My child is super intelligent and won't get into any good schools? What?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

He has a chance, but college admissions now is very different from 25 years ago. Much morenlike a lottery now. Cast a wide net, with several reaches, several targets, and several safeties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

But, sadly it is true. Most SLACs like my own are struggling financially since covid. They rely on full-freight American students and Internationals to pay for the scholarship URM and first genaration students and expensive DEI programs and unnecessary capital expenses (gyn, fancy dorms) used to lure in applications. Lost in all of this is the American middle class and UMC who cannot afford $94k a year. It has zero to do with zenophobia. It's all financial. google it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well my kid who got a 1580, had a 4.4 weighted gpa and has a 145 IQ didn’t get into VT or UVA. But he got in elsewhere and is loving it. Apply wisely with good safeties and a range of targets. Reaches are unlikely.

That’s insane. I assume he was in-state? I’m hoping my child might get into William and Mary when the time comes, but I suspect he’ll be a smidge lower on the scale than your child. The current process is crazy.

It's not insane. SCHEV reports that last uear's UVA clasd has a 4.5 at the 75th percentile (which is where unhooked NOVA students should aim). W&M is the same. You need top grades, top ECs, top 6% of the class, top
rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well my kid who got a 1580, had a 4.4 weighted gpa and has a 145 IQ didn’t get into VT or UVA. But he got in elsewhere and is loving it. Apply wisely with good safeties and a range of targets. Reaches are unlikely.

Is he engineering?

Generally UVA and Tech are pretty consistent. Those kinds of scores usually get in.

[Anonymous]

It is all about the math. Every year the US produces 75K kids with 4.0+ GPAs and 1500/35+ SAT/ACT scores. That is enough to fill every Freshman seat in the top 20+ universities. Add in foreign students with stellar credentials and you have tough competition at the top.

Add in that schools need athletes, band members, etc., and it becomes a crap shoot. If you kid fills a need the school has that year and your odds get better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid (11th grade) is smart. Like, super smart. Not genius level, but he has maintained his 4.0 with ease and sails through AP and DE classes. His IQ is somewhere around 140. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, but I'm sure he'll do super well.

Despite all this, he keeps telling me he has "no shot" at good colleges (not Ivies, but schools like UC Davis, Georgia Tech, etc). I really don't understand how college admissions have become so competitive that a child in the 99th percentile will have trouble being admitted to schools without insanely low acceptance rates.

Is he exaggerating, or is this true?

BTW, IQ scores are irrelevant in college admissions unless they play out in high school rank or test scores. Mine is four standard deviations above normal but I got into the T4 law schools simply because of top placement in college class (summa, no 1) due to hard work and LSAT scores. My children are both 145+ and life members in Mensa. No one cares about that in college admissions. Fortunately, European universities are still invested in merit (not IQ claims -it has to be demonstrated) not DEI games and skin color so that's are focus innapplications and it has worked out well. I can provide for info about Oxbridge applications if interested. Many parents of gifted students who don't want to pay $93k a year for social wokeism are looking at Canadian Universities, German and Dutch

[Anonymous]

Don't worry. Troll University still considers legacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well my kid who got a 1580, had a 4.4 weighted gpa and has a 145 IQ didn’t get into VT or UVA. But he got in elsewhere and is loving it. Apply wisely with good safeties and a range of targets. Reaches are unlikely.

That’s insane. I assume he was in-state? I’m hoping my child might get into William and Mary when the time comes, but I suspect he’ll be a smidge lower on the scale than your child. The current process is crazy.

Sorry. I don’t believe that. From our rigorous private in NJ kids who aren’t nearly that credentialed get into VT.

I don’t know what to tell you. That was my kid and he didn’t get into VT (engineering) and no A+ on our scale and he had good EC and a very rigorous schedule. He is an Asian/white male in STEM and he applied before AA was ended. But he is from NOVA and it is hard to get into our top state schools because of the number of great students here trying for these schools. Much easier from out of state, I suspect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well my kid who got a 1580, had a 4.4 weighted gpa and has a 145 IQ didn’t get into VT or UVA. But he got in elsewhere and is loving it. Apply wisely with good safeties and a range of targets. Reaches are unlikely.

Is he engineering?

Generally UVA and Tech are pretty consistent. Those kinds of scores usually get in.

That was me. Yes, engineering. We have found from friends stories that UVA is fairly predictable from naviance but VT is all over the place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is all about the math. Every year the US produces 75K kids with 4.0+ GPAs and 1500/35+ SAT/ACT scores. That is enough to fill every Freshman seat in the top 20+ universities. Add in foreign students with stellar credentials and you have tough competition at the top.

Add in that schools need athletes, band members, etc., and it becomes a crap shoot. If you kid fills a need the school has that year and your odds get better.

Eliminate super scoring and raise the bar to 1600/35 and you have less than 3,000 kids. If I can get a well rounded kid with that higher level of capacity?

All day, every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is all about the math. Every year the US produces 75K kids with 4.0+ GPAs and 1500/35+ SAT/ACT scores. That is enough to fill every Freshman seat in the top 20+ universities. Add in foreign students with stellar credentials and you have tough competition at the top.

Add in that schools need athletes, band members, etc., and it becomes a crap shoot. If you kid fills a need the school has that year and your odds get better.

Eliminate super scoring and raise the bar to 1600/35 and you have less than 3,000 kids. If I can get a well rounded kid with that higher level of capacity?

All day, every day.

Correction: 1600/36

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He’s anxious and you are feeding it. Look at Naviance or SCOIR (whichever your school has) together. Check Instagram and see where last year’s seniors went. It’s a challenging climate but it’s not like kids aren’t getting into colleges.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well my kid who got a 1580, had a 4.4 weighted gpa and has a 145 IQ didn’t get into VT or UVA. But he got in elsewhere and is loving it. Apply wisely with good safeties and a range of targets. Reaches are unlikely.

That’s insane. I assume he was in-state? I’m hoping my child might get into William and Mary when the time comes, but I suspect he’ll be a smidge lower on the scale than your child. The current process is crazy.

Sorry. I don’t believe that. From our rigorous private in NJ kids who aren’t nearly that credentialed get into VT.

I don’t know what to tell you. That was my kid and he didn’t get into VT (engineering) and no A+ on our scale and he had good EC and a very rigorous schedule. He is an Asian/white male in STEM and he applied before AA was ended. But he is from NOVA and it is hard to get into our top state schools because of the number of great students here trying for these schools. Much easier from out of state, I suspect.

Admission to VaTech is known to be easier for oos.

[Anonymous]

Well tell him that no one knows until they apply OP. He should talk to the college counselor. I assume from the GPA you listed that he is going to public HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's true. They would rather take foreigners at 3x the price than your kid. He should apply anyway. The rejections will help him to build resilience for the job market which is this but worse.

Please ignore this xenophobic piece of disinformation. I'm a foreigner, I know other foreigners, and it's just as hard if not harder for our kids to get in. Thank you.

Also, it's not like there is a separate price for foreigners that is 3x what Americans pay.

NP. Give it some thought. Really think about it. The poster is referring to international students. They do pay significantly more, as they should.