Help with Ivy fascinated kid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the long run, it would probably be best to let her make this choice and live with the consequences. If she gets in, then no harm done. If she doesn’t get in anywhere, maybe it will smack some of arrogance out of her.

This is probably the right answer. if I'm being honest, though, I would probably apply to some targets or safeties on her behalf, if she is not willing to.

What? Is that even legal?

It is definitely overstepping, big time!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern is not a safety. And Hopkins is not a target.

X100000

[Anonymous]

I would make her apply to one or two State schools. What if your money situation changed? What if something else happens that she wants to be close to home?

I would and do plan to make my kid apply to a couple public and cheaper safeties. That will be the deal for her to use her car or whatever hook I have at that time. An application to a large state school doesn’t even take long. It is pure hubris to not even apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: I understand your situation. Happens every year at elite prep schools where one or two students apply only to the 8 Ivy League schools. Probably more than just one or two out of 140 or 150 seniors, but most only hear about the one or two who were rejected by all 8 Ivies. Not uncommon for Asian students at the elite New England prep boarding schools to target all 8 Ivy league schools.

One school with which I am familiar, typically sent 25% of about 146 seniors to Ivies and about 31% to Ivies plus Stanford & MIT. (Very few athletic recruits and very few URM. Some legacies, but all legacies were very well qualified academically and well rounded.)

At this particular school, the couple of students who targeted only Ivies and were rejected by all, ended up at very solid schools like Tufts, Georgetown or a top ranked SLAC.

OP: If it will help your daughter, I will try to list the schools to which at least 2 students matriculated from this class of 146 college bound seniors: (pre-Covid matriculation)

7 to UPenn
6 to Yale
6 to Princeton
6 to Stanford
6 to Tufts
5 to Harvard
4 to Brown
4 to Columbia
4 to Georgetown
4 to Middlebury College
4 to University of St. Andrews in Scotland
3 to MIT
3 to Wellesley College
3 to McGill University (Canada)
2 to UChicago
2 to Northwestern
2 to Dartmouth College
2 to Cornell
2 to Univ. of Michigan
2 to Bowdoin College
2 to St. Andrews (Scotland)
2 to Colgate
2 to Davidson College
2 to William & Mary
2 to Lehigh

The above list was the college destination for 87 of the 146 college bound seniors.

The remaining schools to which just one or two of the 146 matriculated included:

Pomona College, Emory, Williams College, Vanderbilt, Duke, USMA at West Point, Vassar College, Carleton College, Trinity College, Colby College, Wisconsin, Bates College, Hamilton College, Conn College, St. Lawrence, Dickinson College, Mount Holyoke, Occidental College, Pitzer College, Lake Forest College, Skidmore College, U Colorado at Boulder, Johns Hopkins, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Holy Cross, USC, Sarah Lawrence, Emerson College, Wesleyan, Boston College, Emerson College, Reed College, Univ. of Virginia, Franklin & Marshall, Smith College, Lewis & Clark, NYU.

My point in sharing this list is to illustrate why some students at certain elite private schools have college target lists which appear unreasonable to others.

OP: My suggestion is to try to get your daughter to apply to at least 12 colleges and/or universities.

That looks like NCS.

[Anonymous]

Gotta hand it to the Ivies, their marketing is second to none, convincing high schoolers that they're the best colleges ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. She thinks she will be out of place in a non Ivy and would rather take a gap year if she doesn’t get into brown princeton or another Ivy.

I think that's actually reasonable on her part--the consequences part, not her idea that she will be "out of place." If she doesn't get in this year, I would only make her determine the same when she applies next year. "What do you do about college if you don't get into an ivy again this time?"

This obvs hinges on if you're willing to pay for a gap year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP: I understand your situation. Happens every year at elite prep schools where one or two students apply only to the 8 Ivy League schools. Probably more than just one or two out of 140 or 150 seniors, but most only hear about the one or two who were rejected by all 8 Ivies. Not uncommon for Asian students at the elite New England prep boarding schools to target all 8 Ivy league schools.

One school with which I am familiar, typically sent 25% of about 146 seniors to Ivies and about 31% to Ivies plus Stanford & MIT. (Very few athletic recruits and very few URM. Some legacies, but all legacies were very well qualified academically and well rounded.)

At this particular school, the couple of students who targeted only Ivies and were rejected by all, ended up at very solid schools like Tufts, Georgetown or a top ranked SLAC.

OP: If it will help your daughter, I will try to list the schools to which at least 2 students matriculated from this class of 146 college bound seniors: (pre-Covid matriculation)

7 to UPenn
6 to Yale
6 to Princeton
6 to Stanford
6 to Tufts
5 to Harvard
4 to Brown
4 to Columbia
4 to Georgetown
4 to Middlebury College
4 to University of St. Andrews in Scotland
3 to MIT
3 to Wellesley College
3 to McGill University (Canada)
2 to UChicago
2 to Northwestern
2 to Dartmouth College
2 to Cornell
2 to Univ. of Michigan
2 to Bowdoin College
2 to St. Andrews (Scotland)
2 to Colgate
2 to Davidson College
2 to William & Mary
2 to Lehigh

The above list was the college destination for 87 of the 146 college bound seniors.

The remaining schools to which just one or two of the 146 matriculated included:

Pomona College, Emory, Williams College, Vanderbilt, Duke, USMA at West Point, Vassar College, Carleton College, Trinity College, Colby College, Wisconsin, Bates College, Hamilton College, Conn College, St. Lawrence, Dickinson College, Mount Holyoke, Occidental College, Pitzer College, Lake Forest College, Skidmore College, U Colorado at Boulder, Johns Hopkins, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Holy Cross, USC, Sarah Lawrence, Emerson College, Wesleyan, Boston College, Emerson College, Reed College, Univ. of Virginia, Franklin & Marshall, Smith College, Lewis & Clark, NYU.

My point in sharing this list is to illustrate why some students at certain elite private schools have college target lists which appear unreasonable to others.

OP: My suggestion is to try to get your daughter to apply to at least 12 colleges and/or universities.

That looks like NCS.

Not NCS because it only has about 80 students per grade. (The largest class ever was around 90.) I'm pretty sure this isn't a school in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the long run, it would probably be best to let her make this choice and live with the consequences. If she gets in, then no harm done. If she doesn’t get in anywhere, maybe it will smack some of arrogance out of her.

This is probably the right answer. if I'm being honest, though, I would probably apply to some targets or safeties on her behalf, if she is not willing to.

What? Is that even legal?

It is definitely overstepping, big time!

Most places my kid applied demanded supplementary essays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotta hand it to the Ivies, their marketing is second to none, convincing high schoolers that they're the best colleges ever.

And the way they send fat glossy brochures to kids who are unlikely to get in, but who are still willing to send in application $

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP: I understand your situation. Happens every year at elite prep schools where one or two students apply only to the 8 Ivy League schools. Probably more than just one or two out of 140 or 150 seniors, but most only hear about the one or two who were rejected by all 8 Ivies. Not uncommon for Asian students at the elite New England prep boarding schools to target all 8 Ivy league schools.

One school with which I am familiar, typically sent 25% of about 146 seniors to Ivies and about 31% to Ivies plus Stanford & MIT. (Very few athletic recruits and very few URM. Some legacies, but all legacies were very well qualified academically and well rounded.)

At this particular school, the couple of students who targeted only Ivies and were rejected by all, ended up at very solid schools like Tufts, Georgetown or a top ranked SLAC.

OP: If it will help your daughter, I will try to list the schools to which at least 2 students matriculated from this class of 146 college bound seniors: (pre-Covid matriculation)

7 to UPenn
6 to Yale
6 to Princeton
6 to Stanford
6 to Tufts
5 to Harvard
4 to Brown
4 to Columbia
4 to Georgetown
4 to Middlebury College
4 to University of St. Andrews in Scotland
3 to MIT
3 to Wellesley College
3 to McGill University (Canada)
2 to UChicago
2 to Northwestern
2 to Dartmouth College
2 to Cornell
2 to Univ. of Michigan
2 to Bowdoin College
2 to St. Andrews (Scotland)
2 to Colgate
2 to Davidson College
2 to William & Mary
2 to Lehigh

The above list was the college destination for 87 of the 146 college bound seniors.

The remaining schools to which just one or two of the 146 matriculated included:

Pomona College, Emory, Williams College, Vanderbilt, Duke, USMA at West Point, Vassar College, Carleton College, Trinity College, Colby College, Wisconsin, Bates College, Hamilton College, Conn College, St. Lawrence, Dickinson College, Mount Holyoke, Occidental College, Pitzer College, Lake Forest College, Skidmore College, U Colorado at Boulder, Johns Hopkins, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Holy Cross, USC, Sarah Lawrence, Emerson College, Wesleyan, Boston College, Emerson College, Reed College, Univ. of Virginia, Franklin & Marshall, Smith College, Lewis & Clark, NYU.

My point in sharing this list is to illustrate why some students at certain elite private schools have college target lists which appear unreasonable to others.

OP: My suggestion is to try to get your daughter to apply to at least 12 colleges and/or universities.

That looks like NCS.

Not NCS because it only has about 80 students per grade. (The largest class ever was around 90.) I'm pretty sure this isn't a school in the DC area.

Correct. It is a New England prep boarding school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is fascinated with the ivies and is planning to apply to everyone of them. Brown and princeton are her favorites. She goes to a top private and has the reputation as being a hot shot there. So she is confident that she won’t apply to any safeties like northeastern or even targets like jhu. Her college counselor pleaded with her to add more schools. But she argues that her school has never been shut out of the ivies (true) and if someone gets in it would her (since she feels she is the best in her batch). Is that a compelling argument? Or is she in for a surprise. Any suggestions on what to do as parents. I don’t want to ruin her confidence. But want her to be more realistic. Can someone explain why a place like brown and Princeton has this mystique that captures young minds. Growing up in Europe we just went to a local university that gave a solid education. So I am puzzled.

She can apply to all the ivies she wants but match and safety schools are a must to make sure she won't end up at community college. A lot of hot shots get shot in this process. It has no reason or rhyme, 90% seats are for different quotas, rest are pretty much lottery because they get tons of applications. Elite private high schools and inner city schools have much better odds than competitive large suburban schools but she needs to play safe.

[Anonymous]

Kids love putting up tik tocks that start out listing their stats (gpa, test scores, extra curriculars), along with reaction shots as they get the college acceptances. My oldest was applying 2 years ago and showed me a lot of them. I remember being stunned by the high stats kids shut out of not just ivies but also, like UVA and Georgia Tech. Watching these definitely motivated my kid to add about 10 schools to her list!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. She thinks she will be out of place in a non Ivy and would rather take a gap year if she doesn’t get into brown princeton or another Ivy.

OP, I think your kid has an amazing and very failproof plan...go with it 100% and do not listen to any of these other negative ninnies. She has the right idea, there is no way someone of her incredible intellect would ever be at home with all of the other lowly mouth breathers of non Ivy colleges. I suspect it would be very detrimental to her well being because she would expend too much energy trying to intellectually elevate all of her other intellectually inferior classmates. Stick with the plan OP, it's the only way!

I second this. OP, definitely let your daughter do this. Don't encourage it, but back off and let her do what she wants to do

Go all in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is fascinated with the ivies and is planning to apply to everyone of them. Brown and princeton are her favorites. She goes to a top private and has the reputation as being a hot shot there. So she is confident that she won’t apply to any safeties like northeastern or even targets like jhu. Her college counselor pleaded with her to add more schools. But she argues that her school has never been shut out of the ivies (true) and if someone gets in it would her (since she feels she is the best in her batch). Is that a compelling argument? Or is she in for a surprise. Any suggestions on what to do as parents. I don’t want to ruin her confidence. But want her to be more realistic. Can someone explain why a place like brown and Princeton has this mystique that captures young minds. Growing up in Europe we just went to a local university that gave a solid education. So I am puzzled.

She can apply to all the ivies she wants but match and safety schools are a must to make sure she won't end up at community college. A lot of hot shots get shot in this process. It has no reason or rhyme, 90% seats are for different quotas, rest are pretty much lottery because they get tons of applications. Elite private high schools and inner city schools have much better odds than competitive large suburban schools but she needs to play safe.

Actually, maybe community college would not be so bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a top DC private and there was exactly ONE kid admitted to an Ivy last year who was not a recruited athlete, legacy or URM. The top academic kids were not admitted except for this ONE kid (and others who had one or more of the above 3 hooks).

Again, there was ONE kid admitted to an Ivy on academic merit alone. ONE.
This is a DC Big3.

Liar! Name the Big 3. I know this is not true.