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.

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.

What was her essay about if not a sob story?

[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.

I'm definitely not whining, I am letting people know how miserable the admissions office is and how kids can get into top tier state schools that they.may want to go to.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Lolololol no
+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.

What was her essay about if not a sob story?

why the snark? This is the great debate in college admissions today - my DS went to Oxford where at least in his area of study meritocracy still reigns supreme. Read any issue of College Confidential. Our system has thrown PC and wokeism o the extreme. A lot off smar parents are going Canadian, British or German. google it

LOL no

LLol NO. WHAT?? be intelligent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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??

He applied to and was accepted into another state school, but he didn't want to go there. He wanted to go to an engineering school. We can only afford a state school in VA.

Very classy of you to call a 17 year old stupid.

[Anonymous]

This OP has posted numerous threads to discount UVA and W&M public and their admissions policies. I mention only one below. If I need to I will ask Jeff to intervene. I'm sorry OP's kid didn't get into W&M and UVA but the fact remains that these are SMALL AO PUBLIC OFFICES and cannot respond as well-funded private AO offices might. W&M has decided that EDI and EDII and RD suits what it was trying to accomplish. UVA had decided ED EA and RD works for it. If that doesn't work for OP their kid )whom presumably did't get i ) can apply to UVA EA and transfer to W&M . Or they can do the financially strong thing and have their kid go to community college and transfer to W&M. But stop the bashing on publish schools. We have 33 options in Virginia. Pick one that suits your kid and shut up.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/45/1126910.page#24812668

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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??

He applied to and was accepted into another state school, but he didn't want to go there. He wanted to go to an engineering school. We can only afford a state school in VA.

Very classy of you to call a 17 year old stupid.

17 year old boys are so stupid. You should tell your son that some old lady called him stupid on the internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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??

He applied to and was accepted into another state school, but he didn't want to go there. He wanted to go to an engineering school. We can only afford a state school in VA.

Very classy of you to call a 17 year old stupid.

17 year old boys are so stupid. You should tell your son that some old lady called him stupid on the internet.

That's terrible since VA doesn't have any notable engineering programs.

[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.

Ideally, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People posting here about EC/essay's mattering or tipping the scale for a 4.3 don't seem to understand what yield protection means.

Kid A with 4.6 same scores and EC may get denied over kid B with similar scores EC but 4.2 if they think yield will be better, meaning the kid will accept.

The fact is they have barely a few minutes per application, no one is really reading these essays or thoroughly examining EC. They are cutting and culling based on objective metrics, which includes hooks, such as atheltics and race.

Hopefully OP kid got in some other places. Choice of college matters less and less in terms of prestige these days. Find a good fit including cost!

When you and others on this forum say athletics are a hook, do you mean recruited athletes or just kids who excelled/captained at a sport in high school (and/or on their club teams)?

They mean being a recruited athlete.
Unless the applicant is a recruited athlete, playing a sport and being a captain of the team is no more significant than any other EC. Being a captain of a sports team is literally a dime a dozen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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??

He applied to and was accepted into another state school, but he didn't want to go there. He wanted to go to an engineering school. We can only afford a state school in VA.

Very classy of you to call a 17 year old stupid.

17 year old boys are so stupid. You should tell your son that some old lady called him stupid on the internet.

That's terrible since VA doesn't have any notable engineering programs.

Virginia Tech has a highly ranked engineering school. I can see why someone would want to go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Definitely wise to take DCUM comments with a grain of salt and not to base major life decisions off of them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid with 4.48 gpa and 1580 got rejected from UVA in EA.

Why didn't he apply ED?

+1

Maybe some of these kids want to try for MIT or CMU as a dream, but hope they can go to UVA in the likely scenario that they don't get into MIT/CMU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What was her essay about if not a sob story?

Seriously? She wrote about one of her favorite things to do and it was offbeat and funny. She has no "sob story" to speak of, so she wasn't about to make one up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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.

I'm definitely not whining, I am letting people know how miserable the admissions office is and how kids can get into top tier state schools that they.may want to go to.

Oh, please. "The system is broken! The system is broken!" Whiner extraordinaire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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??

He applied to and was accepted into another state school, but he didn't want to go there. He wanted to go to an engineering school. We can only afford a state school in VA.

Very classy of you to call a 17 year old stupid.

You're right, it was his parents who stupidly didn't insist that he apply to more state schools that his family could AFFORD. Not sure what to tell you?