another 3.8 kid from private

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High school is Gonzaga. Does that change the advice?

Let me ask my previous question in a different way: is your son’s GPA in the top 10 percent in Gonzaga? Top 20 percent?

At our school, the kids who are accepted to Dartmouth ED have GPAs around 93-95. They are not athletes or legacies. They are not in the top 10 percent but in the top 20-30 percent.

[Anonymous]

I don't think you're getting into the Ivy League (Dartmouth or otherwise) unhooked with a 3.8 from Gonzaga. It can happen from the Big3 but they have grade deflation and an average GPA of 3.5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High school is Gonzaga. Does that change the advice?

Let me ask my previous question in a different way: is your son’s GPA in the top 10 percent in Gonzaga? Top 20 percent?

At our school, the kids who are accepted to Dartmouth ED have GPAs around 93-95. They are not athletes or legacies. They are not in the top 10 percent but in the top 20-30 percent.

A 95% is only at the top 20-30% at your school? What school is this? Super high grading!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High school is Gonzaga. Does that change the advice?

At our school, the kids who are accepted to Dartmouth ED have GPAs around 93-95. They are not athletes or legacies. They are not in the top 10 percent but in the top 20-30 percent.

Grade inflation in action. 93-95 in top 20-30 percentile. Wow. Must be a public school.

In our school, 3.5 makes that range. 3.3 is the 50 percentile.

[Anonymous]

if your kid is really risk averse, ED1 to Midd.

otherwise, roll the dice and apply to all during RD.

our NYC private does very well with all those schools (minus Dartmouth - very low apps from our HS to Dartmouth). I think you could get several offers. Williams has the best FA and likes our school. Pomona is the hardest admit from our school out of the list. Swat is easier and Amherst, like Dartmouth, not many apps. Bowdoin likes a strong "Why us".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High school is Gonzaga. Does that change the advice?

At our school, the kids who are accepted to Dartmouth ED have GPAs around 93-95. They are not athletes or legacies. They are not in the top 10 percent but in the top 20-30 percent.

Grade inflation in action. 93-95 in top 20-30 percentile. Wow. Must be a public school.

In our school, 3.5 makes that range. 3.3 is the 50 percentile.

Private independent school in DMV. Top 10 percent is usually 97-100. Average GPA is around 91-92.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. If he's so smart, hasn't he read all the professors' web pages and looked at what courses and clubs and research programs and summer programs, etc, are offered at each college, and figured out which is his first and second choice? He should know what he would write in his essay that would convey what he would contribute to the school's scholarship and community. DCUM cannot answer this for you.

I am genuinely puzzled by all these brilliant, rich, private schoool kids who don't bother to do their own research and figure out which colleges appeal to them and why.

Kindly, I don't expect that would you understand. Successful private school students that come from highly rigorous schools obviously have ideas about where they'd like to go to schools, but most of them are also working insane hours each day with school, sports, extracurricular, job, internship, etc. commitments. The parents that send their kids to these schools generally are more involved, or place a higher value on academics, therefore they will do their own research, too. A person who's child is lower energy and from a less demanding school would likely not understand these things. DP

NP. This doesn’t make any sense. What’s low energy about a kid actually doing their own research?

It does make me laugh, though, because two recent college tour guides wrapped up their tours by telling the group they chose the school because their mom told them to. Very impressive!

I don't understand the point of anything you just said. Low energy means if you go to school at 9:45 am in your pajama pants then come home and bed rot while looking on your phone for five hours you have more time to do a deep dive into colleges. If you have kids that are gone from the house 12 hours a day going from school, to activity/job, to hours of homework you understand why it's beneficial to have a parent also researching college. Honestly, the more people that are vested in a child's success, including that child, the better. Obviously, there are lots of public school kids that work this hard, too. My guess is that they also have involved parents. As you can see from your college tour guides (usually successful students), kids that have involved parents tend to be more successful and healthy young adults. Like I said, if you're not living that life, you won't understand. Peace.

DP: The difference here isn't energy, it's self-direction. Kids at top privates have less of it -- often because they've been strongly (and well) directed. Self-direction is not encouraged or supported. Your kid is interested in a sport? Parent finds them the best private coaches and the most competitive travel teams from an early age. Has a good mind for math? Parent steers the 6th grader to Russian Math school or the Art of Problem Solving.

Rich kids with connected parents have an entire support system to present them with curated options, which saves them time (how much time do parents spend on this site?) and also emotional energy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. If he's so smart, hasn't he read all the professors' web pages and looked at what courses and clubs and research programs and summer programs, etc, are offered at each college, and figured out which is his first and second choice? He should know what he would write in his essay that would convey what he would contribute to the school's scholarship and community. DCUM cannot answer this for you.

I am genuinely puzzled by all these brilliant, rich, private schoool kids who don't bother to do their own research and figure out which colleges appeal to them and why.

Kindly, I don't expect that would you understand. Successful private school students that come from highly rigorous schools obviously have ideas about where they'd like to go to schools, but most of them are also working insane hours each day with school, sports, extracurricular, job, internship, etc. commitments. The parents that send their kids to these schools generally are more involved, or place a higher value on academics, therefore they will do their own research, too. A person who's child is lower energy and from a less demanding school would likely not understand these things. DP

NP. This doesn’t make any sense. What’s low energy about a kid actually doing their own research?

It does make me laugh, though, because two recent college tour guides wrapped up their tours by telling the group they chose the school because their mom told them to. Very impressive!

I don't understand the point of anything you just said. Low energy means if you go to school at 9:45 am in your pajama pants then come home and bed rot while looking on your phone for five hours you have more time to do a deep dive into colleges. If you have kids that are gone from the house 12 hours a day going from school, to activity/job, to hours of homework you understand why it's beneficial to have a parent also researching college. Honestly, the more people that are vested in a child's success, including that child, the better. Obviously, there are lots of public school kids that work this hard, too. My guess is that they also have involved parents. As you can see from your college tour guides (usually successful students), kids that have involved parents tend to be more successful and healthy young adults. Like I said, if you're not living that life, you won't understand. Peace.

DP: The difference here isn't energy, it's self-direction. Kids at top privates have less of it -- often because they've been strongly (and well) directed. Self-direction is not encouraged or supported. Your kid is interested in a sport? Parent finds them the best private coaches and the most competitive travel teams from an early age. Has a good mind for math? Parent steers the 6th grader to Russian Math school or the Art of Problem Solving.

Rich kids with connected parents have an entire support system to present them with curated options, which saves them time (how much time do parents spend on this site?) and also emotional energy.

So if you have a kid at a private school who is unusually self-directed and motivated with an unusual background or interest, is that memorable? What's the point of your post?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. If he's so smart, hasn't he read all the professors' web pages and looked at what courses and clubs and research programs and summer programs, etc, are offered at each college, and figured out which is his first and second choice? He should know what he would write in his essay that would convey what he would contribute to the school's scholarship and community. DCUM cannot answer this for you.

I am genuinely puzzled by all these brilliant, rich, private schoool kids who don't bother to do their own research and figure out which colleges appeal to them and why.

Kindly, I don't expect that would you understand. Successful private school students that come from highly rigorous schools obviously have ideas about where they'd like to go to schools, but most of them are also working insane hours each day with school, sports, extracurricular, job, internship, etc. commitments. The parents that send their kids to these schools generally are more involved, or place a higher value on academics, therefore they will do their own research, too. A person who's child is lower energy and from a less demanding school would likely not understand these things. DP

NP. This doesn’t make any sense. What’s low energy about a kid actually doing their own research?

It does make me laugh, though, because two recent college tour guides wrapped up their tours by telling the group they chose the school because their mom told them to. Very impressive!

I don't understand the point of anything you just said. Low energy means if you go to school at 9:45 am in your pajama pants then come home and bed rot while looking on your phone for five hours you have more time to do a deep dive into colleges. If you have kids that are gone from the house 12 hours a day going from school, to activity/job, to hours of homework you understand why it's beneficial to have a parent also researching college. Honestly, the more people that are vested in a child's success, including that child, the better. Obviously, there are lots of public school kids that work this hard, too. My guess is that they also have involved parents. As you can see from your college tour guides (usually successful students), kids that have involved parents tend to be more successful and healthy young adults. Like I said, if you're not living that life, you won't understand. Peace.

DP: The difference here isn't energy, it's self-direction. Kids at top privates have less of it -- often because they've been strongly (and well) directed. Self-direction is not encouraged or supported. Your kid is interested in a sport? Parent finds them the best private coaches and the most competitive travel teams from an early age. Has a good mind for math? Parent steers the 6th grader to Russian Math school or the Art of Problem Solving.

Rich kids with connected parents have an entire support system to present them with curated options, which saves them time (how much time do parents spend on this site?) and also emotional energy.

I'm the poster from above. You can call it energy, self-direction, whatever. I've taught in public school and private...I've seen it all. No kid is the same. Kids with a lack of self-direction or low energy, whatever, are the ones that lay around and have time they could be using wisely but choose not to. Many of those kids could have better self-direction or more energy if that was modeling for them or expected from them by higher drive parents. Then you have low-energy kids whose parents guide them or force them along. Then you have the kids with high energy, self-direction, whatever with parents who are the same. I'd bet money those are the kids that have the greatest amount of stress and anxiety issues. Usually the kids that are most interested in doing a deep dive into colleges don't have the time to do so, in this day and age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. If he's so smart, hasn't he read all the professors' web pages and looked at what courses and clubs and research programs and summer programs, etc, are offered at each college, and figured out which is his first and second choice? He should know what he would write in his essay that would convey what he would contribute to the school's scholarship and community. DCUM cannot answer this for you.

I am genuinely puzzled by all these brilliant, rich, private schoool kids who don't bother to do their own research and figure out which colleges appeal to them and why.

Kindly, I don't expect that would you understand. Successful private school students that come from highly rigorous schools obviously have ideas about where they'd like to go to schools, but most of them are also working insane hours each day with school, sports, extracurricular, job, internship, etc. commitments. The parents that send their kids to these schools generally are more involved, or place a higher value on academics, therefore they will do their own research, too. A person who's child is lower energy and from a less demanding school would likely not understand these things. DP

NP. This doesn’t make any sense. What’s low energy about a kid actually doing their own research?

It does make me laugh, though, because two recent college tour guides wrapped up their tours by telling the group they chose the school because their mom told them to. Very impressive!

I don't understand the point of anything you just said. Low energy means if you go to school at 9:45 am in your pajama pants then come home and bed rot while looking on your phone for five hours you have more time to do a deep dive into colleges. If you have kids that are gone from the house 12 hours a day going from school, to activity/job, to hours of homework you understand why it's beneficial to have a parent also researching college. Honestly, the more people that are vested in a child's success, including that child, the better. Obviously, there are lots of public school kids that work this hard, too. My guess is that they also have involved parents. As you can see from your college tour guides (usually successful students), kids that have involved parents tend to be more successful and healthy young adults. Like I said, if you're not living that life, you won't understand. Peace.

DP: The difference here isn't energy, it's self-direction. Kids at top privates have less of it -- often because they've been strongly (and well) directed. Self-direction is not encouraged or supported. Your kid is interested in a sport? Parent finds them the best private coaches and the most competitive travel teams from an early age. Has a good mind for math? Parent steers the 6th grader to Russian Math school or the Art of Problem Solving.

Rich kids with connected parents have an entire support system to present them with curated options, which saves them time (how much time do parents spend on this site?) and also emotional energy.

So if you have a kid at a private school who is unusually self-directed and motivated with an unusual background or interest, is that memorable? What's the point of your post?

Speaking from experience, those with the money for curated options typically do it because they don't have the time to do it themselves. Two successful working parents and a kid making top grades doing a variety of activities. It saves time when there's not to spare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High school is Gonzaga. Does that change the advice?

Let me ask my previous question in a different way: is your son’s GPA in the top 10 percent in Gonzaga? Top 20 percent?

At our school, the kids who are accepted to Dartmouth ED have GPAs around 93-95. They are not athletes or legacies. They are not in the top 10 percent but in the top 20-30 percent.

A 95% is only at the top 20-30% at your school? What school is this? Super high grading!

It’s obviously a feeder, Dartmouth just a little bit easier than Harvard, Princeton, Yale at our private. Name the school, pp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Known private/feeder in NYC. But classes are small so naviance data isn't robust.

Dartmouth is the one school that hasn't really taken any kids with a 3.8 (except a couple w 3.6ish - I assume athletes). So they don't seem willing to look past a 3.8. Which is fine.

We'll have our first 1-1 college counselor meeting in a month . Just want to start thinking.

The "one over the others" is Williams, but I think that's tough. He doesn't want to do Midd febs entry, and I don't think he'll have to. So in my mind that's the range: reach (Williams) and safety( Midd Febs) . But I could be wrong

its a nyc private

[Anonymous]

What about WashU?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about Colgate or Holy Cross. Bowdoin and Midd are smaller. HC has powerhouse alumni network and only 1 hour into Boston.

what's wrong with the list the kid has?

No non-athletes apply ED to Williams anymore; it's too crowded.

Not true - my DC non-athlete got into Williams ED a couple of years ago

[Anonymous]

Wash U, Hamilton, Colgate would be likely ED IMO. Otherwise ED1 midd and cross your fingers.