How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I think that is one of the reasons colleges want strong extracurriculars, the primary reason being they want engaged students adding to campus life. Perfect grades and top SAT scores while spending 30+ hours a week doing other activities shows they can handle the rigor.
I don't think colleges really want students who will struggle academically, at least not many of them.

LOL. How does a student spend 30+ hours per week on EC's in addition to actual school?

I have a kid like that, he's my energizer bunny type kid. He has long days, and busy weekends.

I also had a kid who spent about 28-30 hours a week on ECs: 20 for performing arts and 8-10 on clubs, volunteering work. Took every hard class possible and loved the challenge, a wall of 5’s on the app, had done all the hard ones by the end of junior year. They were just more efficient and naturally intellectually quick so they spent very little time on homework compared to other students near the top of the class. They are at an ivy. Many of their peers are of the same mold, but it is definitely under half. They remain near the top in a competitive and difficult major. No one was their level in their high school. They needed a T10/ivy for fit to finally study among a large group of similar minds and not always be the smartest and fastest thinker in the room.

Your kid did not need an ivy to not be the smartest thinker in the room. There are several universities (even far outside T20) where your kid would not have been the smartest in the room by a long shot. University of Alabama for example has a very large cohort of insanely smart ivy/ivy+ accepted/level kids, due to huge scholarship $ and very specialized top level programs.

Not every family can afford an ivy, no matter what type of academic rockstar their kid is -- that is to say, there are large concentrations of kids like this at many universities, not just ivies.

LOL

[Anonymous]

How about this for a reality check:

4.0 UW, 4.86 W
1560 SAT, 13 AP 8 5s, 5 4s (non-STEM), AP Calc BC 10th grade, through MVC and Linear algebra
4 year varsity athlete
national CS awards
part time job

Rejected: Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Brown
WL: Cornell, Northeastern, Case Western
Accepted: UMD, RIT, RPI

CS major
MCPS Magnet
At UMD on scholarship

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about this for a reality check:

4.0 UW, 4.86 W
1560 SAT, 13 AP 8 5s, 5 4s (non-STEM), AP Calc BC 10th grade, through MVC and Linear algebra
4 year varsity athlete
national CS awards
part time job

Rejected: Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Brown
WL: Cornell, Northeastern, Case Western
Accepted: UMD, RIT, RPI

CS major
MCPS Magnet
At UMD on scholarship

Admittance to good computer science programs is insanely competitive. And the athletic accomplishments are fine but unless you are a recruited athlete, the athletics do not help much. Congrats on the UMD scholarship....That sounds terrific.

[Anonymous]

3.94, 1580 (first try), took highest rigor advanced classes, good internship and non profit involvement, lots of school related leadership roles and submitted research. No national awards or APs.

Rejected. Upenn ED1 , uva

Accepted to targets: nyu, pitt, umd, case western and usc

Attending NYU, business

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:3.94, 1580 (first try), took highest rigor advanced classes, good internship and non profit involvement, lots of school related leadership roles and submitted research. No national awards or APs.

Rejected. Upenn ED1 , uva

Accepted to targets: nyu, pitt, umd, case western and usc

Attending NYU, business

Wharton?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about this for a reality check:

4.0 UW, 4.86 W
1560 SAT, 13 AP 8 5s, 5 4s (non-STEM), AP Calc BC 10th grade, through MVC and Linear algebra
4 year varsity athlete
national CS awards
part time job

Rejected: Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Brown
WL: Cornell, Northeastern, Case Western
Accepted: UMD, RIT, RPI

CS major
MCPS Magnet
At UMD on scholarship

Wow. Well, your family will be a lot wealthier at the end of it and DC’s career probably won’t suffer at all. You’ll have the last laugh.

[Anonymous]

My elder DS is at UW studying engineering. He had 1560 SAT and 10 APs and all As. Varsity rower, captain of team, part-time job, music.

My younger DS will be going to Purdue, also for engineering. He had a 1540 SAT (perfect 800 in math), similar GPA/APs to older brother. Plus he was an Eagle scout, track team and on jazz band.

Both were shut out of ivies, ivy plus.

[Anonymous]

The smartest thing colleges could do, financially speaking, is admit whip-smart, hard-working CS and engineering majors. These are the kids who have the best odds of striking it rich and having something to give back to the college 20 or 40 years down the road. They are also more likely to contribute to society with patents, innovation, technological advance, improved productivity, etc. Colleges are short-sighted to not woo them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about this for a reality check:

4.0 UW, 4.86 W
1560 SAT, 13 AP 8 5s, 5 4s (non-STEM), AP Calc BC 10th grade, through MVC and Linear algebra
4 year varsity athlete
national CS awards
part time job

Rejected: Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Brown
WL: Cornell, Northeastern, Case Western
Accepted: UMD, RIT, RPI

CS major
MCPS Magnet
At UMD on scholarship

And this is why my kid’s list of schools to apply to is like 16 long. For CS it is such a ridiculous crapshoot.

[Anonymous]

this thread is hella depressing. what's the point of racking up all these stats?

or are we all just obsessing over the wrong list of schools?

like there's no hope for me fr.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this thread is hella depressing. what's the point of racking up all these stats?

or are we all just obsessing over the wrong list of schools?

like there's no hope for me fr.

Without the high stats, most top colleges are ruled out from the beginning. The stats are the initial criteria.

However, yes, it's possible you are obsessing over the wrong list of schools. Have schools on your list where admission chances are reasonable, and of course have safeties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The smartest thing colleges could do, financially speaking, is admit whip-smart, hard-working CS and engineering majors. These are the kids who have the best odds of striking it rich and having something to give back to the college 20 or 40 years down the road. They are also more likely to contribute to society with patents, innovation, technological advance, improved productivity, etc. Colleges are short-sighted to not woo them.

Do you think life is better with SM? I don't. What is Bezos giving back? Elon Musk? IMO, the tech bros are actually destroying society and our country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The smartest thing colleges could do, financially speaking, is admit whip-smart, hard-working CS and engineering majors. These are the kids who have the best odds of striking it rich and having something to give back to the college 20 or 40 years down the road. They are also more likely to contribute to society with patents, innovation, technological advance, improved productivity, etc. Colleges are short-sighted to not woo them.

Top legal and finance kids typically earn far more than engineering/cs kids. But, your strategy would push the average earnings number up a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this thread is hella depressing. what's the point of racking up all these stats?

or are we all just obsessing over the wrong list of schools?

like there's no hope for me fr.

The point is if you don't rack em up, you don't have a shot at all.

At a certain point, it's just a lottery for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1550 is not considered high.

Are you the same idiot who says a HHI of $800k+ is not rich but MC?

You need a reality check. 1550 is 1% - that's a fact, not your perception.