Big College Admissions Year at St. Albans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:23:55, how many of those are "doubles"? In other words, was one boy was admitted to all six colleges, and another to four of six?

Good question, it was confusing. I've heard there were 26 different students being accepted to at least one Ivy; my list of 23 was 23 different boys. Five of the eight Ivies offer early decision, which is binding, so boys who got in early did not apply to any additional schools. HYP are Early Action (non binding) and I believe most of the HYP early admits stood pat but a few applied and were accepted to additional Ivies. For anyone admitted early (I believe the total was 17) I listed them with that school even if they applied to additional schools later. For the additional students who applied regular and/or were deferred, I only listed them matched with one Ivy even though a number got into multiple Ivies. For the legacy thing I'm going on a combination of what the kids report verified to an extent if I know where the parents went to school, and I mean "primary legacy" (parent attended) because that is the big one in terms of a boost to admissions.

Yes, I'm embarrassed to have paid such attention to this but the kids did talk about it a lot after the early admits and now. Most other times it doesn't come up.

No, you aren't. You are disturbingly knowledgeable about the details of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:15:25 back (now also posting on the new thread). No, there were no AP courses offered in my high school when I graduated in 1975; I had to walk to the local community college to take courses after I had exhausted the high school's curriculum.

GPAs as high as 6.0 in some schools do exist. See the research a NP did on the new thread. I was told this also by the head of a Fairfax public school.

Re: Weighted GPAs. My understanding is that the schools (or at least our Faifax public schools) send the unweighted transcript as is to the colleges or universities. The colleges then decide if they are going to weight the applications they deem worthy. Those go into the computer. They can screen out all grades for gym class. They can ask to see hard sciences only. They can screen out all electives. They can ask to see GPAs in AP courses only. In other words, the colleges can manipulate the figures in any way they feel is desirable to get the composite class they seek. If the local admissions officer deems GPAs at a private school to be too high due to grade inflation, they can adjust down. If they think grades on an app. should be adjusted up because the kid went to T.J. they can adjust up. It's all just one big huge set of data that can be manipulated however the college wants to get at the type of student they want.

But before the college even gets to that point - as a poster noted above - the applications are quickly screened fast, usually looking only at ACT/SAT score and then GPA but quickly evaluating for "depth" of coursework and AP courses. Only then "might" they get to the essay and "weighting" of GPAs. The average application gets only a six minute review.

Langley had over 60 valedictorians last year. I am presuming (don't know for a fact) that they all exceeded a 4.0. Graduating class was about 600. I don't know what the top GPA one can obtain there is.

And, yes, I did hear of a public student having 15 AP classes. I had asked if there was a record of any student from FCPS applying and getting into Oxford. The answer was "yes". GPA was something like 4.8 and the student had 15 AP courses under his or her belt. That's really astonishing if you consider that the Langley AP courses are truly taught on a college level. Some kids get into those classes and then beg to get out because they are really quite difficult.

Anyhow, my point was simply to say that this applications process is an entirely different world than when many of us parents applied.

AP at Langley is taught to the test. FCPS GPA's are weighted and that is the number sent for applications. If a college separates the applicants by GPA the public school students are better off than a private with no weighted courses determining the GPA.

[Anonymous]

Looks like it's going to be another good year for St. Albans exmissions. Three current seniors have been accepted early action to Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how NCS has done in early action this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:23:55, how many of those are "doubles"? In other words, was one boy was admitted to all six colleges, and another to four of six?

Good question, it was confusing. I've heard there were 26 different students being accepted to at least one Ivy; my list of 23 was 23 different boys. Five of the eight Ivies offer early decision, which is binding, so boys who got in early did not apply to any additional schools. HYP are Early Action (non binding) and I believe most of the HYP early admits stood pat but a few applied and were accepted to additional Ivies. For anyone admitted early (I believe the total was 17) I listed them with that school even if they applied to additional schools later. For the additional students who applied regular and/or were deferred, I only listed them matched with one Ivy even though a number got into multiple Ivies. For the legacy thing I'm going on a combination of what the kids report verified to an extent if I know where the parents went to school, and I mean "primary legacy" (parent attended) because that is the big one in terms of a boost to admissions.

Yes, I'm embarrassed to have paid such attention to this but the kids did talk about it a lot after the early admits and now. Most other times it doesn't come up.

No, you aren't. You are disturbingly knowledgeable about the details of this.

You realize this thread is a year old? At least use the past tense for your snark bomb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like it's going to be another good year for St. Albans exmissions. Three current seniors have been accepted early action to Harvard.

Athletes, legacies, braniacs, or just great all arounders?

[Anonymous]

One super all-rounder, one brilliant genius in one particular field, and one legacy all-rounder. No recruited athlete among these three.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how NCS has done in early action this year?

From what I've heard, and it's a relatively small sample size I heard about, it seemed quite good so far.

[Anonymous]

My friend interviews for Harvard admissions. He says St Albans kids stand out every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like it's going to be another good year for St. Albans exmissions. Three current seniors have been accepted early action to Harvard.

I believe it was four.

[Anonymous]

Who was the fourth one, not described in the list above? Athletic recruit, legacy, genius, or all-arounder?

[Anonymous]

The fourth is another excellent all-arounder.

[Anonymous]

These are really smart kids. Top of the class, NMSF, etc -- and sometimes the smartest kids in the class are also legacies. "Super smart" and legacy are often not mutually exclusive. Of course, the top colleges have such low admission rates that the legacy status may be the "deal sealer," too -- it's just hard to tell when there are many confounding factors.

[Anonymous]

My BFF was a legacy admit to Harvard, graduated summa cum laude who interviews for Harvard in a huge east coast city and even she says if you are a legacy, that's probably what got you admitted.

[Anonymous]

STA early admits so far: 4 to Harvard, 4 to Yale. One of the 8 a recruited athlete (Lacrosse player).