A-/B+ Student from Big 3 - Admission chances at popular state schools

[Anonymous]

Is it really likely that an admissions office employee at UCLA or University of wisconsin will be wowed by a DC private school?

If I paid DC private tuition, I would be asking to speak with a counselor sooner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:13.31 PP - wouldn't your kid from a Big 3 with a 3.9+ and a 1560 be in consideration for Ivy's or Duke/Northwestern/Chicago? My kid graduated from GDS/Sidwell/St. Albans 3 two years ago and his friends with those statistics ended up at top schools. My DS ended up at Michigan with a much lesser GPA and a 31 ACT. He was also admitted to UCLA. Berkeley was a denial and UVA was a waitlist which he didn't pursue because he preferred Michigan.

A lot has changed in 3 years.

My 2019 big 3 grad applied to Michigan and UCLA with a 3.9/33. She was super nervous because of the 33. That's life these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it really likely that an admissions office employee at UCLA or University of wisconsin will be wowed by a DC private school?

If I paid DC private tuition, I would be asking to speak with a counselor sooner.

Don’t underestimate admissions officers, even at public colleges. There is a reason they ALL segment by region. There are certainly readers very familiar with those HS, and for the ones they aren’t it is easy for them to gauge based on the school profile they receive.

They work hard and long hours to get it right. Not saying they always do, but they certainly try.

[Anonymous]

UWisconsin, Indiana, Pitt, Alabama?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If by Big 3 you mean StA/NCS, Sidwell, Potomac, GDS, Holton, or Maret, then an A-/B+ student is well positioned for those colleges. Assuming your DC took some decent academic electives, those grades are above average at those high schools. SATs matter a lot since the scores of out-of-staters pull up the college averages a lot. UCLA will be harder since the UC system has a 20% limit on nonresidents. Your list represents pretty good target schools. You are being far more realistic than the parents who think those grades are good enough to get into a top SLACs or "lower Ivy."

My kid is a senior at a Big 3 with a 3.9+ (all A/A-'s with one B)/1560 and according to counselor OP's schools are matches for her, with UCLA being a match/reach and Michigan a match/safety. I'd think they'd be closer to reaches for a B+ kid.

I am not kidding, I didn’t even think a 3.9+ was possible at my Dc’s big 3. Sincerely there is no weighting of grades, that is very impressive!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it really likely that an admissions office employee at UCLA or University of wisconsin will be wowed by a DC private school?

If I paid DC private tuition, I would be asking to speak with a counselor sooner.

You understand these universities have regional admissions officers who know the schools, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If by Big 3 you mean StA/NCS, Sidwell, Potomac, GDS, Holton, or Maret, then an A-/B+ student is well positioned for those colleges. Assuming your DC took some decent academic electives, those grades are above average at those high schools. SATs matter a lot since the scores of out-of-staters pull up the college averages a lot. UCLA will be harder since the UC system has a 20% limit on nonresidents. Your list represents pretty good target schools. You are being far more realistic than the parents who think those grades are good enough to get into a top SLACs or "lower Ivy."

My kid is a senior at a Big 3 with a 3.9+ (all A/A-'s with one B)/1560 and according to counselor OP's schools are matches for her, with UCLA being a match/reach and Michigan a match/safety. I'd think they'd be closer to reaches for a B+ kid.

I am not kidding, I didn’t even think a 3.9+ was possible at my Dc’s big 3. Sincerely there is no weighting of grades, that is very impressive!

*Since there is

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:13.31 PP - wouldn't your kid from a Big 3 with a 3.9+ and a 1560 be in consideration for Ivy's or Duke/Northwestern/Chicago? My kid graduated from GDS/Sidwell/St. Albans 3 two years ago and his friends with those statistics ended up at top schools. My DS ended up at Michigan with a much lesser GPA and a 31 ACT. He was also admitted to UCLA. Berkeley was a denial and UVA was a waitlist which he didn't pursue because he preferred Michigan.

A lot has changed in 3 years.

My 2019 big 3 grad applied to Michigan and UCLA with a 3.9/33. She was super nervous because of the 33. That's life these days.

And was she accepted at Michigan or UCLA?

[Anonymous]

UIUC should be on your list if she wants a big public. My DD loved every minute of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If by Big 3 you mean StA/NCS, Sidwell, Potomac, GDS, Holton, or Maret, then an A-/B+ student is well positioned for those colleges. Assuming your DC took some decent academic electives, those grades are above average at those high schools. SATs matter a lot since the scores of out-of-staters pull up the college averages a lot. UCLA will be harder since the UC system has a 20% limit on nonresidents. Your list represents pretty good target schools. You are being far more realistic than the parents who think those grades are good enough to get into a top SLACs or "lower Ivy."

My kid is a senior at a Big 3 with a 3.9+ (all A/A-'s with one B)/1560 and according to counselor OP's schools are matches for her, with UCLA being a match/reach and Michigan a match/safety. I'd think they'd be closer to reaches for a B+ kid.

I am not kidding, I didn’t even think a 3.9+ was possible at my Dc’s big 3. Sincerely there is no weighting of grades, that is very impressive!

Thank you for sharing that - this DC is our only one in private so we have no idea how they compare to the other kids. DC also has no Ivy legacy and we're not "connected" DC types who can get friends to pull strings, so DC is relying a lot on the counselor for making the college list. Counselor did say that any school is a "possibility" but as another PP said, any college with <15-20% acceptance rate (which I think applies to every top 20 college/SLAC) is considered a reach.

College admissions *has* changed a great deal in the last few years, and there are various stories floating around about kids with great stats who didn't apply to any safety schools getting shut out. So DC has 2 solid safeties, 2 more safety/matches, and then every other school is below 15% admission rate. DC has worked very hard in HS (both in academics and ECs) so we'll see if colleges see it the same way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:13.31 PP - wouldn't your kid from a Big 3 with a 3.9+ and a 1560 be in consideration for Ivy's or Duke/Northwestern/Chicago? My kid graduated from GDS/Sidwell/St. Albans 3 two years ago and his friends with those statistics ended up at top schools. My DS ended up at Michigan with a much lesser GPA and a 31 ACT. He was also admitted to UCLA. Berkeley was a denial and UVA was a waitlist which he didn't pursue because he preferred Michigan.

A lot has changed in 3 years.

My 2019 big 3 grad applied to Michigan and UCLA with a 3.9/33. She was super nervous because of the 33. That's life these days.

And was she accepted at Michigan or UCLA?

She got into both but was weigtlisted at Berkeley, which she didn’t pursue because she had already gotten into a preferred program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:13.31 PP - wouldn't your kid from a Big 3 with a 3.9+ and a 1560 be in consideration for Ivy's or Duke/Northwestern/Chicago? My kid graduated from GDS/Sidwell/St. Albans 3 two years ago and his friends with those statistics ended up at top schools. My DS ended up at Michigan with a much lesser GPA and a 31 ACT. He was also admitted to UCLA. Berkeley was a denial and UVA was a waitlist which he didn't pursue because he preferred Michigan.

A lot has changed in 3 years.

My 2019 big 3 grad applied to Michigan and UCLA with a 3.9/33. She was super nervous because of the 33. That's life these days.

And was she accepted at Michigan or UCLA?

She got into both but was weigtlisted at Berkeley, which she didn’t pursue because she had already gotten into a preferred program.

Congratulations to your daughter!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it really likely that an admissions office employee at UCLA or University of wisconsin will be wowed by a DC private school?

If I paid DC private tuition, I would be asking to speak with a counselor sooner.

Don’t underestimate admissions officers, even at public colleges. There is a reason they ALL segment by region. There are certainly readers very familiar with those HS, and for the ones they aren’t it is easy for them to gauge based on the school profile they receive.

They work hard and long hours to get it right. Not saying they always do, but they certainly try.

There are a lot of schools systems and private schools in the US with different levels of grade inflation. Also not all school use the same grading scale. And that is even before trying to fairly evaluate home-schooled kids who have a straight 4.0 GPA from the School of Mom&Dad. Admissions offices in competitive schools deal with this stuff all the time.

Also, in this case there is a natural feedback loop. Michigan and UCLA are not only attractive in their own right, but are great safety schools for many very high scoring students. So, if 20-30 kids apply each year from a school to Michigan, say, and they find that kids with GPA of 3.5 and above almost never accept an admission offer they can very quickly calibrate what that school's GPA means relative to their standards. Three years ago Michigan and UCLA would have been fairly safe bets for someone with a GPA of 3.4 or 3.5 from my kid's school. The bigger concern, especially with Michigan, was that they were getting a little annoyed at being used as a safety, so that kids with higher GPAs were being advised to show interest in the school by visiting etc. or risk being waitlisted. Not sure how this has played out since then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it really likely that an admissions office employee at UCLA or University of wisconsin will be wowed by a DC private school?

If I paid DC private tuition, I would be asking to speak with a counselor sooner.

Don’t underestimate admissions officers, even at public colleges. There is a reason they ALL segment by region. There are certainly readers very familiar with those HS, and for the ones they aren’t it is easy for them to gauge based on the school profile they receive.

They work hard and long hours to get it right. Not saying they always do, but they certainly try.

There are a lot of schools systems and private schools in the US with different levels of grade inflation. Also not all school use the same grading scale. And that is even before trying to fairly evaluate home-schooled kids who have a straight 4.0 GPA from the School of Mom&Dad. Admissions offices in competitive schools deal with this stuff all the time.

Also, in this case there is a natural feedback loop. Michigan and UCLA are not only attractive in their own right, but are great safety schools for many very high scoring students. So, if 20-30 kids apply each year from a school to Michigan, say, and they find that kids with GPA of 3.5 and above almost never accept an admission offer they can very quickly calibrate what that school's GPA means relative to their standards. Three years ago Michigan and UCLA would have been fairly safe bets for someone with a GPA of 3.4 or 3.5 from my kid's school. The bigger concern, especially with Michigan, was that they were getting a little annoyed at being used as a safety, so that kids with higher GPAs were being advised to show interest in the school by visiting etc. or risk being waitlisted. Not sure how this has played out since then.

Not exactly sure what your point is, but if you are trying to imply that adcoms can’t tell the value of HS transcripts, even from schools that aren’t “famous”, you are 100% wrong.

They also have ready data to know how the graduates of HS they have admitted previously have fared at their college. Funny how you think they use that data for yield but not for assessing an applicant’s chance of success.

They know what they are doing. The idea that they can be “tricked” by “grade inflation” is a myth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it really likely that an admissions office employee at UCLA or University of wisconsin will be wowed by a DC private school?

If I paid DC private tuition, I would be asking to speak with a counselor sooner.

Don’t underestimate admissions officers, even at public colleges. There is a reason they ALL segment by region. There are certainly readers very familiar with those HS, and for the ones they aren’t it is easy for them to gauge based on the school profile they receive.

They work hard and long hours to get it right. Not saying they always do, but they certainly try.

There are a lot of schools systems and private schools in the US with different levels of grade inflation. Also not all school use the same grading scale. And that is even before trying to fairly evaluate home-schooled kids who have a straight 4.0 GPA from the School of Mom&Dad. Admissions offices in competitive schools deal with this stuff all the time.

Also, in this case there is a natural feedback loop. Michigan and UCLA are not only attractive in their own right, but are great safety schools for many very high scoring students. So, if 20-30 kids apply each year from a school to Michigan, say, and they find that kids with GPA of 3.5 and above almost never accept an admission offer they can very quickly calibrate what that school's GPA means relative to their standards. Three years ago Michigan and UCLA would have been fairly safe bets for someone with a GPA of 3.4 or 3.5 from my kid's school. The bigger concern, especially with Michigan, was that they were getting a little annoyed at being used as a safety, so that kids with higher GPAs were being advised to show interest in the school by visiting etc. or risk being waitlisted. Not sure how this has played out since then.

Not exactly sure what your point is, but if you are trying to imply that adcoms can’t tell the value of HS transcripts, even from schools that aren’t “famous”, you are 100% wrong.

They also have ready data to know how the graduates of HS they have admitted previously have fared at their college. Funny how you think they use that data for yield but not for assessing an applicant’s chance of success.

They know what they are doing. The idea that they can be “tricked” by “grade inflation” is a myth.

You should try reading with more care! If you do, you will find out that I am making exactly the points that you are also making.