Our Current Situation - Not thrilled

[Anonymous]

OP I do think you and your son sold yourselves short. With those stats and demonstrated interest in CS he should have at least tried for MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech, and CMU. Students with good time management can maintain a good GPA along with a healthy social life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I am not a troll i am just an upset parent with a son (sorry for the typo my finger hit the s but good lord everyone jumped on it).
My son is a very passionate caring normal kid who is naturally smart and comes by his stats honestly through both hard work and encouraging involved but not up in his business at every moment parents. I care about my son and his future and push him when it’s necessary but allow him to fall on his own and work his way out of problems. He is well liked at his school and has been innately into computers, coding and creating things related to such things since I can remember. He was the kid begging for Lego mindstorms as soon as I could trust him not to swallow the pieces.

His school choices are well thought out (for him). He wants a strong cs program in a school with a strong STEM reputation but he also wants to have fun and not necessarily attend a top 20 pressure-cooker. He wants ideally to get out of va for many reasons and I respect his reasons. He does not mesh at all with VT and doesn’t relish the atmosphere at UVA but did apply to UVA bc he felt he needed it in his quiver due to cost in state vs reputation vs he could possibly see himself there. Did not apply to VT. GMU is an option bc the program is decent and it’s near DC (he loves cities). Plus it’s dirt cheap and although we are full pay and said we will pay for wherever he will consider cost in his ultimate decision. VCU is also in a city with a tolerable program for him and he knew he needed safety schools. Pitt is a very very good option and he really likes the school.

Boulder actually was a top pick. We as a family have a goal of moving west and love Colorado, the mountains, etc… it’s a great program in a great location for him and he loved it when we toured. I think that decision hit the hardest bc he really wanted to go there. Even got 25,000 merit but not in CS direct admit and despite what people think starting in exploratory studies is NOT a guarantee you will eventually land in CS. If you do you can bet on taking 5 yrs to finish bc there’s no way you’re getting your first year cs courses unless you’re actually a first year cs student. We have talked with MANY friends and people in and around Boulder that verified this. Why pay all that money and just gamble (no matter how high the odds) when you know your true passion is CS (which he does). There are little details like your AP credits not counting towards your exp studies courses etc that make me think it’s a money grab to ensure some kids stay more than 4 yrs.

Purdue is incredible for CS and the school spirit and size made up for the lack of a nearby city when he toured.

We are proud and express openly our pride about his current admissions but I feel like I am allowed to vent about the deferral and Boulder situation bc we thought he would have a better outcome at those 2 schools and it makes us leery of the ones to come (which are all statistically harder admits for CS). Just reading the tea leaves and upset that he worked so hard, honestly and truly loves and is gifted in CS and is realistically looking at more deferrals and denials. It sucks for ALL our hardworking kids; a lot of us are in this high stat, high demand major admission crap shoot.

That’s what I was trying to get across but there are some bitter mean people on this forum.

I don’t know, OP. Seems like some backtracking in order to get sympathy. This was more than a vent. You called the CU exploratory studies garbage and basically called Pitt, VCU, and GMU ridiculous. It came across as very arrogant and rude. As someone who has exceptionally bright children with LDs, who worked hard, are very well-rounded, and would be happy with any of those acceptances, I found your OP to be pretty obnoxious. Sorry.

Quit nitpicking and get a life. This is an anonymous message board, not a Ph.D program. People are not careful and hold stuff back. Nothing about OPs post came off as rude. Certainly no more rude than those of you piling on and picking apart the OP. YOu folks would NEVER say sh-- like that in person, with your names attached. So stop doing it here.

(And, no I'm not OP. But sick of this behavior).

If you’re not OP, you’re just like them. Sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I get what everyone is saying but please stop saying a kid with:

4.0, never less than an A in 7 years
9 APs including the most rigorous sci & math
Strong ECs strongly aligning with academic interest
1550 one sitting
Eagle Scout

is a dime a dozen, HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of kids, SO typical.

No. Not true. Not here. Not anywhere.

OP's kid will thrive because that's who he is and we can all look at this theoretically and say, oh whatever college is fine he'll be a success who cares it's such an honor to go to gmu...

It is disappointing and yes, on some level, unfair how this is all going down.

She's allowed to be upset. You are allowed to criticize her. And I am allowed to call you a clown.

In the top pools to the top programs in their desired major, yes, they are.

And the top two highly overweighted things in the eyes of moms (but not of admissions officers) are part-time jobs and Eagle Scouts. Sorry. No one’s impressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I get what everyone is saying but please stop saying a kid with:

4.0, never less than an A in 7 years
9 APs including the most rigorous sci & math
Strong ECs strongly aligning with academic interest
1550 one sitting
Eagle Scout

is a dime a dozen, HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of kids, SO typical.

No. Not true. Not here. Not anywhere.

OP's kid will thrive because that's who he is and we can all look at this theoretically and say, oh whatever college is fine he'll be a success who cares it's such an honor to go to gmu...

It is disappointing and yes, on some level, unfair how this is all going down.

She's allowed to be upset. You are allowed to criticize her. And I am allowed to call you a clown.

No--there are tons of kids with those stats or very close (1550+ and 3.95UW and 10+ APs). Once you hit 1550+ the score does not really matter. There are lots of kids with great stats, due to test prep. And the "one sitting" does not matter as 99% of schools superscore and Do NOT care if it took more than 1 attempt. And that group of kids is applying to 10-15+ top/elite schools. When acceptance rates are less than 15-20%, you should assume your kid will not get in and be excited if you do.

Yes, OP kid will (or should) thrive anywhere because they are smart, driven, high achieving. But the college process has been brutal for several years and gotten worse each year, TO makes it even more challenging. Smart people know this and prepare. That means finding Safeties that you ACTuALLY LIKE and want to attend and showing demonstrated interest. Why apply to schools that you wouldn't actually want to attend?

Yes, be disappointed for a day or so after you get rejected, then move on and focus on what's remaining.

What do you mean by “tons”? This is an incredibly small pool. Of the 2.13M sat test takers, 8323 students scored 1550 or higher (according to a Google search). Let’s be generous and agree that 80% of kids with those scores also have 10 APs, good EC’s, and almost all A’s. That brings us to 6659 students. Let’s say there are only 5 population centers where these kids live (vast oversimplification helping your argument), that means that there are 1331 such students in the DMV. Total enrollment in MCPS is 160,560 and FCPS is 181K plus. Dividing by 12 you calculate total number of high school seniors as something like 20K in the DMV (which ignores all other counties, DCPS and private school). Even using this favorable (to your argument) analysis, fewer than 1 in 100 high school kids in this area will have these stats. 0.7% is rare. And it’s a disservice to these kids to pretend they are a dime a dozen (even here).

Doesn’t mean they will all get into a T-Whatever college or that there won’t be disappointments galore. But I am tired of hearing about how these high achievements are run of the mill. They are decidedly not.

NP: your original number doesn’t take into account superscores. College Board only reports one sitting scores by cohort year. You also don’t consider ACT scores in regions that use that test over SATs. For admissions, it doesn’t matter that a kid scores 1550 in one sitting. Also, 1550 and 1500 are not separate pools of students for admission purposes.

Forgot to add that you also can’t limit your analysis to one year of test takers because students take the SAT between 10th and 12th grade.

Seriously? Ok. Go up to 1 in 100 rather than less than 1 in a 100. The point still stands. These are rare scores and these are kids we should collectively be proud of. There are ways to make your point about how uncertain the college admission process is without resorting to say these kids are “a dime a dozen”.

1 out of 100 is a LOT of kids. And in computer science and when applying to top programs, “1 out of 100” isn’t a thing, because the kids applying are almost all the cream of the crop. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be applying.

Go ahead. Be proud of them! No one said you can’t, Just don’t throw a tantrum when they don’t get the admissions results you erroneously felt they were entitled to get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I did not read the entire thread, but I hope you are staying positive for your kid. He has some excellent admittances and I would not be surprised if he gets offered a spot at Purdue.

UT Austin, Rice, and University of Washington were never going to happen. Georgia Tech is a toss up, but probably also a "no". Wisconsin seems like he should have a good shot.

I went through this with my kid last year. You need to be VERY positive about all of his acceptances and remind him why he likes those schools.

Huh. Why?? (not OP).

The kid has PERFECT stats.

And his perfect stats get him a lottery ticket and nothing else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I did not read the entire thread, but I hope you are staying positive for your kid. He has some excellent admittances and I would not be surprised if he gets offered a spot at Purdue.

UT Austin, Rice, and University of Washington were never going to happen. Georgia Tech is a toss up, but probably also a "no". Wisconsin seems like he should have a good shot.

I went through this with my kid last year. You need to be VERY positive about all of his acceptances and remind him why he likes those schools.

Huh. Why?? (not OP).

The kid has PERFECT stats.

So do thousands of others. (Tens or hundreds of thousands in TO world.)

You seriously think there are "hundreds of thousands" of high school seniors with perfect 4.0 uw GPAs AND who have taken 9 AP courses to include AP Physics, AP Calc BC, etc. AND who are Eagle Scouts AND have the equivalent of OP's kid's other accomplishments? No way.

NP here—hi OP. There may not be hundreds of thousands but there is certainly at least a hundred thousand. Public high schools give out 4.0s like candy. 100,000 would still be less than 1% of graduating seniors. So PP is right that there are hundreds of thousands of stellar students competing for the same spots. And there isn’t just one kind of “perfect.”

Come again?

It’s not less than 1%, but more like 2.5%. There are about 4 million graduating students—and that’s just the US. Point still stands, there are at least 100,000 students as stellar or more so than OP’s kid.

By GPA alone, sure. But you're conveniently ignoring the fact that the student has taken/is taking 9 APs across a range of subjects - to include ones likes AP Physics and AP Calc BC - on top of other achievements (Eagle Scouts, etc.). Are there thousands of equivalent kids? Yeah, probably. But 100,000? Again, no way.

Noooooobody cares about Eagle Scouts. It’s 2023, not 1995. Unless you get the 0.174% of admissions reps who are old men who were themselves Eagle Scouts and still think it’s a big deal that should factor into highly competitive admissions.

[Anonymous]

TROLL and possibly sock puppeting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I do think you and your son sold yourselves short. With those stats and demonstrated interest in CS he should have at least tried for MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech, and CMU. Students with good time management can maintain a good GPA along with a healthy social life.

Agree. Please see if you can add schools. Your child is really bright and motivated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I get what everyone is saying but please stop saying a kid with:

4.0, never less than an A in 7 years
9 APs including the most rigorous sci & math
Strong ECs strongly aligning with academic interest
1550 one sitting
Eagle Scout

is a dime a dozen, HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of kids, SO typical.

No. Not true. Not here. Not anywhere.

OP's kid will thrive because that's who he is and we can all look at this theoretically and say, oh whatever college is fine he'll be a success who cares it's such an honor to go to gmu...

It is disappointing and yes, on some level, unfair how this is all going down.

She's allowed to be upset. You are allowed to criticize her. And I am allowed to call you a clown.

In the top pools to the top programs in their desired major, yes, they are.

And the top two highly overweighted things in the eyes of moms (but not of admissions officers) are part-time jobs and Eagle Scouts. Sorry. No one’s impressed.

. What do you base your last sentence on? Are you an AO?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I did not read the entire thread, but I hope you are staying positive for your kid. He has some excellent admittances and I would not be surprised if he gets offered a spot at Purdue.

UT Austin, Rice, and University of Washington were never going to happen. Georgia Tech is a toss up, but probably also a "no". Wisconsin seems like he should have a good shot.

I went through this with my kid last year. You need to be VERY positive about all of his acceptances and remind him why he likes those schools.

Huh. Why?? (not OP).

The kid has PERFECT stats.

So do thousands of others. (Tens or hundreds of thousands in TO world.)

You seriously think there are "hundreds of thousands" of high school seniors with perfect 4.0 uw GPAs AND who have taken 9 AP courses to include AP Physics, AP Calc BC, etc. AND who are Eagle Scouts AND have the equivalent of OP's kid's other accomplishments? No way.

NP here—hi OP. There may not be hundreds of thousands but there is certainly at least a hundred thousand. Public high schools give out 4.0s like candy. 100,000 would still be less than 1% of graduating seniors. So PP is right that there are hundreds of thousands of stellar students competing for the same spots. And there isn’t just one kind of “perfect.”

Come again?

It’s not less than 1%, but more like 2.5%. There are about 4 million graduating students—and that’s just the US. Point still stands, there are at least 100,000 students as stellar or more so than OP’s kid.

By GPA alone, sure. But you're conveniently ignoring the fact that the student has taken/is taking 9 APs across a range of subjects - to include ones likes AP Physics and AP Calc BC - on top of other achievements (Eagle Scouts, etc.). Are there thousands of equivalent kids? Yeah, probably. But 100,000? Again, no way.

Noooooobody cares about Eagle Scouts. It’s 2023, not 1995. Unless you get the 0.174% of admissions reps who are old men who were themselves Eagle Scouts and still think it’s a big deal that should factor into highly competitive admissions.

Whether or not you value scouts, everyone knows becoming an Eagle Scout takes hard work and commitment. Both attributes are likely valued by AOs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I did not read the entire thread, but I hope you are staying positive for your kid. He has some excellent admittances and I would not be surprised if he gets offered a spot at Purdue.

UT Austin, Rice, and University of Washington were never going to happen. Georgia Tech is a toss up, but probably also a "no". Wisconsin seems like he should have a good shot.

I went through this with my kid last year. You need to be VERY positive about all of his acceptances and remind him why he likes those schools.

Huh. Why?? (not OP).

The kid has PERFECT stats.

So do thousands of others. (Tens or hundreds of thousands in TO world.)

You seriously think there are "hundreds of thousands" of high school seniors with perfect 4.0 uw GPAs AND who have taken 9 AP courses to include AP Physics, AP Calc BC, etc. AND who are Eagle Scouts AND have the equivalent of OP's kid's other accomplishments? No way.

NP here—hi OP. There may not be hundreds of thousands but there is certainly at least a hundred thousand. Public high schools give out 4.0s like candy. 100,000 would still be less than 1% of graduating seniors. So PP is right that there are hundreds of thousands of stellar students competing for the same spots. And there isn’t just one kind of “perfect.”

Come again?

It’s not less than 1%, but more like 2.5%. There are about 4 million graduating students—and that’s just the US. Point still stands, there are at least 100,000 students as stellar or more so than OP’s kid.

By GPA alone, sure. But you're conveniently ignoring the fact that the student has taken/is taking 9 APs across a range of subjects - to include ones likes AP Physics and AP Calc BC - on top of other achievements (Eagle Scouts, etc.). Are there thousands of equivalent kids? Yeah, probably. But 100,000? Again, no way.

Noooooobody cares about Eagle Scouts. It’s 2023, not 1995. Unless you get the 0.174% of admissions reps who are old men who were themselves Eagle Scouts and still think it’s a big deal that should factor into highly competitive admissions.

Whether or not you value scouts, everyone knows becoming an Eagle Scout takes hard work and commitment. Both attributes are likely valued by AOs.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I get what everyone is saying but please stop saying a kid with:

4.0, never less than an A in 7 years
9 APs including the most rigorous sci & math
Strong ECs strongly aligning with academic interest
1550 one sitting
Eagle Scout

is a dime a dozen, HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of kids, SO typical.

No. Not true. Not here. Not anywhere.

OP's kid will thrive because that's who he is and we can all look at this theoretically and say, oh whatever college is fine he'll be a success who cares it's such an honor to go to gmu...

It is disappointing and yes, on some level, unfair how this is all going down.

She's allowed to be upset. You are allowed to criticize her. And I am allowed to call you a clown.

In the top pools to the top programs in their desired major, yes, they are.

And the top two highly overweighted things in the eyes of moms (but not of admissions officers) are part-time jobs and Eagle Scouts. Sorry. No one’s impressed.

. What do you base your last sentence on? Are you an AO?

Not the previous poster but I'll bite:

The private counselor we engaged said that Eagle Scout is not impressive to elite colleges because 1. it's common 2. it's mostly an "individual" accomplishment, as opposed to something that is elected by one's peers (e.g., class president, team captain) and 3. it's more of a testament to being able to manage paperwork and checking off boxes (and she made the same comment about the Congressional Award.) I did get the impression that at lower tier colleges it was valued more highly.

My hypothesis (in addition to the above) is that AOs at top colleges are typically not the type of demographic that favor scouting, as they are typically more liberal than average and may view the entire organization as irrelevant or, worse, toxic.

[Anonymous]

Shameful if Eagle is not valued. If done correctly it is a testament to leadership, dedication, and internal motivation. If an AO thinks its is toxic then that is a place that will not get my $$$. Im getting fed up with this; why are some activities toxic and others get the praises of rainbows (elected happiness captain of the hurt feelings club at school?) Real life is NOT everyone gets a trophy and everyone has an equal outcome. Sorry but not sorry that I for one think all of this holistic admission, TO stuff is utter horse-crap, esp in the STEM fields where outcomes can mean life and death (I want the doctor who knows their shit factually despite their somewhat less than warm and fuzzy personality, I want the person designing infrastructure to be wicked smart at what they do as well). Kids should be looked at based on their actual numerical stats, teacher recommendations that speak to their ability in the classroom and their more touchy-feely qualities, and whether or not they spent their time outside of school doing productive things. All of the other stuff is just "resume padding". So many college professors are saying that the students just are not ready for the coursework.

[Anonymous]

OP is now on FB crying about her awesome kid only getting into "exploratory studies" lmao.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I get what everyone is saying but please stop saying a kid with:

4.0, never less than an A in 7 years
9 APs including the most rigorous sci & math
Strong ECs strongly aligning with academic interest
1550 one sitting
Eagle Scout

is a dime a dozen, HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of kids, SO typical.

No. Not true. Not here. Not anywhere.

OP's kid will thrive because that's who he is and we can all look at this theoretically and say, oh whatever college is fine he'll be a success who cares it's such an honor to go to gmu...

It is disappointing and yes, on some level, unfair how this is all going down.

She's allowed to be upset. You are allowed to criticize her. And I am allowed to call you a clown.

In the top pools to the top programs in their desired major, yes, they are.

And the top two highly overweighted things in the eyes of moms (but not of admissions officers) are part-time jobs and Eagle Scouts. Sorry. No one’s impressed.

. What do you base your last sentence on? Are you an AO?

Not the previous poster but I'll bite:

The private counselor we engaged said that Eagle Scout is not impressive to elite colleges because 1. it's common 2. it's mostly an "individual" accomplishment, as opposed to something that is elected by one's peers (e.g., class president, team captain) and 3. it's more of a testament to being able to manage paperwork and checking off boxes (and she made the same comment about the Congressional Award.) I did get the impression that at lower tier colleges it was valued more highly.

My hypothesis (in addition to the above) is that AOs at top colleges are typically not the type of demographic that favor scouting, as they are typically more liberal than average and may view the entire organization as irrelevant or, worse, toxic.

I agree that Eagle Scout status is not highly valued by elite schools. There are a variety of reasons including the type of kid who remains in scouting through his teens. Nonetheless, some lower level schools offer merit awards to Eagle Scouts. I do not recall the list of schools other than the University of Mississippi. The others should be easy to discover through a google search.