My child is super intelligent and won't get into any good schools? What?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

absolutely! international students raise the game for all students: they are so incredibly talented at my kid's elite school--they have enjoyed having them as friends and class peers.

They cheat to get in and then cheat to stay in

total BS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well my kid who got a 1580, had a 4.4 weighted gpa and has a 145 IQ didn’t get into VT or UVA. But he got in elsewhere and is loving it. Apply wisely with good safeties and a range of targets. Reaches are unlikely.

4.4 Weighted is only a little above average at multiple schools we know. Which would be why your kid did not get in: they either did not take enough AP/DE(A is 5 and A+ can be 5.3-5.5 points) so their rigor was a red flag, or they did not put the time in and had a bunch of Bs in those hardest classes. Or, they had bad LOR. 1580 should easily be able to have near 5.0 or above—ie in the top 20% of the grade —even at a competitive school like Governors .

You know many schools don't have A+ right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

Sorry about the stupid racist above. Foreign students are a net benefit for our universities. They provide a perspective that US born kids haven't heard. They often stay and add talent to our economy. If they go home, they bring experience with the US that is helpful to the US abroad. Y'all are welcome here. Don't listen to the bitter fools.

They also help the local luxury car dealers & luxury apartment complexes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

It doesn’t help that 90% of applicants want to major in the same 5 to 10 subjects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re your last sentence, OP: your child will absolutely be accepted to schools that do not have insanely low acceptance rates. A couple of pointers from recent experience:
- there are tons of students with your child’s stats.
- as terrific as he undoubtedly is, he is one of tens of similar thousands
- he is wise to make a plan. Create a brutally honest and balanced list of reaches, targets, and safeties that he would be happy to attend
- acceptance rates are such that reaches for all means just that - reach for ALL regardless of stats
- he should thoughtfully prepare a strategy for ED, EA, RD and rolling
- he should identify the teachers likely to write the best LORs and ask them early
- he should provide his guidance counselor with information to include in the very influential guidance counselor letter
- he should be prepared to create applications that not only reflect his achievements and ECs but that also convey to AOs who he is as a human being and why his presence on a campus will add to the campus as a community
-he should take comfort that the dream school and top 25 concepts are a fallacy. There are tons of schools in this country where he can be happy and thrive. But he’s got to do the work to find them, and not be influenced too much by rankings or the perception of others
- he should be humble and realize that hard work is everything, no one is entitled to anything, and positivity is infectious, vs the understandably negative feelings he sounds like he is experiencing. Get energized, chin up!
-also remind him that this too shall pass.

there are no "tens of thousands" 4.0 10+AP 1500+ applicants.

Actually, there are 16,000 NMSF. And many more commended. They not be all 4.0 10+AP 1500+, but I bet most of them are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

He is exaggerating. Plenty of truly smart 140IQ kids get in. He needs to take the highest level of classes possible—99th percentile yet avoiding hardest classes is a fast track to rejection. He should be able to get all As unless he is in one of the few high schools where As in hard classes are only for the top 1/4 of students and a large portion of the class is 98-99th percentile kids. In 11th gr he still has time to find some leadership or so some volunteering in his community: show he is a human who cares about something besides himself and school. Involvement in Arts/music of any kind is extremely common among kids who attend ivy/t20 schools. If he already does this it will help. If he is not a jerk and he participates in class/loves learning he will have great LORs. These are important: he needs to get to know teachers well. Have him aim high and also have a lot of T25-50 schoos or lower LACs(below 15th are a lot easier). Read MIT applying sideways.

lol. Your entire post after the boded shows he probably won't get in with just the high stats. That's the point - high stats alone won't get you in.

btdt with a kid with higher stats than OP's kid.

DP.
The post says PLENTY get in. Not all. OP said kid said "NO shot" . There is a shot, and plenty get in. Some don't. The advice helps the OP be more likely to GET IN. Agree with the apply sideways blog.

OP is only focusing on stats. Stats alone won't get you into T15. That was my point. My kid had higher stats from a magnet program and rejected from GATech, though they were a CS major which is a lot more competitive. They did not have stellar extra curriculars. Don't know about LoR or the essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

He is exaggerating. Plenty of truly smart 140IQ kids get in. He needs to take the highest level of classes possible—99th percentile yet avoiding hardest classes is a fast track to rejection. He should be able to get all As unless he is in one of the few high schools where As in hard classes are only for the top 1/4 of students and a large portion of the class is 98-99th percentile kids. In 11th gr he still has time to find some leadership or so some volunteering in his community: show he is a human who cares about something besides himself and school. Involvement in Arts/music of any kind is extremely common among kids who attend ivy/t20 schools. If he already does this it will help. If he is not a jerk and he participates in class/loves learning he will have great LORs. These are important: he needs to get to know teachers well. Have him aim high and also have a lot of T25-50 schoos or lower LACs(below 15th are a lot easier). Read MIT applying sideways.

lol. Your entire post after the boded shows he probably won't get in with just the high stats. That's the point - high stats alone won't get you in.

btdt with a kid with higher stats than OP's kid.

DP.
The post says PLENTY get in. Not all. OP said kid said "NO shot" . There is a shot, and plenty get in. Some don't. The advice helps the OP be more likely to GET IN. Agree with the apply sideways blog.

OP is only focusing on stats. Stats alone won't get you into T15. That was my point. My kid had higher stats from a magnet program and rejected from GATech, though they were a CS major which is a lot more competitive. They did not have stellar extra curriculars. Don't know about LoR or the essay.

Oh , and they also got rejected to Cal and UCLA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

there are no "tens of thousands" 4.0 10+AP 1500+ applicants.

There might be. 1.9M students took SAT last year. 2% of them score 1500+. Of those 38,000 high achievers, it's not unreasonable to expect half (10-20 thousand) of them to have 4.0 GPA and lots of APs classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

Sorry about the stupid racist above. Foreign students are a net benefit for our universities. They provide a perspective that US born kids haven't heard. They often stay and add talent to our economy. If they go home, they bring experience with the US that is helpful to the US abroad. Y'all are welcome here. Don't listen to the bitter fools.

Yeah we need more billionaire perspective parking their Ferraris in front of fire hydrants on campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well my kid who got a 1580, had a 4.4 weighted gpa and has a 145 IQ didn’t get into VT or UVA. But he got in elsewhere and is loving it. Apply wisely with good safeties and a range of targets. Reaches are unlikely.

That’s insane. I assume he was in-state? I’m hoping my child might get into William and Mary when the time comes, but I suspect he’ll be a smidge lower on the scale than your child. The current process is crazy.

Sorry. I don’t believe that. From our rigorous private in NJ kids who aren’t nearly that credentialed get into VT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

Who cares? It's fall of junior year. He isn't applying to college until next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

There are a lot of super smart kids out there. Also a lot of talented muscians. And kids who excel at sports. And kids who have a heart for volunteering. Being smart is one piece of the puzzle, but no one is evaluating just based on that anymore. If he is in 11th grade, then that's great. He has the school part and test part down. Now use the next year to volunteer, get a job, find a hobby, meet a mentor, do some research. It's up to him - the opera isn't over til the fat lady sings.

[Anonymous]

Your kid has the brains to succeed no matter what. But personality beats brains every time. Way too many geniuses undermine themselves because their end goal is being recognized for their ability rather than their accomplishment.

While you still have your kid at home make sure they understand that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

there are no "tens of thousands" 4.0 10+AP 1500+ applicants.

There might be. 1.9M students took SAT last year. 2% of them score 1500+. Of those 38,000 high achievers, it's not unreasonable to expect half (10-20 thousand) of them to have 4.0 GPA and lots of APs classes.

💯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

Sorry about the stupid racist above. Foreign students are a net benefit for our universities. They provide a perspective that US born kids haven't heard. They often stay and add talent to our economy. If they go home, they bring experience with the US that is helpful to the US abroad. Y'all are welcome here. Don't listen to the bitter fools.

+100

You are welcome here.