3.7 UW at rigorous private HS with equivalent of 8 APs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's going to be very hard for DCUMs to gauge the admissions potential of a student from a school outside the DMV unless it has a national profile. If she's at the top school in Des Moines or Phoenix or whereever, no one here is really going to be able to give you tailored advice.

It's a top private school in the SF Bay area.

OK, so not Phoenix then.

I think with a 3.7 unweighted from a top private in a competitive place like Bay area, and good ECs, she's in good shape to be a candidate for many very good schools. You mentioned she's avoiding the top 20 except for one reach, did she say why? Seems like she wants to build a more realistic list which is good!

[Anonymous]

You need a college counselor that knows the Bay Area and your competition and knows how to make her stand out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello,

My niece is midway through Junior year so hasn't had her appt with college counseling yet. But she is a hard-working, engaged student at an academic private (not DMV) that is competitive to enter. She will have the equivalent of 8 APs in core subjects when she graduates. They don't offer APs per se but have their own version of it (similar to Andover). She wants to study social sciences (poli sci, history, econ) in college but has been strong in all core subjects to date. Her unweighted GPA is 3.7-3.8.

She is not targeting the top 20 for some reason (except maybe 1 reach). But from your experience, what schools would be good targets or matches with decent likelihood of admission.

She acts in the school play and is involved in the school's newspaper and literary magazine. She is not an athlete.

My sister is not American so she is a bit confused. I do think she'll learn more from her college person when that appt happens. I have a freshman in HS here in DMV and she asked me to post. I'm also from outside the US.

Targets and matches, particularly with a private, are school specific. Niece should speak with school HS counselor. Your sister is PAYING for guidance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's going to be very hard for DCUMs to gauge the admissions potential of a student from a school outside the DMV unless it has a national profile. If she's at the top school in Des Moines or Phoenix or whereever, no one here is really going to be able to give you tailored advice.

It's a top private school in the SF Bay area.

OK, so not Phoenix then.

I think with a 3.7 unweighted from a top private in a competitive place like Bay area, and good ECs, she's in good shape to be a candidate for many very good schools. You mentioned she's avoiding the top 20 except for one reach, did she say why? Seems like she wants to build a more realistic list which is good!

Why people spoke like they are an expert in college admission?
This is a matter that is highly school specific. Unless you are from the same school, you can't speak with such a tone like "Phoenix", "OK", "good shape" "more realistic".
How would you know it's realistic or not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's going to be very hard for DCUMs to gauge the admissions potential of a student from a school outside the DMV unless it has a national profile. If she's at the top school in Des Moines or Phoenix or whereever, no one here is really going to be able to give you tailored advice.

It's a top private school in the SF Bay area.

OK, so not Phoenix then.

I think with a 3.7 unweighted from a top private in a competitive place like Bay area, and good ECs, she's in good shape to be a candidate for many very good schools. You mentioned she's avoiding the top 20 except for one reach, did she say why? Seems like she wants to build a more realistic list which is good!

+1

[Anonymous]

Surely a top private school in the Bay Area has a robust college counseling program that will provide your niece and her family with school-specific guidance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anything T75+ seems appropriate.

For a bay area academic private, she can do better than that. Kids from our DMV private with her stats get into top 25-50.

[Anonymous]

given California, try to maximize the geo diversity angle.
How big is the graduating class?

I'd look at your school's data and consider:

ED1 to T15-25 (Vanderbilt (aggressive, but they like CA); Emory; WashU; Rice)
and
ED2 to T20-T35 (Emory; WashU; Rice; BC; Tufts)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:given California, try to maximize the geo diversity angle.
How big is the graduating class?

I'd look at your school's data and consider:

ED1 to T15-25 (Vanderbilt (aggressive, but they like CA); Emory; WashU; Rice)
and
ED2 to T20-T35 (Emory; WashU; Rice; BC; Tufts)

Is Rice even possible? Rice is known to be big on GPA and scores, more so than HYPS. Rice may not care EC as much.

I think Cornell is more lenient on GPA than Rice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:given California, try to maximize the geo diversity angle.
How big is the graduating class?

I'd look at your school's data and consider:

ED1 to T15-25 (Vanderbilt (aggressive, but they like CA); Emory; WashU; Rice)
and
ED2 to T20-T35 (Emory; WashU; Rice; BC; Tufts)

OP here, my niece's graduating class is roughly 100-125 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:given California, try to maximize the geo diversity angle.
How big is the graduating class?

I'd look at your school's data and consider:

ED1 to T15-25 (Vanderbilt (aggressive, but they like CA); Emory; WashU; Rice)
and
ED2 to T20-T35 (Emory; WashU; Rice; BC; Tufts)

OP here, my niece's graduating class is roughly 100-125 students.

If you have the HS profile; list of recent matriculations AND list of 2024 admissions (that’s harder to get), feed it all into AI (Claude or ChatGpt) and ask for it so do detailed benchmarking analysis comparing how the school’s exmissions look compared to USNWR rankings and compared to other famous private high schools that publish this data.

If you can, get a list of other granular data / admission’s criteria for 3.8uw or 3.75uw and use that too. HS profile is incredibly important here . Same with # admitted each year. Basically you are asking AI to do the analysis a private counselor would.

I did that with our HS data - saw some interesting results on certain colleges to target. You have to play around with it. It’s lots of trial & error.

[Anonymous]

This is the wrong place to start and too broad a question.

Her first layer of competition is her peers. Your sister needs to gather baseline acceptance data from the college counselors at your niece’s school. After getting a sense for where her peers are accepted with similar stats, she can start building a list.

[Anonymous]

Depends on SATs, strength of high school snd ECs. How could this possibly be answered in s vacuum.