Any suggestion / advise from Ivy League students for TJ students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Earn the Eagle Rank in Scouts BSA or the Gold Award in Girl Scouts. They both show a level of dedication and commitment that is multi year and community involved.

There are many thousands of students with these awards.

86% say it helped on college applications.

https://www.girlscouts.org/content/dam/girlscouts-gsusa/forms-and-documents/about-girl-scouts/research/GSUSA%20GSRI%20Alum%20Fact%20Sheet_R3.pdf

5.4% of eligible Girl Scouts earn their Gold.

[Anonymous]

Just fyi advice is a noun, advise is a verb. Make sure your kids don’t make mistakes like this on their essays.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Don’t go to TJ - seriously. Go to base school

I know we need to get off the waitlist too!

Not on the waitlist. Heck didn’t even have younger sibling apply to TJ. Older sibling is at TJ. Better chances of getting into Ivy from base school than TJ.

Except for the fact the TJ has much better admission stats than any base school.

But the type of student who gets into TJ would be far from average at the base school, and therefore base school admissions state wouldn't apply. This is also true for places like Philips and Andover - the people who work for them, who you would expect to incentivize applications to earn more, actually say the same thing: don't come in here for Ivy admissions.

How many TJ students does an Ivy admit? Maybe 10? Being one of those in much harder than being the 1 or 2 who would get in from a base school due to the level of the competition - the average TJ student would be in the top 5% or higher at their base school

That's conjecture. They might've also done better at TJ where they were engaged and had a stronger peer group.

They might "do better" on absolute terms, but the odds of their class rank at TJ somehow being higher than the class rank at their base school is negligible

1) Class rank does not exist at TJ

2) College admissions coming from TJ has far less to do with your GPA and far more to do with the caliber of courses that you take, the diversity of your interests and goals, and evidence that you are going to provide value to the college environment. Essentially, how likely are you to either donate to the university yourself or inspire others to do so.

[Anonymous]

Apply to ROTC
Fake your way through a Questbridge match
Fake emancipation from parents and apply as an indigent student
Write an outrageous CA essay about farting as a subversive feminist act

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t go to TJ - seriously. Go to base school

I know we need to get off the waitlist too!

Not on the waitlist. Heck didn’t even have younger sibling apply to TJ. Older sibling is at TJ. Better chances of getting into Ivy from base school than TJ.

Except for the fact the TJ has much better admission stats than any base school.

But the type of student who gets into TJ would be far from average at the base school, and therefore base school admissions state wouldn't apply. This is also true for places like Philips and Andover - the people who work for them, who you would expect to incentivize applications to earn more, actually say the same thing: don't come in here for Ivy admissions.

How many TJ students does an Ivy admit? Maybe 10? Being one of those in much harder than being the 1 or 2 who would get in from a base school due to the level of the competition - the average TJ student would be in the top 5% or higher at their base school

That's conjecture. They might've also done better at TJ where they were engaged and had a stronger peer group.

They might "do better" on absolute terms, but the odds of their class rank at TJ somehow being higher than the class rank at their base school is negligible

1) Class rank does not exist at TJ

2) College admissions coming from TJ has far less to do with your GPA and far more to do with the caliber of courses that you take, the diversity of your interests and goals, and evidence that you are going to provide value to the college environment. Essentially, how likely are you to either donate to the university yourself or inspire others to do so.

I hope the bolded part is true. DC has been taking tough classes (Cal BC, AP Physics C, AP Bio, Multi, Linear) and the GPA suffers. I hope colleges can look past the C+ and focus the rigor and really high SAT, together with time committing EC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t go to TJ - seriously. Go to base school

I know we need to get off the waitlist too!

Not on the waitlist. Heck didn’t even have younger sibling apply to TJ. Older sibling is at TJ. Better chances of getting into Ivy from base school than TJ.

Except for the fact the TJ has much better admission stats than any base school.

But the type of student who gets into TJ would be far from average at the base school, and therefore base school admissions state wouldn't apply. This is also true for places like Philips and Andover - the people who work for them, who you would expect to incentivize applications to earn more, actually say the same thing: don't come in here for Ivy admissions.

How many TJ students does an Ivy admit? Maybe 10? Being one of those in much harder than being the 1 or 2 who would get in from a base school due to the level of the competition - the average TJ student would be in the top 5% or higher at their base school

That's conjecture. They might've also done better at TJ where they were engaged and had a stronger peer group.

They might "do better" on absolute terms, but the odds of their class rank at TJ somehow being higher than the class rank at their base school is negligible

1) Class rank does not exist at TJ

2) College admissions coming from TJ has far less to do with your GPA and far more to do with the caliber of courses that you take, the diversity of your interests and goals, and evidence that you are going to provide value to the college environment. Essentially, how likely are you to either donate to the university yourself or inspire others to do so.

I hope the bolded part is true. DC has been taking tough classes (Cal BC, AP Physics C, AP Bio, Multi, Linear) and the GPA suffers. I hope colleges can look past the C+ and focus the rigor and really high SAT, together with time committing EC.

Probably not. C+ doesn't look good in any class, especially if many others are getting Bs and As. The C+ would have to be offset by something that stands out to make it balanced, but really high SAT will not be it since everyone has them at TJ. EC might do it but only if it shows serious interest/commitment/achievement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apply to ROTC
Fake your way through a Questbridge match
Fake emancipation from parents and apply as an indigent student
Write an outrageous CA essay about farting as a subversive feminist act

Any tips on the middle two?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apply to ROTC
Fake your way through a Questbridge match
Fake emancipation from parents and apply as an indigent student
Write an outrageous CA essay about farting as a subversive feminist act

I was saddened to learn that the kid who got into Stanford after writing "Black Lives Matter" one hundred times as his admissions essay also had a father who ran a large hedge fund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t go to TJ - seriously. Go to base school

I know we need to get off the waitlist too!

Not on the waitlist. Heck didn’t even have younger sibling apply to TJ. Older sibling is at TJ. Better chances of getting into Ivy from base school than TJ.

Except for the fact the TJ has much better admission stats than any base school.

Shush!

College admissions consultants flat out tell you that it is far more difficult to get into a top college from TJ than it would be at your base school. The same SAT scores and grades at a base school are better for elite college admissions than they are at TJ given school will not have a class from Northern Virginia that is almost completely TJ students.

Ours said the opposite. They said if you do well at TJ you have the best possible chances.

That student that "did well" at TJ would be valedictorian at base school. Your college admission counselor is absolutely wrong and college admissions officers confirm this regularly in talks and blogs.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't be Asian.

We are Asians. I hear it is extremely competitive to get into Ivy being Asian. So looking for some tips.

If you want to stand out from the thousands of highly Asian applicants, don’t focus solely on activities associated with the Asian community. Piano, robotics, Chinese language classes, chess, math competitions, coding. Unless you’re a true outlier. Write for your school newspaper, play a sport, excel in debate, run for student government. Don’t indicate a CS or engineering major. My two cents.

Good advice