I can’t say this to my kid’s face, of course, but...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So this kid speaks two languages, has mid 1550, near 4.0 average, volunteers with seniors, and still only got into one true safety with a high acceptance rate?

What the heck? I am worried. Parent of an eighth grade boy.

Don’t be “worried” be informed . There are a ton of kids like OP and only 1/2 ton spots. So yes your child might only get into places with a “high” acceptance rate. The horror!

[Anonymous]

OP.. clearly private has no advantage over public...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m so sorrt, OP. It’s been a train wreck if a year..

I agree OP. My DD who only got one B in four years of HS, got rejected at all the top schools she applied to. Her counselors told her not to apply to any safeties because she didn't need them (small school, really dumb counselors, IMHO). She got accepted at our state U and a few other mid-level SLACs, but no Ivies, no reaches. She's a great kid, with many accomplishments, but this is a terrible, terrible year to apply to college. She's going to do a gap year becasue she doesn't want to go to any of the schools she got into. She has a gap year job offer, so she's going to take that. Not a career job, but she'll make some money and wait for better days ahead. It sucks OP, it really does. Only weakness in her application I see is that she got a 1480 on her SAT, but she only took it once. She hates standardized tests, and I told her if she hit 1450, that was good enough.

This is no different than any other year.

Ridiculous. Do you live under a rock?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - is schooling in your spouse's foreign country an option?

We are in a similar boat in which I am Asian American and my spouse is from the EU. We are planning on sending children to my spouse's alma mater unless DC gets merit aid from a top choice in the US. We figured this is a good option especially since professional schooling in the US requires a bachelor's first.

Congratulate your son on his likely - he can always go to his likely (or a CC) and transfer but know that hard work and perseverance will pay off in the end.

OP- I also think that if your son takes time off, to perhaps work on finding an academic focus. I used to do college interviews for my alma mater -- a top college that is talked about frequently here. When I think back at students who interviewed with very little career direction versus those who had crafted a nice path that coincided with some of the strengths of my school, it made a difference in how I viewed that student. I said to myself "this is a top college that this student is interviewing with. Could this student come in on day one and fit in/contribute to the conversation?" To make sure that I wasn't too harsh, I had shared my experience generically with a few select alumni at an outing (student name withheld). Oddly enough, they were more harsh than I was. And these were alum who went to the same caliber of top level grad schools (top 10). So I think we pretty much held the same approach to what type of students should get the nod. It wasn't just smarts and top numbers that impressed because many students had that. We wanted the story.

I am sure the same comes across in admissions essays where the student will have to state why they want to attend that school. Emory's stats and reputation have really increased over time. I think that it's hard to go in undecided or without a path of some sort or another, into a top school these days.

Some colleges will care less about career/major direction etc. But others will care because they force the student to apply to one of the divisions/departments for admissions. If you don't get into the division, you usually don't get into that college.We experienced that and it was a tough learning.

Having said all of that, again, I really wish you the best of luck. Your son will find a good path forward. And thanks for sharing so that others can learn.

Isn't part of the purpose of liberal arts education to gain broad exposure and eventually find academic focus? It's nuts, IMHO, to expect a 17 y.o. to know what they want to do with the rest of their life. I'm so glad that wasn't an expectation when I went to school. Being a generalist w.r.t. academic interests doesn't mean someone can't "contribute to the conversation on day one". What nonsense!

--HYPS alum for undergrad and grad

[Anonymous]

If you are not in a minority category this year - all things equal (and that is really up for debate)- your child is NOT getting a spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know people want to think this year is “very” different but it’s not. This is the same story every year. People want to blame COVID or No SATs.

But it’s not different.

Kids realize their likely schools were actually reaches every year, counselors act aghast every year.

THANK YOU! Every year Emory is somehow the top 20 safety, just for their DC's to get rejected in late March. EVERY YEAR.

NP. Emory is never anyone's safety - that is a clear mistake that some people make, perhaps more prevalent among posters at DCUM than elsewhere on the internet. Its acceptance rate has long been in reach-for-all territory. Test optional policies and increased apps this particular year led to another drop in rate.

Acceptance rate for class of 2024, 18%

Acceptance rate for class of 2025, 13%

https://www.collegekickstart.com/blog/item/class-of-2025-admission-results

Oh I know this, DC does not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are not in a minority category this year - all things equal (and that is really up for debate)- your child is NOT getting a spot.

Evidence please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m so sorrt, OP. It’s been a train wreck if a year..

I agree OP. My DD who only got one B in four years of HS, got rejected at all the top schools she applied to. Her counselors told her not to apply to any safeties because she didn't need them (small school, really dumb counselors, IMHO). She got accepted at our state U and a few other mid-level SLACs, but no Ivies, no reaches. She's a great kid, with many accomplishments, but this is a terrible, terrible year to apply to college. She's going to do a gap year becasue she doesn't want to go to any of the schools she got into. She has a gap year job offer, so she's going to take that. Not a career job, but she'll make some money and wait for better days ahead. It sucks OP, it really does. Only weakness in her application I see is that she got a 1480 on her SAT, but she only took it once. She hates standardized tests, and I told her if she hit 1450, that was good enough.

This is no different than any other year.

Ridiculous. Do you live under a rock?

No. I’ve been doing college apps for kids for years ... kids and their parents don’t understand “likely” ... college lists are now impossible, reach, likely... then when kids get into their “safety” they freak because that safety was actually a likely. If you got into no likely colleges, they were a reach.

Just because more applications went to colleges doesn’t mean more qualified applications went to colleges.

Naviance is still spot on it’s just that you only looked at the greens and ignored the reds in your school choices.

[Anonymous]

Naviance is still spot on it’s just that you only looked at the greens and ignored the reds in your school choices.

This was some of the best advice I read on DCUM when helping my senior make her list. We get so caught up looking at the sea of green dots in the upper right quadrant but are "mind blind" to the red dots that speckle the green. Those are just as important to know.

[Anonymous]

I'm confused. I thought these were the tiers: safety/likely, match/target, and reach/dream. But it seems like several posters have used "likely" as a synonym for "match" instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So this kid speaks two languages, has mid 1550, near 4.0 average, volunteers with seniors, and still only got into one true safety with a high acceptance rate?

What the heck? I am worried. Parent of an eighth grade boy.

OP is a troll. They keep posting to keep this thread going, digging a more extreme narrative, plus the clickbait title. It's obviously fake.

[Anonymous]

I've worked in secondary schools all of my career and I've never seen a rock star overachiever get shut out of a great colleges. Sure, not everyone can get into Ivies or Duke or even Notre Dame. But there's always the state flagship, Georgetown, NYU or Vanderbilt. No kid shooting for Yale falls on their face and ends up at George Mason.

OP is full of ****.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - is schooling in your spouse's foreign country an option?

We are in a similar boat in which I am Asian American and my spouse is from the EU. We are planning on sending children to my spouse's alma mater unless DC gets merit aid from a top choice in the US. We figured this is a good option especially since professional schooling in the US requires a bachelor's first.

Congratulate your son on his likely - he can always go to his likely (or a CC) and transfer but know that hard work and perseverance will pay off in the end.

OP- I also think that if your son takes time off, to perhaps work on finding an academic focus. I used to do college interviews for my alma mater -- a top college that is talked about frequently here. When I think back at students who interviewed with very little career direction versus those who had crafted a nice path that coincided with some of the strengths of my school, it made a difference in how I viewed that student. I said to myself "this is a top college that this student is interviewing with. Could this student come in on day one and fit in/contribute to the conversation?" To make sure that I wasn't too harsh, I had shared my experience generically with a few select alumni at an outing (student name withheld). Oddly enough, they were more harsh than I was. And these were alum who went to the same caliber of top level grad schools (top 10). So I think we pretty much held the same approach to what type of students should get the nod. It wasn't just smarts and top numbers that impressed because many students had that. We wanted the story.

I am sure the same comes across in admissions essays where the student will have to state why they want to attend that school. Emory's stats and reputation have really increased over time. I think that it's hard to go in undecided or without a path of some sort or another, into a top school these days.

Some colleges will care less about career/major direction etc. But others will care because they force the student to apply to one of the divisions/departments for admissions. If you don't get into the division, you usually don't get into that college.We experienced that and it was a tough learning.

Having said all of that, again, I really wish you the best of luck. Your son will find a good path forward. And thanks for sharing so that others can learn.

Isn't part of the purpose of liberal arts education to gain broad exposure and eventually find academic focus? It's nuts, IMHO, to expect a 17 y.o. to know what they want to do with the rest of their life. I'm so glad that wasn't an expectation when I went to school. Being a generalist w.r.t. academic interests doesn't mean someone can't "contribute to the conversation on day one". What nonsense!

--HYPS alum for undergrad and grad

Well, it wasn't nonsense for those students who interviewed with me. Several of them had an idea if they were STEM focused or Humanities/Social Science. I have talked with several students from different types of schools across the DMV, and usually they have some sort of focus, even if it's not 100% in stone. I have some really wonderful interviews. There are some really talented students here in the DMV, and several of those I interviewed got into my alma mater. They were really, really good candidates. And there were those who did not gain acceptance.

Any kid not having some sort of strength out there or display of interest is, in my opinion, going up against a lot of other students who have a plausible path in something or another. Not saying that you have to have it. Just saying that I have seen those with it, and those without it while interviewing for my school.

This may not apply to all schools.

I'm just trying to help.

And yes, my credentials speak as loudly as yours. I am as HYP, etc., as you can get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused. I thought these were the tiers: safety/likely, match/target, and reach/dream. But it seems like several posters have used "likely" as a synonym for "match" instead.

This is the issue when your stats are high. Your match schools tend to have <20% acceptance rate or even lower, which means they are a reach for everyone. Basically, there are more high stats kid than spots in the top ranked schools' freshman classes, and none of them only take high stats kids. This means, every year, high stats kids get shut out of the top schools, and this has always been the case. Many "lower ranked" schools have very high stat students. It is also a problem for a high stat kid who thinks she is too good for a lower ranked school -- she's going to have competition there and may not realize it until its too late.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - is schooling in your spouse's foreign country an option?

We are in a similar boat in which I am Asian American and my spouse is from the EU. We are planning on sending children to my spouse's alma mater unless DC gets merit aid from a top choice in the US. We figured this is a good option especially since professional schooling in the US requires a bachelor's first.

Congratulate your son on his likely - he can always go to his likely (or a CC) and transfer but know that hard work and perseverance will pay off in the end.

OP- I also think that if your son takes time off, to perhaps work on finding an academic focus. I used to do college interviews for my alma mater -- a top college that is talked about frequently here. When I think back at students who interviewed with very little career direction versus those who had crafted a nice path that coincided with some of the strengths of my school, it made a difference in how I viewed that student. I said to myself "this is a top college that this student is interviewing with. Could this student come in on day one and fit in/contribute to the conversation?" To make sure that I wasn't too harsh, I had shared my experience generically with a few select alumni at an outing (student name withheld). Oddly enough, they were more harsh than I was. And these were alum who went to the same caliber of top level grad schools (top 10). So I think we pretty much held the same approach to what type of students should get the nod. It wasn't just smarts and top numbers that impressed because many students had that. We wanted the story.

I am sure the same comes across in admissions essays where the student will have to state why they want to attend that school. Emory's stats and reputation have really increased over time. I think that it's hard to go in undecided or without a path of some sort or another, into a top school these days.

Some colleges will care less about career/major direction etc. But others will care because they force the student to apply to one of the divisions/departments for admissions. If you don't get into the division, you usually don't get into that college.We experienced that and it was a tough learning.

Having said all of that, again, I really wish you the best of luck. Your son will find a good path forward. And thanks for sharing so that others can learn.

Isn't part of the purpose of liberal arts education to gain broad exposure and eventually find academic focus? It's nuts, IMHO, to expect a 17 y.o. to know what they want to do with the rest of their life. I'm so glad that wasn't an expectation when I went to school. Being a generalist w.r.t. academic interests doesn't mean someone can't "contribute to the conversation on day one". What nonsense!

--HYPS alum for undergrad and grad

Well, it wasn't nonsense for those students who interviewed with me. Several of them had an idea if they were STEM focused or Humanities/Social Science. I have talked with several students from different types of schools across the DMV, and usually they have some sort of focus, even if it's not 100% in stone. I have some really wonderful interviews. There are some really talented students here in the DMV, and several of those I interviewed got into my alma mater. They were really, really good candidates. And there were those who did not gain acceptance.

Any kid not having some sort of strength out there or display of interest is, in my opinion, going up against a lot of other students who have a plausible path in something or another. Not saying that you have to have it. Just saying that I have seen those with it, and those without it while interviewing for my school.

This may not apply to all schools.

I'm just trying to help.

And yes, my credentials speak as loudly as yours. I am as HYP, etc., as you can get.