACT 4.2 WGPA 3.89 UW

Accepted:
Notre Dame (invited to scholars and merit semifinalist)
BC
Villanova
Fordham (Dean’s Scholarship)
UMCP (B/K Scholarship)

Denied:
UVA

Let the record show that UVA reject kids with perfect ACTs and only 1 or 2 Bs on their high school transcript.

OMG, imagine having those stats and getting rejected by UVA. Kid has amazing other choices and it will all work out but that is just jaw dropping. I hope it was not first choice.

It was likely as an OOS applicant which I believe would have something to do with it. Doesn't UVA weight in-state applicants differently?

Yes. I’m a college counselor from another state. When I moved to Virginia and first started seeing the UVA accepts roll in, i fell off my chair. HUGE difference.

They have to take kids from the whole state - at least a few kids sprinted throughout. The kids in NOVA and maybe some in Richmond are the only ones worth accepting. The rest are duds, but at least Virginia feels obligated to educate their state.

[Anonymous]

Washington DC -- 1560 SAT; 4.4 W GPA; ok extracurriculars; job for 2 years

In at Kenyon, Grinnell, Wooster and a few other SLACs (kid considers safeties) -- [SLAC meaning small liberal arts colleges]

WL at Haverford, Bates

Waiting on 3 SLACs releasing decisions this weekend.