Big 3 (or thereabouts) College Results - Class of 2021

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is a senior at area private school. College counseling office described this year's application results as "historically awful." This seem to be born out by what I'm seeing/hearing. Lots of deferrals and rejections.

Even for full pay families? Our college advisor said that while so far it’s true results are significantly worse this year, it’s mostly being experienced by those families applying for FA, not full pay. Sounds much like the misbalanced impact of the pandemic itself.

NP. Yes, even for full pay families. We are a full pay family at a Big 3. My kid has been deferred at 7 schools: safeties, matches and reaches. Similar results for ALL DC’s friends that are also full pay. My DC is a complete wreck.

Most kids at big 3 do not apply to 7 schools during early decision/early action unless you also include state schools bc most of the private colleges these kids apply to have a restrictive early action or can only apply to only one school for early decision. We know several seniors at our big 3 school who got into their early school.

Why wouldn’t we include state schools? Many kids are eager for a big school after years at a tiny high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is a senior at area private school. College counseling office described this year's application results as "historically awful." This seem to be born out by what I'm seeing/hearing. Lots of deferrals and rejections.

Even for full pay families? Our college advisor said that while so far it’s true results are significantly worse this year, it’s mostly being experienced by those families applying for FA, not full pay. Sounds much like the misbalanced impact of the pandemic itself.

NP. Yes, even for full pay families. We are a full pay family at a Big 3. My kid has been deferred at 7 schools: safeties, matches and reaches. Similar results for ALL DC’s friends that are also full pay. My DC is a complete wreck.

Ugh. Hang in there. I hope and expect that something good will come your child’s way by May.

Thanks for your kindness. Fingers crossed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is a senior at area private school. College counseling office described this year's application results as "historically awful." This seem to be born out by what I'm seeing/hearing. Lots of deferrals and rejections.

Even for full pay families? Our college advisor said that while so far it’s true results are significantly worse this year, it’s mostly being experienced by those families applying for FA, not full pay. Sounds much like the misbalanced impact of the pandemic itself.

NP. Yes, even for full pay families. We are a full pay family at a Big 3. My kid has been deferred at 7 schools: safeties, matches and reaches. Similar results for ALL DC’s friends that are also full pay. My DC is a complete wreck.

Most kids at big 3 do not apply to 7 schools during early decision/early action unless you also include state schools bc most of the private colleges these kids apply to have a restrictive early action or can only apply to only one school for early decision. We know several seniors at our big 3 school who got into their early school.

Why wouldn’t we include state schools? Many kids are eager for a big school after years at a tiny high school.

+1 - they will be very well prepared and have a very different educational experience. best of both worlds!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suspect these schools are taking many fewer in the early round as they wait and see whetger they will actually be able to open. If they are unable to open their class sizes will probably be much smaller because many will choose to defer. They also have to wait and see where kids that deferred this year choose to come back next year. Then there is a complicating factor of whether international students will be able to come to the US at all from certain countries. It is a very complicated algorithm trying to get the class-size correct.

I agree that schools (especially the top ones) are in a bit of a wait and see mode and want to defer a lot of acceptances for the regular round. I disagree that they may have smaller class sizes if lots of people defer. They will just let folks in off the waitlist (who can't defer) like they did last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder where the spots are going. Are colleges taking more full pay students from less populated states who have good grades at ok schools but no test scores to compare them to students from major cities? or are they taking more underrepresented (by any socioeconomic demographic) students who need financial assistance? It's hard to imagine that colleges would significantly increase their share of scholarship students.

I get the sense that increasingly the early admits to top schools is populated by athletes, URM and donors. Not sure if the increased representation from local publics is accurate. I think the college reps can discern the difference between and A student at Whitman vs a B+ student at NCS if all else is equal. But who knows what’s really happening this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder where the spots are going. Are colleges taking more full pay students from less populated states who have good grades at ok schools but no test scores to compare them to students from major cities? or are they taking more underrepresented (by any socioeconomic demographic) students who need financial assistance? It's hard to imagine that colleges would significantly increase their share of scholarship students.

I get the sense that increasingly the early admits to top schools is populated by athletes, URM and donors. Not sure if the increased representation from local publics is accurate. I think the college reps can discern the difference between and A student at Whitman vs a B+ student at NCS if all else is equal. But who knows what’s really happening this year.

but that A student from Whitman has a pile of AP scores to back up the A. A ton of name privates have either limited or eliminated APs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder where the spots are going. Are colleges taking more full pay students from less populated states who have good grades at ok schools but no test scores to compare them to students from major cities? or are they taking more underrepresented (by any socioeconomic demographic) students who need financial assistance? It's hard to imagine that colleges would significantly increase their share of scholarship students.

I get the sense that increasingly the early admits to top schools is populated by athletes, URM and donors. Not sure if the increased representation from local publics is accurate. I think the college reps can discern the difference between and A student at Whitman vs a B+ student at NCS if all else is equal. But who knows what’s really happening this year.

but that A student from Whitman has a pile of AP scores to back up the A. A ton of name privates have either limited or eliminated APs

+2 I suspect lack of APs is hindering private school kids. Many top students at public schools will have 8 AP classes!

[Anonymous]

Good point. It would be helpful to have college admissions officers communicate to our HS counselors what they’re looking for but, at least at our private, our counselors don’t know or won’t say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is a senior at area private school. College counseling office described this year's application results as "historically awful." This seem to be born out by what I'm seeing/hearing. Lots of deferrals and rejections.

Even for full pay families? Our college advisor said that while so far it’s true results are significantly worse this year, it’s mostly being experienced by those families applying for FA, not full pay. Sounds much like the misbalanced impact of the pandemic itself.

NP. Yes, even for full pay families. We are a full pay family at a Big 3. My kid has been deferred at 7 schools: safeties, matches and reaches. Similar results for ALL DC’s friends that are also full pay. My DC is a complete wreck.

Ugh. Hang in there. I hope and expect that something good will come your child’s way by May.

Thanks for your kindness. Fingers crossed!

Money well spent, eh? Ha ha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is a senior at area private school. College counseling office described this year's application results as "historically awful." This seem to be born out by what I'm seeing/hearing. Lots of deferrals and rejections.

Even for full pay families? Our college advisor said that while so far it’s true results are significantly worse this year, it’s mostly being experienced by those families applying for FA, not full pay. Sounds much like the misbalanced impact of the pandemic itself.

NP. Yes, even for full pay families. We are a full pay family at a Big 3. My kid has been deferred at 7 schools: safeties, matches and reaches. Similar results for ALL DC’s friends that are also full pay. My DC is a complete wreck.

Ugh. Hang in there. I hope and expect that something good will come your child’s way by May.

Thanks for your kindness. Fingers crossed!

Money well spent, eh? Ha ha

What a j*er*k. FYI, it is negligible, a rounding error.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is a senior at area private school. College counseling office described this year's application results as "historically awful." This seem to be born out by what I'm seeing/hearing. Lots of deferrals and rejections.

Even for full pay families? Our college advisor said that while so far it’s true results are significantly worse this year, it’s mostly being experienced by those families applying for FA, not full pay. Sounds much like the misbalanced impact of the pandemic itself.

NP. Yes, even for full pay families. We are a full pay family at a Big 3. My kid has been deferred at 7 schools: safeties, matches and reaches. Similar results for ALL DC’s friends that are also full pay. My DC is a complete wreck.

Ugh. Hang in there. I hope and expect that something good will come your child’s way by May.

Thanks for your kindness. Fingers crossed!

Money well spent, eh? Ha ha

What a j*er*k. FYI, it is negligible, a rounding error.

Well, it was an error all right. That's for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder where the spots are going. Are colleges taking more full pay students from less populated states who have good grades at ok schools but no test scores to compare them to students from major cities? or are they taking more underrepresented (by any socioeconomic demographic) students who need financial assistance? It's hard to imagine that colleges would significantly increase their share of scholarship students.

I get the sense that increasingly the early admits to top schools is populated by athletes, URM and donors. Not sure if the increased representation from local publics is accurate. I think the college reps can discern the difference between and A student at Whitman vs a B+ student at NCS if all else is equal. But who knows what’s really happening this year.

but that A student from Whitman has a pile of AP scores to back up the A. A ton of name privates have either limited or eliminated APs

+2 I suspect lack of APs is hindering private school kids. Many top students at public schools will have 8 AP classes!

I don’t think this is the case. You can always take the AP exam even if the classes are not labeled AP. A lot of kids do this. My own kid will have 7 AP exams by the time he graduates from a big 3. As for higher GPAs at public schools, it doesn’t matter what GPA p

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder where the spots are going. Are colleges taking more full pay students from less populated states who have good grades at ok schools but no test scores to compare them to students from major cities? or are they taking more underrepresented (by any socioeconomic demographic) students who need financial assistance? It's hard to imagine that colleges would significantly increase their share of scholarship students.

I get the sense that increasingly the early admits to top schools is populated by athletes, URM and donors. Not sure if the increased representation from local publics is accurate. I think the college reps can discern the difference between and A student at Whitman vs a B+ student at NCS if all else is equal. But who knows what’s really happening this year.

but that A student from Whitman has a pile of AP scores to back up the A. A ton of name privates have either limited or eliminated APs

+2 I suspect lack of APs is hindering private school kids. Many top students at public schools will have 8 AP classes!

I don’t think this is the case. You can always take the AP exam even if the classes are not labeled AP. A lot of kids do this. My own kid will have 7 AP exams by the time he graduates from a big 3. As for higher GPAs at public schools, it doesn’t matter what GPA p

Comparing GPA from public to private schools is apple to oranges. Each school is being compared to his own peers at his own school.

[Anonymous]

My kid is at a Big 3 also. We have one solid EA acceptance which we thought was a borderline safety school but is looking better and better to attend with all the deferrals my kid has gotten (and to schools where the kid fell squarely within the Naviance acceptance range). And we are full-pay so that has not made a difference.

I do think the public school students with 4.5 GPAs and 10 AP classes are winning out this year compared to the top one-third of students at private schools that have a 3.5 - 3.7 GPA and no AP classes. My kid has a GPA in this range and solid ACT results (34-36) but with test scores becoming increasingly irrelevant, all that stands out is a deflated 3.5 against an inflated 4.5.

All I can hope is that this is a long process that will continue to unfold until June 1. The public school kids are applying to a lot more schools and getting into to places. However, they can only attend one college so I'm hoping the deferrals turn into acceptances or waitlists which then turn into acceptances.

High School counselors at our Big 3 are MIA and seem to be unaccountable and untouchable. If they are feeling panicked, they are definitely not showing it. Plus, they never guarantee results. They always say, "it looks like", "we hope" or "Naviance shows." So with that vague language, they effectively hedge their bets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at a Big 3 also. We have one solid EA acceptance which we thought was a borderline safety school but is looking better and better to attend with all the deferrals my kid has gotten (and to schools where the kid fell squarely within the Naviance acceptance range). And we are full-pay so that has not made a difference.

I do think the public school students with 4.5 GPAs and 10 AP classes are winning out this year compared to the top one-third of students at private schools that have a 3.5 - 3.7 GPA and no AP classes. My kid has a GPA in this range and solid ACT results (34-36) but with test scores becoming increasingly irrelevant, all that stands out is a deflated 3.5 against an inflated 4.5.

All I can hope is that this is a long process that will continue to unfold until June 1. The public school kids are applying to a lot more schools and getting into to places. However, they can only attend one college so I'm hoping the deferrals turn into acceptances or waitlists which then turn into acceptances.

High School counselors at our Big 3 are MIA and seem to be unaccountable and untouchable. If they are feeling panicked, they are definitely not showing it. Plus, they never guarantee results. They always say, "it looks like", "we hope" or "Naviance shows." So with that vague language, they effectively hedge their bets.

Yes, they are doing MUCH, MUCH better than the big3 kids. I have one kid at a Big3 and and one at Wilson (DCPS). The Wilson kids are doing far better at the same colleges (than the Big3 kids). I think it's combination of grade inflation, APs and public schools just being "in vogue" with admissions officers. The results are night and day (admissions--public, deferrals/rejections--private).