What is the space for my kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the advice so far. I’ll try and answer some of the Qs abt DD. She has no interest in big state Us (otherwise we’d be pushing UVA a lot harder) so her only state school pick is WM which she’s not crazy about but we wanted her to pick one to look at. We took her to our alma maters (UT and Mich) and she had no interest. She did one thing that garnered a bit of national press attention (feel good local story tv story, articles in some national papers and magazines, a small award or two) which she is writing her common app on but other than that her activities are pretty standard. I’m white and DH is Persian (I guess technically also white) so no URM.

If the 15,000+ schools are out (UVA, JMU, VT, GMU), that leaves a ton of options like CNU, Longwood, Mary Washington, ODU...and those are more realistic options for her. With her GPA, she is probably just above average in her class, so stop pushing the highly selective schools. Check the scattergrams as mentioned earlier.

This post is totally off-base for a 3.8 unweighted. Selective schools are definitely within reach.

Not if they aren’t in an AP program.

Many private schools don't weight or have "AP Programs." But, it's true, that the GPA tells very little without knowing rigor of classes, etc

[Anonymous]

See above - the 3.8 is UW. That changes things.

The answer is to consult Naviance and do more research. Northwestern is a reach for all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your DD has a choice. Either use ED for a "dream" school where she has about a 10% chance of admissions, or use if for something more realistic. If you burn your ED on a reach, then being in a regular applicant pool makes even the 'match' schools that much more difficult.

Think of it this way, there are 50,000 NMSF who have 1550+ on their SAT's and 3.9-4.5 GPA's, many of whom are also editor of their newspapers, 4-8 varsity letters, 200+ hours of community service all applying for the same slots at the same top 20 schools. Add to it all of the international students and you can see where the numbers become untenable.

Add to that, slots used for target students: athletes, some legacies, URMs and it gets to be like a lottery.

There has to be something so compelling in the DD of the OP's story to catch the eye of an AD. If she doesn't have that story, the stats are unlikely to get her into the conversation, no matter how smart, well composed, hard working etc she might be.

+1. I was going to say that thinking of a 75 th percentile school as safety is naïve but this post has way more information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD is a junior. As of the end of first semester of this year she has a 3.8 and 1450. In my day those kids had a shot at top 20 but DD says that is not the case anymore. She can’t however seem to come up with what schools are her target/low reaches. Her favorite school right now is Northwestern (wants to ED) and she is also drawn to schools like Penn and GT. Her stats consistently seem to fall in the 25th percentile of the top tier schools she looks at and the 75th percentile of the more safety schools. Where is she 50th? What’s a good school for a strong but not quite perfect student? I don’t want her to have just reached and safeties.

If she doesn't have a hook beyond grades/test scores for a selective school, falling at the 75th is a target not a safety. Falling above the 75th%ile in a school that accepts at least 50% is what we've been told is the best way to think about a true safety.

Naviance (which you should have access to through your school as a junior) is great for schools where a lot of students apply but selectivity keeps going up so you have to tilt it up a bit because the data is often the last 3-5 years. For schools like Northwestern it's often less useful because fewer apply and you don't know if they had a hook like a sports recruitment, legacy, national award etc.

National award isn’t a hook, it’s an earned credential.

Agree. This “earned credential’ poster has a chip on her shoulder. And her information does nothing to help the OP.

OP it sounds like DC wants a larger university but I’d look at schools like Lehigh, Bucknell, Lafayette, Union, Colgate.

Being an athlete is an earned credential as well. It is all a numbers game and an applicant either has a story that catches the eye, or they don't. There are thousands of talented, hard working students out there, and the most selective colleges really have their pick of how they want to round out a class.

Of course recruited athlete is an earned credential and of course the college can do whatever they’d like in admissions but it is important to distinguish between something an applicant has genuinely earned vs. something they just happen to be, like a legacy or an URM.

I would say it’s completely unimportant to distinguish among the various hooks if you are try to figure out the odds of acceptance for your kid with no hooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Succeeding in high school as a legacy is also earned.

But we are talking about getting admission to a preferred college. In that case, legacy isn't earned unless the soul/spirit (or whatever you call it) wished to be born to that parent/couple to have legacy opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is a junior. As of the end of first semester of this year she has a 3.8 and 1450. In my day those kids had a shot at top 20 but DD says that is not the case anymore. She can’t however seem to come up with what schools are her target/low reaches. Her favorite school right now is Northwestern (wants to ED) and she is also drawn to schools like Penn and GT. Her stats consistently seem to fall in the 25th percentile of the top tier schools she looks at and the 75th percentile of the more safety schools. Where is she 50th? What’s a good school for a strong but not quite perfect student? I don’t want her to have just reached and safeties.

O9 unless I missed it, you’ve left out crucial details. You finally said 3.8’is unweighted, but what is the junior load? Honors? AP? AP in core courses , or AP in easy things like comp sci or human geo?

That GPA can be amazing or very average. it really depends on the courseload.

[Anonymous]

If your kid has any interest in journalism apply to the Medill Cherub program at Northwestern. Kids who do it have a much higher chance at admission to NW than the average applicant. It's also a great summer experience.

https://www.medill.northwestern.edu/journalism/high-school-programs/medill-cherubs.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My goodness! OPs question was what makes a good match for a kid with those stats not whatever many questions you all seem to he answering instead. Wash U, Emory, and GT are good answers I’ve seen for lower reaches. Seven sisters and related LACs that aren’t top five but still elite are some other good options.

A 3.8 and 1450 makes those schools solid Reaches. Maybe if they were instate for GT but that's a big maybe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My goodness! OPs question was what makes a good match for a kid with those stats not whatever many questions you all seem to he answering instead. Wash U, Emory, and GT are good answers I’ve seen for lower reaches. Seven sisters and related LACs that aren’t top five but still elite are some other good options.

A 3.8 and 1450 makes those schools solid Reaches. Maybe if they were instate for GT but that's a big maybe.

I’m pretty sure OP said GT as Georgetown based on the other schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My goodness! OPs question was what makes a good match for a kid with those stats not whatever many questions you all seem to he answering instead. Wash U, Emory, and GT are good answers I’ve seen for lower reaches. Seven sisters and related LACs that aren’t top five but still elite are some other good options.

A 3.8 and 1450 makes those schools solid Reaches. Maybe if they were instate for GT but that's a big maybe.

I’m pretty sure OP said GT as Georgetown based on the other schools

Oh well, in that case, it's a SOlid Reach too.