College Admissions Results for Class of 2018 - Nightmare or Pleasant Suprise?

[Anonymous]

Perhaps we are getting way ahead of ourselves? This board is working with scant data. It would take at least 100 observations, with detailed understanding of the candidates (not anecdotal), to start to draw conclussions. All of the posters to date are working with a just few facts, and the composite view is nonsensical. This notion of an emphasized "dreamer" outreach is bordered by the practical constraints of FA budgets. Everyone should take a pill. Perhaps schools are starting to understand the success rate of EA deferred candidates into the RD pool and are mercifully not giving false hope. To conslude that this has something to do with a reverse Trump effect of China is a bit premature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer the "nightmare or pleasant surprise" question, from what I know the EA/ED results at our senior's school have been disappointing generally. They definitely vary from the relatively consistent pattern of the past several years. Not sure if application numbers are up across the board, particularly at top 40 ranked colleges, or if a number of admission offices are changing their targets.

^ definitely both

Oh they are definitely up for SCEA, EA and ED. Check any university. UVA reports a 5% increase in EA applications on top of an overall increase of 26% last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer the "nightmare or pleasant surprise" question, from what I know the EA/ED results at our senior's school have been disappointing generally. They definitely vary from the relatively consistent pattern of the past several years. Not sure if application numbers are up across the board, particularly at top 40 ranked colleges, or if a number of admission offices are changing their targets.

Same, at least so far, and at this point I'm talking mainly about Early Decision.

Seems like too many kids had unrealistic stretch schools. Not sure if it was parents pushing certain schools or the college counselors were just off, or whether the landscape is becoming even more brutal.

I think it's becoming more brutal. It's not unrealistic stretch schools, because better college counsellors will try to talk seniors out of unrealistic applications. Rather, students are being deferred or denied from target or reach ED schools. There may be a seismic shift going on this year.

It's definitely more brutal. I've been watching this from an academic viewpoint for the last eight years. The percentage of applications alone to all institutions increases every year. That in large part is due to the selectivity and yield ratings in USN&WR, Princeton Review and the others. The whole game from the institution's point of view is to move up a notch in those ratings. Hence they want to encourage as many applications as possible in order to reject your children. Then of those that they do select, they pick only those that they bet will show up - hence ED and SCEA offerings - because that will increase their yield numbers. The schools also report how many international students they matriculate, so that number too jumps every year. The biggest shift I have noticed is that the finest schools are cherry-picking off of EA, ED and SCEA. DCs got accepted to their SCEA and EA public university picks. They (and their friends) did not get into their RD picks. Same students and same records. Princeton just accepted SCEA more than half of its classs of 2022 and most of those students will show up (yield). The game is now being all played out first semester of the high school year so you have to have your grades, essays, ECs and everything else in order to start applying rolling admissions in September and EA,SCEA and ED by Nov. 1st.

[Anonymous]

And write one of your essays on your menstruation cycle or why you love Papa John’s pizza.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And write one of your essays on your menstruation cycle or why you love Papa John’s pizza.

Or write "Black LIves Matter" over and over in your essay. Worked for an applicant to Stanford last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer the "nightmare or pleasant surprise" question, from what I know the EA/ED results at our senior's school have been disappointing generally. They definitely vary from the relatively consistent pattern of the past several years. Not sure if application numbers are up across the board, particularly at top 40 ranked colleges, or if a number of admission offices are changing their targets.

Same, at least so far, and at this point I'm talking mainly about Early Decision.

Seems like too many kids had unrealistic stretch schools. Not sure if it was parents pushing certain schools or the college counselors were just off, or whether the landscape is becoming even more brutal.

I think it's becoming more brutal. It's not unrealistic stretch schools, because better college counsellors will try to talk seniors out of unrealistic applications. Rather, students are being deferred or denied from target or reach ED schools. There may be a seismic shift going on this year.

Could it be the Anti-Trump backlash?

Could be. I think that certain colleges really have upped their URM goals this year, and some are actively recruiting "Dreamers" to make a statement. This means that you can throw the Naviance data out the window for now because colleges are shifting their desired class profiles significantly.

Not at our private - white connected and $$$ kids getting in

Do you know how much a parent has to contribute to secure a spot at Harvard or Stanford admissions? Believe me, it's not three dollar places -- or even seven places.

We are talking hedge fund $$$, grandparents $$$$, and more - if one can give $1M to the HS, these parents can give more to colleges

[Anonymous]

At my kid's school results have been very good so far. I know of at least 15 ED/EA admits--to Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Cornell, Amherst, Hopkins, Wash U, Georgetown, Duke and Emory. Out of a class of about 75.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my kid's school results have been very good so far. I know of at least 15 ED/EA admits--to Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Cornell, Amherst, Hopkins, Wash U, Georgetown, Duke and Emory. Out of a class of about 75.

Same but tons of kids were also rejected, deferred, waitlisted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my kid's school results have been very good so far. I know of at least 15 ED/EA admits--to Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Cornell, Amherst, Hopkins, Wash U, Georgetown, Duke and Emory. Out of a class of about 75.

Ncs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my kid's school results have been very good so far. I know of at least 15 ED/EA admits--to Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Cornell, Amherst, Hopkins, Wash U, Georgetown, Duke and Emory. Out of a class of about 75.

Same but tons of kids were also rejected, deferred, waitlisted.

So what? Admissions to top colleges is always a bit of a crapshoot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my kid's school results have been very good so far. I know of at least 15 ED/EA admits--to Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Cornell, Amherst, Hopkins, Wash U, Georgetown, Duke and Emory. Out of a class of about 75.

A brag post from an NCS/STA parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And write one of your essays on your menstruation cycle or why you love Papa John’s pizza.

Or write "Black LIves Matter" over and over in your essay. Worked for an applicant to Stanford last year.

How would "all lives matter" work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my kid's school results have been very good so far. I know of at least 15 ED/EA admits--to Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Cornell, Amherst, Hopkins, Wash U, Georgetown, Duke and Emory. Out of a class of about 75.

A brag post from an NCS/STA parent.

Quite impressive. No complaints at Georgetown Day, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my kid's school results have been very good so far. I know of at least 15 ED/EA admits--to Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Cornell, Amherst, Hopkins, Wash U, Georgetown, Duke and Emory. Out of a class of about 75.

A brag post from an NCS/STA parent.

I don't know if this is NCS/STA (the class size is about right), but wasn't the question originally asked in this thread how results are coming in? Seems like this is just answering the question.

In general getting 20-25% of a class into their first choice (i.e. a binding early decision or a top EA school) is about what it has been the past few years, down from previous years of 30-50%. Whether that is a nightmare or pleasant surprise probably depends on expectations and news received.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my kid's school results have been very good so far. I know of at least 15 ED/EA admits--to Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Cornell, Amherst, Hopkins, Wash U, Georgetown, Duke and Emory. Out of a class of about 75.

A brag post from an NCS/STA parent.

No, not NCS or STA. I'm new to this, but roughly a quarter of the class already in to impressive places (I know of about 20 at this point) seems like a great result to me. It's not unusual for this school to have about a third of the class go to schools of this caliber overall, so 2018 seems on track to a typical-to-good year. I say this not to brag (and my kid is not admitted early anywhere) but to provide an anecdote that addresses the OPs question. Not a nightmare everywhere, fwiw.