Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Most of these posts on so many of these threads will list some version of "varsity sports" and "captain senior year", etc, etc.
Unless the student is a recruited athlete, high school sports are not in any way a distinguishing EC. At all. Yes, of course your kid should play hs school sports if they like but do not encourage your kid in thinking it is something significant on any college application. Dime a dozen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have friends with children at Big 3, FCPS and MCPS.

High GPA kids and/or high test kids all did great. Looks the same as 5, 10 and 15 years ago.

More unqualified kids applying are making the acceptance rates plummet. But the kids with the goods are doing as well as ever.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

As an immigrant, this entire school system was very foreign to me. So I decided to track from DC HS freshman year where kids in her adv. academic program (not NOVA) got in, in order to provide me an idea of how to guide DC (no, we can not afford a college counselor). Yes, her program always presents a slide show which shows where everybody is going to.

For graduates 2019 - 2021 (just around 100 graduates each year), the following committed for UVA (consistently 15), W&M (4/5), VT (12/15), JMU (now there was a shift downward from around 12 to 3), VCU (8, +/- 1). The top 5% make it in the end consistently into T10 schools. The top 10% make into T20.

Covid has not changed that and the kids performances (GPA, SAT/ACT, and EC are pretty consistently at the same level across the different classes. From the kid with 12 DE to the kid with "just" 6AP).

15% go to uva? What public school only has a class of 100? What are the schools for top 5%?


I find this very hard to believe. I know kids from elite boarding schools with double ivy degree parents who were shut out. I know kids from top publics around the country with ivy legacy shut out. The top 5% of our public did not make it in to top 10 schools.

One, legacy just does not have the impact it once did
Two, just because the parents had the goods to attend an ivy 20 years ago means absolutely nothing in today's admissions environment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have friends with children at Big 3, FCPS and MCPS.

High GPA kids and/or high test kids all did great. Looks the same as 5, 10 and 15 years ago.

More unqualified kids applying are making the acceptance rates plummet. But the kids with the goods are doing as well as ever.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

As an immigrant, this entire school system was very foreign to me. So I decided to track from DC HS freshman year where kids in her adv. academic program (not NOVA) got in, in order to provide me an idea of how to guide DC (no, we can not afford a college counselor). Yes, her program always presents a slide show which shows where everybody is going to.

For graduates 2019 - 2021 (just around 100 graduates each year), the following committed for UVA (consistently 15), W&M (4/5), VT (12/15), JMU (now there was a shift downward from around 12 to 3), VCU (8, +/- 1). The top 5% make it in the end consistently into T10 schools. The top 10% make into T20.

Falls Church City.

Covid has not changed that and the kids performances (GPA, SAT/ACT, and EC are pretty consistently at the same level across the different classes. From the kid with 12 DE to the kid with "just" 6AP).

15% go to uva? What public school only has a class of 100? What are the schools for top 5%?


I find this very hard to believe. I know kids from elite boarding schools with double ivy degree parents who were shut out. I know kids from top publics around the country with ivy legacy shut out. The top 5% of our public did not make it in to top 10 schools.

[Anonymous]

Oh please OP. Most of us would never have gotten into our alma mater if we applied today. That's the truth and you know it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both things can be true. It can be true that for the most part high-stats kids are landing at top-tier schools, just as they did before, and also true that 15 years ago such kids applied to 6 schools and were admitted to 4, whereas this year they applied to 12 and are lucky to be admitted to 1. It may all look the same to their parents’ friends, but the process today is far more grueling.

Mathematically, they cannot both be true. It is literally impossible. As the article cited above states, the Ivies plus Stanford, Duke MIT and CalTech had 15,800 US high school graduates 20 years ago and have 16,300 today. The number of US graduates has gone from 2.8 million to 3.6 million. So these 12 schools used to have enough seats for 56% of the top 1% of US students, and now they have enough seats for 45% of the top 1%. It is more difficult even for those with ridiculously high numbers.

That also doesn't take into account the larger numbers of international students competing for those spots

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh please OP. Most of us would never have gotten into our alma mater if we applied today. That's the truth and you know it.

The only way I would get in now is because of TO. My DS will probably get in that way too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have friends with children at Big 3, FCPS and MCPS.

High GPA kids and/or high test kids all did great. Looks the same as 5, 10 and 15 years ago.

More unqualified kids applying are making the acceptance rates plummet. But the kids with the goods are doing as well as ever.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

This is patently false. Just look at the numbers in the big picture, not just your immediate circle of acquaintances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Observation from parent of a 2020 high school grad (so not impacted byCovid.) parents of kids in high-performing districts have been using the term “bloodbath“ for at least as long as I have been reading parenting boards around this time of year, it always happens when kids they perceive as strong candidates don’t get it. That is not new, Every year seems to feel like the worst year for admissions in certain circles.. What is clearly different though terms of the process is that with test optional the numbers at many colleges have dramatically increased, colleges are all telling this when they report out on admissions data. And of course the other thing to his shoes with Covid is a high-performance kids have lost so many opportunities to distinguish themselves through ECs what do “great ECs” mean in this environment? Nobody really knows. I do believe the process feels much more challenging/random.

+1. Have 2019 and 2021 kids and a couple more to go, so I'm watching the process. 2021 was less predictable than 2019, no question. 2019 kid applied to 5 schools, accepted to all, including the reach. 2021 kid applied to 13, accepted to 5 of the easier ones, WL 3, denied 6, attends one of the safeties. Seems like 2022 is similar to 2021 for lack of predictability, maybe even less.

With more focus on grades, and as someone mentioned, a lot of grade inflation at some schools, some deflation, tough virtual times at other schools, with likewise widely variable EC experiences, it's tougher to gauge one's list.

My advice would be to have more targets and safeties than you think you need. As we saw with my 2021 kid, it was great to have a choice among the low targets and safeties that came through.

[Anonymous]

Entitlement is the order of the day. It's what's given us grade inflation, to the point where grades mean nothing. Then there's test prep, where for one day, the product of a $3,000 SAT prep class can get a high enough score and pretend like they really know the material just as well as someone who's truly absorbed it through over a decade of learning.

Not to mention the abundance of costly tutoring because, with grade inflation (see above), simply getting an "A" is not enough. You have to get an "A+" in your AP Stats class to stand out, now. Finally, there are the parents who are convinced (misguidedly) that you can only attain success (usually measred in financial terms) if you go to a Top 20 college.

It's an unhealthy mix that's driving our kids crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh please OP. Most of us would never have gotten into our alma mater if we applied today. That's the truth and you know it.

If we applied today, both our standardized test scores and GPAs would be higher. Both have gone up significantly on average, due to recentering and grade inflation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have friends with children at Big 3, FCPS and MCPS.

High GPA kids and/or high test kids all did great. Looks the same as 5, 10 and 15 years ago.

More unqualified kids applying are making the acceptance rates plummet. But the kids with the goods are doing as well as ever.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

This is patently false. Just look at the numbers in the big picture, not just your immediate circle of acquaintances.

There are more kids nationally and internationally applying for the same number of seats. So by math, the numbers just aren't there for high stats kids to be able to get into so-called T20 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have friends with children at Big 3, FCPS and MCPS.

High GPA kids and/or high test kids all did great. Looks the same as 5, 10 and 15 years ago.

More unqualified kids applying are making the acceptance rates plummet. But the kids with the goods are doing as well as ever.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

This is patently false. Just look at the numbers in the big picture, not just your immediate circle of acquaintances.

There are more kids nationally and internationally applying for the same number of seats. So by math, the numbers just aren't there for high stats kids to be able to get into so-called T20 schools.

True-- and/but, important to keep reminding yourself and your kids that there are also more excellent schools today than 35 years ago. Top schools have graduated too many PhD students to get teaching jobs at those schools, so those Ivy PhDs now teach at top 100 schools, not top 20; rising college age population, more widespread awareness of how college admissions works and more int'l students means more "top" kids are now attending top 100 schools instead of top 20 schools.

Upshot: whether from a networking perspective or an "educational quality" perspective, all the top hundred or so schools now offer first rate academics and opportunities to their students. They all have great research opportunities, great study abroad opportunities, great career services offices.

So-- YES, it is 100% harder to get into top 20 schools today than a few decades ago, but there are now many more excellent schools to choose from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Let me guess.. white male?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Entitlement is the order of the day. It's what's given us grade inflation, to the point where grades mean nothing. Then there's test prep, where for one day, the product of a $3,000 SAT prep class can get a high enough score and pretend like they really know the material just as well as someone who's truly absorbed it through over a decade of learning.

Not to mention the abundance of costly tutoring because, with grade inflation (see above), simply getting an "A" is not enough. You have to get an "A+" in your AP Stats class to stand out, now. Finally, there are the parents who are convinced (misguidedly) that you can only attain success (usually measred in financial terms) if you go to a Top 20 college.

It's an unhealthy mix that's driving our kids crazy.

^
This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh please OP. Most of us would never have gotten into our alma mater if we applied today. That's the truth and you know it.

^This. I'm in the "older" crowd here, but kids in my rural county school went to UVA, W&M, Tech...anywhere they wanted. I doubt any of us would get in today at those schools.