Where do "B" average Big-3 students go to college?

[Anonymous]

JMU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm honestly exhausted by the public school parents who come on here to tell us
1. How hard the W schools are
2. Where Big 3 kids go.

As an actual Big 3 parent of 3 high schoolers, and one senior this year, one younger, one in public. I will tell you the grade deflation is messing our kids up in terms of admissions. Yes 5 years a go a B average kid at a Big 3 could go to Hamilton, Bates, Tulane even Wisconsin. NOT this year. The common App and Covid weirdness in terms of gap years act have wreaked havoc on admissions norms. Big 3 Kids are getting WL and rejected from places that used to be safeties. B students from Big 3 ARE well prepared and the colleges USED to get this but no more. It's reality.

And to the public parents who keep insisting the W's are "just as hard" as Big 3. We have one in public and it's simply not true. Not even close. However our public kid does less work and has better grades and will probably land at a better college than our kids in private. So there's that.

I don’t know the first thing about private school admissions this year, but I can say that many, many excellent students at Whitman and Churchill who have been getting deferred, WL and outright rejected from colleges that used to be safeties for students of comparable record. So this is not unique to privates but you are using it as part of your barometer for comparision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm honestly exhausted by the public school parents who come on here to tell us
1. How hard the W schools are
2. Where Big 3 kids go.

As an actual Big 3 parent of 3 high schoolers, and one senior this year, one younger, one in public. I will tell you the grade deflation is messing our kids up in terms of admissions. Yes 5 years a go a B average kid at a Big 3 could go to Hamilton, Bates, Tulane even Wisconsin. NOT this year. The common App and Covid weirdness in terms of gap years act have wreaked havoc on admissions norms. Big 3 Kids are getting WL and rejected from places that used to be safeties. B students from Big 3 ARE well prepared and the colleges USED to get this but no more. It's reality.

And to the public parents who keep insisting the W's are "just as hard" as Big 3. We have one in public and it's simply not true. Not even close. However our public kid does less work and has better grades and will probably land at a better college than our kids in private. So there's that.

Oh PP. My public magnet kid, 4.7 wgpa, 4.0 uwgpa, 1580 SAT, 12 APs score of 5 on 10 APs, got rejected from UMich, UIUC. It's not just your special private school snowflake.

Get over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm honestly exhausted by the public school parents who come on here to tell us
1. How hard the W schools are
2. Where Big 3 kids go.

As an actual Big 3 parent of 3 high schoolers, and one senior this year, one younger, one in public. I will tell you the grade deflation is messing our kids up in terms of admissions. Yes 5 years a go a B average kid at a Big 3 could go to Hamilton, Bates, Tulane even Wisconsin. NOT this year. The common App and Covid weirdness in terms of gap years act have wreaked havoc on admissions norms. Big 3 Kids are getting WL and rejected from places that used to be safeties. B students from Big 3 ARE well prepared and the colleges USED to get this but no more. It's reality.

And to the public parents who keep insisting the W's are "just as hard" as Big 3. We have one in public and it's simply not true. Not even close. However our public kid does less work and has better grades and will probably land at a better college than our kids in private. So there's that.

Then send all your kids to public. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

It’s also just not predictable. Last year DD from Big Three, also a B student, 1425 SAT, no sports, basic clubs, no national award anything, no legacy: got rejected, for example, University of Miami. Got WL Tulane. Was accepted U of Michigan.

It seems like a total fluke (the other school rejection/WL/accepted were more in line with what you’d expect). You just never know.

[Anonymous]

Last year was rough too because Class of 2022 admissions classes were smaller due to all the COVID gap year kids from the class of '21.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is an OK student at a Big-3 (Sidwell/GDS/StA)--B average, with a good number of AP/honors/"upper level" courses. SATs average for the school (1400s). Let's assume no hook, or small hook. Full pay (no FA or scholarship needed.) Will probably write a strong essay, but not astonishingly good. What are typical target schools for this kind of student? Thank you!

Op I hope you feel good about the fact that you flushed $250k down the toilet to end up at this list! At least you can still tell the people at the club you went to the Big 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is an OK student at a Big-3 (Sidwell/GDS/StA)--B average, with a good number of AP/honors/"upper level" courses. SATs average for the school (1400s). Let's assume no hook, or small hook. Full pay (no FA or scholarship needed.) Will probably write a strong essay, but not astonishingly good. What are typical target schools for this kind of student? Thank you!

Op I hope you feel good about the fact that you flushed $250k down the toilet to end up at this list! At least you can still tell the people at the club you went to the Big 3.

You clearly don’t understand the reasons for sending a kid to private school. For many, if not lost, of us, has nothing to do with gaining admission into college. We know that going to private night even make college admission tougher, but the benefits outweigh this.

[Anonymous]

I am reading here about kids with As and Bs at tough schools with rigorous course work (APs). And SATs in the 1400s. I really don’t get why you won’t expect to have success at strong LACs esp if you apply ED and are full pay. Ok maybe not top 10 anymore or even top 20, but 20 to 40 should be very much in play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is an OK student at a Big-3 (Sidwell/GDS/StA)--B average, with a good number of AP/honors/"upper level" courses. SATs average for the school (1400s). Let's assume no hook, or small hook. Full pay (no FA or scholarship needed.) Will probably write a strong essay, but not astonishingly good. What are typical target schools for this kind of student? Thank you!

Op I hope you feel good about the fact that you flushed $250k down the toilet to end up at this list! At least you can still tell the people at the club you went to the Big 3.

I hope you feel good that there’s no amount of money that can compensate for your kids being raised by a gratuitous as$hole

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year was rough too because Class of 2022 admissions classes were smaller due to all the COVID gap year kids from the class of '21.

That's partly correct. COVID gap year kids were class of 2020, who squeezed the # accepted for high school class of 2021. 2021 was also the first high school class for test optional. Many colleges overenrolled for that year, which for some colleges meant another squeezing the # accepted for high school class of 2022.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is an OK student at a Big-3 (Sidwell/GDS/StA)--B average, with a good number of AP/honors/"upper level" courses. SATs average for the school (1400s). Let's assume no hook, or small hook. Full pay (no FA or scholarship needed.) Will probably write a strong essay, but not astonishingly good. What are typical target schools for this kind of student? Thank you!

Op I hope you feel good about the fact that you flushed $250k down the toilet to end up at this list! At least you can still tell the people at the club you went to the Big 3.

I hope you feel good that there’s no amount of money that can compensate for your kids being raised by a gratuitous as$hole

Not OP, and not even a "Big 3" parent, but don't be so smug, PP. That St. Albans or NCS connection will actually last a lifetime. A Whitman pedigree will not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am reading here about kids with As and Bs at tough schools with rigorous course work (APs). And SATs in the 1400s. I really don’t get why you won’t expect to have success at strong LACs esp if you apply ED and are full pay. Ok maybe not top 10 anymore or even top 20, but 20 to 40 should be very much in play.

It's true, ED and full-pay will get you into 25-50 LAC. But my kid with that profile just got WL from Bucknell, JMU, and Elon. In at other 30-40 LACs however, in RD. It's very strange.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind, a #BigThree "B" is the equivalent of a second or third tier "A."

Thus, #BigThree grads with "B" averages sill attend top schools. Think Big Three A = Yale, Brown, UCLa, and Big Three B = UVA, Cornell, Georgetown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am reading here about kids with As and Bs at tough schools with rigorous course work (APs). And SATs in the 1400s. I really don’t get why you won’t expect to have success at strong LACs esp if you apply ED and are full pay. Ok maybe not top 10 anymore or even top 20, but 20 to 40 should be very much in play.

It's true, ED and full-pay will get you into 25-50 LAC. But my kid with that profile just got WL from Bucknell, JMU, and Elon. In at other 30-40 LACs however, in RD. It's very strange.

Yield management... I really think ANY of these T25-50 LACs would be hard pressed to reject a full pay applicant who submitted scores that were above average for them. They would be pretty foolish to do so unless the kid was a real nightmare. The key question for them is - will you attend? If ED they know the answer is yes. If not they have to guess and that is where demonstrated interest helps