It is so hard this year, McLean HS boy 4.6 GPA got rejected from UVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think OPs post is genuine based on what I’ve seen from my own child and his friend’s experiences with college admissions from FCPS. OP, what are your child’s ECs? Did he take the SAT or ACT? What major did he apply to? Excellent essays? Any discipline issues?

My son was more qualified than OP kid and was waitlisted at UVa and Tech. The admissions people don't care about quality, they care about quotas.

We don't know anything about OP's kid other than test scores and GPA. That doesn't tell us much.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on the 2 PPs whose DCs got into VT via VCCS!

This actually takes a lot of work to plan (ensuring that the transfer agreement exists for the anticipated major) and pull off (getting the minimum GPA and course requirements in a VCCS location for 2 years).

Wanted to put this into perspective because the VCCS option is routinely thrown around here like it's the magic solution for your DC. It can work, but your DC needs to make a full commitment to do this. Not everyone has the discipline to pull this off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think OPs post is genuine based on what I’ve seen from my own child and his friend’s experiences with college admissions from FCPS. OP, what are your child’s ECs? Did he take the SAT or ACT? What major did he apply to? Excellent essays? Any discipline issues?

My son was more qualified than OP kid and was waitlisted at UVa and Tech. The admissions people don't care about quality, they care about quotas.

I'm a DC whose child was also not accepted. I don't think they don't care about quality. It's possible to care about both quality and quotas. In some cases there's a one to one swap out choice for that - you can't assume all diversity acceptances are lower stats. But it's also true that within a certain range of stats - a kid on the higher end and on the lower end will both succeed at UVA. It may have been true in the past that UVA generally chose the higher stat kid in this case, but now they are choosing across the entire range but choosing students that meet their other institutional goals. It sucks to be on the wrong side of that line, I know! But it doesn't mean they are forsaking quality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations on the 2 PPs whose DCs got into VT via VCCS!

This actually takes a lot of work to plan (ensuring that the transfer agreement exists for the anticipated major) and pull off (getting the minimum GPA and course requirements in a VCCS location for 2 years).

Wanted to put this into perspective because the VCCS option is routinely thrown around here like it's the magic solution for your DC. It can work, but your DC needs to make a full commitment to do this. Not everyone has the discipline to pull this off.

Yes, definitely a lot of work and not a magic solution. I am one of the PPs. My high achieving son was waitlisted at UVa and VT and has the ability to get through both schools and the minimum GPA at VCCS to get the GAA admission. Rather than fo to his safety school, he wanted to go to VT engineering. I am very proud of him.

[Anonymous]

In California the community college route has become a major route into their public flagships UC Berkeley and UCLA, through the transfer alliance program (TAP).

The difference is that TAP is intended to increase the URM population, because the UCs can't use race in their freshman admissions. This is not the case in Virginia, as UVA/VT do use race or race proxies in freshman admissions. Hence everyone on this board (well, the middle income white and Asians) talk up the VCCS route via NOVA to get around this.

Will that change after the SC rules on affirmative action? We'll see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am sorry to hear this happened at UVA. They had been pretty straightforward with their admissions based on GPA unlike VT which yield protects and wants 40% URM AND FG. I strongly believe state schools shouldn’t be yield protecting. Private schools cost so much and our VA schools are good - top students want to attend them.

I wish Youngkin would look into the games UVA and VT are playing instead of continually investigating made up issues in FCPS.

+1

[Anonymous]

People posting here about EC/essay's mattering or tipping the scale for a 4.3 don't seem to understand what yield protection means.

Kid A with 4.6 same scores and EC may get denied over kid B with similar scores EC but 4.2 if they think yield will be better, meaning the kid will accept.

The fact is they have barely a few minutes per application, no one is really reading these essays or thoroughly examining EC. They are cutting and culling based on objective metrics, which includes hooks, such as atheltics and race.

Hopefully OP kid got in some other places. Choice of college matters less and less in terms of prestige these days. Find a good fit including cost!

[Anonymous]

“Yield protection” is such a childish response to your kid not being accepted. Only on DCUM do parents really think that if their kid is rejected by a college it’s because their kid is too good for the school. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Yield protection is a real metric, which many posters clearly don't understand.
No one is obsessively reading these essays and looking at EC over and over. They do a cull, maybe read the variations in the 10% here and there for a minute or so per kid. There just isn't time in the day for 10,000 applications to do that and a handful of admissions officers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People posting here about EC/essay's mattering or tipping the scale for a 4.3 don't seem to understand what yield protection means.

Kid A with 4.6 same scores and EC may get denied over kid B with similar scores EC but 4.2 if they think yield will be better, meaning the kid will accept.

The fact is they have barely a few minutes per application, no one is really reading these essays or thoroughly examining EC. They are cutting and culling based on objective metrics, which includes hooks, such as atheltics and race.

Hopefully OP kid got in some other places. Choice of college matters less and less in terms of prestige these days. Find a good fit including cost!

Except that UVA does not yield protect. If you have proof, please show it.VT definitely yield protects

[Anonymous]

Virginia Tech is not McLean Tech or Northern Virginia Tech

[Anonymous]

Something tells me this Mclean boy will land on his feet no matter where he ends up later in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think OPs post is genuine based on what I’ve seen from my own child and his friend’s experiences with college admissions from FCPS. OP, what are your child’s ECs? Did he take the SAT or ACT? What major did he apply to? Excellent essays? Any discipline issues?

My son was more qualified than OP kid and was waitlisted at UVa and Tech. The admissions people don't care about quality, they care about quotas.

They probably had thousands of applicants with exactly those stats. Why should they take your kid when there are others who offer the same things - or better?

[Anonymous]

Shoulda had a hobby, sport, job

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have zero sympathy for anyone complaining about getting in to any school if you didn't apply ED. Zero. You don't get to play the field and then cry when you aren't accepted if the school obviously knows they weren't your first choice.

Not everyone can apply ED for financial reasons. Some people want to weigh finances. Some people NEED to weigh finances, regardless of what is a first choice.