1600 and Rejected?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Asian

This. My kid has 1600, 4.0, NMS, ECs, magnet curriculum, 12 APs, full pay, internship and was rejected from some highly selective schools for cs. No biggie. Going to state school with generous merit scholarship, double major, research opportunity etc.

He is getting a new car and 25K from us as a thank you for saving us a ton of money.

My URM scored 1580 (one sitting) on his SATs, 4.6 GPA with all 5 APs,NMF- He was rejected at both of his reach schools Georgetown (SFS) and Northwestern. He is at UMD honors with the presidential scholarship and NMF money. We bought him a brand new car, are paying for 2 study abroad programs and he will have money for grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what does it take to get into the top schools then? Perfect scores and GPA with good APs, well rounded... what else could they possibly be looking for?

I think that the kids in our competitive public school that get into T-20 schools, apply ED and they are truly exceptional- better than just well rounded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older is a rising senior, with an almost 4.0 gpa (she had 2 Bs), 8 APs going into senior yr with all 5s (and will take 6 more AP classes sr year), and a 1600 sat. We’ve been advised by her private college counselor that ivies and like (duke etc) are unrealistic for her, so her reaches are colleges like Wash U which we’re still advised are a long shot.

Ok, that makes zero sense. Long shot maybe, as for anyone, but must be decent chance for a T-20.

Well Wash U is top 20. But counselor says she is a strong candidate but still long shot for Wash U and Emory. DDs first choice was Brown which counselor said was extreme long shot to the point of wasting an ED chance.

DD is in mcps. Apparently many many students in mcps have close to 4.0s, lots of APs and above 1560 sat.

IMHO I think that advice is a little extreme

I think that is realistic. I would not waste an ED on Brown unless they are a recruited athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what does it take to get into the top schools then? Perfect scores and GPA with good APs, well rounded... what else could they possibly be looking for?

I think that the kids in our competitive public school that get into T-20 schools, apply ED and they are truly exceptional- better than just well rounded.

What does that mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older is a rising senior, with an almost 4.0 gpa (she had 2 Bs), 8 APs going into senior yr with all 5s (and will take 6 more AP classes sr year), and a 1600 sat. We’ve been advised by her private college counselor that ivies and like (duke etc) are unrealistic for her, so her reaches are colleges like Wash U which we’re still advised are a long shot.

Ok, that makes zero sense. Long shot maybe, as for anyone, but must be decent chance for a T-20.

Well Wash U is top 20. But counselor says she is a strong candidate but still long shot for Wash U and Emory. DDs first choice was Brown which counselor said was extreme long shot to the point of wasting an ED chance.

DD is in mcps. Apparently many many students in mcps have close to 4.0s, lots of APs and above 1560 sat.

IMHO I think that advice is a little extreme

Its not terrible advice. The counselor is just very risk adverse. If DC doesn't get into Brown ED then WashU and Emory become hard reaches. I'm not sure about WashU but Emory regular decision is 9% Likely even less this cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what does it take to get into the top schools then? Perfect scores and GPA with good APs, well rounded... what else could they possibly be looking for?

Something interesting...a patent, a national lever award, owning a business

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1600 in one sitting or super scored? ([/b]I think there's a difference.[b] I don't know if colleges do.)

My niece with a superscored 1600 was rejected from HYP, got into Cornell, and is going to a BS/MD program somewhere ... I forget which school but it is not Rice or Brown.

Why do you think there is a difference? Presumably the math and verbal sections are equally difficult across different sittings. This is just yet another thing that creates artificial distinctions between students who aren’t really different.

Not every college considers a super-score.

Right, they do it as a way to create artificial distinctions, like I said. Is a kid who scored 1560 on test 1 (780/780) and then a 1600 on test 2 different from a kid who scored 780/800 and 800/780? No they aren’t. Way too much is placed on the SAT/ACT. All they test is whether you are good at that test or not, and to a certain degree, how affluent you are.

Definately measures how affluent you are. Much easier to raise your score with private/1-1 tutoring. I know, it works. My own kid (3.99 UW Gpa, 10 AP courses) went from a 1300 to a 1500 with just 4 hours of tutoring and 2-3 hours of their own outside "studying". And the remaining 5 hours of tutoring my kid did plus 3 more practice tests were all around 1500 +/- 20 points. These tutors help your kid hone in on specifically what they are missing and help with the basic tricks of how to navigate the test.

I have no doubt that if my kid wanted to do more intensive tutoring (10-20 hours), they could have gotten to a 1550. They were hovering around a perfect Math but never got it. And verbal could easily improve with more work. We chose not to do it, as mentally it's just not worth taking the extra time for another 40-50 points. I felt my kid had gotten to their sweet spot. But if I wanted to spend another $2K and 20+ hours of my kid's time, they could have scored higher. However, majority of people cannot afford to do that---most just use online free tutoring, which is not as helpful as one-one tutoring typically.

It doesn't always work out though. I know parents who throw tons of money at test prep and the kid stays sub-1300.

Yes, My other kid was like that. 30+ hours of test prep (1-1, different tutor) and went nowhere. But that kid is terrible at test taking, anxiety, has no executive functioning (so makes test taking challenging) and turns out has ADHD (learned that in college), so it's not surprising.
But for many, the one to one tutoring that the affluent can afford will help. (and yes, the whole reason we stopped after the initial 8-10 hours was because I firmly believe it was the first 4 hours that got my kid to their "level". 1500 is a good score and not worth stressing out to get higher---4 practice tests hovered around 1500)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what does it take to get into the top schools then? Perfect scores and GPA with good APs, well rounded... what else could they possibly be looking for?

Something interesting...a patent, a national lever award, owning a business

if a student has this on its application, 99% it is fake. We all know those non-profits to help immigrants are done by parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what does it take to get into the top schools then? Perfect scores and GPA with good APs, well rounded... what else could they possibly be looking for?

Something interesting...a patent, a national lever award, owning a business

if a student has this on its application, 99% it is fake. We all know those non-profits to help immigrants are done by parents.

This part is definitely true. Usually the mother's home country. :YAWN:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what does it take to get into the top schools then? Perfect scores and GPA with good APs, well rounded... what else could they possibly be looking for?

Something interesting...a patent, a national lever award, owning a business

if a student has this on its application, 99% it is fake. We all know those non-profits to help immigrants are done by parents.

Non profit— yes, I agree. But not national level awards— harder to fake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's all about being well rounded. Anyone can study for a test and go to prep courses. Colleges know this.

Not true. Tons of kids do prep centers, courses and tuitions but how many get a perfect score? Less than 0.5%?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Asian

This. My kid has 1600, 4.0, NMS, ECs, magnet curriculum, 12 APs, full pay, internship and was rejected from some highly selective schools for cs. No biggie. Going to state school with generous merit scholarship, double major, research opportunity etc.

He is getting a new car and 25K from us as a thank you for saving us a ton of money.

My URM scored 1580 (one sitting) on his SATs, 4.6 GPA with all 5 APs,NMF- He was rejected at both of his reach schools Georgetown (SFS) and Northwestern. He is at UMD honors with the presidential scholarship and NMF money. We bought him a brand new car, are paying for 2 study abroad programs and he will have money for grad school.

My niece attended Northwestern on full pay, still got semester abroad, car and grad school paid by parents. It says nothing, more money can give kids more privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Asian

This. My kid has 1600, 4.0, NMS, ECs, magnet curriculum, 12 APs, full pay, internship and was rejected from some highly selective schools for cs. No biggie. Going to state school with generous merit scholarship, double major, research opportunity etc.

He is getting a new car and 25K from us as a thank you for saving us a ton of money.

My URM scored 1580 (one sitting) on his SATs, 4.6 GPA with all 5 APs,NMF- He was rejected at both of his reach schools Georgetown (SFS) and Northwestern. He is at UMD honors with the presidential scholarship and NMF money. We bought him a brand new car, are paying for 2 study abroad programs and he will have money for grad school.

My niece attended Northwestern on full pay, still got semester abroad, car and grad school paid by parents. It says nothing, more money can give kids more privilege.

What's your point here PP? Coming across as tone deaf.

[Anonymous]

Yes Virginia Tech. Yield protection I assume

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Asian

This is trite. It has never been the case that universities just went to the highest GPAs/SATs and admitted from the top down on that list. They’ve always wanted a mix of capabilities and talents. So just because anecdotally you know someone was accepted with lower GPA/SAT than your Asian kid who did not, does not imply sinister racism. That’s true of lots of kinds of people, and has been for a long time. We need to stop looking at college matriculation as a referendum on ourselves.