College admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

You’re a newbie with young kids. It is really hard to get into certain colleges today. I attended a T20 school and was accepted to a few others as well. No way would that happen to me today with the stats I had.

It's so hard to get in that 1 out of 20 applicants are doing it. (It's only hard for mediocre students.)

Mediocre students don’t apply to Harvard - I know, I’m the parent of one. It’s essentially 5% of the tippy top, 4.0 students get in. That can be pretty jarring to a family who thinks that a 4.0 high stats kid has a good shot at Harvard. They still don’t, because 5% is still a long shot.

Yup. 5% of the super high GPA, great SAT score, amazing extracurriculars, started a non-profit, etc kids. Take those kids, then pick 1 in 20. It’s essentially like a lottery at that point (not to mention the cost). Good news is that people can have great, successful lives without attending an Ivy.

This. And it's not just Harvard that is at this level. What is very different from when we (the parents) applied is that places like Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cornell, Rice, and the top 10 liberal arts colleges are now Harvard's level in terms of difficulty: 5-7% of the pool of kids with perfect grades/scores/extracurriculars and highest rigor in classes get in.

Agree.

Hardly any seats have been added to T20 colleges and slacs. Yet the population has gone up, applicant numbers up, and average tests scores/ accomplishments all up.

These universities would rather spend their budget on fancy dorms, protest centers, new age studies majors, and hiring big wigs, than build more student capacity. Yet their real mission is educating college students…. Maybe…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

You’re a newbie with young kids. It is really hard to get into certain colleges today. I attended a T20 school and was accepted to a few others as well. No way would that happen to me today with the stats I had.

It's so hard to get in that 1 out of 20 applicants are doing it. (It's only hard for mediocre students.)

Mediocre students don’t apply to Harvard - I know, I’m the parent of one. It’s essentially 5% of the tippy top, 4.0 students get in. That can be pretty jarring to a family who thinks that a 4.0 high stats kid has a good shot at Harvard. They still don’t, because 5% is still a long shot.

Yup. 5% of the super high GPA, great SAT score, amazing extracurriculars, started a non-profit, etc kids. Take those kids, then pick 1 in 20. It’s essentially like a lottery at that point (not to mention the cost). Good news is that people can have great, successful lives without attending an Ivy.

Oh, and wait until they learn about hooks. Harvard takes about 1600 kids. They strive for a 50-50 gender balance, so that's 800 seats gone right there. Add recruited athletes and that's another 150 or so. Z list wealth and celebrities. Another 30-40. Legacy remains a boost for another 100 or so. Some basic racial balance issues. Thrown in the elite internationals - that is 25 percent of the class this year. So that's 400 seats gone right there. Add the necessity of domestic geographical diversity. One from each state at least. So that's another 49 seats minimum that are not going to you. Mix in some children of faculty.

Basically, for a school like Harvard, there are maybe 100 seats available for your unhooked super-bright and accomplished child from the burbs. And just a FYI, Harvard received 54,000 applications this year.

And it's not much better at the rest of the top 20 universities.

Good luck

not your child. your girl/boy. you already took out half of the class.

not saying it's doable or anything, but since this, I think, is a useful perspective to understand the level of competition, let's do it correctly. if you take out 800 seats from the getgo you don't subtract all internationals and all athletes (assuming this is what you did). also, you don't subtract 49 states. each states doesn't have to have a "representative" of both genders.

Agree, that Po was double and triple counting some of the omittances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many children from Maryland are enrolled this year as freshmen at, say, Harvard?

3

How about when you add MIT, Stanford and Princeton?

I looks like you need to be maybe top 10-15 in MD to crack HSPM and maybe top 30-40 for top 10-15?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

You’re a newbie with young kids. It is really hard to get into certain colleges today. I attended a T20 school and was accepted to a few others as well. No way would that happen to me today with the stats I had.

It's so hard to get in that 1 out of 20 applicants are doing it. (It's only hard for mediocre students.)

Mediocre students don’t apply to Harvard - I know, I’m the parent of one. It’s essentially 5% of the tippy top, 4.0 students get in. That can be pretty jarring to a family who thinks that a 4.0 high stats kid has a good shot at Harvard. They still don’t, because 5% is still a long shot.

Yup. 5% of the super high GPA, great SAT score, amazing extracurriculars, started a non-profit, etc kids. Take those kids, then pick 1 in 20. It’s essentially like a lottery at that point (not to mention the cost). Good news is that people can have great, successful lives without attending an Ivy.

This. And it's not just Harvard that is at this level. What is very different from when we (the parents) applied is that places like Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cornell, Rice, and the top 10 liberal arts colleges are now Harvard's level in terms of difficulty: 5-7% of the pool of kids with perfect grades/scores/extracurriculars and highest rigor in classes get in.

Agree.

Hardly any seats have been added to T20 colleges and slacs. Yet the population has gone up, applicant numbers up, and average tests scores/ accomplishments all up.

These universities would rather spend their budget on fancy dorms, protest centers, new age studies majors, and hiring big wigs, than build more student capacity. Yet their real mission is educating college students…. Maybe…

To me, the biggest problem is international competition. The world is a big place and applying to top US schools from abroad has become much more common. I mean, when my teen was 10 yo we went to my home country for vacation and one 10 yo there told them they wanted to "study at Harvard".

There is also the problem of everybody applying to 20 different schools. That doesn't make the process more competitive, by itself, but it makes it extremely exhausting as there are many school-specific requirements, essays etc to worry about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

Well it's lower than 5% and it really is that tough.
Plenty of kids get 1600 on SATs with 4.0 GPAs and activities.

When I went to college in the mid 90's I was told colleges wanted well rounded kids and so that's who I was.
Zero chance my stats would get me into the top school I went to.

My child is a jr and while I don't know how it will turn out, I'd say being a recruited athlete helps.
I don't say that because he can get in with lower grades or scores. He just gets a more serious look from admissions than a regular applicant. A coach is there telling admissions they want this kid and if admissions has concerns, they are able to communicate those before he officially applies so he doesn't waste his ED.

If admissions doesn't have concerns, the coach is going to push a little to get the kid admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you getting these numbers. Here you have actual enrollments at Harvard, MIT and Princeton from all HS in the US.

https://www.polarislist.com

The other list was just the private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you getting these numbers. Here you have actual enrollments at Harvard, MIT and Princeton from all HS in the US.

https://www.polarislist.com

The other list was just the private schools.

The other list was not accurate. Here is the list of actual enrollments at HOM for all schools in the USA, private and public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You forgot to add how many students are accepted every year from top high schools.

Most students accepted from specific high schools are

Trinity School – NY, NY: 40%
Collegiate School – NY, NY: 40%
Brearley School – NY, NY: 37%
Horace Mann School – Bronx, NY: 36%
Roxbury Latin School – West Roxbury, MA: 36%
Phillips Academy Andover – Andover, MA: 33%
The Spence School – NY, NY: 33%
The Winsor School – Boston, MA: 31%
The Dalton School – NY, NY: 31%
St. Paul’s School – Concord, NH: 30%
Chapin School – NY, NY: 30%
Harvard-Westlake School – Los Angeles, CA: 30%
Phillips Exeter Academy – Exeter, NH: 29%
The College Preparatory School – Oakland, CA: 29%

This doesn’t cover the top feeder public high schools. Plus Harvard is committed to taking local kids from schools like Cambridge Rindge and Latin , the public in Cambridge.

So there are even less seats available to regular students who aren’t at one of these schools.

These might be kids accepted to all Ivy schools, but 40% of Trinity didn’t get accepted to Harvard.

You’re right, it wasn’t just Harvard. But it’s the usual schools in NYC, Massachusetts, California. Although science and tech specialty schools are popping up all over the country that are doing extremely well with college placements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

You're right, you don't understand. It's a lot lower than 5% for these elite schools, closer to 3%, and once you take into account pulling in legacies, athletes, first generation, and underrepresented minorities, the chances go down to nearly non-existent.

Keep telling yourself it's simply "difficult."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

You're right, you don't understand. It's a lot lower than 5% for these elite schools, closer to 3%, and once you take into account pulling in legacies, athletes, first generation, and underrepresented minorities, the chances go down to nearly non-existent.

Keep telling yourself it's simply "difficult."

At St. Ann's 48% will go to an Ivy, at Colligiate in Manhattan, 50+% will go to an Ivy.
I'll keep telling myself it's [sic] simply "difficult," while you keep making excuses for mediocrity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

You're right, you don't understand. It's a lot lower than 5% for these elite schools, closer to 3%, and once you take into account pulling in legacies, athletes, first generation, and underrepresented minorities, the chances go down to nearly non-existent.

Keep telling yourself it's simply "difficult."

At St. Ann's 48% will go to an Ivy, at Colligiate in Manhattan, 50+% will go to an Ivy.
I'll keep telling myself it's [sic] simply "difficult," while you keep making excuses for mediocrity.

Does you child attend one of these schools?

[Anonymous]

These are very small selective schools with many “hooked” applicants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

Well it's lower than 5% and it really is that tough.
Plenty of kids get 1600 on SATs with 4.0 GPAs and activities.

When I went to college in the mid 90's I was told colleges wanted well rounded kids and so that's who I was.
Zero chance my stats would get me into the top school I went to.

My child is a jr and while I don't know how it will turn out, I'd say being a recruited athlete helps.
I don't say that because he can get in with lower grades or scores. He just gets a more serious look from admissions than a regular applicant. A coach is there telling admissions they want this kid and if admissions has concerns, they are able to communicate those before he officially applies so he doesn't waste his ED.

If admissions doesn't have concerns, the coach is going to push a little to get the kid admitted.

Ivy schools are D1 schools. If your kid is an actual recruited athlete then it is a guaranteed admission.

Yes, you can absolutely get in with lower scores…grades are more important, but you can have below a 4.0.

It’s more than a serious look from admissions…they look at your scores and grades and tell you are in (or not)…they make offers after sophomore year of HS in a number of sports (all of the above differs by sport…football, basketball, baseball have lower stats than squash).

Again…this is a true recruiter athlete, not just someone the coach would “love to have on the team if you get accepted”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand that College forum. Parents act like the Ivy acceptance rate is 0.00001% and that DC needs a Nobel Prize to be competitive. In fact, the Harvard acceptance rate is 5% (1 in 20 is getting in). Difficult, but hardly impossible.

You're right, you don't understand. It's a lot lower than 5% for these elite schools, closer to 3%, and once you take into account pulling in legacies, athletes, first generation, and underrepresented minorities, the chances go down to nearly non-existent.

Keep telling yourself it's simply "difficult."

At St. Ann's 48% will go to an Ivy, at Colligiate in Manhattan, 50+% will go to an Ivy.
I'll keep telling myself it's [sic] simply "difficult," while you keep making excuses for mediocrity.

Not sure why you are referencing schools with ultra wealthy families, most
With legacy, etc.

In fact you are just highlighting another way it’s harder for everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are still in elementary school but what exactly goes into college admissions today? Is it still an application, SAT scores and a written essay?

Did you look in the Colleges forum?:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/forums/show/47.page