What has surprised you - as your kid comes to the end of this process

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brainy kids who seek a plurality of peers can look well outside a college. Just like these kids did in high school- the truly exceptional ones. My one student is the typical smart kid, math competitions and CTY in elementary- some "fun" enrichment outside of his school. Online groups for fancy origami, chess with adults in the community center in high school. These things are all available outside of college as well. That kid may not have done well in rural Minnesota, but Pitt? Sure. Stevens? Absolutely. And he is not the brainy one.
My brainy one- graduated from an IVY. Also looked beyond the scope of in-school peers/clubs/groups for things that interested her: theater. Had applied to a small LAC as a safety knowing she would find or create what she is looking for. And where she started and where she ended in terms of interest/career was all guided by works she did outside of school and after time abroad, not because of anything gained by being in a pool of "brainy" kids.
There are smart kids at most schools- many of them. My bet is that most kids are not quite as genius level as parents believe them to be...many of us make that assumption. Of course some schools are better fits than others. But a less rejective school doesn't mean that there will not be intellectual engagement.

Yes, brainy kids can do this. My DC may well have to, and I imagine it will foster creativity and resilience. However, if one can't expect for an intellectual enviroment of peers AT A UNIVERSITY, that's a bummer.

I'm not just talking smart here -- lots of smart kids (and adults) are not intellectual. Their lives are no less rich and valuable.

I work in universities, and have worked at a T20 and a top 40 SLAC. There was much less intellectual engagement at the T40 SLAC. Doesn't mean there wasn't ANY intellectual engagement, but it would have been sub-optimal for my kid.

Much in life is sub-optimal, and making the best of things is an important skill. But being in an environment that allows one's best self to flourish is what we want for our kids, no? I don't think my kid needs a T10 to thrive, but I do think that being at a non-selective school wouldn't be as exciting or fun for her. Anything in the T40 range would probably be a good target -- but lots of T20-40 schools yield protect.

[Anonymous]

I do find it annoying when parents say that their kid would have loved to go to X safety school if he hadn't gotten into Y selective school.

Being happy with your safeties when you are applying is one thing. Being happy with them when you are rejected everywhere else is another. Yes, it can and often does end up being a wonderful experience. But no one is jumping for joy with that outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised that, for high stats (i.e., 1550+ with perfect GPA and top rigor the school offers), there really are no target schools.

All T20s are reaches, and in the next tier down, almost every school yield protects (even state schools for OOS applicants).

As a result, kids need to apply to a v large number of schools, which is time consuming, emotionally draining, and $$$.

So much uncertainty . . . .

People on this site always say 'have a safety DC loves!'. But which school that accepts more than 50% of students is likely to be a great fit for a kid with perfect GPA and scores?

+100

+1000

This is the toughest part. Kid has decent chance at HYPSM but true safety is not going to be a great academic fit.

We lucked out with a HYPSM admit but it could easily have been zero T40 admits.

But would it have mattered? I’m the community college poster above. Call me an optimist, but I believe true HYPSM-caliber kids will succeed in life regardless of which college they attend.

ha, how many HYPSM grads do you actually know? Sure, some are mega successful, but of the ones I know (my spouse went to one, as did many from my high school class), but an equal number I know are very much equally employed and same SES level as those who went to Penn State or equivalent, or suffered from some mental issues/addiction/relationship trauma that set them back for years.
A HYPSM admit does not automatically equal a functional and successful adult. No college does. Admits to college and successful matriculation to successful adulthood are two completely different things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised that, for high stats (i.e., 1550+ with perfect GPA and top rigor the school offers), there really are no target schools.

All T20s are reaches, and in the next tier down, almost every school yield protects (even state schools for OOS applicants).

As a result, kids need to apply to a v large number of schools, which is time consuming, emotionally draining, and $$$.

So much uncertainty . . . .

People on this site always say 'have a safety DC loves!'. But which school that accepts more than 50% of students is likely to be a great fit for a kid with perfect GPA and scores?

+100

+1000

This is the toughest part. Kid has decent chance at HYPSM but true safety is not going to be a great academic fit.

We lucked out with a HYPSM admit but it could easily have been zero T40 admits.

But would it have mattered? I’m the community college poster above. Call me an optimist, but I believe true HYPSM-caliber kids will succeed in life regardless of which college they attend.

ha, how many HYPSM grads do you actually know? Sure, some are mega successful, but of the ones I know (my spouse went to one, as did many from my high school class), but an equal number I know are very much equally employed and same SES level as those who went to Penn State or equivalent, or suffered from some mental issues/addiction/relationship trauma that set them back for years.
A HYPSM admit does not automatically equal a functional and successful adult. No college does. Admits to college and successful matriculation to successful adulthood are two completely different things.

Given that DH and I both went to HYPSM, I know many grads. I apologize for not being clear when I posted - what I meant is that true HYPSM-caliber students do not *need* HYPSM to be successful at life. You’re absolutely right that many HYPSM grads are not successful regardless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But which school that accepts more than 50% of students is likely to be a great fit for a kid with perfect GPA and scores?

The sad fact is that posting about a school that satisfies this (and I have one in mind), would only prompt the jackasses on DCUM to savage it. But my 1560, 4.0 UW, NMF student from a well-known private school is in to a college that has a 48% admit rate, where she received a generous scholarship, and where she would have absolutely loved to go. It has one of the highest graduate school placement ratios, and is known for stellar undergraduate teaching. If none of her other schools had worked out, she would have loved going there.

I'm sympathetic to the "true likelies that are still desirable are hard to find" concerns, but the schools are out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised that, for high stats (i.e., 1550+ with perfect GPA and top rigor the school offers), there really are no target schools.

All T20s are reaches, and in the next tier down, almost every school yield protects (even state schools for OOS applicants).

As a result, kids need to apply to a v large number of schools, which is time consuming, emotionally draining, and $$$.

So much uncertainty . . . .

People on this site always say 'have a safety DC loves!'. But which school that accepts more than 50% of students is likely to be a great fit for a kid with perfect GPA and scores?

“My kid is too special and smart to actually go to a school that will admit them no questions asked.”

Like they aren’t going to die if they go to SUNY Binghamton or UMass Amherst.

[Anonymous]

I have a college junior and one graduating HS next year. There is more than one way toward a goal. You can do community college and transfer. You can end up at the same place as the kid who did the full rigmarole of applying, it merely take a couple of more years. But you're still coworkers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finding true safeties for high stats kids is where to start and yes they are there for every major.
Engineering kid looked at Michigan Tech. Business kid would have been fine at Fordham or Pitt (true safeties for the profile) had T30 school not worked out.
Hard to find safeties kids like, truly like- but all those tours to the selective schools can happen after admission. Best thing we learned- find those safeties. Visit those, not the reaches. We saw some cool
parts of the country.

The same assertion again -- that safeties exist for super high-stats kids. Sure, there are great faculty at lots of places and wonderful programs at many. Smart and motivated students.

But for really intellectual kids, no school that takes 50%+ of applicants will feature a plurality of peers with a similar level of academic interest and enthusiasm. That's not awful -- hardly comparable to the end of liberal democracy, for example -- but in all, not a place that the brainy kid will truly love. Such kids can and should find their niche at the safety, but pretending that it's a great fit is disingenuous.

Not true but a bit of work to find. You need to find good honors programs or nuggets like University of Tulsa. It has a 70% acceptance rate but about a quarter of its class are NMSF because they buy them and then put them in their own Honors program, dorm, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised that, for high stats (i.e., 1550+ with perfect GPA and top rigor the school offers), there really are no target schools.

All T20s are reaches, and in the next tier down, almost every school yield protects (even state schools for OOS applicants).

As a result, kids need to apply to a v large number of schools, which is time consuming, emotionally draining, and $$$.

So much uncertainty . . . .

People on this site always say 'have a safety DC loves!'. But which school that accepts more than 50% of students is likely to be a great fit for a kid with perfect GPA and scores?

“My kid is too special and smart to actually go to a school that will admit them no questions asked.”

Like they aren’t going to die if they go to SUNY Binghamton or UMass Amherst.

Both are excellent schools where anyone including the intellectual of HYPSM level could find their people. Large public school environments without the cache of UMich or UVA but still great schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a college junior and one graduating HS next year. There is more than one way toward a goal. You can do community college and transfer. You can end up at the same place as the kid who did the full rigmarole of applying, it merely take a couple of more years. But you're still coworkers.

You are absolutely right. But you are looking at college as some kind of job training -- a way to get into a career.

College does prepare students for careers, and that's important. But I'd like my kid to have a four year experience that is not market-oriented, that's focused on exploring ideas and meeting interesting people and having fun and learning. One can certainly do that at community college, but it's much easier at a selective university.

Life isn't always about where your going. The experience is important in and of itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised that, for high stats (i.e., 1550+ with perfect GPA and top rigor the school offers), there really are no target schools.

All T20s are reaches, and in the next tier down, almost every school yield protects (even state schools for OOS applicants).

As a result, kids need to apply to a v large number of schools, which is time consuming, emotionally draining, and $$$.

So much uncertainty . . . .

People on this site always say 'have a safety DC loves!'. But which school that accepts more than 50% of students is likely to be a great fit for a kid with perfect GPA and scores?

“My kid is too special and smart to actually go to a school that will admit them no questions asked.”

Like they aren’t going to die if they go to SUNY Binghamton or UMass Amherst.

No, they aren't going to die. But if they are going to end up at Binghamton, do they have to spend hours and hours and close to $2K on the way there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a college junior and one graduating HS next year. There is more than one way toward a goal. You can do community college and transfer. You can end up at the same place as the kid who did the full rigmarole of applying, it merely take a couple of more years. But you're still coworkers.

+1 I know a boy who went from AU (committed) to WM (last minute off the wait list) to NU (transfer) grad. Now that's a ride up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised that, for high stats (i.e., 1550+ with perfect GPA and top rigor the school offers), there really are no target schools.

All T20s are reaches, and in the next tier down, almost every school yield protects (even state schools for OOS applicants).

As a result, kids need to apply to a v large number of schools, which is time consuming, emotionally draining, and $$$.

So much uncertainty . . . .

People on this site always say 'have a safety DC loves!'. But which school that accepts more than 50% of students is likely to be a great fit for a kid with perfect GPA and scores?

B1G and ACC schools with the exception of Northwestern and Duke

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised that, for high stats (i.e., 1550+ with perfect GPA and top rigor the school offers), there really are no target schools.

All T20s are reaches, and in the next tier down, almost every school yield protects (even state schools for OOS applicants).

As a result, kids need to apply to a v large number of schools, which is time consuming, emotionally draining, and $$$.

So much uncertainty . . . .

People on this site always say 'have a safety DC loves!'. But which school that accepts more than 50% of students is likely to be a great fit for a kid with perfect GPA and scores?

B1G and ACC schools with the exception of Northwestern and Duke

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But which school that accepts more than 50% of students is likely to be a great fit for a kid with perfect GPA and scores?

The sad fact is that posting about a school that satisfies this (and I have one in mind), would only prompt the jackasses on DCUM to savage it. But my 1560, 4.0 UW, NMF student from a well-known private school is in to a college that has a 48% admit rate, where she received a generous scholarship, and where she would have absolutely loved to go. It has one of the highest graduate school placement ratios, and is known for stellar undergraduate teaching. If none of her other schools had worked out, she would have loved going there.

I'm sympathetic to the "true likelies that are still desirable are hard to find" concerns, but the schools are out there.

Syracuse? Fordham? UF? Villanova?