Which level kid goes to which schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is going on with HACK? In the last week I’ve noticed it everywhere on here. Who’s trying to make HACK happen? What schools is it referring to and which school in particular is someone endlessly trying to promote?

HACK is WHACK

It is a high school troll. Ignore.

Get a life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is going on with HACK? In the last week I’ve noticed it everywhere on here. Who’s trying to make HACK happen? What schools is it referring to and which school in particular is someone endlessly trying to promote?

I think the person who keeps spamming it is trying to push Haverford, Amherst, Colby, Kenyon, and somebody theorized that the person went to Amherst and was trying to push it; I don't think that's likely, as they'd just promote WASP, right? I think it's a rising freshman at one of the other three who didn't get in to a school they wanted to, and so is trying to promote the one they got into so they feel better. I don't really care which of the others it was. All I know is that it makes Haverford, Colby, and Kenyon all look weaker every time I see them throw the acronym on a thread, and I came into this with positive associations with those schools. I've actually started to flag those posts, in hopes of getting them removed, like when spray painted tags against walls get painted over within 24 hours.

FWIW, I go to Haverford and I’ve never heard of HACK. Its just a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is going on with HACK? In the last week I’ve noticed it everywhere on here. Who’s trying to make HACK happen? What schools is it referring to and which school in particular is someone endlessly trying to promote?

I think the person who keeps spamming it is trying to push Haverford, Amherst, Colby, Kenyon, and somebody theorized that the person went to Amherst and was trying to push it; I don't think that's likely, as they'd just promote WASP, right? I think it's a rising freshman at one of the other three who didn't get in to a school they wanted to, and so is trying to promote the one they got into so they feel better. I don't really care which of the others it was. All I know is that it makes Haverford, Colby, and Kenyon all look weaker every time I see them throw the acronym on a thread, and I came into this with positive associations with those schools. I've actually started to flag those posts, in hopes of getting them removed, like when spray painted tags against walls get painted over within 24 hours.

FWIW, I go to Haverford and I’ve never heard of HACK. Its just a troll.

Of course it's a Troll

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard Trinity in NYC this year has 9 kids going to Brown? that's wild!

NYC kids are typically very impressive and often with hooks too. I think there are 6-8 girls at The Spence School going to Harvard this year out of a class of 60! Half of Brearley’s class is going to Ivies + Stanford & MIT. Saint Ann’s, Dalton, Hunter, Stuyvesant all have excellent outcomes too. Nothing new there. These are their results (almost) every year.

This is insane to me. Someone posted SA matriculation and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a school with such great exmissions. And SA has no grades or GPA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Define “mid stats”?

I’m seeing a lot of kids with 1500+ SATs and almost perfect grades headed for Emory/Wash U/Tufts…

How on earth would you know their SAT scores and grades?

They don’t, most of this is conjecture.

DP but kid tells me who is super bright in classes. May not be totally accurate but mostly. School district published national merit and commended scholars. I assume they had great sat scores as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard Trinity in NYC this year has 9 kids going to Brown? that's wild!

NYC kids are typically very impressive and often with hooks too. I think there are 6-8 girls at The Spence School going to Harvard this year out of a class of 60! Half of Brearley’s class is going to Ivies + Stanford & MIT. Saint Ann’s, Dalton, Hunter, Stuyvesant all have excellent outcomes too. Nothing new there. These are their results (almost) every year.

This is insane to me. Someone posted SA matriculation and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a school with such great exmissions. And SA has no grades or GPA!

The private school exmissions are driven by hooks. Donations, celebrity connections, golf games with university board members, etc. And URM. I've heard it sucks to be an unconnected kid at these schools - if they've got 6 connected kids applying to, say Princeton, they'll tell you to your face that they won't support your unconnected child's application there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Non-DMV selective private:

--Top 10% or high stats + hook: HYP+ Columbia + Penn (Wharton), Duke
--High stats, missing national level ECs or hook: Northwestern, Brown, Penn, Dartmouth, Williams
—national ECs (stats irrelevant): Stanford; (and sometimes) Duke
--High stats + normal ECs OR some flaw on their record (like a bad grade or two) and hook - Cornell, Chicago, Rice, Vanderbilt, Amherst, Georgetown
--Mid stats + no hook - Michigan; UCLA; Cal; WashU; Emory

Impressive for mid stats IMO!

You. We have top stats kids at our UMC northern VA (FCPS) public who get rejected from these schools.

[Anonymous]

Not an Emory or Tufts or Wash U booster but people on this board do not seem to realize that these are reaches for top 10%, 1500+ average excellent unhooked kids for non-feeder privates and publics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard Trinity in NYC this year has 9 kids going to Brown? that's wild!

NYC kids are typically very impressive and often with hooks too. I think there are 6-8 girls at The Spence School going to Harvard this year out of a class of 60! Half of Brearley’s class is going to Ivies + Stanford & MIT. Saint Ann’s, Dalton, Hunter, Stuyvesant all have excellent outcomes too. Nothing new there. These are their results (almost) every year.

This is insane to me. Someone posted SA matriculation and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a school with such great exmissions. And SA has no grades or GPA!

The private school exmissions are driven by hooks. Donations, celebrity connections, golf games with university board members, etc. And URM. I've heard it sucks to be an unconnected kid at these schools - if they've got 6 connected kids applying to, say Princeton, they'll tell you to your face that they won't support your unconnected child's application there.

Unhooked private here. One at Ivy; other private T20. Full pay.

You don’t need to listen to secondhand stuff (“you’ve heard”). It just depends on your private school. At some private schools what you say is true and it does suck. Buyer beware.

Key for us: understand the (hooked) competition in your class and what it would mean to your application to overshoot. There are plenty of great schools in the top 20 or 25. No need to cluster around the top five.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard Trinity in NYC this year has 9 kids going to Brown? that's wild!

NYC kids are typically very impressive and often with hooks too. I think there are 6-8 girls at The Spence School going to Harvard this year out of a class of 60! Half of Brearley’s class is going to Ivies + Stanford & MIT. Saint Ann’s, Dalton, Hunter, Stuyvesant all have excellent outcomes too. Nothing new there. These are their results (almost) every year.

This is insane to me. Someone posted SA matriculation and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a school with such great exmissions. And SA has no grades or GPA!

The private school exmissions are driven by hooks. Donations, celebrity connections, golf games with university board members, etc. And URM. I've heard it sucks to be an unconnected kid at these schools - if they've got 6 connected kids applying to, say Princeton, they'll tell you to your face that they won't support your unconnected child's application there.

Unhooked private here. One at Ivy; other private T20. Full pay.

You don’t need to listen to secondhand stuff (“you’ve heard”). It just depends on your private school. At some private schools what you say is true and it does suck. Buyer beware.

Key for us: understand the (hooked) competition in your class and what it would mean to your application to overshoot. There are plenty of great schools in the top 20 or 25. No need to cluster around the top five.

Also, our HS sends a lot of kids to WashU. I can attest that it is an attractive option for someone in the lower half part of the class. I know it sounds shocking when I type this. Sometimes 10% of the class gets in regular decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not an Emory or Tufts or Wash U booster but people on this board do not seem to realize that these are reaches for top 10%, 1500+ average excellent unhooked kids for non-feeder privates and publics.

It all depends on your high school. None of the advice here applies to everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not an Emory or Tufts or Wash U booster but people on this board do not seem to realize that these are reaches for top 10%, 1500+ average excellent unhooked kids for non-feeder privates and publics.

It all depends on your high school. None of the advice here applies to everyone.

The majority of students don’t attend feeder schools (private or public). Most parents have to adjust their expectations accordingly (even and especially the parents themselves got into elite colleges with lower stats and less impressive profiles 30 years ago). The parents who seem to have the most difficult time readjusting their expectations are the ones who attended elite colleges a generation ago or the ones who were educated in school systems were test scores are everything. For the record, I’m one of those parents who had to readjust their expectations and I’m glad I did early in the process.

[Anonymous]

I wish there was a separate college board just for private school parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard Trinity in NYC this year has 9 kids going to Brown? that's wild!

NYC kids are typically very impressive and often with hooks too. I think there are 6-8 girls at The Spence School going to Harvard this year out of a class of 60! Half of Brearley’s class is going to Ivies + Stanford & MIT. Saint Ann’s, Dalton, Hunter, Stuyvesant all have excellent outcomes too. Nothing new there. These are their results (almost) every year.

This is insane to me. Someone posted SA matriculation and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a school with such great exmissions. And SA has no grades or GPA!

The private school exmissions are driven by hooks. Donations, celebrity connections, golf games with university board members, etc. And URM. I've heard it sucks to be an unconnected kid at these schools - if they've got 6 connected kids applying to, say Princeton, they'll tell you to your face that they won't support your unconnected child's application there.

Unhooked private here. One at Ivy; other private T20. Full pay.

You don’t need to listen to secondhand stuff (“you’ve heard”). It just depends on your private school. At some private schools what you say is true and it does suck. Buyer beware.

Key for us: understand the (hooked) competition in your class and what it would mean to your application to overshoot. There are plenty of great schools in the top 20 or 25. No need to cluster around the top five.

Also, our HS sends a lot of kids to WashU. I can attest that it is an attractive option for someone in the lower half part of the class. I know it sounds shocking when I type this. Sometimes 10% of the class gets in regular decision.

Is this HS in NYC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard Trinity in NYC this year has 9 kids going to Brown? that's wild!

NYC kids are typically very impressive and often with hooks too. I think there are 6-8 girls at The Spence School going to Harvard this year out of a class of 60! Half of Brearley’s class is going to Ivies + Stanford & MIT. Saint Ann’s, Dalton, Hunter, Stuyvesant all have excellent outcomes too. Nothing new there. These are their results (almost) every year.

This is insane to me. Someone posted SA matriculation and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a school with such great exmissions. And SA has no grades or GPA!

The private school exmissions are driven by hooks. Donations, celebrity connections, golf games with university board members, etc. And URM. I've heard it sucks to be an unconnected kid at these schools - if they've got 6 connected kids applying to, say Princeton, they'll tell you to your face that they won't support your unconnected child's application there.

Lol. This sounds like someone who's never gotten out of the house and doesn't know how the real-world works.
What you are talking about is the Z-list. There was maybe 1 Z-list admission from our private HS this past year. It's not all or even many. Some years there are NONE.

The sad truth is that some private high schools are treated differently from public (even highly selective ones) high schools. They are driven by a long legacy of admissions, successful high-achieving grads who become successful alumni and contributors and have an advantage in the admissions process. They are not stronger students, but colleges easily recognize who is full pay from the cohort and PERHAPS who will start a legacy of "giving" once admitted. The "donations, celebrity connections, golf games" may be reality for 1-2 NYC high schools (I'm not in NYC), but it has not been our experience at all. Many families are dual (high) income in non-celebrity jobs who do not give donations before kids are admitted. Yes, they often do after kids matriculate because college development offices know to call them in the first semester and invite them to special events (yes, its happened to us).....

With the pressure schools are under, expect to see private schools be even more advantaged in this process. My advice if you are at a public HS, make sure your kid has ECs that show full pay/wealth as a proxy (sailing, fencing, equestrian sports, polo, competitive ice skating, aviation/flying small planes). Every single kid I know with those kinds of ECs got into great T25 privates this year from public AND private schools - perhaps they had a better story, but I do think money talks quietly. Colleges are now openly looking for full-pay students.

https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/hypothesis-feeder-schools-are-a-proxy-for-full-pay/3664604/4