Kids who applied to Stanford and Berkeley

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD - 1550 SAT, Top 2% of class (in the top 10 students) at a well regarded public high school. Not full pay. 4.0 UW, not sure of Waited but I want to say 4.6 or 4.7.

It wasn't pretty. We had a wide range but we did apply to a couple of top schools.

Denied at Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley.

Wait-listed at Middlebury, Rice, and Barnard.

Accepted with lots of merit aid at Tulane, Fordham, Lafayette and some decent publics.

Accepted with No Merit at U Richmond, W&L.

I do think being a female hurt her especially at the SLACs. I would very much caution expectation setting.

Wow, I think this post may suggest how strong an advantage full pay private school kids have in college admissions. Haven’t seen outcomes like this at DC’s Big 3.

I knew this was coming . . . you have NO idea if private school made the difference. Full pay maybe.

[Anonymous]

Based on the OP's summary of her child's extracurriculars, I'd say she shouldn't even bother applying to Stanford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on the OP's summary of her child's extracurriculars, I'd say she shouldn't even bother applying to Stanford.

Well, it really is a lottery but I'd agree that with no hook and no strong, unified story the likelihood of admission is very low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a little surprised at the Wellesley denial. Though selective, it is not as selective as the ivys, and their 75% percentile ACT is only 33, which is below your SAT equivalent. And unlike some other SLACs, you cannot say that the stats for girls are higher. Maybe that school takes a higher number from ED. Just curious. Glad we did not shoot for the ivys. I do not think we would have had a chance.

PP here. My DD was good about demonstrating interest and I think that showed through in some of her offers. We did not do visit Wellesley and I think that may have had a negative impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD - 1550 SAT, Top 2% of class (in the top 10 students) at a well regarded public high school. Not full pay. 4.0 UW, not sure of Waited but I want to say 4.6 or 4.7.

It wasn't pretty. We had a wide range but we did apply to a couple of top schools.

Denied at Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley.

Wait-listed at Middlebury, Rice, and Barnard.

Accepted with lots of merit aid at Tulane, Fordham, Lafayette and some decent publics.

Accepted with No Merit at U Richmond, W&L.

I do think being a female hurt her especially at the SLACs. I would very much caution expectation setting.

Wow, I think this post may suggest how strong an advantage full pay private school kids have in college admissions. Haven’t seen outcomes like this at DC’s Big 3.

No, my full pay, private kid with similar stats had roughly similar outcomes, except that she knew better than to even try at ivies.

geez. reading that...why even try now.

Curious, was dc pushed to achieve those stats? Have you hired private tutors, send kids to summer learning camps, etc...?

My question for the PP who shared these results is whether any of her applications were ED, or all were RD.

ED is becoming an essential strategy if you want to crack the top schools. Which is unfortunately IMO, but that seems to be the state of play.

PP - no ED as we are not full pay. EA where applicable. Again, this is not sour grapes as college's are businesses but I do believe full pay is a hook and if you are able to apply ED you are less concerned about comparing financial aid packages. We needed to be able to compare offers. Some were generous - some not so much. Having gone through this the year before with my DS I know my DD did not get the same offers from the SLACs. My DS had good, not great, stats and his offers were stronger - now that said he was denied from quite a few schools that accepted my DD but for those that accepted both he got better offers. So my take is that it's not easy on the high stat females.

[Anonymous]

OP Here - Why would my child not apply - other than to save on an admission fee? If I had not attempted many things in my life that were long shots I would not be where I was today. I completely agree it's a long shot for my child to be admitted, but I did not describe the details of my child's extracurriculars frankly because they are quite unique and it would be easy to identify her and I would like to remain anonymous. I know that many parent's from my child's HS are on this site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD - 1550 SAT, Top 2% of class (in the top 10 students) at a well regarded public high school. Not full pay. 4.0 UW, not sure of Waited but I want to say 4.6 or 4.7.

It wasn't pretty. We had a wide range but we did apply to a couple of top schools.

Denied at Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley.

Wait-listed at Middlebury, Rice, and Barnard.

Accepted with lots of merit aid at Tulane, Fordham, Lafayette and some decent publics.

Accepted with No Merit at U Richmond, W&L.

I do think being a female hurt her especially at the SLACs. I would very much caution expectation setting.

Wow, I think this post may suggest how strong an advantage full pay private school kids have in college admissions. Haven’t seen outcomes like this at DC’s Big 3.

I knew this was coming . . . you have NO idea if private school made the difference. Full pay maybe.

I'm the PP poster. We do know someone from one town over - with statistically more wealth - that had an acceptance into U Richmond with merit from an exclusive private school. My DD and one her friends - both with killer stats - were accepted with no money. Their take - not mine - was that U Richmond was signaling the private school. You cannot remove the economics - schools like U Richmond want to encourage applicants from wealthy private schools - why would they not ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD - 1550 SAT, Top 2% of class (in the top 10 students) at a well regarded public high school. Not full pay. 4.0 UW, not sure of Waited but I want to say 4.6 or 4.7.

It wasn't pretty. We had a wide range but we did apply to a couple of top schools.

Denied at Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley.

Wait-listed at Middlebury, Rice, and Barnard.

Accepted with lots of merit aid at Tulane, Fordham, Lafayette and some decent publics.

Accepted with No Merit at U Richmond, W&L.

I do think being a female hurt her especially at the SLACs. I would very much caution expectation setting.

Wow, I think this post may suggest how strong an advantage full pay private school kids have in college admissions. Haven’t seen outcomes like this at DC’s Big 3.

No, my full pay, private kid with similar stats had roughly similar outcomes, except that she knew better than to even try at ivies.

geez. reading that...why even try now.

Curious, was dc pushed to achieve those stats? Have you hired private tutors, send kids to summer learning camps, etc...?

I'm the previous PP who posted the stats. No private tutors (although my DD did tutor), no summer learning camps. Just plain old persistence and grit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD - 1550 SAT, Top 2% of class (in the top 10 students) at a well regarded public high school. Not full pay. 4.0 UW, not sure of Waited but I want to say 4.6 or 4.7.

It wasn't pretty. We had a wide range but we did apply to a couple of top schools.

Denied at Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley.

Wait-listed at Middlebury, Rice, and Barnard.

Accepted with lots of merit aid at Tulane, Fordham, Lafayette and some decent publics.

Accepted with No Merit at U Richmond, W&L.

I do think being a female hurt her especially at the SLACs. I would very much caution expectation setting.

Wow, I think this post may suggest how strong an advantage full pay private school kids have in college admissions. Haven’t seen outcomes like this at DC’s Big 3.

No, my full pay, private kid with similar stats had roughly similar outcomes, except that she knew better than to even try at ivies.

geez. reading that...why even try now.

Curious, was dc pushed to achieve those stats? Have you hired private tutors, send kids to summer learning camps, etc...?

I'm the previous PP who posted the stats. No private tutors (although my DD did tutor), no summer learning camps. Just plain old persistence and grit.

Don't feel defensive because of the obnoxious post insinuating that your child was pushed and high stats was due to tutors & summer learning camps. Just because her child couldn't reach high stats without that kind of help... So rude. Some parents who have lazy kids just can't believe that there are kids who are motivated on their own to work hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My rising senior has 4.6 weighted GPA and a 1550 on the SAT. Not an athlete but lots of extracurriculars in the arts, some leadership roles, lots of work experience already , has a good internship for senior year.

My first off to college.

First choices are Stanford and Berkeley. Any experiences with similar kids who did or did not get in. Trying to level set expectation for my child and me

How deep have you looked into these schools? They really aren’t too similar. In fact I could just a better comparable for each that is also in California.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD - 1550 SAT, Top 2% of class (in the top 10 students) at a well regarded public high school. Not full pay. 4.0 UW, not sure of Waited but I want to say 4.6 or 4.7.

It wasn't pretty. We had a wide range but we did apply to a couple of top schools.

Denied at Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley.

Wait-listed at Middlebury, Rice, and Barnard.

Accepted with lots of merit aid at Tulane, Fordham, Lafayette and some decent publics.

Accepted with No Merit at U Richmond, W&L.

I do think being a female hurt her especially at the SLACs. I would very much caution expectation setting.

Wow, I think this post may suggest how strong an advantage full pay private school kids have in college admissions. Haven’t seen outcomes like this at DC’s Big 3.

No, my full pay, private kid with similar stats had roughly similar outcomes, except that she knew better than to even try at ivies.

geez. reading that...why even try now.

Curious, was dc pushed to achieve those stats? Have you hired private tutors, send kids to summer learning camps, etc...?

My question for the PP who shared these results is whether any of her applications were ED, or all were RD.

ED is becoming an essential strategy if you want to crack the top schools. Which is unfortunately IMO, but that seems to be the state of play.

PP - no ED as we are not full pay. EA where applicable. Again, this is not sour grapes as college's are businesses but I do believe full pay is a hook and if you are able to apply ED you are less concerned about comparing financial aid packages. We needed to be able to compare offers. Some were generous - some not so much. Having gone through this the year before with my DS I know my DD did not get the same offers from the SLACs. My DS had good, not great, stats and his offers were stronger - now that said he was denied from quite a few schools that accepted my DD but for those that accepted both he got better offers. So my take is that it's not easy on the high stat females.

Agree - ability to apply ED is a hook, and it's a powerful. So is being a recruitable athlete or a standout or accomplished scientist

To go back to OP's question, if her child is unhooked, or not willing to apply ED, prepare her for rejection from Stanford. The chances are infintesimal.

[Anonymous]

OP, are you aware that UCLA and Berkeley now take only 20% OOS (that includes international students) students? Californians were upset they couldn't access their own schools. Ergo it is now a lot more difficult to get into Berkeley now - and your naviance records may not take that into account. Check with your high school counselor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My rising senior has 4.6 weighted GPA and a 1550 on the SAT. Not an athlete but lots of extracurriculars in the arts, some leadership roles, lots of work experience already , has a good internship for senior year.

My first off to college.

First choices are Stanford and Berkeley. Any experiences with similar kids who did or did not get in. Trying to level set expectation for my child and me

Similar stats, applied last year early decision to Stanford engineering , rolled over to RD, Waitlisted. Got into two Ivy. Did not apply to Berkeley.
In addition to your stats, 12 AP classes, two varsity sports, finalist and semi-finalists of two science competition, grad school level research at the top university during 11th grade summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, are you aware that UCLA and Berkeley now take only 20% OOS (that includes international students) students? Californians were upset they couldn't access their own schools. Ergo it is now a lot more difficult to get into Berkeley now - and your naviance records may not take that into account. Check with your high school counselor.

Even so, Berkeley and UCLA each have undergraduate student bodies of right at 30K. 20% is still about the same as the entire undergraduate school at Stanford (7K).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD - 1550 SAT, Top 2% of class (in the top 10 students) at a well regarded public high school. Not full pay. 4.0 UW, not sure of Waited but I want to say 4.6 or 4.7.

It wasn't pretty. We had a wide range but we did apply to a couple of top schools.

Denied at Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley.

Wait-listed at Middlebury, Rice, and Barnard.

Accepted with lots of merit aid at Tulane, Fordham, Lafayette and some decent publics.

Accepted with No Merit at U Richmond, W&L.

I do think being a female hurt her especially at the SLACs. I would very much caution expectation setting.

Wow, I think this post may suggest how strong an advantage full pay private school kids have in college admissions. Haven’t seen outcomes like this at DC’s Big 3.

No, my full pay, private kid with similar stats had roughly similar outcomes, except that she knew better than to even try at ivies.

At a DC Big 3 school?