are the STA college admits this year as dismal as they appear?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an STA parents an I spent way too much time on Instagram and I'm surprised by the college admissions. I probably saw 60-70% of the class and there are just a very small handful of Ivys (6?) and of course all but 2 (or even more) are athletic recruits or legacy or both.
Which is fine. But the rest isn't good either.
There are a handful of Chicagos and a couple of other top 30 schools and then bam--the bottom falls out. Lots of kids going to school ranked 50-100. (Then there are a bunch of kids that don't have anything posted on Instagram yet).
What happened? I can't find ANY admits to places like Michigan, UCLA, Williams, Rice, Penn, Georgetown, Stanford, Hopkins, Wash U, Emory, Bowdoin, Wash and Lee and on and on. Most of the half-decent admits (Pomona, Colgate) are athletic recruits. It really appears that almost all the non-athletes are going to schools ranked 50+.
GDS and Sidwell seem to be having very good years. NCS is doing ok (not as good as GDS and Sidwell from what I can tell).
Is this STA class just not strong academically? Am I missing something?

I am an STA Parent as well and have no access to that sort of information on Instagram? How do you have that information?

Yuck-- stalker.
That parent is surfing from his/her kid's account

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely no dog in this fight (my kid goes to one of the schools that's considered Top 5 and not one of the Big 3), but the GDS admissions are pretty impressive.

Yes they are quite impressive and congrats to those students. I think the point is that some kids still don’t know where they are going yet so it is a bit insensitive to create a page like this. I am happy to see the Cathedral schools so not have pages like this.

That's silly. Kids who know where they are going can freely say so and the rest will follow when they know if they want to. How is this insensitive to anyone?

"Insensitive"? Please. You must be extremely fragile.

As the mom of a senior who has not yet decided (oh so many great options!) I am here to tell you, this is definitely not insensitive. It's fun and inspiring for the kids to be able to celebrate their news in this way.

[Anonymous]

I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

For top schools, that is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Legacies have a 33% chance of admission at Harvard vs 3% for general population. I doubt legacies are 11x more accomplished

[Anonymous]

If I have noticed any trend over the years it is not legacy admits per se, but rather the graduating senior/ child of head of annual giving parents gets the plum HYP admit

Doubly so if that Board/ key fund raiser is member is a URM or the kid is bright enough but just not valedictorian bright.

Legacy not so much a shoe in, but bring in 2 mill in annual giving and smile while doing it and, yeah, your kid gets the Harvard offer for the school

[Anonymous]

I understand that water is wet as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Legacies have a 33% chance of admission at Harvard vs 3% for general population. I doubt legacies are 11x more accomplished

This maybe true for the legacy population at large but not at places like STA. There are probably 20 kids in my kid's class who are legacy for Yale. twenty more for Harvard (some overlap) . And on and on. even more if you count law school, medical school, business school etc. it's absurd. Only a tiny, tiny handful of these kids will get in. (And of course, not all will even apply). But the numbers in some classes at these schools are absurd. You can't shake a hand at a parent's event without shaking a double Ivy of some variety. legacy only goes so far for admissions with this degree of over-saturation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Legacies have a 33% chance of admission at Harvard vs 3% for general population. I doubt legacies are 11x more accomplished

This maybe true for the legacy population at large but not at places like STA. There are probably 20 kids in my kid's class who are legacy for Yale. twenty more for Harvard (some overlap) . And on and on. even more if you count law school, medical school, business school etc. it's absurd. Only a tiny, tiny handful of these kids will get in. (And of course, not all will even apply). But the numbers in some classes at these schools are absurd. You can't shake a hand at a parent's event without shaking a double Ivy of some variety. legacy only goes so far for admissions with this degree of over-saturation.

STA has 75 boys in a class. 20 boys with Harvard or Yale legacy in one class is a patently absurd claim

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I have noticed any trend over the years it is not legacy admits per se, but rather the graduating senior/ child of head of annual giving parents gets the plum HYP admit

Doubly so if that Board/ key fund raiser is member is a URM or the kid is bright enough but just not valedictorian bright.

Legacy not so much a shoe in, but bring in 2 mill in annual giving and smile while doing it and, yeah, your kid gets the Harvard offer for the school

Why would Harvard care about what some kids parents raised for their high school? The longer this thread goes on the dumber the wisdom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Legacies have a 33% chance of admission at Harvard vs 3% for general population. I doubt legacies are 11x more accomplished

This maybe true for the legacy population at large but not at places like STA. There are probably 20 kids in my kid's class who are legacy for Yale. twenty more for Harvard (some overlap) . And on and on. even more if you count law school, medical school, business school etc. it's absurd. Only a tiny, tiny handful of these kids will get in. (And of course, not all will even apply). But the numbers in some classes at these schools are absurd. You can't shake a hand at a parent's event without shaking a double Ivy of some variety. legacy only goes so far for admissions with this degree of over-saturation.

STA has 75 boys in a class. 20 boys with Harvard or Yale legacy in one class is a patently absurd claim

It's 85 boys. And between all the professional school degrees it's mighty close. Figure 4 degrees per kid. That's 340 degrees per grade. Easily 20 are Yale and 20 are Harvard. Easily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m kind of annoyed by all the emphasis on college admission - it makes the high schools take primarily kids who will have the hooks (legacy, athletics)

What do you think they should emphasize, summer vacations?!? These are High school seniors.

I think they should emphasize academic and extracurricular achievement. Not just legacy and sports.

It’s not a zero sum game, the legacies also need great academics and extracurriculars/sports to get in. It’s gotten that competitive.

Legacies have a 33% chance of admission at Harvard vs 3% for general population. I doubt legacies are 11x more accomplished

This maybe true for the legacy population at large but not at places like STA. There are probably 20 kids in my kid's class who are legacy for Yale. twenty more for Harvard (some overlap) . And on and on. even more if you count law school, medical school, business school etc. it's absurd. Only a tiny, tiny handful of these kids will get in. (And of course, not all will even apply). But the numbers in some classes at these schools are absurd. You can't shake a hand at a parent's event without shaking a double Ivy of some variety. legacy only goes so far for admissions with this degree of over-saturation.

STA has 75 boys in a class. 20 boys with Harvard or Yale legacy in one class is a patently absurd claim

It's 85 boys. And between all the professional school degrees it's mighty close. Figure 4 degrees per kid. That's 340 degrees per grade. Easily 20 are Yale and 20 are Harvard. Easily.

You’re deluded. You realize there are other colleges besides Harvard and Yale?