WSJ article on your child's chances of getting into an IVY are slim

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the whole article, but here is the lede:

“ Kaitlyn Younger has been an academic standout since she started studying algebra in third grade.

She took her first advanced-placement course as a freshman, scored 1550 on her SATs as a junior at McKinney High School near Dallas and will graduate this spring with an unweighted 3.95 grade-point average and as the founder of the school’s accounting club. Along the way she performed in and directed about 30 plays, sang in the school choir, scored top marks on the tests she has so far taken for 11 advanced-placement classes, helped run a summer camp and held down a part-time job.

“She is extraordinary,” said Jeff Cranmore, her guidance counselor at McKinney High School.

Ms. Younger, 18 years old, was cautiously optimistic when she applied to top U.S. colleges last fall. Responses came this month: Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of California, Berkeley, and Northwestern all rejected her.

“I expected a bunch wouldn’t accept me,” she said. “I didn’t expect it to be this bad.””

It says she’s going to Arizona State.

It seems she would be an automatic admit to UT Austin. Unless with all that she's not a top ranked student in her HS, which would mean all those decisions are not that surprising.

Article says she did get into UT, just not the business school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will say it - I think schools didn’t admit her bc her essays were about her mental health struggles over getting Bs during Covid.

I wish the system wasn’t this way - we talk a good game on mental health - but I think societal actions prove another thing.

I also think business is an incredibly oversubscribed major.

Agree. Few kids can put together a resume like that without some mental health issues but schools don’t want to know about that. They want you to pretend like that’s just who you are: a natural hard-worker with high standards who can work 60 hour weeks, excelling at everything you do, and not feel stressed. Absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“The record 11.8 percent admission rate for Harvard's class of 1999 is significantly lower than rates at other Ivy League schools, ...“

Has it ever been easy?

It’s never been easy for your typical kid. It’s always been significantly easier for connected kids.

I went to a NE boarding school. They told us that before about the 1990s, kids essentially signed up for HYP like you would an intramural softball team. It isn’t like that anymore, but my high school sends roughly 25% of its graduates each year to an Ivy League school. The process remains deeply unfair.

Is this typical of the higher end NE boarding schools? Do their students get preferred admissions? Looking at this now for my kid who is interested in going starting in 2023 to play a sport (he's been talking to the coach), so if we're going to consider that school, we'll likely consider others as well. Just curious because DH and I are public school graduates so this is all new.

This is a complicated question. It is typical of Andover, Exeter, and others in the Eight Schools Association (essentially the Ivy League of boarding schools). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Schools_Association

The college counselors have a strong relationship with the admissions officers at top universities, and can advocate for the students. On top of that, colleges know how rigorous the courseloads are at these schools, so if a kid does well there, it’s a strong sign of how strong of a student that kid is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone with access post the article text?

Just go to archive.ph and enter the url.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I say lets the spawn and URM and 3.5GPA athletes have the "elites". Ivys are sort of sick in the head. The data shows that you have to be in one of those categories to get in, yet they aggressively outreached my kid and others that they had zero intention of admitting (My kids stats are higher than this girl in the article by a small margin). They dont increase their class size and they just roll in the application fees so by rejecting us all they can seem even cooler. Fool me once...but you won't fool me again. I've made a pledge that I will never hire another ivy grad and I wont let my other kids apply. Ivy League is Fake News.

+ 1. Good man! I'd be happier still if congress cancelled the "non-profit" status for all entities and let them do what they want. Why am I subsidizing this nonsense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“The record 11.8 percent admission rate for Harvard's class of 1999 is significantly lower than rates at other Ivy League schools, ...“

Has it ever been easy?

It’s never been easy for your typical kid. It’s always been significantly easier for connected kids.

I went to a NE boarding school. They told us that before about the 1990s, kids essentially signed up for HYP like you would an intramural softball team. It isn’t like that anymore, but my high school sends roughly 25% of its graduates each year to an Ivy League school. The process remains deeply unfair.

Doesn't this just show that the schools are not "all that" in the first place? It just a prestige thing, with no real value other than that. They aren't actually "better," and obviously there are thousands of brilliant students who attend other colleges.

I don’t agree. Of course, there are legacies and other connected kids, but the very top prep schools are absolutely wonderful for very motivated kids.

Take a look at Andover’s Course of Study, for example, and tell me how it compares to other schools: https://issuu.com/phillipsacademy/docs/cos2021-2022?e=1320520/85034501

AS IF these prep schools are available to all motivated kids. So out of touch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“The record 11.8 percent admission rate for Harvard's class of 1999 is significantly lower than rates at other Ivy League schools, ...“

Has it ever been easy?

It’s never been easy for your typical kid. It’s always been significantly easier for connected kids.

I went to a NE boarding school. They told us that before about the 1990s, kids essentially signed up for HYP like you would an intramural softball team. It isn’t like that anymore, but my high school sends roughly 25% of its graduates each year to an Ivy League school. The process remains deeply unfair.

Doesn't this just show that the schools are not "all that" in the first place? It just a prestige thing, with no real value other than that. They aren't actually "better," and obviously there are thousands of brilliant students who attend other colleges.

I don’t agree. Of course, there are legacies and other connected kids, but the very top prep schools are absolutely wonderful for very motivated kids.

Take a look at Andover’s Course of Study, for example, and tell me how it compares to other schools: https://issuu.com/phillipsacademy/docs/cos2021-2022?e=1320520/85034501

AS IF these prep schools are available to all motivated kids. So out of touch.

Did I ever say they were?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say it - I think schools didn’t admit her bc her essays were about her mental health struggles over getting Bs during Covid.

I wish the system wasn’t this way - we talk a good game on mental health - but I think societal actions prove another thing.

I also think business is an incredibly oversubscribed major.

Agree. Few kids can put together a resume like that without some mental health issues but schools don’t want to know about that. They want you to pretend like that’s just who you are: a natural hard-worker with high standards who can work 60 hour weeks, excelling at everything you do, and not feel stressed. Absurd.

+1 The article even mentions that she started taking anti-anxiety drugs at age 7. She was the wrong poster child to promote for the cause.

[Anonymous]

OP, I assume you're the one who started the other thread about admissions. It might interest you to know that it's "Ivy," as in "Ivy League," not an all-caps acronym.

Stop shouting and calm down.

[Anonymous]

The Ivies have been rejecting over 90% of the applications for years. Even if you are amazing, the odds are that you aren't getting in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No.

But it was in the 30% change range in the 1980's and the 40% change range in the 1950's.

It is absurd now.

can you think of anything that might have been different about the 80s and in particular the 1950s and today?

[Anonymous]

I wonder if her essays were a red flag? To write essays about one’s mental health battles to justify Bs seems strange. She should have written about something that lights her up. Maybe one of the theater productions or why accounting is not dry to her/what she wants to do with it.

And I am sad that her takeaway was the Bs did her in.

I hope she kills it at ASU!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if her essays were a red flag? To write essays about one’s mental health battles to justify Bs seems strange. She should have written about something that lights her up. Maybe one of the theater productions or why accounting is not dry to her/what she wants to do with it.

And I am sad that her takeaway was the Bs did her in.

I hope she kills it at ASU!

Agreed. Always stay positive! Don't throw yourself under the bus!
I had to learn both of these things over the years. However, I definitely didn't know this at age 18.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will say it - I think schools didn’t admit her bc her essays were about her mental health struggles over getting Bs during Covid.

I wish the system wasn’t this way - we talk a good game on mental health - but I think societal actions prove another thing.

I also think business is an incredibly oversubscribed major.

Here is the thing. The schools cannot deal with these mental health issues and they don’t want to. My student’s college had a suicide recently and it rocked the campus. The school should have known this student was at risk (there was a very public sign). I have no idea what the school did to help her, but I suspect (based on my student’s experience with campus mental health services) nothing.

We have messed up an entire generation with our curating and over parenting. The schools are now seeing the other side to many of these overachievers and they want no part of it.

Mental health is at a crisis state on many campuses. If she wrote about having anxiety over a B, it’s no wonder she got rejected. The schools no longer want perfect, curated kids because they fall apart once they get there and the schools hve to deal with it and are not equipped.

[Anonymous]

I have a mentally ill child. There is SO much stigma. I would never let my kid mention it in a college app.

These colleges are completely delusional over the stress it causes kids to become this accomplished.

And anti-anxiety drugs at 7 and algebra that young screams HFA. It is often missed in high achieving girls.