Lessons learned: 2025-2026

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any new wisdom you gathered in the last few weeks?

It appears to be an extremely difficult year for girls. Unless you have a ton of unusual or uncommon awards in an uncommon major.

Without something extremely uncommon / unusual or an early decision application from a feeder private school, being test optional is a kiss of death (even at Vandy).

Beware and be strategic with early decision for girls.

This is such hogwash. My DD is having great success. People make college admissions seem much harder than it really is. It’s likely because the PP above may be strictly referring to Ivy adjacent colleges - where most everyone is rejected. Boy and girls alike.

The best advice, year in and out, is have a balanced list.

Don’t apply to Vanderbilt, Penn, Duke, Northwestern and your state school, and then cry about how you only got into your state school.

Ofc. What did you think this was about?

Everyone here is talking about T20 and Ivy+.

There is no strategy or coordination needed for strong applicants outside of that.

This IS about colleges in general - “lessons learned.” Read the OP.

If you want a top 10 thread start your own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any new wisdom you gathered in the last few weeks?

It appears to be an extremely difficult year for girls. Unless you have a ton of unusual or uncommon awards in an uncommon major.

Without something extremely uncommon / unusual or an early decision application from a feeder private school, being test optional is a kiss of death (even at Vandy).

Beware and be strategic with early decision for girls.

Why for girls? Yes they are the majority at most colleges but it's not that they are taking spaces that a "boy" would want.

Girl applications are generally stronger. And there are more of them. They all somehow look very similar to each other. Harder for them to stand out in a crowded pile. Once you become an admissions reader and you start seeing it, it’s hard to unsee it.

The key for girls is doing different things (not the same things Everybody else is doing). Going their own way. There’s so many of them. At some schools 2 or 3x the number of boys, it is easier for boy applicants.

There are a couple of good podcasts about the phenomena. Check out from a lot of feeder, private high schools and count the number of boys versus girls committed to T20 privates. Girls often end up at the top public flagship options after RD.

What do these everyone-looks-the-same girl profiles look like?

The two common ones I’ve seen a lot are: pre-med and poli sci/pub policy. Journalism/writing as well.

Premed:
CNA/EMT
Health club at school - founder or officer
Red Cross club/volunteer
Summer program
Research
Feminine hygiene drives/women’s public health awareness
Women’s mental health EC

Poli Sci/Pub Pol:
Stuco Pres
Model UN/Debate (and awards)
Political internship
Canvassing for local issues/grassroots
School board liaison or similar
Summer program
Women’s political issues
Voter access drives or similar
Teen incarceration or wrongful incarceration types of ECs/research

This is interesting because nearly all of my DD’s friends have a non premed hard science/math/engineering profile instead. Maybe this is another common one on the rise.

I'm seeing alot of engineering/math profiles also. Does that mean humanities girls are fairing better this year?

[Anonymous]

1. I underestimated the usefulness of campus visits.
2. I overestimated how GPA + SAT score would predict admission outcomes. We have been been surprised (positively and negatively) by some of the decisions so far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Women are competing with women candidates. Men are competing with other men.

At our private non-DMV, the women are doing really well but they are extremely motivated, organized and prepped for this since grade 9. The boys seem to be a year or more behind developmentally.

ED/REA applications have been successful for girls so far at DC's small private at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Penn, Wellesley, Barnard, Michigan etc.

How could that possibly be unless your private school has a very diverse economic student body (like many parochial schools).

You don't see boys at Sidwell or GDS or STA or Maret or really any private schools with large %ages of UMC kids being "a year or more behind developmentally".

Is your DC at a private school and do you have first-hand experience in one of the schools you name? It sounds like you don't.

It's common for male executive function to lag female executive function developmentally. This can be googled. The male students typically "peak" later than female students. Even if they are wealthy or UMC. This has nothing to do with parachial schools or being "diverse". White males from wealthy backgrounds also lag female students developmentally.

My son graduated from one of those private schools where both the boys and girls had similar great college outcomes from top 20 schools. There was no notable difference whatsoever.

Perhaps what you say is true on average, but at top private schools you do not see much difference in college outcomes between boys and girls.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone had test optional success at a T25 this cycle? What major? Any hooks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone had test optional success at a T25 this cycle? What major? Any hooks?

I know technically UVA isn't T25 😉 but if you're willing to accept it as close enough, I know 2 who went TO. One was poli sci and the other was engineering (3 years of language too).

[Anonymous]

Don't be afraid to pivot hard after an ED rejection.

Change major, edit all activities/essays, etc. Scrutinize your DC's application the way an AO would (podcasts will show you how).

If aiming for T25, you must be strategic.

[Anonymous]

We failed to realize that Questbridge and similar program admits are included in ED / REA stats.

This insight didn’t change much in the end, but it’s good context when thinking about weighing admissions odds.

Case study. Vanderbilt ED I and II had a combined acceptance rate of 11.9% this year. According to them, 50% of the admits came from FGLI, rural areas, and international.

On top of that, remove the athletes and other hooked admits.

In the end, there was not much room for regular, full pay smart kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We failed to realize that Questbridge and similar program admits are included in ED / REA stats.

This insight didn’t change much in the end, but it’s good context when thinking about weighing admissions odds.

Case study. Vanderbilt ED I and II had a combined acceptance rate of 11.9% this year. According to them, 50% of the admits came from FGLI, rural areas, and international.

On top of that, remove the athletes and other hooked admits.

In the end, there was not much room for regular, full pay smart kids.

But a Vanderbilt deferral from early means something. They admit a fair number of those kids in regular decision over the ordinary RD applicants. If it is a top choice, you’re better off trying for an early deferral.

[Anonymous]

Lessons learned:

WashU ED was the play this year if you had anything questionable (weakness) in app.

I think they may have admitted more than 75% of the class early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We failed to realize that Questbridge and similar program admits are included in ED / REA stats.

This insight didn’t change much in the end, but it’s good context when thinking about weighing admissions odds.

Case study. Vanderbilt ED I and II had a combined acceptance rate of 11.9% this year. According to them, 50% of the admits came from FGLI, rural areas, and international.

On top of that, remove the athletes and other hooked admits.

In the end, there was not much room for regular, full pay smart kids.

But a Vanderbilt deferral from early means something. They admit a fair number of those kids in regular decision over the ordinary RD applicants. If it is a top choice, you’re better off trying for an early deferral.

I agree with this. Vanderbilt RD last year was a total impossibility. Like a 2% admit rate and i think this included the deferred kids.
I know multiple HYP RD admits from our school who were outright denied at Vany. My own kid was admitted to 2 "lesser" Ivies in RD and denied from Vandy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We failed to realize that Questbridge and similar program admits are included in ED / REA stats.

This insight didn’t change much in the end, but it’s good context when thinking about weighing admissions odds.

Case study. Vanderbilt ED I and II had a combined acceptance rate of 11.9% this year. According to them, 50% of the admits came from FGLI, rural areas, and international.

On top of that, remove the athletes and other hooked admits.

In the end, there was not much room for regular, full pay smart kids.

But a Vanderbilt deferral from early means something. They admit a fair number of those kids in regular decision over the ordinary RD applicants. If it is a top choice, you’re better off trying for an early deferral.

I agree with this. Vanderbilt RD last year was a total impossibility. Like a 2% admit rate and i think this included the deferred kids.
I know multiple HYP RD admits from our school who were outright denied at Vany. My own kid was admitted to 2 "lesser" Ivies in RD and denied from Vandy.

To elaborate, I think they "yield protect" to some degree in RD. They know the deferred ED1/ED2 kids REALLY liked them and will probably take a RD admission or at least heavily consider it. The high stats kids who are new in RD are a crap shoot for a school like Vandy. Vandy knows they'll probably take a top Ivy spot if given one over them. So they reject or waitlist them.

Lesson: apply early if you want a solid chance of getting in.

[Anonymous]

Agreed with these points regarding Vanderbilt.

And definitely use ED1 if Vandy is your school. The acceptance rate for full pay, unhooked in ED2 is now likely close to 5%. RD is going to be 2-3%…

Just know there are many other schools with much higher ED odds for the same profiles.

[Anonymous]

adding on, if you have any interest: tour Duke, Wash U, Rice, Vandy, and/or Chicago spring of junior year. ED is the best path and you need to make that decision early. then tour some others so kid is confident about EDing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:adding on, if you have any interest: tour Duke, Wash U, Rice, Vandy, and/or Chicago spring of junior year. ED is the best path and you need to make that decision early. then tour some others so kid is confident about EDing

I’d add Northwestern to that list.