Can a normal smart kid get into an ivy these days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. A normal straight A unhooked kid cannot get into an ivy. That is my observation.

Except Cornell!

And ED

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your kid sounds well rounded, qualified for college and will likely get into a number of good schools. This is not the profile of a student the ivies want to educate these days. Today, Ivies want to educate either (a) students who are so phenomenal at a single thing that they will benefit from being with the best in that field or (b)students who could really benefit from the economic boost an ivy name gives them.

You are not alone. There are thousands of us parents who went to Ivies in the last century as well rounded students and who would not get in today. For the most part, our kids are not the profile of who the Ivies want to educate now and I’m okay with that. My well rounded, smart kids who get good grades - whether they go to a SLAC or a state flagship - will do just fine.

I had to check the time/date to make sure I hadn't written this. So, yes, to all of this.

- Double Ivy grad happy my kids preferred schools with "normal smart kids."

[Anonymous]

OP, to temper the typical hyperbole here, it's possible but the odds are tough. That's not a reflection of your amazing kid. It's just the reality of college admissions these days.

Anonymous wrote:OP, you didn’t even go to an Ivy yourself. And it was easier to get in back then. You and your husband went to Ivies for grad school but that is NOT the same thing.

So saying that your kid is “better than us in all respects“ doesn’t mean anything because apparently you weren’t all that yourself.

This is the quintessential DCUM comment. Well done, sir or madam. Now kindly throw your keyboard out of the window.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I keep hearing about these high stat kids getting rejected. On social media, I have seen posts about ridiculous students with extremely long crazy impressive extracurriculars.

Can a normal smart kid get into an ivy?

My kid has the scores and grades. He plays 3 sports and is on several academic teams. He is not nationally ranked in anything but good at everything. DH and I both attended T25 colleges and ivy grad schools. Our kid is better than DH and me in every single category.

So many parents who attended top schools in their day come on here and say this. You were only applying against a sliver of qualified students. The Common App, colleges understanding what CoA really means for first gen kids, and thousands and thousands of able and well-heeled international students has changed that equation.

The reality is that there were students better than you, but they didn't have a way of attending.

+1

When I was a high school senior, Ivy acceptance rates were 20-25%. Today they are 3-6%!!

I graduate in 1988. UPenn had a 35%?acceptance rate and it was 42% in 1987!!! Harvard was 16% compared to 3% today.

What was the acceptance rate for Upenn in 1988?
In 1987, the University admitted near 42 percent of the applicants compared with 40.6 percent in 1989 and 35 percent in 1988.

Old alum can kiss my kid’s @ss. Lol So many of them would not be competitive today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Old alum can kiss my kid’s @ss. Lol So many of them would not be competitive today.

That's because there are 100x good applicants, not that the old alums weren't good applicants.

[Anonymous]

Although it is very competitive, and there are many rejections, my 2 kids had many friends that attended top schools that were talented and top of class, but not so exceptional that they stood out significantly from the rest of the great applicants - they are what I would consider "normal" talented and driven students. The kids I remember were all races and mostly upper middle class (one of my kids went to a private independent and one to an area public). Anyway - it happens - but it's a numbers game.

[Anonymous]

From around here, probably no except maybe Cornell.
I know some kids from a rural area that got into brown — very smart, good test scores, quirky essays, good extracurriculars especially considering their area. But I don’t think they’d get in from around here.

Move to Iowa or North Dakota or something.

[Anonymous]

This board is so weird. Yes, of course it's possible. I know of a brown, two Yale, one Columbia just off the top of my head from this year. All normal smart. Public schools. Great kids, great grades, scores, activities. But normal smart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This board is so weird. Yes, of course it's possible. I know of a brown, two Yale, one Columbia just off the top of my head from this year. All normal smart. Public schools. Great kids, great grades, scores, activities. But normal smart.

I know four normal smart kids from public schools at ivies too. But they are also URM and ROTC. Double hooked. Not everyone who knows them knows their ethnicity or that they are ROTC (or understands that ROTC is a huge hook) It’s possible you don’t have all the information about them that’s relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This board is so weird. Yes, of course it's possible. I know of a brown, two Yale, one Columbia just off the top of my head from this year. All normal smart. Public schools. Great kids, great grades, scores, activities. But normal smart.

In other words, "possible" in the way that winning the lottery is possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Old alum can kiss my kid’s @ss. Lol So many of them would not be competitive today.

That's because there are 100x good applicants, not that the old alums weren't good applicants.

In the 80s my high school didn’t even offer AP classes. The workload was SO much easier and we didn’t have to do a million ECs or win national contests to get in either. All it took was being top of your class - and that didn’t require burning the candle at both ends like kids do today.

[Anonymous]

Speaking for yourself. Plenty of us were burning the candle at both ends 30+ years ago, with much inferior technology and resources than what's available today.

[Anonymous]

Nope, don’t even bother. Find another school.

[Anonymous]

I know a few from top privates this year. I mean, it's about a 5% chance for them too but a few unhooked, "normal" (but exceedingly smart) kids sneak through every other year or so. Not every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would say yes, if they have a quirky, unusual but well written essay. Otherwise no

I know several people who just went through this, and unfortunately, that is not enough. Maybe some hooked kids claim that they had a "stellar essay", but that is usually not the case.