Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Advice specifically for those applying to T20 schools:
(1) You can not treat these schools as if they're the same. Each T20 school thinks of themselves as a special snowflake - they're in love with what they consider their own unique strengths, values, sense of community, and institutional personality.
They each have a story about what exactly makes them great, and they each expect applicants to do their homework to understand what makes their school special. And then it's up to your kid to find ways to articulate that in their supplemental essays.
So encourage your kid to invest every ounce of energy they possibly can in tailoring their applications and essays to fit each T20 school individually.
Of course, their odds of getting into those schools is VERY low, but their only chance of admittance is to demonstrate to the schools how well they know them and how exactly they will take advantage of their unique resources and contribute to their community in a way that they value.
It's an absolute PITA. Not gonna lie. And it won't make up for low stats or average ECs etc. But, assuming they have all the other qualifications they need for a school, this extra effort will help a lot.
(2) AND again, there are no guarantees that it will work. Absolutley none. The statistics are clear on this. Even the very best, most "perfect" applicant - the kid that everyone who's ever met them thinks of as a superstar who will surely get into X school - is unlikely to get into that school. It's just statistics. And many such kids don't get into any T20s at all.
(3) We've seen A LOT of mis-matches this year in the T20 space. Kids who applied to 6-8 T-20 schools, were rejected by the ones they loved but accepted by one or two they felt meh about. Which is a special kind of weird place to be.
Specifically, we know two kids who are in to each other's dream school but feeling meh about it. Again, it's not the end of the world in any way, of course. These are excellent schools. But it's odd to see who the schools choose . . . .
(4) So encourage your kid to give it their all in the fall - crush those supplemental essays - but then be ready to pivot hard in late March and April, depending on the results.
"Bloom where you're planted" is a very real thing. But it requires kids and families to let go of their previous hopes and dreams in order to make space for new ones.
Good luck. Reaching for a T20 school is NOT for the faint of heart.
I think we learned the opposite lesson which is that it was totally unpredictable which top schools worked out and it seemed to have little to do with knowing anything about the school. The wild last minute no research apps panned out! I will say that the more internally coherent apps did better - where the various parts reinforced the same points. But it was pretty random.
+1 same
My lesson learned was that college vine seemed wildly optimistic to me but it actually under-predicted my kid’s outcomes.
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