Ivy day 2026

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In at Princeton and U Penn.

1540 SAT
Fairfax Public
2 sport athlete (not recruited)
Fund raised $4000+ for non-profit
President of investment club
3.9/4.0
9 AP's
3 years volunteer work at animal shelter
2 summers working in retail

No hooks, white, male

Wow, it got to be something special, rec letter from vvip?

LOL, his two teachers and supervisor at the animal shelter wrote this letters. But I think he only sent supervisor to some colleges only for some reason.

The only special thing I see is he took a couple of courses that are non-core against all advice. We thought he is just following his interests at that time. His interest turned out to be a girl who is taking that same class. Bombed that class. Went on to repeat that again with the same result which took down his grades which were otherwise all 4.0 in core classes.

Nice. Did they hook up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In at Princeton and U Penn.

1540 SAT
Fairfax Public
2 sport athlete (not recruited)
Fund raised $4000+ for non-profit
President of investment club
3.9/4.0
9 AP's
3 years volunteer work at animal shelter
2 summers working in retail

No hooks, white, male

Wow, it got to be something special, rec letter from vvip?

LOL, his two teachers and supervisor at the animal shelter wrote this letters. But I think he only sent supervisor to some colleges only for some reason.

The only special thing I see is he took a couple of courses that are non-core against all advice. We thought he is just following his interests at that time. His interest turned out to be a girl who is taking that same class. Bombed that class. Went on to repeat that again with the same result which took down his grades which were otherwise all 4.0 in core classes.

What about the girl though?

I’m still waiting for her to provide more details about the fundraising. Did your son start his own non profit or did he fundraise for an existing one? How did he raise so much money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We are fortunate to have three excellent options (USC EA and JHU RD with sufficient need-based aid, and full-ride state flagship) so whatever happens on Ivy Day is gravy. In fact, my kid is liking JHU more and more over the past week. So, we won't be terribly disappointed if she gets shutout tomorrow.

>> What a great place to be in!
Good luck and please report back if you come back to this thread.
Very curious how JHU RD admits do with Ivies.

Reporting back: Went 0/5 on Ivies. Rejected at Harvard, Yale (did interview), and Penn. Waitlisted at Columbia and Cornell. So, a JHU RD admit can do poorly with Ivies

Despite going 0/5 on Ivy Day, I'm happy because I felt that the college application process has brought me and my kid closer than ever. I'm excited to see her excitement in connecting with future JHU freshmen on Instagram, talking about what she needs for her dorm room, and looking up academic opportunities available at the school.

That's great on all fronts. Your DC will love JHU

JHU is my daughter's dream school. I never went to college so I don't know much about colleges. I just leaning about all the colleges this year as my daughter is in 10th grade. My daughter wants to be a doctor and she gave me the list of the schools she wants to go and JHU is on the list.

I hope she gets in like your DC. She is working very hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In at Princeton and U Penn.

1540 SAT
Fairfax Public
2 sport athlete (not recruited)
Fund raised $4000+ for non-profit
President of investment club
3.9/4.0
9 AP's
3 years volunteer work at animal shelter
2 summers working in retail

No hooks, white, male

Wow, it got to be something special, rec letter from vvip?

LOL, his two teachers and supervisor at the animal shelter wrote this letters. But I think he only sent supervisor to some colleges only for some reason.

The only special thing I see is he took a couple of courses that are non-core against all advice. We thought he is just following his interests at that time. His interest turned out to be a girl who is taking that same class. Bombed that class. Went on to repeat that again with the same result which took down his grades which were otherwise all 4.0 in core classes.

What about the girl though?

I’m still waiting for her to provide more details about the fundraising. Did your son start his own non profit or did he fundraise for an existing one? How did he raise so much money?

His parents or hired consultant handled it.

[Anonymous]

in none, wl cornell/penn/columbia....in gtech and umd banneker key, cmu, northwestern, wl mit
engineering
would umd make more sense or gtech?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In at Princeton and U Penn.

1540 SAT
Fairfax Public
2 sport athlete (not recruited)
Fund raised $4000+ for non-profit
President of investment club
3.9/4.0
9 AP's
3 years volunteer work at animal shelter
2 summers working in retail

No hooks, white, male

Wow, it got to be something special, rec letter from vvip?

LOL, his two teachers and supervisor at the animal shelter wrote this letters. But I think he only sent supervisor to some colleges only for some reason.

The only special thing I see is he took a couple of courses that are non-core against all advice. We thought he is just following his interests at that time. His interest turned out to be a girl who is taking that same class. Bombed that class. Went on to repeat that again with the same result which took down his grades which were otherwise all 4.0 in core classes.

What about the girl though?

I’m still waiting for her to provide more details about the fundraising. Did your son start his own non profit or did he fundraise for an existing one? How did he raise so much money?

His parents or hired consultant handled it.

What a mean-spirited answer. Don’t you ever see young people on the street trying to collect donations for charities? That’s probably what this person’s child did, and by canvassing his local community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:in none, wl cornell/penn/columbia....in gtech and umd banneker key, cmu, northwestern, wl mit
engineering
would umd make more sense or gtech?

Banner Key is amazing! No need to apologize or explain for going to your state flagship with a full ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In at Princeton and U Penn.

1540 SAT
Fairfax Public
2 sport athlete (not recruited)
Fund raised $4000+ for non-profit
President of investment club
3.9/4.0
9 AP's
3 years volunteer work at animal shelter
2 summers working in retail

No hooks, white, male

Wow, it got to be something special, rec letter from vvip?

LOL, his two teachers and supervisor at the animal shelter wrote this letters. But I think he only sent supervisor to some colleges only for some reason.

The only special thing I see is he took a couple of courses that are non-core against all advice. We thought he is just following his interests at that time. His interest turned out to be a girl who is taking that same class. Bombed that class. Went on to repeat that again with the same result which took down his grades which were otherwise all 4.0 in core classes.

What about the girl though?

I’m still waiting for her to provide more details about the fundraising. Did your son start his own non profit or did he fundraise for an existing one? How did he raise so much money?

His parents or hired consultant handled it.

What a mean-spirited answer. Don’t you ever see young people on the street trying to collect donations for charities? That’s probably what this person’s child did, and by canvassing his local community.

Mom has been asked repeatedly about this and hasn’t updated us. Not pp, but would love to hear more about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our family friend’s son was confident (overly so, imho😔) he’d get into one of the Ivies. He was getting so emotionally distressed after last night’s disappointing rejections. He was a regular high stats kid but with mediocre ECs. Any suggestions on how to console him? It’s hard to tell him his profile was not nearly good enough for any Ivy without hurting him. (We know many high stats kids with much better ECs getting shut out of the Ivies. They’re, though somewhat disappointed, weren’t surprised at all.)

Stay out of it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In at Princeton and U Penn.

1540 SAT
Fairfax Public
2 sport athlete (not recruited)
Fund raised $4000+ for non-profit
President of investment club
3.9/4.0
9 AP's
3 years volunteer work at animal shelter
2 summers working in retail

No hooks, white, male

Wow, it got to be something special, rec letter from vvip?

LOL, his two teachers and supervisor at the animal shelter wrote this letters. But I think he only sent supervisor to some colleges only for some reason.

The only special thing I see is he took a couple of courses that are non-core against all advice. We thought he is just following his interests at that time. His interest turned out to be a girl who is taking that same class. Bombed that class. Went on to repeat that again with the same result which took down his grades which were otherwise all 4.0 in core classes.

What about the girl though?

I’m still waiting for her to provide more details about the fundraising. Did your son start his own non profit or did he fundraise for an existing one? How did he raise so much money?

His parents or hired consultant handled it.

What a mean-spirited answer. Don’t you ever see young people on the street trying to collect donations for charities? That’s probably what this person’s child did, and by canvassing his local community.

We’ve been browsing reddit and this forum since the college applications season started. We notice that some people on this forum can be quite mean. I get the impression that reddit has mostly the students themselves, whereas here there’re some bitter parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In at Princeton and U Penn.

1540 SAT
Fairfax Public
2 sport athlete (not recruited)
Fund raised $4000+ for non-profit
President of investment club
3.9/4.0
9 AP's
3 years volunteer work at animal shelter
2 summers working in retail

No hooks, white, male

Wow, it got to be something special, rec letter from vvip?

LOL, his two teachers and supervisor at the animal shelter wrote this letters. But I think he only sent supervisor to some colleges only for some reason.

The only special thing I see is he took a couple of courses that are non-core against all advice. We thought he is just following his interests at that time. His interest turned out to be a girl who is taking that same class. Bombed that class. Went on to repeat that again with the same result which took down his grades which were otherwise all 4.0 in core classes.

What about the girl though?

I’m still waiting for her to provide more details about the fundraising. Did your son start his own non profit or did he fundraise for an existing one? How did he raise so much money?

His parents or hired consultant handled it.

Donating $4K to your kid's "fundraiser" is cheaper than hiring a consultant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In at Princeton and U Penn.

1540 SAT
Fairfax Public
2 sport athlete (not recruited)
Fund raised $4000+ for non-profit
President of investment club
3.9/4.0
9 AP's
3 years volunteer work at animal shelter
2 summers working in retail

No hooks, white, male

Wow, it got to be something special, rec letter from vvip?

LOL, his two teachers and supervisor at the animal shelter wrote this letters. But I think he only sent supervisor to some colleges only for some reason.

The only special thing I see is he took a couple of courses that are non-core against all advice. We thought he is just following his interests at that time. His interest turned out to be a girl who is taking that same class. Bombed that class. Went on to repeat that again with the same result which took down his grades which were otherwise all 4.0 in core classes.

What about the girl though?

I’m still waiting for her to provide more details about the fundraising. Did your son start his own non profit or did he fundraise for an existing one? How did he raise so much money?

His parents or hired consultant handled it.

What a mean-spirited answer. Don’t you ever see young people on the street trying to collect donations for charities? That’s probably what this person’s child did, and by canvassing his local community.

NP. It’s not mean, just the most likely explanation.

[Anonymous]

There is some blunt and then definitely some mean. But who is most likely to be bitter and mean? I'd say those that tried and got disappointing results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is some blunt and then definitely some mean. But who is most likely to be bitter and mean? I'd say those that tried and got disappointing results.

It’s comforting to know the kids themselves don’t sound nearly as bitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is in at Harvard! Rejected from all other ivies she applied. Was down down down after opening all the portals and Harvard was the last one she opened.

She has no hooks, white girl, cheerleader, lots of volunteer work, president of student council, does part time work at a fast food place, most likely in top 10% of her class for GPA, 34 ACT. We are in MCPS.

Congrats. My sense is this is the type of girl that won't fall apart getting B's at Harvard. They need more students like her who won't complain about the new grading deflating structure.

That structure is just a proposal from the faculty, hasn’t been adopted. There may be grading modifications but no Ivy is going to want to expose the kids who enter needing some remedial help.

I don't understand this honestly. Isn't everyone who enter a top college have top grades in relevant AP exams.

Are there Top colleges accepting students who didn't take the AP exams and done extremely well?

Frankly if they are accepting kids without prefect AP sores then thats ridiculous. The vast majority of kids who apply to these colleges are very privileged. These kids have access to all kind of resources imaginable. If they can't even do well on AP tests frankly they don't deserve to be admitted. It's such a low bar to cross given all the resources they have.

The kids who need the extra help generally are not coming from a place of privilege, instead the complete opposite.

This, please, they wanted the student body pres of a large school,the 34 is low though,all of you can now stop complaining about other T20s accepting low scores!

34 is at the 99th% so how is that low? Prior to TO where kids felt compelled to only send in 35/36, a 34 was solidly in the mid range for the Ivies - typically it was 33-35. The Harvard lawsuit showed that the floor was a 33 so anything above that was considered the same...