Naviance is wrong

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait a second, OP’s child had close to 1600 SAT and close to 4.0 unweighted gpa (and clearly a rigorous course load in weighted gpa was close to 5.0) and no one thinks it is unusual that he was rejected from UIUC?? Even with no extracurriculars he should have been a lock, come on. Frankly I am surprised he was not admitted to Carnegie Melon either, unless he applied to CS. I am sorry OP, that must be very disappointing to your son. I hope that he is happy with his admitted choice and I am sure that he will do great wherever he lands.

1520 sat, nearly 3.9 unweighted, lots of ecs, captain on sports team who were state champs, Eagle Scout - Carnegie Melon isn't even a possibility. Waitlisted @ Case Western.

A lot of kids we know with similar stats were rejected or wait-listed at Case Western.

Some of the admits we know that we thought would get merit money either got a little bit, or none.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I let my child pick her reaches, but also said if ~90% of the kids who apply there are rejected...what outcome are you most like to experience? She said rejection (which is true), and I said “Right (pause to make sure that sank in...),”but it is not zero...and it is fine to aim high, so I support your decision” Point being that getting rejected from a reach should not come as some big shattering shock, unless you have not made sure to discuss probabilities an advance with your child.

Hope that most kids understand this simple probability without a refresher. DS will focus on safeties first and foremost which will be the majority of his list. He has visited 2 already in 10th grade, shown interest, replied to their follow up. Sprinkles on top will be matches/reaches. Just had a realistic discussion last night that the 3 colleges he's been talking about for 3 years are very unlikely. It's sad, but he gets it. He's more disappointed because he wants to live in this city for college and adulthood. I told him he can still apply when the time comes but acceptance rate in 2 years will be obscene. One of these schools was in the 50-100 rank 5 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think what that interviewer was saying is that not all aspects of the application are visible to you. Race is, so you latch onto that. Easier than accepting that perhaps, when MULTIPLE factors are taken into account (including the mix of kids they want to constitute that year’s incoming class)...your DD was not in the 94th percentile. Maybe she is in the 90th, of the whole United States, which is great...but someone beat her out. It’s okay. Not abusive.

NP - actually a 34 is in the 99th percentile

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what that interviewer was saying is that not all aspects of the application are visible to you. Race is, so you latch onto that. Easier than accepting that perhaps, when MULTIPLE factors are taken into account (including the mix of kids they want to constitute that year’s incoming class)...your DD was not in the 94th percentile. Maybe she is in the 90th, of the whole United States, which is great...but someone beat her out. It’s okay. Not abusive.

NP - actually a 34 is in the 99th percentile

Yeah, but 35 & 36 are also in the 94th percentile
But honestly many top universities have an expectation for those standardized tests - maybe 32 & up? 31 and up?
But beyond that they don’t seem to care that much - it just checks a box. What they are looking for is harder to quantify than grades and test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what that interviewer was saying is that not all aspects of the application are visible to you. Race is, so you latch onto that. Easier than accepting that perhaps, when MULTIPLE factors are taken into account (including the mix of kids they want to constitute that year’s incoming class)...your DD was not in the 94th percentile. Maybe she is in the 90th, of the whole United States, which is great...but someone beat her out. It’s okay. Not abusive.

NP - actually a 34 is in the 99th percentile

Yeah, but 35 & 36 are also in the 94th percentile
But honestly many top universities have an expectation for those standardized tests - maybe 32 & up? 31 and up?
But beyond that they don’t seem to care that much - it just checks a box. What they are looking for is harder to quantify than grades and test scores. [/quote]

Yes, they are looking for a hook to help their school financially, academically, athletically, musically, and most importantly to buff their stats they love to show on those student info sessions.

UMCP has a higher average GPA than Harvard? You can thank MCPS inflated grade system for that fake nonsense.

My biggest pet peeve is schools that post how many valedictorians they have. I am about to move to Oklahoma in some crap neighborhood so my kid can be the MVP there. That means more than being in the the top 5% at Thomas Jefferson? I mean what a stupid stat to post. It is comparing apples to oranges most of the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think what that interviewer was saying is that not all aspects of the application are visible to you. Race is, so you latch onto that. Easier than accepting that perhaps, when MULTIPLE factors are taken into account (including the mix of kids they want to constitute that year’s incoming class)...your DD was not in the 94th percentile. Maybe she is in the 90th, of the whole United States, which is great...but someone beat her out. It’s okay. Not abusive.

NP - actually a 34 is in the 99th percentile

Yeah, but 35 & 36 are also in the 94th percentile
But honestly many top universities have an expectation for those standardized tests - maybe 32 & up? 31 and up?
But beyond that they don’t seem to care that much - it just checks a box. What they are looking for is harder to quantify than grades and test scores.

Yes, they are looking for a hook to help their school financially, academically, athletically, musically, diversely, and most importantly to buff their important stats they love to show on those student info sessions.

UMCP has a higher average GPA than Harvard? You can thank MCPS inflated grade system for that fake nonsense.

My biggest pet peeve is schools that post how many valedictorians they have. I am about to move to Oklahoma in some crap neighborhood so my kid can be the MVP there. That means more than being in the the top 5% at Thomas Jefferson? I mean what a stupid stat to post. It is comparing apples to oranges most of the time.

[Anonymous]

The person who wrote that their test score was in the 99th percentile just doesn’t get it! You are fixated on a few, known data points...when the decision to admit is much more nuanced and complex. You are probably the same parent who fixated on school rank, when your child’s college decision should take many additional factors into account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait a second, OP’s child had close to 1600 SAT and close to 4.0 unweighted gpa (and clearly a rigorous course load in weighted gpa was close to 5.0) and no one thinks it is unusual that he was rejected from UIUC?? Even with no extracurriculars he should have been a lock, come on. Frankly I am surprised he was not admitted to Carnegie Melon either, unless he applied to CS. I am sorry OP, that must be very disappointing to your son. I hope that he is happy with his admitted choice and I am sure that he will do great wherever he lands.

1520 sat, nearly 3.9 unweighted, lots of ecs, captain on sports team who were state champs, Eagle Scout - Carnegie Melon isn't even a possibility. Waitlisted @ Case Western.

It really sucks. Cmu accepted too many girls this year from what I have heard. Asian males especially had a hard time getting into top cs programs. Not sure what is expected if you are an Asian male student with rigorous courses, lots of AP’s , near perfect sat and gp and excellent ec’s. Girls and urms with way lower criteria have been admitted to top schools

Sour grapes. Show me the data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what that interviewer was saying is that not all aspects of the application are visible to you. Race is, so you latch onto that. Easier than accepting that perhaps, when MULTIPLE factors are taken into account (including the mix of kids they want to constitute that year’s incoming class)...your DD was not in the 94th percentile. Maybe she is in the 90th, of the whole United States, which is great...but someone beat her out. It’s okay. Not abusive.

NP - actually a 34 is in the 99th percentile

Yeah, but 35 & 36 are also in the 94th percentile
But honestly many top universities have an expectation for those standardized tests - maybe 32 & up? 31 and up?
But beyond that they don’t seem to care that much - it just checks a box. What they are looking for is harder to quantify than grades and test scores.

We were visiting Barnard last week and that's basically what they said in the info session. They look at transcript first, then ECs and recs and test scores last. They told the parents not to make the kids take the tests a million timers to get a perfect score because it's just not that important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We were visiting Barnard last week and that's basically what they said in the info session. They look at transcript first, then ECs and recs and test scores last. They told the parents not to make the kids take the tests a million timers to get a perfect score because it's just not that important.

This is what almost every selective college will tell you. The test obsession is fueled by the test prep industry. The rank and file admissions people are way more interested in transcripts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what that interviewer was saying is that not all aspects of the application are visible to you. Race is, so you latch onto that. Easier than accepting that perhaps, when MULTIPLE factors are taken into account (including the mix of kids they want to constitute that year’s incoming class)...your DD was not in the 94th percentile. Maybe she is in the 90th, of the whole United States, which is great...but someone beat her out. It’s okay. Not abusive.

NP - actually a 34 is in the 99th percentile

Yeah, but 35 & 36 are also in the 94th percentile
But honestly many top universities have an expectation for those standardized tests - maybe 32 & up? 31 and up?
But beyond that they don’t seem to care that much - it just checks a box. What they are looking for is harder to quantify than grades and test scores.

I'm not sure where you are getting this. In what I have seen, an unhooked kid has a 0% chance of being accepted to the most selective schools with a 31 or 32.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The person who wrote that their test score was in the 99th percentile just doesn’t get it! You are fixated on a few, known data points...when the decision to admit is much more nuanced and complex. You are probably the same parent who fixated on school rank, when your child’s college decision should take many additional factors into account.

No, I wrote that it was 99th percentile because a PP was using bad information to bash someone else. Our school's College Counselor said that scores of 34 or above were necessary to move past the first look at an application and once you did that, all of the other factors come into play. Word on the street was that it was better this year to be a 34 with substantial outside interests than a 36 with a 4.00.

[Anonymous]

A lot of kids we know with similar stats were rejected or wait-listed

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, it is all about race and money at this point. We only know the tip of the iceberg when it comes to wealthy whites paying people off to get their kid(s) in. When it comes to race it depends on what the color/flavor of the month is. Simply put. US colleges have become a disgrace. The moral of the story is don't work hard for it. Instead, you should cheat, lie, and steal to get what you want. It's really nothing new in the world. It's just become more obvious...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t trust naviance. My son with near perfect SAT score and 4.89 GPA was rejected from every single school except for his safeties.

Naviance is just a general tool and it's only as good as the information given.


At my MCPS high school I never told the school anything about my children's acceptances. Yes, we requested final transcripts but that doesn't mean DC accepted we actually had them sent to a few schools.

OP It's more about the major your DC applied to and whether you are full pay.