Evaluating kids in the context of their specific high school peer group

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YCBK new episode (Jan 8) had some eye-opening stuff here - curious if anyone else caught it??

1. Kids in HS "making a choice to avoid rather than embrace"

2. There are "bells and whistles that might keep a student in the running"

3. And it is harder to get into a selective school from some of these top high schools that generate a lot of applicants. "Why should you get punished for going to a really good school"? "Why should the bar be higher"?

4. Is yield more important than pure academic rating? Your individual high school's internal knowledge on yield DRIVES a selective school's RD admissions decision-making by the regional AO (ex. Northwestern and Emory RD admittances vary dramatically from a fancy NYC private high school)

5. Colleges want what they DON'T have.

6. The distance traveled = how far have you gone with the resources that you're given?

7. Boys don't look "as together and perfect and spit polished as girls" in the applicant pool. Girls can almost look like they have peaked in high school, which is not good, actually". Colleges are ALL about growth potential. Boys never look very perfect.

8. Evaluating school groups: Schools are looking for students who are a great fit, who are likely to keep growing and contributing - whether 30, 40 or 150 kids are applying from the same high school. It's not linear by GPA. They are also looking for kids in the school group who come from a family that isn't as well-resourced and will factor that in rather than take one broad stroke of the brush and apply the same rules to everyone from the same school. "So a student who is maybe not the top achiever in a school group, but who has been engaged consistently over time and done all the extras in their application is going to get bumped up in the ratings substantially, especially if one of the ratings reflects a likelihood of enrollment." If a college considers demonstrated interests, there is going to be some kind of score on that (an affinity score).

9. Money

OP here. It was one of the better recent podcasts they've done with new material. All interesting. Especially their discussion of this - why it's easier to get into Northwestern RD than Emory RD from a specific city HS. It has to do with your specific high school and how kids have historically "yielded" (if that's a word)....

Emory is yeild protecting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YCBK new episode (Jan 8) had some eye-opening stuff here - curious if anyone else caught it??

1. Kids in HS "making a choice to avoid rather than embrace"

2. There are "bells and whistles that might keep a student in the running"

3. And it is harder to get into a selective school from some of these top high schools that generate a lot of applicants. "Why should you get punished for going to a really good school"? "Why should the bar be higher"?

4. Is yield more important than pure academic rating? Your individual high school's internal knowledge on yield DRIVES a selective school's RD admissions decision-making by the regional AO (ex. Northwestern and Emory RD admittances vary dramatically from a fancy NYC private high school)

5. Colleges want what they DON'T have.

6. The distance traveled = how far have you gone with the resources that you're given?

7. Boys don't look "as together and perfect and spit polished as girls" in the applicant pool. Girls can almost look like they have peaked in high school, which is not good, actually". Colleges are ALL about growth potential. Boys never look very perfect.

8. Evaluating school groups: Schools are looking for students who are a great fit, who are likely to keep growing and contributing - whether 30, 40 or 150 kids are applying from the same high school. It's not linear by GPA. They are also looking for kids in the school group who come from a family that isn't as well-resourced and will factor that in rather than take one broad stroke of the brush and apply the same rules to everyone from the same school. "So a student who is maybe not the top achiever in a school group, but who has been engaged consistently over time and done all the extras in their application is going to get bumped up in the ratings substantially, especially if one of the ratings reflects a likelihood of enrollment." If a college considers demonstrated interests, there is going to be some kind of score on that (an affinity score).

9. Money

OP here. It was one of the better recent podcasts they've done with new material. All interesting. Especially their discussion of this - why it's easier to get into Northwestern RD than Emory RD from a specific city HS. It has to do with your specific high school and how kids have historically "yielded" (if that's a word)....

Emory is yeild protecting?

All Non-T5 selective schools may “look at your high school’s yield” in the context of your high school. This was in the context of a fancy NYC private high school where non of the kids were choosing Emory in RD.

Susan - in the podcast - said your high school’s specific data is always the best data. If you can get information from your college counseling office, it will know trends at a micro level that will drive certain admissions decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YCBK new episode (Jan 8) had some eye-opening stuff here - curious if anyone else caught it??

1. Kids in HS "making a choice to avoid rather than embrace"

2. There are "bells and whistles that might keep a student in the running"

3. And it is harder to get into a selective school from some of these top high schools that generate a lot of applicants. "Why should you get punished for going to a really good school"? "Why should the bar be higher"?

4. Is yield more important than pure academic rating? Your individual high school's internal knowledge on yield DRIVES a selective school's RD admissions decision-making by the regional AO (ex. Northwestern and Emory RD admittances vary dramatically from a fancy NYC private high school)

5. Colleges want what they DON'T have.

6. The distance traveled = how far have you gone with the resources that you're given?

7. Boys don't look "as together and perfect and spit polished as girls" in the applicant pool. Girls can almost look like they have peaked in high school, which is not good, actually". Colleges are ALL about growth potential. Boys never look very perfect.

8. Evaluating school groups: Schools are looking for students who are a great fit, who are likely to keep growing and contributing - whether 30, 40 or 150 kids are applying from the same high school. It's not linear by GPA. They are also looking for kids in the school group who come from a family that isn't as well-resourced and will factor that in rather than take one broad stroke of the brush and apply the same rules to everyone from the same school. "So a student who is maybe not the top achiever in a school group, but who has been engaged consistently over time and done all the extras in their application is going to get bumped up in the ratings substantially, especially if one of the ratings reflects a likelihood of enrollment." If a college considers demonstrated interests, there is going to be some kind of score on that (an affinity score).

9. Money

Thanks OP for recapping. I feel I need a bit more context to understand some of these points. What does the bold text mean? Choice to avoid what , choice to embrace what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YCBK new episode (Jan 8) had some eye-opening stuff here - curious if anyone else caught it??

1. Kids in HS "making a choice to avoid rather than embrace"

2. There are "bells and whistles that might keep a student in the running"

3. And it is harder to get into a selective school from some of these top high schools that generate a lot of applicants. "Why should you get punished for going to a really good school"? "Why should the bar be higher"?

4. Is yield more important than pure academic rating? Your individual high school's internal knowledge on yield DRIVES a selective school's RD admissions decision-making by the regional AO (ex. Northwestern and Emory RD admittances vary dramatically from a fancy NYC private high school)

5. Colleges want what they DON'T have.

6. The distance traveled = how far have you gone with the resources that you're given?

7. Boys don't look "as together and perfect and spit polished as girls" in the applicant pool. Girls can almost look like they have peaked in high school, which is not good, actually". Colleges are ALL about growth potential. Boys never look very perfect.

8. Evaluating school groups: Schools are looking for students who are a great fit, who are likely to keep growing and contributing - whether 30, 40 or 150 kids are applying from the same high school. It's not linear by GPA. They are also looking for kids in the school group who come from a family that isn't as well-resourced and will factor that in rather than take one broad stroke of the brush and apply the same rules to everyone from the same school. "So a student who is maybe not the top achiever in a school group, but who has been engaged consistently over time and done all the extras in their application is going to get bumped up in the ratings substantially, especially if one of the ratings reflects a likelihood of enrollment." If a college considers demonstrated interests, there is going to be some kind of score on that (an affinity score).

9. Money

OP here. It was one of the better recent podcasts they've done with new material. All interesting. Especially their discussion of this - why it's easier to get into Northwestern RD than Emory RD from a specific city HS. It has to do with your specific high school and how kids have historically "yielded" (if that's a word)....

Emory is yeild protecting?

All Non-T5 selective schools may “look at your high school’s yield” in the context of your high school. This was in the context of a fancy NYC private high school where non of the kids were choosing Emory in RD.

Susan - in the podcast - said your high school’s specific data is always the best data. If you can get information from your college counseling office, it will know trends at a micro level that will drive certain admissions decisions.

What I find odd about this is that many high schools may have few applicants to highly selective schools, insufficient data from which to draw conclusions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YCBK new episode (Jan 8) had some eye-opening stuff here - curious if anyone else caught it??

1. Kids in HS "making a choice to avoid rather than embrace"

2. There are "bells and whistles that might keep a student in the running"

3. And it is harder to get into a selective school from some of these top high schools that generate a lot of applicants. "Why should you get punished for going to a really good school"? "Why should the bar be higher"?

4. Is yield more important than pure academic rating? Your individual high school's internal knowledge on yield DRIVES a selective school's RD admissions decision-making by the regional AO (ex. Northwestern and Emory RD admittances vary dramatically from a fancy NYC private high school)

5. Colleges want what they DON'T have.

6. The distance traveled = how far have you gone with the resources that you're given?

7. Boys don't look "as together and perfect and spit polished as girls" in the applicant pool. Girls can almost look like they have peaked in high school, which is not good, actually". Colleges are ALL about growth potential. Boys never look very perfect.

8. Evaluating school groups: Schools are looking for students who are a great fit, who are likely to keep growing and contributing - whether 30, 40 or 150 kids are applying from the same high school. It's not linear by GPA. They are also looking for kids in the school group who come from a family that isn't as well-resourced and will factor that in rather than take one broad stroke of the brush and apply the same rules to everyone from the same school. "So a student who is maybe not the top achiever in a school group, but who has been engaged consistently over time and done all the extras in their application is going to get bumped up in the ratings substantially, especially if one of the ratings reflects a likelihood of enrollment." If a college considers demonstrated interests, there is going to be some kind of score on that (an affinity score).

9. Money

OP here. It was one of the better recent podcasts they've done with new material. All interesting. Especially their discussion of this - why it's easier to get into Northwestern RD than Emory RD from a specific city HS. It has to do with your specific high school and how kids have historically "yielded" (if that's a word)....

Emory is yeild protecting?

All Non-T5 selective schools may “look at your high school’s yield” in the context of your high school. This was in the context of a fancy NYC private high school where non of the kids were choosing Emory in RD.

Susan - in the podcast - said your high school’s specific data is always the best data. If you can get information from your college counseling office, it will know trends at a micro level that will drive certain admissions decisions.

What I find odd about this is that many high schools may have few applicants to highly selective schools, insufficient data from which to draw conclusions.

Sometimes that lack of data may also say something.

Does the college come to your HS? Selective colleges that come to your HS want kids from there….maybe submit a question to YCBK?

Also I imagine this post is likely an Emory/WashU/Georgetown/CMU kind of thing related to yield from certain private high schools.