It really is SUCH a huge disadvantage to be applying to college from the DMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try living in NJ if you think the DMV is bad.

+1. Or suburban NY.

Or suburban Boston.

Op, this is the issue everyone had who lives in competitive, wealthy areas.

+1 I was joking with my DH about how we should've moved to AR. We moved to this area in part because the education offerings here are much better than most other metro areas (I write this even as a I complain a lot about our school district). DC went to a magnet program here. Super high stats kid. They got shut out of T10. I asked DC if hindsight we should've moved to a less competitive area, and they said no, that having a quality k-12 program and peer group was better. The town we moved out of out west was wealthy but the school district did not offer a lot of programs (due to the small size), and DC didn't have a peer group at their level when they were early ES. We moved here, and they were able to find an academic peer group.

your use of they is insufferably constant. this is an anonymous form – we truly don't care if you're talking about your daughter or your son.

[Anonymous]

If applying from DMV it might be advantageous to apply to schools that are slightly less popular in your vicinity. Some top-20 LACs, for example, may enroll only 20 or so students annually from this region.

[Anonymous]

What are you guys even talking about? I have seen the high school IG accounts- kids from DC area schools are getting into great colleges.

Parents are affluent and kids can apply ED. That matters more than anything. I don’t live in DC anymore, we moved west. Less kids apply ED where I’m at.

[Anonymous]

It's tough...from PA and your high stats kids would have landed many IVIES here, particularly if they lived in Philadelphia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

Hysterical and spot-on. The kids are like McMansions with legs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

That is the worst "back in my day" i have ever heard. Elizabeth II had private tutors and didn't experience any hardship until WW2 broke out. So comparing how UMC kids in the 2020s are doing to the heir presumptive of England in the 1940s is just dumb. Compare how UMC kids today are doing with how Prince George and the other two are doing, ok?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

Hysterical and spot-on. The kids are like McMansions with legs.

Ok I literally laughed out loud at that. (And I'm the mom of one of those McMansions.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

That is the worst "back in my day" i have ever heard. Elizabeth II had private tutors and didn't experience any hardship until WW2 broke out. So comparing how UMC kids in the 2020s are doing to the heir presumptive of England in the 1940s is just dumb. Compare how UMC kids today are doing with how Prince George and the other two are doing, ok?

as if these kids dont have private tutors! and central air and more international travel and cleaner water and central heating and spa showers and Mexican food.

the better childhood than QE makes sense to me. are kids are not living better than the richest royalty today? okay, I give you that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

So interesting. I am from NYC and the worst college outcomes I see come from NJ public schools. These families pay high taxes for absolutely nothing. Be grateful you didn’t screw your kids by moving there.

[Anonymous]

But keep in mind, it's not always sunshine and rainbows for those you deem "lesser" who were accepted into ivies or T20.

My nephew from GA was accepted into Penn and has struggled this entire first year. He's on academic probation right now after failing to maintain a 2.0 his first semester. My SIL said right now he's above a 2.0 for this semester but just barely. He was top of his class at his GA private but their academic rigor clearly wasn't where it should have been. His private didn't even offer AP courses! That's a big red flag, IMO. They tout it as "not teaching to the test" but look what happens when you don't teach to the same standard as most other schools - your students come out unprepared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try living in NJ if you think the DMV is bad.

+1. Or suburban NY.

+1. Fairfield County would like a word.

Meh. Closer in suburbs and the actual city are much more competitive.

It’s a different profile. I’ll take a Greenwich or Darien grad over a White Plains grad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

OMG you're right. It's so much harder to apply to college from Maryland or Virginia instead of anywhere else. Try applying from California or New York or Massachusetts. Or better, try surviving high school in a competitive high school in NYC or the SF Bay area where parents have tons of resources, multiple degrees and are legacies from Stanford, Yale and Princeton.

Trust me it's easier to be applying from a high school where they give out As to the majority of kids, regardless of talent.

The problem isn't where you are applying from. The problem is that you're all applying to the most obvious, overbranded schools. Try to branch out beyond the 40 most popular schools and you'll be just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The problem isn't where you are applying from. The problem is that you're all applying to the most obvious, overbranded schools. Try to branch out beyond the 40 most popular schools and you'll be just fine.

Sigh. Yet we seem to have lots of posters who say its fine, unhooked high stats kid with good ECs will get into HYPSM no problemo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

Palo Alto parent here. Santa Clara county had this season 750 applicants to Harvard and accepted 19 (2.5% admission rate). What’s wild about this is the strength of the applicants (at DC’s school). The vast majority of kids select themselves out (including my DC) because they conclude if they are not in the top 10 percent of applicants from the school, there is no point. 2.5 percent from this group of applicants is kind of nuts. I am curious if people in Boston or ny have seen local numbers like the above for Santa Clara county.

Palo Alto is such a 1% kind of town that I suspect AOs at Ivies like Harvard aren't that inclined to admit a ton of people from that zip code - also Gunn and Paly have reputations for being grind academies where people pursue APs and ECs solely to look good for college admission. So that may be working against your kids. It's so tough because the kids are worked so hard and are very accomplished but there's also this reputation of toxic competition and pressure and history of suicide clusters.

[Anonymous]

Your kid can apply to schools where their DMV address is a plus for geographic diversity. I’m sure schools in the PNW don’t get nearly as many applicants from this area - UDub, Whitman, etc. it even seems like competitive UC schools are possible - people get accepted to Berkeley & UCLA even though they’re tough admits.