It really is SUCH a huge disadvantage to be applying to college from the DMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, depends if you are in D, M or V. Same caliber student's odds from struggling inner DC school would be very different than a student from a competitive public school from Fairfax. You need to stand out.

Not this year. DCPS is not doing well. Many disappointed kids and parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of diverse and lower overall performing schools your kids could go to in this area as well, you just refuse to live in those areas.

My parents stupidly sent me to private school, which was super competitive, rather than send me to my decent but diverse local public school. I could have been in the top of my class there, and participated in lots of cool ECs too.

You too can send your kids to decent schools with lots of poorer local people and have your kids excell. But, like my parents, you choose not to.

Are you sending your kids to schools with poorer local people now? What has been your experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of diverse and lower overall performing schools your kids could go to in this area as well, you just refuse to live in those areas.

My parents stupidly sent me to private school, which was super competitive, rather than send me to my decent but diverse local public school. I could have been in the top of my class there, and participated in lots of cool ECs too.

You too can send your kids to decent schools with lots of poorer local people and have your kids excell. But, like my parents, you choose not to.

Why do you assume that you’d be top of the class at your local public?

They would not have been at the top of their local public, that is what they like to think.

[Anonymous]

Did you know people can just...make up whatever they want and post it on the internet?

Look at facts, not social media posting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try living in NJ if you think the DMV is bad.

+1. Or suburban NY.

or suburban Boston

[Anonymous]

I graduated from a competitive area HS in the 80s. I was a strong student but not at the top of my class, then went to an ultraselective LAC (yes, I wouldn't get in today). I found freshman year relatively easy, whereas many of my classmates who came from less demanding HS were overwhelmed. (Things evened out afterwards.) So yes, admissions might be harder, but the actual education is likely better. I think that's better than the reverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

Yep. People here are really pretty basic and not even next level rich. A lot of basic bro/bro-ette youth sports profiles here. Hard to compete when all the other Avas and Jacks are kind of just like you. They will all go on and have nice lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you be willing to live in Arizona or Oregon, and send your kid through public schools there?

Geographic diversity at top school is also really valuable. These schools can get very intensive group think from the coastal bubbles. It actually does matter. It results in a better education for everyone, not just a great opportunity for the kids from these other places.

Also consider that the kid from Arizona with the 33 and a few AP exams likely had to work very hard to seize every academic opportunity that came their way to get to the point where they are applying to and getting into these schools. They tend to be special kids and real standouts. You only see their numbers but you're talking valedictorians, class presidents, kids who are standout musicians, debaters, mathletes, etc. And again, doing this in environments where academics are not always prioritized and where they don't have a zillion peers doing the same stuff. They have to be self motivated in a way that kids in the DMV never have to self motivate because of the culture here, because of who their parents are, because their peers are often all pushing in that same direction.

Like sure, it feels unfair when you look at it on the surface. But in reality those kids are EARNING their admission to those schools, and you just don't see it because you are comparing apples (your kid and all the kids like your kid in the DMV area) to oranges (these kids from far less represented areas who are like the standout Ivy League hope of their entire school or hometown and have never had a chance to be in a school environment filled with kids similar to them).

I was an orange and now I live in DC and am raising an apple. You don't know. It's not the easy gift you think it is. It's hard. My kid has a zillion more and better opportunities than I did growing up where I did, and is also just savvier about the world and speaks the language of professionals better than I did even up graduating college. And she might wind up at a perfectly good but not tip top college despite having better grades, more APs, better test scores. Guess what? She's going to be fine and she will have far fewer barrier to success than I did. She doesn't have to learn a whole new world and navigate everything with parents who have no clue and are suspicious and overwhelmed by it all. She's still better off even if she doesn't go to an Ivy.

Perspective, OP. You need to step outside your bubble a bit.

Stop preaching. OP here and I grew up in rural America.
I got a great education in a town in a red state that most of DCUM would scoff at. YOU need to get out of your DC bubble.

No, you're missing my point. I'm saying you are looking at these kids in the videos, or even at your own experience, and treating it like it's the norm in these places. It's not. I am from a small town in a red state. I was an extreme outlier as someone who not only had the grades and test scores to leave that place and get a fancy education at a top ranked school, but who actually had the will to do it. Most kids in those places don't aspire to any of that. Even the academic kids. They go to ASU and aspire to have a life much like their parents have and they don't care that much about going to an Ivy or having a big or exciting job.

If you lived in one of these places, there's like a 95% chance that's what your kid would be like. And also that would be fine and there wouldn't be pressure to aim higher because that's what most people there do.

So for the small percent of kids who both aspire to something else, and have the motivation and work ethic to go pursue it and get the grades and scores and apply to these schools and get in, it's a huge deal. They are breaking from the pack. They are special.

Whereas your kid doing that in this environment where "the norm" is to want to go to a top school and have a big important job, is not special. Your kid is not as special as those kids. You can't compare test scores or grades. You are missing the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of diverse and lower overall performing schools your kids could go to in this area as well, you just refuse to live in those areas.

My parents stupidly sent me to private school, which was super competitive, rather than send me to my decent but diverse local public school. I could have been in the top of my class there, and participated in lots of cool ECs too.

You too can send your kids to decent schools with lots of poorer local people and have your kids excell. But, like my parents, you choose not to.

Why do you assume that you’d be top of the class at your local public?

They would not have been at the top of their local public, that is what they like to think.

Some of these private schools take only top, top students, whereas public takes everyone. It’s harder to be top 10% of a group of kids who would be top 10% anywhere rather than top 10 of a school that takes everyone (even a well performing UMC suburban school has special needs and low performing students as part of the class). Does it mean their kid would be valedictorian in public? Not necessarily but they would likely be top 10%.

You know how people talk about kids who go to top colleges and for the first time they are not the smartest kid in the room? That is what it is like at certain ultra competitive private schools. My kid went to one (not in DC). The acceptance rate was below 10%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try living in NJ if you think the DMV is bad.

+1. Or suburban NY.

Or suburban Boston.

Op, this is the issue everyone had who lives in competitive, wealthy areas.

+1 I was joking with my DH about how we should've moved to AR. We moved to this area in part because the education offerings here are much better than most other metro areas (I write this even as a I complain a lot about our school district). DC went to a magnet program here. Super high stats kid. They got shut out of T10. I asked DC if hindsight we should've moved to a less competitive area, and they said no, that having a quality k-12 program and peer group was better. The town we moved out of out west was wealthy but the school district did not offer a lot of programs (due to the small size), and DC didn't have a peer group at their level when they were early ES. We moved here, and they were able to find an academic peer group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

Please let's not act like your kids are getting into Emory either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of diverse and lower overall performing schools your kids could go to in this area as well, you just refuse to live in those areas.

My parents stupidly sent me to private school, which was super competitive, rather than send me to my decent but diverse local public school. I could have been in the top of my class there, and participated in lots of cool ECs too.

You too can send your kids to decent schools with lots of poorer local people and have your kids excell. But, like my parents, you choose not to.

Why do you assume that you’d be top of the class at your local public?

They would not have been at the top of their local public, that is what they like to think.

Some of these private schools take only top, top students, whereas public takes everyone. It’s harder to be top 10% of a group of kids who would be top 10% anywhere rather than top 10 of a school that takes everyone (even a well performing UMC suburban school has special needs and low performing students as part of the class). Does it mean their kid would be valedictorian in public? Not necessarily but they would likely be top 10%.

You know how people talk about kids who go to top colleges and for the first time they are not the smartest kid in the room? That is what it is like at certain ultra competitive private schools. My kid went to one (not in DC). The acceptance rate was below 10%.

Or the private school top student might find it harder to excel in an environment where it’s not that easy to use the bathroom (bc they’re locked!) or the teachers/admins are distracted by kid who have immediate problems (like homelessness or hunger) or teachers somewhat regularly disappear for most of the year and leave the class to an unprepared substitute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

Palo Alto parent here. Santa Clara county had this season 750 applicants to Harvard and accepted 19 (2.5% admission rate). What’s wild about this is the strength of the applicants (at DC’s school). The vast majority of kids select themselves out (including my DC) because they conclude if they are not in the top 10 percent of applicants from the school, there is no point. 2.5 percent from this group of applicants is kind of nuts. I am curious if people in Boston or ny have seen local numbers like the above for Santa Clara county.

[Anonymous]

Won’t this advantage of living in a rural part of the country go away with what Trump is doing? Cutting off funding until the colleges bow to his terms.