My kid isn't getting in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try being an applicant from a "big 3" private where the schools grade deflate, don't have APs, don't rank the class, and don't have traditional "weighted" GPAs. These schools have relied the notion that colleges know who they are and respect their rigor. No longer. Result: plenty of high achievers who are getting sub-par results.

+2 Colleges are much more interested in seeing a 4.6 GPA and 8 AP classes, then my DC’s measly 3.3 GPA and no APs (even with a 34 ACT). The colleges just don’t care about the test scores and the deflated grades at the big3 schools are doing a huge disservice to these kids. My DC is striking out at schools that would have been safeties pre-pandemic.

Your DC is not competing against the public school kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hear you OP. My son has also hit way more walls than expected with a single attempt 1570 SAT, 4.4 GPA, 11 APs, super hard classes and tons of very significant ECs. He is loved by his teachers so we assume the LORs were good and were told the essay was "spectacular" when he took it to a writing workshop given by AOs.

Rejected at several "mid reach" schools like UVA while kids we know with lower scores who mostly sit around and play video games all day were accepted. Other friends are getting in with imaginary heritages and fake first time college attender attestations. But who is checking any of this? The bottom line is, there are not clear rules about kids who get in and the fact of the matter is, many of the best and brightest are getting shut out - which is anti American in my view. What happened to cause and effect? Work and rewards? It's a black box of admissions and people are lying and there is no accountability. Colleges are making what seem to be bizarre choices in many cases.

Yeah you can get a good education in many places but the reality is the outcomes differ - its in the data. So it is a real impact to a kid who knocked it out of the park and saw lessor effort end up winning the prize.

You say this as if it is a bad thing. The gaming industry is huge money; colleges are adding programs and labs and technology every day to attract these kids. That's as American as it gets! Also, the kid who has time to to play enough video games to develop a strong portfolio in digital art and coding and game scripting, and can also play a sport, participate in other ECs, get good grades in rigorous courses, do service work and have a summer job - that kid is a great college candidate even if the test score is a little lower than your kid, yet still in the 98th percentile. You may feel like a kid does nothing but "play video games all day" but what do you really know about her?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear you OP. My son has also hit way more walls than expected with a single attempt 1570 SAT, 4.4 GPA, 11 APs, super hard classes and tons of very significant ECs. He is loved by his teachers so we assume the LORs were good and were told the essay was "spectacular" when he took it to a writing workshop given by AOs.

Rejected at several "mid reach" schools like UVA while kids we know with lower scores who mostly sit around and play video games all day were accepted. Other friends are getting in with imaginary heritages and fake first time college attender attestations. But who is checking any of this? The bottom line is, there are not clear rules about kids who get in and the fact of the matter is, many of the best and brightest are getting shut out - which is anti American in my view. What happened to cause and effect? Work and rewards? It's a black box of admissions and people are lying and there is no accountability. Colleges are making what seem to be bizarre choices in many cases.

Yeah you can get a good education in many places but the reality is the outcomes differ - its in the data. So it is a real impact to a kid who knocked it out of the park and saw lessor effort end up winning the prize.

You say this as if it is a bad thing. The gaming industry is huge money; colleges are adding programs and labs and technology every day to attract these kids. That's as American as it gets! Also, the kid who has time to to play enough video games to develop a strong portfolio in digital art and coding and game scripting, and can also play a sport, participate in other ECs, get good grades in rigorous courses, do service work and have a summer job - that kid is a great college candidate even if the test score is a little lower than your kid, yet still in the 98th percentile. You may feel like a kid does nothing but "play video games all day" but what do you really know about her?

+1 My son did very little at school but was deeply invested in a couple things outside of school that his classmates wouldn't know anything about (and he also loves videogames).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is a 4.5 weighted GPA really only the 90th percentile?

If it’s MCPS, it is less than the 90th percentile. It varies, but at Blair 26% have a 4.5 or higher and at Einstein 14% have a 4.5 or higher. I think it’s a larger percentage at places like Whitman and Churchill.

but again that is only MCPS. if this was in our LCPS, there were only probably 20 kids out of 400 with a 4.5 or higher. That was generally the cut off for top 5% last year in our school.
You have to know what school you're talking about before you toss around generalities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try being an applicant from a "big 3" private where the schools grade deflate, don't have APs, don't rank the class, and don't have traditional "weighted" GPAs. These schools have relied the notion that colleges know who they are and respect their rigor. No longer. Result: plenty of high achievers who are getting sub-par results.

+2 Colleges are much more interested in seeing a 4.6 GPA and 8 AP classes, then my DC’s measly 3.3 GPA and no APs (even with a 34 ACT). The colleges just don’t care about the test scores and the deflated grades at the big3 schools are doing a huge disservice to these kids. My DC is striking out at schools that would have been safeties pre-pandemic.

Your DC is not competing against the public school kids.

I get what you are saying, but in a way they are competing against public school kids. Take Wisconsin, for example. This used to be a likely for a kid at the Big3 with a high score (ACT 32-35 or 1450+ SAT) and lower GPA (3.1-3.4). But Wisconsin is now flooded with applications from kids that have crazy high GPAs and low test scores that they don’t have to submit. 3 years ago these kids would not have even bothered applying to Wisconsin because their test scores were too low. Now these kids are applying and getting admitted. As a result, the previous likely school for a private school student with the stats described above is now a reach. There just aren’t that many spots and the big state schools like the APs and high GPAs way more than a high test score. So the Big3 kid is striking out at these schools and having to look a tier lower, which seems crazy when these are very strong students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try being an applicant from a "big 3" private where the schools grade deflate, don't have APs, don't rank the class, and don't have traditional "weighted" GPAs. These schools have relied the notion that colleges know who they are and respect their rigor. No longer. Result: plenty of high achievers who are getting sub-par results.

+2 Colleges are much more interested in seeing a 4.6 GPA and 8 AP classes, then my DC’s measly 3.3 GPA and no APs (even with a 34 ACT). The colleges just don’t care about the test scores and the deflated grades at the big3 schools are doing a huge disservice to these kids. My DC is striking out at schools that would have been safeties pre-pandemic.

Your DC is not competing against the public school kids.

I get what you are saying, but in a way they are competing against public school kids. Take Wisconsin, for example. This used to be a likely for a kid at the Big3 with a high score (ACT 32-35 or 1450+ SAT) and lower GPA (3.1-3.4). But Wisconsin is now flooded with applications from kids that have crazy high GPAs and low test scores that they don’t have to submit. 3 years ago these kids would not have even bothered applying to Wisconsin because their test scores were too low. Now these kids are applying and getting admitted. As a result, the previous likely school for a private school student with the stats described above is now a reach. There just aren’t that many spots and the big state schools like the APs and high GPAs way more than a high test score. So the Big3 kid is striking out at these schools and having to look a tier lower, which seems crazy when these are very strong students.

PP here again. This is not a dig at the public school kids getting in TO. Good for them! It is more a dig at the private schools that are crippling these kids with low GPAs from deflated grading systems and no APs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try being an applicant from a "big 3" private where the schools grade deflate, don't have APs, don't rank the class, and don't have traditional "weighted" GPAs. These schools have relied the notion that colleges know who they are and respect their rigor. No longer. Result: plenty of high achievers who are getting sub-par results.

+2 Colleges are much more interested in seeing a 4.6 GPA and 8 AP classes, then my DC’s measly 3.3 GPA and no APs (even with a 34 ACT). The colleges just don’t care about the test scores and the deflated grades at the big3 schools are doing a huge disservice to these kids. My DC is striking out at schools that would have been safeties pre-pandemic.

Your DC is not competing against the public school kids.

I get what you are saying, but in a way they are competing against public school kids. Take Wisconsin, for example. This used to be a likely for a kid at the Big3 with a high score (ACT 32-35 or 1450+ SAT) and lower GPA (3.1-3.4). But Wisconsin is now flooded with applications from kids that have crazy high GPAs and low test scores that they don’t have to submit. 3 years ago these kids would not have even bothered applying to Wisconsin because their test scores were too low. Now these kids are applying and getting admitted. As a result, the previous likely school for a private school student with the stats described above is now a reach. There just aren’t that many spots and the big state schools like the APs and high GPAs way more than a high test score. So the Big3 kid is striking out at these schools and having to look a tier lower, which seems crazy when these are very strong students.

Not necessarily true about valuing lots of APs at public universities. I have been part of this discussion at a flagship and regional university. Students that come in with a lot of APs mean a loss of tuition revenues. The only plus to this trend is that students graduate earlier, which is great for the 4-yr/6-yr graduation rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try being an applicant from a "big 3" private where the schools grade deflate, don't have APs, don't rank the class, and don't have traditional "weighted" GPAs. These schools have relied the notion that colleges know who they are and respect their rigor. No longer. Result: plenty of high achievers who are getting sub-par results.

+2 Colleges are much more interested in seeing a 4.6 GPA and 8 AP classes, then my DC’s measly 3.3 GPA and no APs (even with a 34 ACT). The colleges just don’t care about the test scores and the deflated grades at the big3 schools are doing a huge disservice to these kids. My DC is striking out at schools that would have been safeties pre-pandemic.

Your DC is not competing against the public school kids.

I get what you are saying, but in a way they are competing against public school kids. Take Wisconsin, for example. This used to be a likely for a kid at the Big3 with a high score (ACT 32-35 or 1450+ SAT) and lower GPA (3.1-3.4). But Wisconsin is now flooded with applications from kids that have crazy high GPAs and low test scores that they don’t have to submit. 3 years ago these kids would not have even bothered applying to Wisconsin because their test scores were too low. Now these kids are applying and getting admitted. As a result, the previous likely school for a private school student with the stats described above is now a reach. There just aren’t that many spots and the big state schools like the APs and high GPAs way more than a high test score. So the Big3 kid is striking out at these schools and having to look a tier lower, which seems crazy when these are very strong students.

Why would Wisconsin be so different? Wisconsin will admit a certain number of oos private school students. These are the competition for your student...not the TO public school kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is a 4.5 weighted GPA really only the 90th percentile?

If it’s MCPS, it is less than the 90th percentile. It varies, but at Blair 26% have a 4.5 or higher and at Einstein 14% have a 4.5 or higher. I think it’s a larger percentage at places like Whitman and Churchill.

but again that is only MCPS. if this was in our LCPS, there were only probably 20 kids out of 400 with a 4.5 or higher. That was generally the cut off for top 5% last year in our school.
You have to know what school you're talking about before you toss around generalities.

That was the point (that it depends on the school). The colleges get the school profiles so they know. The OP says that their kid is in at UMD so possibly is a MD resident but not MCPS.

[Anonymous]

JFC. I graduated from a fairly competitive HS in 2007 and got into Maryland honors at college park with a 1320 on my SATs (2030 with the writing section back then). Your child’s states and admissions blow my mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:JFC. I graduated from a fairly competitive HS in 2007 and got into Maryland honors at college park with a 1320 on my SATs (2030 with the writing section back then). Your child’s states and admissions blow my mind.

And it was my backup to boot. I am blown away by how hard it is to get into college these days. Completely insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try being an applicant from a "big 3" private where the schools grade deflate, don't have APs, don't rank the class, and don't have traditional "weighted" GPAs. These schools have relied the notion that colleges know who they are and respect their rigor. No longer. Result: plenty of high achievers who are getting sub-par results.

+2 Colleges are much more interested in seeing a 4.6 GPA and 8 AP classes, then my DC’s measly 3.3 GPA and no APs (even with a 34 ACT). The colleges just don’t care about the test scores and the deflated grades at the big3 schools are doing a huge disservice to these kids. My DC is striking out at schools that would have been safeties pre-pandemic.

Your DC is not competing against the public school kids.

I get what you are saying, but in a way they are competing against public school kids. Take Wisconsin, for example. This used to be a likely for a kid at the Big3 with a high score (ACT 32-35 or 1450+ SAT) and lower GPA (3.1-3.4). But Wisconsin is now flooded with applications from kids that have crazy high GPAs and low test scores that they don’t have to submit. 3 years ago these kids would not have even bothered applying to Wisconsin because their test scores were too low. Now these kids are applying and getting admitted. As a result, the previous likely school for a private school student with the stats described above is now a reach. There just aren’t that many spots and the big state schools like the APs and high GPAs way more than a high test score. So the Big3 kid is striking out at these schools and having to look a tier lower, which seems crazy when these are very strong students.

Not necessarily true about valuing lots of APs at public universities. I have been part of this discussion at a flagship and regional university. Students that come in with a lot of APs mean a loss of tuition revenues. The only plus to this trend is that students graduate earlier, which is great for the 4-yr/6-yr graduation rates.

No, it could only mean a loss in tuition if the student had taken multiple AP exams, scored high and submitted them and the university gave them credit for same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: We hired a college consulting firm and they were a waste of money. We didn’t do any SAT prep but outstanding scores and GPAs don’t seem to matter anyway. At this point my 4.5+ kid will prob take a gap year and consider completely diff schools next year.

Which college consulting firm did you hire so we don't hire them? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try being an applicant from a "big 3" private where the schools grade deflate, don't have APs, don't rank the class, and don't have traditional "weighted" GPAs. These schools have relied the notion that colleges know who they are and respect their rigor. No longer. Result: plenty of high achievers who are getting sub-par results.

+2 Colleges are much more interested in seeing a 4.6 GPA and 8 AP classes, then my DC’s measly 3.3 GPA and no APs (even with a 34 ACT). The colleges just don’t care about the test scores and the deflated grades at the big3 schools are doing a huge disservice to these kids. My DC is striking out at schools that would have been safeties pre-pandemic.

Okay, I am going to bite. My DC, at a "big 3" type private in another metro market, had a slightly higher GPA and same ACT. DC was aware that most of the schools in which DC was interested cared more about the GPA than the ACT score. So DC listened to college counselor about needing to expand sights and broaden the list. Got lucky getting in ED1 @ T15 LAC. Don't think DC would have had that good fortune if they had stuck with first list.

GL to your DC going forward!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try being an applicant from a "big 3" private where the schools grade deflate, don't have APs, don't rank the class, and don't have traditional "weighted" GPAs. These schools have relied the notion that colleges know who they are and respect their rigor. No longer. Result: plenty of high achievers who are getting sub-par results.

+2 Colleges are much more interested in seeing a 4.6 GPA and 8 AP classes, then my DC’s measly 3.3 GPA and no APs (even with a 34 ACT). The colleges just don’t care about the test scores and the deflated grades at the big3 schools are doing a huge disservice to these kids. My DC is striking out at schools that would have been safeties pre-pandemic.

Your DC is not competing against the public school kids.

I get what you are saying, but in a way they are competing against public school kids. Take Wisconsin, for example. This used to be a likely for a kid at the Big3 with a high score (ACT 32-35 or 1450+ SAT) and lower GPA (3.1-3.4). But Wisconsin is now flooded with applications from kids that have crazy high GPAs and low test scores that they don’t have to submit. 3 years ago these kids would not have even bothered applying to Wisconsin because their test scores were too low. Now these kids are applying and getting admitted. As a result, the previous likely school for a private school student with the stats described above is now a reach. There just aren’t that many spots and the big state schools like the APs and high GPAs way more than a high test score. So the Big3 kid is striking out at these schools and having to look a tier lower, which seems crazy when these are very strong students.

Not necessarily true about valuing lots of APs at public universities. I have been part of this discussion at a flagship and regional university. Students that come in with a lot of APs mean a loss of tuition revenues. The only plus to this trend is that students graduate earlier, which is great for the 4-yr/6-yr graduation rates.

No, it could only mean a loss in tuition if the student had taken multiple AP exams, scored high and submitted them and the university gave them credit for same.

AND if the student chose to graduate early using those credits AND the college had no one waiting to replace them.