It is so hard this year, McLean HS boy 4.6 GPA got rejected from UVA

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Context: To get a 4.6 at that school, kid likely had to take 16 AP courses and get a full "A" in every one of them through first semester of senior year. (And probably use some GPA-related tricks that Tiger parents daydream about from the time their kids are in diapers.) Only a handful of students in the entire school system can compete with that, and few would even be interested in trying. Anyway, I assume a troll started this thread.

My kid was like this and did not get into UVa or VT. Also sports and lots of extracurriculars The system is broken. People don't want to hear it, but it's true.

And my four white, UMC kids had those kinds of stats and ECs applied to UVA and three were admitted and of the three who applied to VT, two were admitted. The system is not broken; it is just crazy competitive and thus unpredictable.

+1
Same results for my white, UMC kids. Lots and lots of sour grapes on this forum.

What would the results have been for black kids?

The trick to UVA is applying ED, and having a sob story essay involving "diversity" (no injury topics). You are welcome.

Sad, but true.

It’s true of all schools. Every student has to have a sob story or a story about how they overcame an obstacle in life. It’s all very weird. We sent DS to a British school which is a meritocracy so we don’t have to deal with a broken system

+1 I absolutely HATE this. It's like kids are making sh*t up to appear as a victim who has overcome. It's pathetic.

You just can't be 'normal'. When did 'normal' become toxic and a liability? And, I'm waiting for the rant to this post about what is 'normal' blah, blah, blah, yada yada....in this context--I mean your average kid with just regular life issues that don't have to be made into a mini-novella. Everyone by the time they are applying to college has likely faced meanness, exclusion, toxicity, rejection (sports, elections), injury, death of a grandparent, etc. Just 'normal' things based on their age. But--they have to make these things so 'life-definining' and beating all odds kind of crap.

IT's strange and weird. You hear of kids lying about their gender identification or race or some sob story just to have an angle.

Because some kids have had to overcome a lot more than your kid, and it IS more impressive when they manage to achieve.

Does anyone really know what is going on in any kid's life? Nobody knows anything about what challenges any kid is facing, and dysfunction and abuse crosses all SES levels. The chip on the shoulder that one person's sob story is 'better' or more glorious than another persons is sick.

Selecting solely for those stories is what is sick. Yes- kid's circumstances should be taken into consideration. A kid holding down 2 jobs and school because his family is in poverty so does not have time or resources for extracurriculars and sports should matter. I am talking about the faux trauma victim sob story in essays.

+1

Nailed it. Also, excessive tutoring for their classes should be taken into consideration. If you can't make it through your high school classes without tutors, how are you going to make it through college?

I know the answer is more tutors, but c'mon. Picking those students over kids who do not need tutors to get their work done, who are at the top of their class? GTFOH.

I know kids who have tutors for each and every class - that is not innate intelligence, that is someone else's work getting admitted to that college. It is basically cheating.

[Anonymous]

A lot of cheating in admissions process. Also, PP is correct that many foreigners enroll in top prep schools. A few years ago during Kavanaugh’s nomination a lot of news was on Georgetown Prep. Someone gave me the demographics. Among its intl students, which country has the most? China! I thought it was communist. Do they have that many Catholics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of cheating in admissions process. Also, PP is correct that many foreigners enroll in top prep schools. A few years ago during Kavanaugh’s nomination a lot of news was on Georgetown Prep. Someone gave me the demographics. Among its intl students, which country has the most? China! I thought it was communist. Do they have that many Catholics?

No, they do not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of cheating in admissions process. Also, PP is correct that many foreigners enroll in top prep schools. A few years ago during Kavanaugh’s nomination a lot of news was on Georgetown Prep. Someone gave me the demographics. Among its intl students, which country has the most? China! I thought it was communist. Do they have that many Catholics?

cheating on college apps is not limited to international student from China. It happens among UMC white kids in the US , too.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don’t think OPs post is genuine based on what I’ve seen from my own child and his friend’s experiences with college admissions from FCPS. OP, what are your child’s ECs? Did he take the SAT or ACT? What major did he apply to? Excellent essays? Any discipline issues?

My son was more qualified than OP kid and was waitlisted at UVa and Tech. The admissions people don't care about quality, they care about quotas.

They probably had thousands of applicants with exactly those stats. Why should they take your kid when there are others who offer the same things - or better?

The average SAT for VT is 1285 and average GPA 4.05. So, no, 4.6 and 1550 is well above average and in no world should he have not gotten in.

The average SAT for VT is 1330, per SCHEV. Regardless, no one is owed admission. Probably a lot of applicants had better/more interesting/impressive ECs. Deal with it.
https://research.schev.edu/iprofile.asp?UID=233921

He got in through GAA and will be attending next fall. That is how I am dealing with it. Nobody has more impressive sport/ECAs than him The admissions office is broken.

Good to see you have a firm grip on reality.

Right?! That poster and her unhinged rants are so recognizable.

It's because I say the admissions system is broken in every post. And it is.

You say that in every post and you constantly talk about your son who was rejected from VT but went to CC and will be transferring there. Congratulations, great outcome, now please quit your whining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son’s best friend had this same experience last year, with a 4.4 and 1550 from a different FCPS high school. Half white, half Asian. Waitlisted at UVA, waitlisted at WM, deferred then waitlisted at VT, applied for business. Really didn’t want JMU, VCU, and didn’t think he’d need them so didn’t apply. Was accepted at NYU, Northeastern, and a few others, but ultimately the couldn’t afford it and he is at Nova and planning to try again via transfer.

I hope he realizes how stupid he was for not applying to JMU, VCU, etc. What was he thinking??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Context: To get a 4.6 at that school, kid likely had to take 16 AP courses and get a full "A" in every one of them through first semester of senior year. (And probably use some GPA-related tricks that Tiger parents daydream about from the time their kids are in diapers.) Only a handful of students in the entire school system can compete with that, and few would even be interested in trying. Anyway, I assume a troll started this thread.

My kid was like this and did not get into UVa or VT. Also sports and lots of extracurriculars The system is broken. People don't want to hear it, but it's true.

And my four white, UMC kids had those kinds of stats and ECs applied to UVA and three were admitted and of the three who applied to VT, two were admitted. The system is not broken; it is just crazy competitive and thus unpredictable.

+1
Same results for my white, UMC kids. Lots and lots of sour grapes on this forum.

What would the results have been for black kids?

The trick to UVA is applying ED, and having a sob story essay involving "diversity" (no injury topics). You are welcome.

Sad, but true.

It’s true of all schools. Every student has to have a sob story or a story about how they overcame an obstacle in life. It’s all very weird. We sent DS to a British school which is a meritocracy so we don’t have to deal with a broken system

+1 I absolutely HATE this. It's like kids are making sh*t up to appear as a victim who has overcome. It's pathetic.

You just can't be 'normal'. When did 'normal' become toxic and a liability? And, I'm waiting for the rant to this post about what is 'normal' blah, blah, blah, yada yada....in this context--I mean your average kid with just regular life issues that don't have to be made into a mini-novella. Everyone by the time they are applying to college has likely faced meanness, exclusion, toxicity, rejection (sports, elections), injury, death of a grandparent, etc. Just 'normal' things based on their age. But--they have to make these things so 'life-definining' and beating all odds kind of crap.

IT's strange and weird. You hear of kids lying about their gender identification or race or some sob story just to have an angle.

DP. I see your point and share your disgust, but we chose the opposite tack. UMC white girl, excellent grades, excellent ECs, jobs, interesting essay - and no sob stories to speak of. She didn’t make anything up, she simply presented herself as she is - and is now at her top choice, VT. Adcoms can see right through the made up nonsense. Just tell your kids to be themselves.

[Anonymous]

I just got my kids semester report card. DC has a 4.92 wgpa (4.0 uw), 1580 SAT, magnet, rejected from T15.

so, OP, your kid is not alone, and actually, kids with even higher scores than your kids are getting rejected at top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just got my kids semester report card. DC has a 4.92 wgpa (4.0 uw), 1580 SAT, magnet, rejected from T15.

so, OP, your kid is not alone, and actually, kids with even higher scores than your kids are getting rejected at top schools.

Not alone at all. Heard some kid at TJ had 4.5 GPA and 1590 SAT and got rejected by Ivys and even U. Mich! 😢 And TJ’s grading is no joke. They didn’t get #1 ranking by US News for no reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of cheating in admissions process. Also, PP is correct that many foreigners enroll in top prep schools. A few years ago during Kavanaugh’s nomination a lot of news was on Georgetown Prep. Someone gave me the demographics. Among its intl students, which country has the most? China! I thought it was communist. Do they have that many Catholics?

cheating on college apps is not limited to international student from China. It happens among UMC white kids in the US , too.

I didn’t mean to single out a particular group. Happens among any race, any ethnicity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or a 4.6 from a public school is not all that outstanding anymore.

I understand what you're trying to say, but keep in mind that a 4.67 is about the absolute highest possible GPA in the school system the OP referred to. So it actually is outstanding in this particular case. It's the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just got my kids semester report card. DC has a 4.92 wgpa (4.0 uw), 1580 SAT, magnet, rejected from T15.

so, OP, your kid is not alone, and actually, kids with even higher scores than your kids are getting rejected at top schools.

+1


It is pretty well known that there are only so many spaces at the top schools. UVA isn't even at the top - I think that UVA practices yield protection because they know you will choose another school. In fact, most of UVA's admissions come from their ED applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Me here looking at all the white boys on my kids’ NoVa HS class Instagram announcing that they will attend UVA next year…rolling my eyes.

Same! These endless DCUM threads don’t match with reality. Most of the kids from Nova going to UVA, VT and W&M are white. Just not the white kids of the whining parents on here.

+1000

[Anonymous]

There are already too many kids from NoVa going to these schools at UVA. They have to make some room for other kids in the rest of the state of Va too.

If they are from NoVa and aren't committed enough to apply ED, maybe UVA or other Va schools aren't their first choice anyhow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Context: To get a 4.6 at that school, kid likely had to take 16 AP courses and get a full "A" in every one of them through first semester of senior year. (And probably use some GPA-related tricks that Tiger parents daydream about from the time their kids are in diapers.) Only a handful of students in the entire school system can compete with that, and few would even be interested in trying. Anyway, I assume a troll started this thread.

My kid was like this and did not get into UVa or VT. Also sports and lots of extracurriculars The system is broken. People don't want to hear it, but it's true.

And my four white, UMC kids had those kinds of stats and ECs applied to UVA and three were admitted and of the three who applied to VT, two were admitted. The system is not broken; it is just crazy competitive and thus unpredictable.

+1
Same results for my white, UMC kids. Lots and lots of sour grapes on this forum.

What would the results have been for black kids?

The trick to UVA is applying ED, and having a sob story essay involving "diversity" (no injury topics). You are welcome.

Sad, but true.

It’s true of all schools. Every student has to have a sob story or a story about how they overcame an obstacle in life. It’s all very weird. We sent DS to a British school which is a meritocracy so we don’t have to deal with a broken system

+1 I absolutely HATE this. It's like kids are making sh*t up to appear as a victim who has overcome. It's pathetic.

You just can't be 'normal'. When did 'normal' become toxic and a liability? And, I'm waiting for the rant to this post about what is 'normal' blah, blah, blah, yada yada....in this context--I mean your average kid with just regular life issues that don't have to be made into a mini-novella. Everyone by the time they are applying to college has likely faced meanness, exclusion, toxicity, rejection (sports, elections), injury, death of a grandparent, etc. Just 'normal' things based on their age. But--they have to make these things so 'life-definining' and beating all odds kind of crap.

IT's strange and weird. You hear of kids lying about their gender identification or race or some sob story just to have an angle.

DP. I see your point and share your disgust, but we chose the opposite tack. UMC white girl, excellent grades, excellent ECs, jobs, interesting essay - and no sob stories to speak of. She didn’t make anything up, she simply presented herself as she is - and is now at her top choice, VT. Adcoms can see right through the made up nonsense. Just tell your kids to be themselves.

+100
Same with my MC white kid. Got into these schools and didn’t make anything up. The handful of hysterical parents on this tiny forum is not proving anything.