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Competitive, but not most Competitive
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Anonymous
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O.M.G. you posters who want these Ivy schools, say the stats are low or assume your kids want to go there. Have you ever thought that maybe not all the kids at your desired school want to go to Ivies???? Perish the thought.
I also agree with pp who thinks you all have very young kids and an idealistic view of the world. I also have an 8th grader. Your kid is going to grow up with his or her own thoughts - and they may include U. of CA!!!!! |
Anonymous
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16:33 You think these Ivy admissions are LOW? Go check Choate's, Andover's, etc. These are terrific stats.
My Eighth Grader wants UNC Chapel Hill -- today. I know he'll have different ideas by 11th grade. |
Anonymous
| UNC is not easy to get into either...they only take about 18% out of state by state mandate...you better move to NC |
Anonymous
| To an earlier poster -- good luck getting into UCLA or UC Berkeley out-of-state. They take less out of staters than UNC. Unless you're a recruited athlete -- you're not going to UCLA or Berkeley unless you move back to CA. |
Anonymous
Actually, some schools don't give acceptances to kids that they think won't go there because they don't want it to affect their attendance rate. I don't know that that was the case with Vanderbilt vis a vis Princeton but when I found out it finally explained to me why I got accepted at Cornell and Georgetown but waitlisted at St. Lawrence University. However, I am one of the pps who think that life will go on for my dd if she doesn't go to a top school. |
Anonymous
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21:57 I know UNC Chapel Hill's not a shoo-in but it's not single-digit chances either.
UNC Chapel Hill: Of the record 6,517 out-of-state applicants – an increase of 25 percent compared to last year – just 22 percent will receive offers of admission. |
Anonymous
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I'm OP - I've been away since writing this post. First, a little clarification about why I wrote it - and for the name-callers out there - I will also reveal my methodology - it may change your opinion of me. First, the 'RANDOM COLLEGES" I named were colleges that some of the top students from my public, small-town high school attended (me included). I now live in DC and have kids at a DC private - I threw this question out there for three reasons. #1 - there have been lots of posts recently about "Ivy" schools, acceptances etc. leaving a very small window for the other schools that I personally think are quite good, and thought everybody else did too (until recently). #2 A few years ago, I read a book by a local author about the competition at Walt Whitman HS in Bethesda. The book tracks the lives of HS overachievers (I believe it was called the Secret Life of Overachievers, or something like that). One of the kids did not get into an Ivy, and ended up going to U of Michigan - and was embarrassed about it. At the time, I thought such thinking was insane - my dad went to U of M, and I went there for grad school When we lived in Chicago, it was regarded as a top school along with Northwestern and many others you never hear of on these boards (which I chalked up to the regional thing - until....(drumroll) - just yesterday, I read an article in the NYTs about the "Ivy Plus Society" - basically a "social club" for single Ivy grads (plus a few more (a very few) ...and guess what - none of my schools are on it....) This is the list:
Young Alumni from the following schools are invited to join TIPS and to participate in our events: COLLEGES Air Force Academy Berkeley (University of California) Brown University Caltech Cambridge Columbia University Cornell University Dartmouth College Duke University Georgetown University Harvard University London School of Economics Johns Hopkins University MIT Naval Academy Princeton University Stanford University University of Chicago University of Pennsylvania West Point Yale University GRADUATE SCHOOLS **Graduate programs at the universities listed above as well as the following:** Business School: Anderson - UCLA Kellogg - Northwestern Stern – NYU Law School: NYU Law University of Michigan School of Law University of Virginia School of Law Medical School: Baylor College of Medicine UCLA School of Medicine UCSF School of Medicine University of Michigan School of Medicine University of Washington School of Medicine Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine For my own kids, I'm all about quality of life, being a good person, developing talents and finding the right school, the right fit etc. But - as a parent of one of the "schools" talked about at this board, and as a "non-ivy" parent, I was wondering - am I completely out of touch about the extent of name-brand school snobs in this town? Is there really a mass of intelligent people with real life experiences that still look down upon the non-ivy grads as second rate regardless of program/career/circumstances? T rust me, I'm not going to lose sleep over it - but I'm starting to believe that the "Ivy" obsession is far more literal then I ever imagined (even after 15 years practicing law in Chicago/NY/DC). I'm way too old to worry about getting snubbed by the Ivy Plus Society - and according to the NYT article, proof of pedigree is not necessarily enforced at their "networking" events. But, I must tell you, the whole thing gave me the creeps, and I was just curious. No offense, but somehow, it seems such a close minded way for "smart" people to size up others - I was just looking for a little reality check. Thankfully, I rallied a response from like-minded individuals.... |
Anonymous
I come from a long-line of Ivy grads and married into one as well. Due to coincidence, btw. We don't seek each other out as friends nor plan on socializing with each other on purpose. We simply don't see a difference where people go to college as long as they are interesting and engaging. Quite frankly, I know alot of Ivy nerds who are so boring they need to be checked for a pulse. 
The ones who feel it is important to socialize only with "their own kind" are limited as individuals and not interested in meeting a variety of people. It's similar to bankers only wanting to hang with bankers, lobbyists only wanting to hang with lobbyists, etc. I get a sense that when posters here rave about their Ivy preferences it's because it's all they have and they use it as proof of their importance. My spouse and I never talk about our educational background unless pressed. Btw, there is the Ivy Connection group which consists of Ivy and 7 Sister grads. Been around for over 20 years and its purpose is socializing and dating. My experience is that it contains the biggest bunch of losers you have ever met. And many of these people are simply using their Ivy background as bait instead of developing their personalities. |
Anonymous
| OP It would be great to know what grade your child/ren is/are in, even if it's approximately. |
Anonymous
| I'm an academic, so my take on which schools are great schools depends on what my DC wants to major in and probably bears little relationship either to USN&WR's list or to the social aspirations of lots of folks on this list. In short, I care more about education than prestige or brand. |
Anonymous
I agree. However, since my DD is at the visiting stage right now, she is also looking for a school with the right vibe for her -- kind of a "yes. I can see myself comfortably spending 4 years here." |
Anonymous
| OP here - kids are lower school to early middle school ...... (oh - and by the way, I have no problem with Ivy, or big 10, or seven sisters groups of like-minded individuals ...I'm not one of those "everybody needs to be included" types..... it's more about exploring provincial and stereotypical attitudes in such an educated town (and how they may, or may not, be passed down to our kids, and quite frankly, how such attitudes may influence my own kids later.... |
Anonymous
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I am definitely with those posters who care about the perfect match for their child and not about the labels. I would rather not think that there are those who put everything on labels and are instead simply parents of very young kids who haven't yet experienced what those of us with older kids know.
An fyi about those ubiquitous "college ranking" guides. Magazines and newspapers do those studies because they sell tons of copies. That's their rationale. The fact that 5 rankings come out and all 5 are different doesn't give much validity to their methods. Many schools are now boycotting the parameters set up by these media companies because they are shallow and do not give an accurate description of each school. |
Anonymous
| I would guess that now, 20 years after college, I have NO idea where most of my current friends and acquaintances went to college. They all have good jobs, have interesting things to say, are raising what appear to be nice and smart children and are kind of animals and the infirm. There are at least 100 schools in this country (maybe more) that are very, very good schools. It is impossible for me to believe there are this many parents out there who are losing sleep over whether their children are going to get into an Ivy League school. |
Anonymous
| PP -- It didn't matter where baby boomers went to school -- there were lots of opportunities...there aren't anymore so the kids in schools are faced with worrying about the shrinking economy...that's all they hear about afterall on the news -- between the economy and wars...that's about it |