Lessons learned so far: 2024-2025

[Anonymous]

Is there any situation barring finances that you can think of where it makes sense for a kid to turn down an Ivy in favor of a strong state school (think UT, UVA, UNC) in this current climate? What if the kid is worried about politics or campus culture? Do they just stick it out bc they are all but guaranteed to get a good job in 4 years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any situation barring finances that you can think of where it makes sense for a kid to turn down an Ivy in favor of a strong state school (think UT, UVA, UNC) in this current climate? What if the kid is worried about politics or campus culture? Do they just stick it out bc they are all but guaranteed to get a good job in 4 years?

My gut says go private?

But I'm with you. I'm thinking the same....
if you had to choose between
Michigan vs. Cornell which would you choose?
(liberal arts majors/humanities)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any situation barring finances that you can think of where it makes sense for a kid to turn down an Ivy in favor of a strong state school (think UT, UVA, UNC) in this current climate? What if the kid is worried about politics or campus culture? Do they just stick it out bc they are all but guaranteed to get a good job in 4 years?

Quite fond of the culture and student body that believes in science, the importance of research, and values rigorous education above all in college experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any situation barring finances that you can think of where it makes sense for a kid to turn down an Ivy in favor of a strong state school (think UT, UVA, UNC) in this current climate? What if the kid is worried about politics or campus culture? Do they just stick it out bc they are all but guaranteed to get a good job in 4 years?

no reason to turn down HYP, no.

what kind of politics are you worried about at a Penn or Darmouth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do not under any circumstances ask for advice on colleges from DCUM. Folks are just going to mess with you. It's completely irrelevant anyway. Colleges pick who they pick. It does not matter if your kid is "worthy" or not.

Couldn’t agree with this more especially regarding top tier schools. Reads more and more like purposeful misinformation out of competitiveness.

You’ll get real feedback (outside of the snobby parents who’ll tell you the school is worthless) about schools that are outside of the competitive tier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any situation barring finances that you can think of where it makes sense for a kid to turn down an Ivy in favor of a strong state school (think UT, UVA, UNC) in this current climate? What if the kid is worried about politics or campus culture? Do they just stick it out bc they are all but guaranteed to get a good job in 4 years?

no reason to turn down HYP, no.

what kind of politics are you worried about at a Penn or Darmouth?

Freedom of speech, antisemitism, campus protests

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any situation barring finances that you can think of where it makes sense for a kid to turn down an Ivy in favor of a strong state school (think UT, UVA, UNC) in this current climate? What if the kid is worried about politics or campus culture? Do they just stick it out bc they are all but guaranteed to get a good job in 4 years?

A very good reason to turn down an ivy would be distance from home. For many different reasons, not all kids want to be super far from home and most of the country is very far away from the northeast.

[Anonymous]

Kid has gotten in to more selective schools than expected and I wish we had chosen a SCEA option. Applied to T20 for RD only

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kid has gotten in to more selective schools than expected and I wish we had chosen a SCEA option. Applied to T20 for RD only

What schools? What major?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Though I consider myself at this point more than informed when it comes to college admissions, I wasn't quite prepared for the extent to which Harvard and Stanford cater to legacies and donors, at least at our top private, and at least in the early round. It is eye-opening. If you are the very top in a top private (think Dalton/Andover/Harvard-Westlake tier) and unhooked, you target mid-tier Ivies, not HYPS. There are just too many well-connected legacies who are also contributing a lot, active in alumni circles, have already sent other siblings.... these kids are typically but not always strong students, rarely the very top. These families know how the game is played and have been setting this outcome up for a decade, since elementary school. If you've seen it, you know.

+10

At my private, not nearly as good as those, and outside metro DC, I watched the valedictorian and other very top academic students get denied from H while a mediocre B student with deep monetary hooks (father was Harvard law and father was a consistent significant donor to H for decades; the accepted student did not have great ECs and was not on any athletic team) get accepted. Now, H probably considered the accepted student “good enough” academically, but clearly H were not choosing the strongest academic applicants from that private given the strong prospect of ongoing substantial donations.

Weird, our academically rigorous Baltimore private always gets the top few unhooked kids into H/Y/P. The hooked kids also get in. I think both these responses are tainted by sour grapes.

I guess your rigorous Baltimore private doesn't have the kinds of legacy and donor families that elite privates have.

Definitely have our share of legacies, and my parents donated two scholarships to my brother’s school long after he graduated. Perhaps we’re a little more sophisticated here than you’d like to think

Sorry you were disappointed in your kid’s acceptances but the bitterness is a bad look.

LOL my unhooked kid was admitted to an Ivy in mid-December. I can assure you I know what I am talking about.
Enjoy your rigorous Baltimore school and stay safe!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Though I consider myself at this point more than informed when it comes to college admissions, I wasn't quite prepared for the extent to which Harvard and Stanford cater to legacies and donors, at least at our top private, and at least in the early round. It is eye-opening. If you are the very top in a top private (think Dalton/Andover/Harvard-Westlake tier) and unhooked, you target mid-tier Ivies, not HYPS. There are just too many well-connected legacies who are also contributing a lot, active in alumni circles, have already sent other siblings.... these kids are typically but not always strong students, rarely the very top. These families know how the game is played and have been setting this outcome up for a decade, since elementary school. If you've seen it, you know.

+10

At my private, not nearly as good as those, and outside metro DC, I watched the valedictorian and other very top academic students get denied from H while a mediocre B student with deep monetary hooks (father was Harvard law and father was a consistent significant donor to H for decades; the accepted student did not have great ECs and was not on any athletic team) get accepted. Now, H probably considered the accepted student “good enough” academically, but clearly H were not choosing the strongest academic applicants from that private given the strong prospect of ongoing substantial donations.

Weird, our academically rigorous Baltimore private always gets the top few unhooked kids into H/Y/P. The hooked kids also get in. I think both these responses are tainted by sour grapes.

I guess your rigorous Baltimore private doesn't have the kinds of legacy and donor families that elite privates have.

Definitely have our share of legacies, and my parents donated two scholarships to my brother’s school long after he graduated. Perhaps we’re a little more sophisticated here than you’d like to think

Sorry you were disappointed in your kid’s acceptances but the bitterness is a bad look.

LOL my unhooked kid was admitted to an Ivy in mid-December. I can assure you I know what I am talking about.
Enjoy your rigorous Baltimore school and stay safe!

Cornell or Columbia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any situation barring finances that you can think of where it makes sense for a kid to turn down an Ivy in favor of a strong state school (think UT, UVA, UNC) in this current climate? What if the kid is worried about politics or campus culture? Do they just stick it out bc they are all but guaranteed to get a good job in 4 years?

I was a conservative student at an ivy. It was pretty chill. Granted this was 20 years ago, but generally if you knew when to keep your mouth shut everyone was pretty cool, and often glad to have a token Republican friend. Unless your kid is really loud about having certain beliefs no one would care. Things have probably changed some since I was there but probably not by as much as you'd think based on the news. Most of the administrations are swinging back to center liberal and the student bodies are slowly following suit. It's a great opportunity and your child should be brave and take it IMHO.

[Anonymous]

Don’t bother with VT. Not worth the effort for a wait list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Though I consider myself at this point more than informed when it comes to college admissions, I wasn't quite prepared for the extent to which Harvard and Stanford cater to legacies and donors, at least at our top private, and at least in the early round. It is eye-opening. If you are the very top in a top private (think Dalton/Andover/Harvard-Westlake tier) and unhooked, you target mid-tier Ivies, not HYPS. There are just too many well-connected legacies who are also contributing a lot, active in alumni circles, have already sent other siblings.... these kids are typically but not always strong students, rarely the very top. These families know how the game is played and have been setting this outcome up for a decade, since elementary school. If you've seen it, you know.

Not disputing your experience, but in mine, legacies are often times stronger students than non-legacies. My legacy DC and another legacy classmate are in fact “the very top” of their “top private.”

This. We are at a top private in the Bay Area. The HYPS early action admits have a healthy dose of legacy. But they also are the same kids who have dominated academically for years. In addition to being highly engaged in “within school” EC’s, what is also apparent is that they were also amassing significant “admission capital” with things they were doing out of school. While some of this may be secondary to sophisticated parents who know how to win at this game, my observation is that many of this cohort were genuinely passionate about what they were doing and willing to subordinate a ton of distractions (like weekend parties which my kid was apparently super into).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any situation barring finances that you can think of where it makes sense for a kid to turn down an Ivy in favor of a strong state school (think UT, UVA, UNC) in this current climate? What if the kid is worried about politics or campus culture? Do they just stick it out bc they are all but guaranteed to get a good job in 4 years?

A very good reason to turn down an ivy would be distance from home. For many different reasons, not all kids want to be super far from home and most of the country is very far away from the northeast.

Distance from home doesn’t make sense to me as a reason to turn down an Ivy, or turning down Stanford if you are on the east coast. Once you cross the threshold of “driving is impractical”, does a 5 hour flight become no go where a 3 hour flight is somehow acceptable? Perhaps “proximity to home” is what’s desired. That’s fine, but call it what it is.