Big 3 (or thereabouts) College Results - Class of 2021

[Anonymous]

I can't see how getting straight As junior year (public) vs not does not hurt private school applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA has minimum requirements on taking in state students. I think they then prefer OOS for tuition.

Yes. UVA has an agreement with the Commonweakth of Virginia that it will keep the UVA population 2/3 Virginia residents to 1/3 non-Virginia residents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't see how getting straight As junior year (public) vs not does not hurt private school applicants.

Right? When will our elite/privileged/brilliant kids get a break?

[Anonymous]

Bowdoin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is great deflation at private schools. The defenders of the practice say that it is intellectually honest and ultimately college admissions recognize and even reward such rigor. If you are talking about an Ivy or school that can actually spend quality time to absorb an application and engage in a "holistic" process (e.g., SLACs), I agree. The problem arises for students who desire to attend large state universities. The OOS slots are limited in the first place. They are flooded by a sea of applicants. Admissions needs some way to stem the tide, and they take a very black and white approach to culling the herd -- based on GPA and class rank. In normal times, a Big 3 kid who was not in the top ten percent and with a GPA of 3.5 (i.e., the vast majority of the class) had a fighting chance because he/she often had a high standardized test score to balance out the picture. Without these scores now, most 3.5 applicants are quickly tossed aside.

It will be a brutal year for Big 3 college admissions.

As long as there are well regarded schools with 70k plus price tags, big 3 admissions will look respectable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is great deflation at private schools. The defenders of the practice say that it is intellectually honest and ultimately college admissions recognize and even reward such rigor. If you are talking about an Ivy or school that can actually spend quality time to absorb an application and engage in a "holistic" process (e.g., SLACs), I agree. The problem arises for students who desire to attend large state universities. The OOS slots are limited in the first place. They are flooded by a sea of applicants. Admissions needs some way to stem the tide, and they take a very black and white approach to culling the herd -- based on GPA and class rank. In normal times, a Big 3 kid who was not in the top ten percent and with a GPA of 3.5 (i.e., the vast majority of the class) had a fighting chance because he/she often had a high standardized test score to balance out the picture. Without these scores now, most 3.5 applicants are quickly tossed aside.

It will be a brutal year for Big 3 college admissions.

Parents at big 3 schools definitely don’t realize how important it is to stick to colleges and universities that have developed a relationship with the high school counselor. Only those schools will give these applications the attention to overcome the disparities in gpa between public and private. True grade deflation is not a rigor practice. Depressing grades is as manipulative and deceptive as grade inflation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is great deflation at private schools. The defenders of the practice say that it is intellectually honest and ultimately college admissions recognize and even reward such rigor. If you are talking about an Ivy or school that can actually spend quality time to absorb an application and engage in a "holistic" process (e.g., SLACs), I agree. The problem arises for students who desire to attend large state universities. The OOS slots are limited in the first place. They are flooded by a sea of applicants. Admissions needs some way to stem the tide, and they take a very black and white approach to culling the herd -- based on GPA and class rank. In normal times, a Big 3 kid who was not in the top ten percent and with a GPA of 3.5 (i.e., the vast majority of the class) had a fighting chance because he/she often had a high standardized test score to balance out the picture. Without these scores now, most 3.5 applicants are quickly tossed aside.

It will be a brutal year for Big 3 college admissions.

Parents at big 3 schools definitely don’t realize how important it is to stick to colleges and universities that have developed a relationship with the high school counselor. Only those schools will give these applications the attention to overcome the disparities in gpa between public and private. True grade deflation is not a rigor practice. Depressing grades is as manipulative and deceptive as grade inflation.

Please speak to the manipulative and deceptive nature of depressing grades...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is great deflation at private schools. The defenders of the practice say that it is intellectually honest and ultimately college admissions recognize and even reward such rigor. If you are talking about an Ivy or school that can actually spend quality time to absorb an application and engage in a "holistic" process (e.g., SLACs), I agree. The problem arises for students who desire to attend large state universities. The OOS slots are limited in the first place. They are flooded by a sea of applicants. Admissions needs some way to stem the tide, and they take a very black and white approach to culling the herd -- based on GPA and class rank. In normal times, a Big 3 kid who was not in the top ten percent and with a GPA of 3.5 (i.e., the vast majority of the class) had a fighting chance because he/she often had a high standardized test score to balance out the picture. Without these scores now, most 3.5 applicants are quickly tossed aside.

It will be a brutal year for Big 3 college admissions.

Parents at big 3 schools definitely don’t realize how important it is to stick to colleges and universities that have developed a relationship with the high school counselor. Only those schools will give these applications the attention to overcome the disparities in gpa between public and private. True grade deflation is not a rigor practice. Depressing grades is as manipulative and deceptive as grade inflation.

How many colleges actually still use the good old boys network to fill out classes?

[Anonymous]

Like night follows day, every year the complaining about grade deflation and how disadvantaged the private kids are in admissions. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Everyone I’ve heard from is basically not getting in where they thought they would due in part to a lot more applicants than expected.

I think it has more to do with test optional. Let’s all those grade inflators (public schools) benefit and those grade deflators (big 3) get hurt. I predict worst college placement for the Cathedral schools as their insistence on not inflating grades like everyone else will hurt their students in a way that they will reconsider their anemic approach to giving an A.

Honestly, at some point, if what you are saying is true about Big 3 kids being disadvantaged is true, it will ruin the business model of these schools, and they will be forced to change. No one is going to pay 45K+ for the chance to lose out to public school kids of grading differences. The education is often really good but not that good.

The education is great. Full stop. But not playing the grade inflation game, when everyone is playing it, hurts college admissions chances. Full stop.

This whining has got to stop. The colleges and universities are all familiar with Washington’s tops schools and understand the grading disparities. This is simply a non issue that folks hold onto to get over the insecurities of their children not receiving offers from the top schools.

I think this is correct. The grading differences are NOT new. I went to a top boarding school in the 90s. Each year, only about 7% kids graduated with an average above 90. People were complaining about the same grading issues too at that time.

My experience as well and even the bottom of the class was still gaining acceptance at excellent schools. What was true then still remains true today....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I’ve heard from is basically not getting in where they thought they would due in part to a lot more applicants than expected.

I think it has more to do with test optional. Let’s all those grade inflators (public schools) benefit and those grade deflators (big 3) get hurt. I predict worst college placement for the Cathedral schools as their insistence on not inflating grades like everyone else will hurt their students in a way that they will reconsider their anemic approach to giving an A.

Honestly, at some point, if what you are saying is true about Big 3 kids being disadvantaged is true, it will ruin the business model of these schools, and they will be forced to change. No one is going to pay 45K+ for the chance to lose out to public school kids of grading differences. The education is often really good but not that good.

The education is great. Full stop. But not playing the grade inflation game, when everyone is playing it, hurts college admissions chances. Full stop.

This whining has got to stop. The colleges and universities are all familiar with Washington’s tops schools and understand the grading disparities. This is simply a non issue that folks hold onto to get over the insecurities of their children not receiving offers from the top schools.

I think this is correct. The grading differences are NOT new. I went to a top boarding school in the 90s. Each year, only about 7% kids graduated with an average above 90. People were complaining about the same grading issues too at that time.

My experience as well and even the bottom of the class was still gaining acceptance at excellent schools. What was true then still remains true today....

The grade depressed students are getting fed to Midwestern state universities as OOS tuition applicants. Those schools are weak academically and do not have the limits on OOS admission rates that MD and VA state universities and colleges have.

[Anonymous]

So you are calling Michigan weak academically?

[Anonymous]

Not "big 3" but another DC area private, I know of early acceptances to Emory, Colby and UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I’ve heard from is basically not getting in where they thought they would due in part to a lot more applicants than expected.

I think it has more to do with test optional. Let’s all those grade inflators (public schools) benefit and those grade deflators (big 3) get hurt. I predict worst college placement for the Cathedral schools as their insistence on not inflating grades like everyone else will hurt their students in a way that they will reconsider their anemic approach to giving an A.

Door to bust your bubbles, but grade inflators are 3 times higher in private schools than in public schools.
LOL
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/07/17/easy-a-nearly-half-hs-seniors-graduate-average/485787001/

Actually, they said, the upward creep is most pronounced in schools with large numbers of white, wealthy students. And its especially noticeable in private schools, where the rate of inflation was about three times higher than in public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is great deflation at private schools. The defenders of the practice say that it is intellectually honest and ultimately college admissions recognize and even reward such rigor. If you are talking about an Ivy or school that can actually spend quality time to absorb an application and engage in a "holistic" process (e.g., SLACs), I agree. The problem arises for students who desire to attend large state universities. The OOS slots are limited in the first place. They are flooded by a sea of applicants. Admissions needs some way to stem the tide, and they take a very black and white approach to culling the herd -- based on GPA and class rank. In normal times, a Big 3 kid who was not in the top ten percent and with a GPA of 3.5 (i.e., the vast majority of the class) had a fighting chance because he/she often had a high standardized test score to balance out the picture. Without these scores now, most 3.5 applicants are quickly tossed aside.

It will be a brutal year for Big 3 college admissions.

Nope, there are more grades inflation at private schools.