Sidwell, 3.93 1570 Junior - T10 prospects?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T10 used to take more of a chance on interesting kids with less than 4.0 GPAs. My feeling is that they don't bother anymore with top privates. The kids all look (or make themselves) interesting. So, stats are mostly all that matter unless you can fake an interest in an exotic major (commonly used strategy)

I didn't think the .07 shy of a 4.0 is the concern here, it's the lack of rigor in STEM (important for all T10 admits regardless of major) and the lack of state or national recognition in ECs.

OP indicates rigor but not the highest math track. Does not put you out of contention. Obviously more rigor is better.

+1, especially for a non-STEM major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe not HPSM but could be competitive for Columbia, Duke, Yale, Penn

+1 they have a shooter's chance at the second group but would probably avoid the first group

[Anonymous]

Why hasn’t the kid achieved anything at the state or national level?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Potential major? I see no reason to go T10 for STEM, for example.

With the smaller hiring cohorts recently and increased competition for spots in STEM careers, especially big tech, fintech, and medicine, I think attending top colleges with good placement at grad and med schools and top employers will matter more. I don't see the market going back to 2021 or even 2019 levels. You'll see that schools also hurt their own undergrad job placement, particularly in tech, with large "cash cow" MS programs in CS and related fields.

I don't understand what you are saying. The tech companies are cutting jobs in some areas, but expanding hiring in other areas. The problem is you hear only about the cuts, but not about the hiring.

There was a chart showing employment at MSFT, Google, FB, etc. which actually shows overall employment is basically flat since 2021, mainly because all these companies are aggressively hiring people in various AI fields, while simultaneously cutting in other areas.

Over the last two cycles, those large companies you listed have essentially not hired new grads who haven't already interned with them. A couple of them also were not able to make offers to all their good SWE interns. You just don't aggressively hire undergrads for most AI/ML roles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does the school college counselor say?

The counselor is not going to be useful.....they will only make sure you have reasonable safety schools and will say the obvious that there could be a chance at T10 but it's unpredictable. (This is assuming this person has no hooks.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T10 used to take more of a chance on interesting kids with less than 4.0 GPAs. My feeling is that they don't bother anymore with top privates. The kids all look (or make themselves) interesting. So, stats are mostly all that matter unless you can fake an interest in an exotic major (commonly used strategy)

I didn't think the .07 shy of a 4.0 is the concern here, it's the lack of rigor in STEM (important for all T10 admits regardless of major) and the lack of state or national recognition in ECs.

As a fellow Sidwell family - I read top-rigor but not Math III to mean they took the 1A science courses, Math I, Math II, Calc I, Calc 2. There's no "choice of rigor" in English/History/language beyond taking the course. There's one level. So if you follow the take 4 years of all five subject areas - the only way to have rigor is via science/math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With that profile I would focus more on Northeastern, Cornell, Tulane, USC, BC level - which is probably 2 steps down from T10. Can definitely take a shot or two with ED, but need a realistic approach. Cornell boosters will point to low acceptance rate, but most of the rejects that drive this number down are lower quality applicants thinking they have a shot at a lower quality ivy - they don’t

This is too low. These schools can be on the broad list, but you can try for a top ED if you want - but I'd be prepared with an ED2. And if you want more certainty - then ED to a T20-T30 school.

[Anonymous]

The counselor will probably say what PP wrote about applying REA/ED1 if there is a dream school and then looking at ED2 schools like Chicago or Vandy or rolling the dice RD. They won't actively push for ED2 but will likely highlight the upside and earlier finishing point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe not HPSM but could be competitive for Columbia, Duke, Yale, Penn

Duke is rarely an outcome for Sidwell outside of athletes....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe not HPSM but could be competitive for Columbia, Duke, Yale, Penn

+1 they have a shooter's chance at the second group but would probably avoid the first group

Do you two posters really think this person would have a better or different shot at Princeton than Yale? If so, I'd be interested in hearing your explanations. The other schools in the second group make sense to me, especially given the ED options.

[Anonymous]

Too late to sign up for crew or fencing, so...no.

[Anonymous]

At my non-DMV private, this kid, with a niche liberal arts major could def get into Columbia/penn/Northwestern/Duke and that ilk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does the school college counselor say?

The counselor is not going to be useful.....they will only make sure you have reasonable safety schools and will say the obvious that there could be a chance at T10 but it's unpredictable. (This is assuming this person has no hooks.)

But DCUM will be useful?

Seriously, what are you paying for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my non-DMV private, this kid, with a niche liberal arts major could def get into Columbia/penn/Northwestern/Duke and that ilk.

+1

[Anonymous]

Kid is non-stem. Why are people so fixated on stem?