Reality check: social scene at UChicago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago today is a very different institution than 15 years ago. I don't think the old "where fun goes to die" and "awkward nerd" stereotype still applies.

They've aggressively targeted kids from prestigious private schools, oftentimes taking 15-20+ kids annually from places like Andover/Exeter/Choate/Horace Mann, etc. This has resulted in a far more socially polished and culturally elite student body than they've historically had. These are the sorts of kids that dominated the Ivies in the 80's/90's and that the Ivies now shun for "equity" reasons.

NP I completely agree with this. From our feeder private (the kind this board hates: 30%+ to T10 outside of DMV), the savvy, well groomed, full pay B+/A- kids are headed to U Chicago, the brilliant but awkward 3.95 kids (no one gets all As at our school), a fair amount scholarship kids and first gens are headed to HYP. If I have to bet, the 2nd group will graduate and eventually work as researchers, academia, community leaders/in non profits or similar while the first group graduate to work on Wall Street/ go into consulting. The 2nd group are smart and driven too, but they know how to network, not spend too much time studying and still make good grades (though not top grades). Based on who I see admitted, U Chicago may get higher donations per alumni donor from this new crop of admits at least from our n=1 small private school. I can totally see the HYP first-gen kids come back to teach at our school whereas the U Chicago kids will come back to buy our school for their private equity firms.

These are a lot of assumptions to draw based on the small dataset of kids from one high school. This pattern is different at my kids’ school, where the ivy kids are mostly very polished and preprofessional and often very athletic.

Same here. Top private.

Polished, super smart: Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale

Top non-polished, frankly often kids of immigrants: Harvard and Stanford

Second level kids of both types who want high academics and/or prestige: Chicago

Omg this is our non-DMV private (40-50% to T25 or so).

Polished, Wall Street-bound, finance or consulting: Princeton, Duke (moving up on everyone's list), Williams, Dartmouth, Yale, Vanderbilt, Penn, Northwestern

Non-polished, very book smart, yes, often children of immigrants: HSM, Columbia, JHU

Second-level: Chicago, Cornell, Georgetown, Rice, WashU

These are such weird posts. OP is asking about the social scene at Chicago, not for the private school moms to have some circlejerk about where the “polished” vs “immigrant” kids go to college.

Before you call me a public school striver mom, my kids went to private school.

+1. The posts you refer to were not only irrelevant, but also tasteless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago today is a very different institution than 15 years ago. I don't think the old "where fun goes to die" and "awkward nerd" stereotype still applies.

They've aggressively targeted kids from prestigious private schools, oftentimes taking 15-20+ kids annually from places like Andover/Exeter/Choate/Horace Mann, etc. This has resulted in a far more socially polished and culturally elite student body than they've historically had. These are the sorts of kids that dominated the Ivies in the 80's/90's and that the Ivies now shun for "equity" reasons.

NP I completely agree with this. From our feeder private (the kind this board hates: 30%+ to T10 outside of DMV), the savvy, well groomed, full pay B+/A- kids are headed to U Chicago, the brilliant but awkward 3.95 kids (no one gets all As at our school), a fair amount scholarship kids and first gens are headed to HYP. If I have to bet, the 2nd group will graduate and eventually work as researchers, academia, community leaders/in non profits or similar while the first group graduate to work on Wall Street/ go into consulting. The 2nd group are smart and driven too, but they know how to network, not spend too much time studying and still make good grades (though not top grades). Based on who I see admitted, U Chicago may get higher donations per alumni donor from this new crop of admits at least from our n=1 small private school. I can totally see the HYP first-gen kids come back to teach at our school whereas the U Chicago kids will come back to buy our school for their private equity firms.

These are a lot of assumptions to draw based on the small dataset of kids from one high school. This pattern is different at my kids’ school, where the ivy kids are mostly very polished and preprofessional and often very athletic.

Same here. Top private.

Polished, super smart: Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale

Top non-polished, frankly often kids of immigrants: Harvard and Stanford

Second level kids of both types who want high academics and/or prestige: Chicago

I don't understand the word polished. What does that even mean here?

Good looking, smart, witty, well dressed, well spoken. kids who have "it". Doesn't necessarily track by race. One of the most polished kids in our private in recent years was Indian, another was East Asian.


I’m sorry - but when was the last time you spent significant time on the Uof C campus or in a class? Or in Hyde Park on a Saturday afternoon? The campus culture and wildly diverse student population is absolutely the opposite of what you describe here in the very best way. It’s okay if your polished whatever is surrounded by quirky nerds of all shapes and sizes - but please don’t falsely advertise the expectation. Even the Greeks are nerdy and diverse just like at MIT - polished does not come to mind…creative, out of the box thinkers and weird ideas still thrive there thankfully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
UChicago today is a very different institution than 15 years ago. I don't think the old "where fun goes to die" and "awkward nerd" stereotype still applies.

They've aggressively targeted kids from prestigious private schools, oftentimes taking 15-20+ kids annually from places like Andover/Exeter/Choate/Horace Mann, etc. This has resulted in a far more socially polished and culturally elite student body than they've historically had. These are the sorts of kids that dominated the Ivies in the 80's/90's and that the Ivies now shun for "equity" reasons.

NP I completely agree with this. From our feeder private (the kind this board hates: 30%+ to T10 outside of DMV), the savvy, well groomed, full pay B+/A- kids are headed to U Chicago, the brilliant but awkward 3.95 kids (no one gets all As at our school), a fair amount scholarship kids and first gens are headed to HYP. If I have to bet, the 2nd group will graduate and eventually work as researchers, academia, community leaders/in non profits or similar while the first group graduate to work on Wall Street/ go into consulting. The 2nd group are smart and driven too, but they know how to network, not spend too much time studying and still make good grades (though not top grades). Based on who I see admitted, U Chicago may get higher donations per alumni donor from this new crop of admits at least from our n=1 small private school. I can totally see the HYP first-gen kids come back to teach at our school whereas the U Chicago kids will come back to buy our school for their private equity firms.

These are a lot of assumptions to draw based on the small dataset of kids from one high school. This pattern is different at my kids’ school, where the ivy kids are mostly very polished and preprofessional and often very athletic.

Same here. Top private.

Polished, super smart: Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale

Top non-polished, frankly often kids of immigrants: Harvard and Stanford

Second level kids of both types who want high academics and/or prestige: Chicago

I don't understand the word polished. What does that even mean here?

Good looking, smart, witty, well dressed, well spoken. kids who have "it". Doesn't necessarily track by race. One of the most polished kids in our private in recent years was Indian, another was East Asian.

I’m sorry - but when was the last time you spent significant time on the Uof C campus or in a class? Or in Hyde Park on a Saturday afternoon? The campus culture and wildly diverse student population is absolutely the opposite of what you describe here in the very best way. It’s okay if your polished whatever is surrounded by quirky nerds of all shapes and sizes - but please don’t falsely advertise the expectation. Even the Greeks are nerdy and diverse just like at MIT - polished does not come to mind…creative, out of the box thinkers and weird ideas still thrive there thankfully.

+1. The people assuming things about kids based on their appearances and stating that Chicago is the premier stomping grounds for “polished” kids are disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt tends to self-select for a lot of "smart, but social" kids who play down their intelligence and care about campus popularity. However, this has changed sooooo much at Vanderbilt, and it's no longer the southern party playpen it was in the early 2000s. The student body at Vandy is more similar to the Ivies/UChicago than in previous eras, because it has aggressively courted super-high scorers (35+ ACT, 1560+ SAT) with the goal of boosting their reputation.

UChicago has also transformed because they've gone after the social elites at top private day and boarding schools. Look at the matriculation data at any top private school, and you'll see 30+ UChicago vs maybe 10 at HYPS over a 5 year span. Choate has 63 UChicago matriculants over the past 5 years.

They're probably more similar than you think, but Vandy has the school spirit edge because of their D1 sports programs.

Vanderbilt's student body is not similar to Ivies. 395 students submitted an SAT score, of which only 99 have an SAT 1560 or above.

Vanderbilt
1,635 freshman
99 have SAT 1560 or above
6% of freshman class

Harvard
1,641 freshman
446 have SAT 1560 or above
27% of freshman class

Yale
1,633 freshman
289 have SAT 1560 or above
17% of freshman class

Princeton
1,404 freshman
212 have SAT 1560 or above
15% of freshman class

There’s no effective difference between a 1500 and 1560

Of course there is.

What a silly thing to say.

Getting a 1500 (plus a sufficient high GPA) gets your application reviewed but that review is holistic and doesn't ignore your SAT score just because you got the bare minimum to justify a look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago today is a very different institution than 15 years ago. I don't think the old "where fun goes to die" and "awkward nerd" stereotype still applies.

They've aggressively targeted kids from prestigious private schools, oftentimes taking 15-20+ kids annually from places like Andover/Exeter/Choate/Horace Mann, etc. This has resulted in a far more socially polished and culturally elite student body than they've historically had. These are the sorts of kids that dominated the Ivies in the 80's/90's and that the Ivies now shun for "equity" reasons.

NP I completely agree with this. From our feeder private (the kind this board hates: 30%+ to T10 outside of DMV), the savvy, well groomed, full pay B+/A- kids are headed to U Chicago, the brilliant but awkward 3.95 kids (no one gets all As at our school), a fair amount scholarship kids and first gens are headed to HYP. If I have to bet, the 2nd group will graduate and eventually work as researchers, academia, community leaders/in non profits or similar while the first group graduate to work on Wall Street/ go into consulting. The 2nd group are smart and driven too, but they know how to network, not spend too much time studying and still make good grades (though not top grades). Based on who I see admitted, U Chicago may get higher donations per alumni donor from this new crop of admits at least from our n=1 small private school. I can totally see the HYP first-gen kids come back to teach at our school whereas the U Chicago kids will come back to buy our school for their private equity firms.

These are a lot of assumptions to draw based on the small dataset of kids from one high school. This pattern is different at my kids’ school, where the ivy kids are mostly very polished and preprofessional and often very athletic.

Same here. Top private.

Polished, super smart: Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale

Top non-polished, frankly often kids of immigrants: Harvard and Stanford

Second level kids of both types who want high academics and/or prestige: Chicago

Omg this is our non-DMV private (40-50% to T25 or so).

Polished, Wall Street-bound, finance or consulting: Princeton, Duke (moving up on everyone's list), Williams, Dartmouth, Yale, Vanderbilt, Penn, Northwestern

Non-polished, very book smart, yes, often children of immigrants: HSM, Columbia, JHU

Second-level: Chicago, Cornell, Georgetown, Rice, WashU

These are such weird posts. OP is asking about the social scene at Chicago, not for the private school moms to have some circlejerk about where the “polished” vs “immigrant” kids go to college.

Before you call me a public school striver mom, my kids went to private school.

+1. The posts you refer to were not only irrelevant, but also tasteless.

Agreed. And I’m still waiting for a working definition of “culturally elite”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our private (50% to T20) the kids who go to Chicago are often the very smart kids who are unconnected, want to major in Econ or something humanities related, and know how to play their cards right.

Very very accurate description of the Sidwell and Horace Mann kids I know who go to Chicago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt tends to self-select for a lot of "smart, but social" kids who play down their intelligence and care about campus popularity. However, this has changed sooooo much at Vanderbilt, and it's no longer the southern party playpen it was in the early 2000s. The student body at Vandy is more similar to the Ivies/UChicago than in previous eras, because it has aggressively courted super-high scorers (35+ ACT, 1560+ SAT) with the goal of boosting their reputation.

UChicago has also transformed because they've gone after the social elites at top private day and boarding schools. Look at the matriculation data at any top private school, and you'll see 30+ UChicago vs maybe 10 at HYPS over a 5 year span. Choate has 63 UChicago matriculants over the past 5 years.

They're probably more similar than you think, but Vandy has the school spirit edge because of their D1 sports programs.

Vanderbilt's student body is not similar to Ivies. 395 students submitted an SAT score, of which only 99 have an SAT 1560 or above.

Vanderbilt
1,635 freshman
99 have SAT 1560 or above
6% of freshman class

Harvard
1,641 freshman
446 have SAT 1560 or above
27% of freshman class

Yale
1,633 freshman
289 have SAT 1560 or above
17% of freshman class

Princeton
1,404 freshman
212 have SAT 1560 or above
15% of freshman class

There’s no effective difference between a 1500 and 1560

Of course there is.

What a silly thing to say.

Getting a 1500 (plus a sufficient high GPA) gets your application reviewed but that review is holistic and doesn't ignore your SAT score just because you got the bare minimum to justify a look.

The difference between a 1500 and 1560 is about two or three questions. The question for a very busy junior in high school shooting for competitive schools is whether it is worth all the extra time to study for those extra two or three questions, when there are a lot of other things they could be doing. And the answer is no. At the 1500/34 mark, the ECs become far more important. Every top school will take the 1500 with great ECs over the 1560 who isn't really bringing anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt tends to self-select for a lot of "smart, but social" kids who play down their intelligence and care about campus popularity. However, this has changed sooooo much at Vanderbilt, and it's no longer the southern party playpen it was in the early 2000s. The student body at Vandy is more similar to the Ivies/UChicago than in previous eras, because it has aggressively courted super-high scorers (35+ ACT, 1560+ SAT) with the goal of boosting their reputation.

UChicago has also transformed because they've gone after the social elites at top private day and boarding schools. Look at the matriculation data at any top private school, and you'll see 30+ UChicago vs maybe 10 at HYPS over a 5 year span. Choate has 63 UChicago matriculants over the past 5 years.

They're probably more similar than you think, but Vandy has the school spirit edge because of their D1 sports programs.

Vanderbilt's student body is not similar to Ivies. 395 students submitted an SAT score, of which only 99 have an SAT 1560 or above.

Vanderbilt
1,635 freshman
99 have SAT 1560 or above
6% of freshman class

Harvard
1,641 freshman
446 have SAT 1560 or above
27% of freshman class

Yale
1,633 freshman
289 have SAT 1560 or above
17% of freshman class

Princeton
1,404 freshman
212 have SAT 1560 or above
15% of freshman class

There’s no effective difference between a 1500 and 1560

Of course there is.

What a silly thing to say.

Getting a 1500 (plus a sufficient high GPA) gets your application reviewed but that review is holistic and doesn't ignore your SAT score just because you got the bare minimum to justify a look.

The difference between a 1500 and 1560 is about two or three questions. The question for a very busy junior in high school shooting for competitive schools is whether it is worth all the extra time to study for those extra two or three questions, when there are a lot of other things they could be doing. And the answer is no. At the 1500/34 mark, the ECs become far more important. Every top school will take the 1500 with great ECs over the 1560 who isn't really bringing anything else.

Under the old paper system, it's about 2-3 questions per section. With 50-60 questions per section, you're missing 5% of the questions.
Who knows what it means with the new digital SAT.
If you have to make a tradeoff between 1560 and ECs you may not be competitive to get into those top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt tends to self-select for a lot of "smart, but social" kids who play down their intelligence and care about campus popularity. However, this has changed sooooo much at Vanderbilt, and it's no longer the southern party playpen it was in the early 2000s. The student body at Vandy is more similar to the Ivies/UChicago than in previous eras, because it has aggressively courted super-high scorers (35+ ACT, 1560+ SAT) with the goal of boosting their reputation.

UChicago has also transformed because they've gone after the social elites at top private day and boarding schools. Look at the matriculation data at any top private school, and you'll see 30+ UChicago vs maybe 10 at HYPS over a 5 year span. Choate has 63 UChicago matriculants over the past 5 years.

They're probably more similar than you think, but Vandy has the school spirit edge because of their D1 sports programs.

Vanderbilt's student body is not similar to Ivies. 395 students submitted an SAT score, of which only 99 have an SAT 1560 or above.

Vanderbilt
1,635 freshman
99 have SAT 1560 or above
6% of freshman class

Harvard
1,641 freshman
446 have SAT 1560 or above
27% of freshman class

Yale
1,633 freshman
289 have SAT 1560 or above
17% of freshman class

Princeton
1,404 freshman
212 have SAT 1560 or above
15% of freshman class

There’s no effective difference between a 1500 and 1560

Of course there is.

What a silly thing to say.

Getting a 1500 (plus a sufficient high GPA) gets your application reviewed but that review is holistic and doesn't ignore your SAT score just because you got the bare minimum to justify a look.

The difference between a 1500 and 1560 is about two or three questions. The question for a very busy junior in high school shooting for competitive schools is whether it is worth all the extra time to study for those extra two or three questions, when there are a lot of other things they could be doing. And the answer is no. At the 1500/34 mark, the ECs become far more important. Every top school will take the 1500 with great ECs over the 1560 who isn't really bringing anything else.

It's not a random 2-3 questions, it's usually the trickiest questions, which is why most students can never get above 1550, no matter how much studying they do. Having a 1560+ is a huge signal that does more merely filter them along with 1450+ (25 percentile and up) kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt tends to self-select for a lot of "smart, but social" kids who play down their intelligence and care about campus popularity. However, this has changed sooooo much at Vanderbilt, and it's no longer the southern party playpen it was in the early 2000s. The student body at Vandy is more similar to the Ivies/UChicago than in previous eras, because it has aggressively courted super-high scorers (35+ ACT, 1560+ SAT) with the goal of boosting their reputation.

UChicago has also transformed because they've gone after the social elites at top private day and boarding schools. Look at the matriculation data at any top private school, and you'll see 30+ UChicago vs maybe 10 at HYPS over a 5 year span. Choate has 63 UChicago matriculants over the past 5 years.

They're probably more similar than you think, but Vandy has the school spirit edge because of their D1 sports programs.

Vanderbilt's student body is not similar to Ivies. 395 students submitted an SAT score, of which only 99 have an SAT 1560 or above.

Vanderbilt
1,635 freshman
99 have SAT 1560 or above
6% of freshman class

Harvard
1,641 freshman
446 have SAT 1560 or above
27% of freshman class

Yale
1,633 freshman
289 have SAT 1560 or above
17% of freshman class

Princeton
1,404 freshman
212 have SAT 1560 or above
15% of freshman class

There’s no effective difference between a 1500 and 1560

Of course there is.

What a silly thing to say.

Getting a 1500 (plus a sufficient high GPA) gets your application reviewed but that review is holistic and doesn't ignore your SAT score just because you got the bare minimum to justify a look.

The difference between a 1500 and 1560 is about two or three questions. The question for a very busy junior in high school shooting for competitive schools is whether it is worth all the extra time to study for those extra two or three questions, when there are a lot of other things they could be doing. And the answer is no. At the 1500/34 mark, the ECs become far more important. Every top school will take the 1500 with great ECs over the 1560 who isn't really bringing anything else.

Why are you assuming 1560 isn't bringing anything else. IRL it's opposite, 1560 typically is the one who brings a lot more to the table.

[Anonymous]

At my nephew's boarding school, the Uchicago admits are usually in the top 4 deciles and apply ED. These kids aren't in the top decile and unhooked, so they're just outside the zone which has Ivy chances. Most kids among the top of the class do not apply ED to Chicago. The Uchicago kids were usually the B+/A- students. These kids would've easily been A/A+ students at a regular high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my nephew's boarding school, the Uchicago admits are usually in the top 4 deciles and apply ED. These kids aren't in the top decile and unhooked, so they're just outside the zone which has Ivy chances. Most kids among the top of the class do not apply ED to Chicago. The Uchicago kids were usually the B+/A- students. These kids would've easily been A/A+ students at a regular high school.

Nobody is asking about that. OP is wondering about the on-campus social scene, not the Scoir data from Larlo’s boarding school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UChicago today is a very different institution than 15 years ago. I don't think the old "where fun goes to die" and "awkward nerd" stereotype still applies.

They've aggressively targeted kids from prestigious private schools, oftentimes taking 15-20+ kids annually from places like Andover/Exeter/Choate/Horace Mann, etc. This has resulted in a far more socially polished and culturally elite student body than they've historically had. These are the sorts of kids that dominated the Ivies in the 80's/90's and that the Ivies now shun for "equity" reasons.

NP I completely agree with this. From our feeder private (the kind this board hates: 30%+ to T10 outside of DMV), the savvy, well groomed, full pay B+/A- kids are headed to U Chicago, the brilliant but awkward 3.95 kids (no one gets all As at our school), a fair amount scholarship kids and first gens are headed to HYP. If I have to bet, the 2nd group will graduate and eventually work as researchers, academia, community leaders/in non profits or similar while the first group graduate to work on Wall Street/ go into consulting. The 2nd group are smart and driven too, but they know how to network, not spend too much time studying and still make good grades (though not top grades). Based on who I see admitted, U Chicago may get higher donations per alumni donor from this new crop of admits at least from our n=1 small private school. I can totally see the HYP first-gen kids come back to teach at our school whereas the U Chicago kids will come back to buy our school for their private equity firms.

These are a lot of assumptions to draw based on the small dataset of kids from one high school. This pattern is different at my kids’ school, where the ivy kids are mostly very polished and preprofessional and often very athletic.

Same here. Top private.

Polished, super smart: Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale

Top non-polished, frankly often kids of immigrants: Harvard and Stanford

Second level kids of both types who want high academics and/or prestige: Chicago

Omg this is our non-DMV private (40-50% to T25 or so).

Polished, Wall Street-bound, finance or consulting: Princeton, Duke (moving up on everyone's list), Williams, Dartmouth, Yale, Vanderbilt, Penn, Northwestern

Non-polished, very book smart, yes, often children of immigrants: HSM, Columbia, JHU

Second-level: Chicago, Cornell, Georgetown, Rice, WashU

Why do you think Duke is moving up on everyone's list?

At our non-DC private its the choice for the val/sal nowadays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt tends to self-select for a lot of "smart, but social" kids who play down their intelligence and care about campus popularity. However, this has changed sooooo much at Vanderbilt, and it's no longer the southern party playpen it was in the early 2000s. The student body at Vandy is more similar to the Ivies/UChicago than in previous eras, because it has aggressively courted super-high scorers (35+ ACT, 1560+ SAT) with the goal of boosting their reputation.

UChicago has also transformed because they've gone after the social elites at top private day and boarding schools. Look at the matriculation data at any top private school, and you'll see 30+ UChicago vs maybe 10 at HYPS over a 5 year span. Choate has 63 UChicago matriculants over the past 5 years.

They're probably more similar than you think, but Vandy has the school spirit edge because of their D1 sports programs.

Vanderbilt's student body is not similar to Ivies. 395 students submitted an SAT score, of which only 99 have an SAT 1560 or above.

Vanderbilt
1,635 freshman
99 have SAT 1560 or above
6% of freshman class

Harvard
1,641 freshman
446 have SAT 1560 or above
27% of freshman class

Yale
1,633 freshman
289 have SAT 1560 or above
17% of freshman class

Princeton
1,404 freshman
212 have SAT 1560 or above
15% of freshman class

There’s no effective difference between a 1500 and 1560

Of course there is.

What a silly thing to say.

Getting a 1500 (plus a sufficient high GPA) gets your application reviewed but that review is holistic and doesn't ignore your SAT score just because you got the bare minimum to justify a look.

The difference between a 1500 and 1560 is about two or three questions. The question for a very busy junior in high school shooting for competitive schools is whether it is worth all the extra time to study for those extra two or three questions, when there are a lot of other things they could be doing. And the answer is no. At the 1500/34 mark, the ECs become far more important. Every top school will take the 1500 with great ECs over the 1560 who isn't really bringing anything else.

You made it sound as though high schoolers are choosing to do ECs vs. taking the SAT again, when you know almost all kids take the SAT multiple times (likely including your own kids) to get a higher score. And everyone does ECs, including the high scorers. It's not an either or decision. Kids who have been tutored for the SAT for 6-12 months, took it 3+ times, superscored and still can't score higher than 1500 are not the same as the kids scoring at the 99th percentile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt tends to self-select for a lot of "smart, but social" kids who play down their intelligence and care about campus popularity. However, this has changed sooooo much at Vanderbilt, and it's no longer the southern party playpen it was in the early 2000s. The student body at Vandy is more similar to the Ivies/UChicago than in previous eras, because it has aggressively courted super-high scorers (35+ ACT, 1560+ SAT) with the goal of boosting their reputation.

UChicago has also transformed because they've gone after the social elites at top private day and boarding schools. Look at the matriculation data at any top private school, and you'll see 30+ UChicago vs maybe 10 at HYPS over a 5 year span. Choate has 63 UChicago matriculants over the past 5 years.

They're probably more similar than you think, but Vandy has the school spirit edge because of their D1 sports programs.

Vanderbilt's student body is not similar to Ivies. 395 students submitted an SAT score, of which only 99 have an SAT 1560 or above.

Vanderbilt
1,635 freshman
99 have SAT 1560 or above
6% of freshman class

Harvard
1,641 freshman
446 have SAT 1560 or above
27% of freshman class

Yale
1,633 freshman
289 have SAT 1560 or above
17% of freshman class

Princeton
1,404 freshman
212 have SAT 1560 or above
15% of freshman class

There’s no effective difference between a 1500 and 1560

Of course there is.

What a silly thing to say.

Getting a 1500 (plus a sufficient high GPA) gets your application reviewed but that review is holistic and doesn't ignore your SAT score just because you got the bare minimum to justify a look.

The difference between a 1500 and 1560 is about two or three questions. The question for a very busy junior in high school shooting for competitive schools is whether it is worth all the extra time to study for those extra two or three questions, when there are a lot of other things they could be doing. And the answer is no. At the 1500/34 mark, the ECs become far more important. Every top school will take the 1500 with great ECs over the 1560 who isn't really bringing anything else.

If you say there is no difference between a 1500 and a 1560, does that also mean there is no difference between a 1500 and a 1440? Read what you wrote above...if a 1500 kid needs to study hours and hours to get extra 2-3 questions right, they may naturally be closer in ability to the kids who score 1440 than the ones who score 1560.