It really is SUCH a huge disadvantage to be applying to college from the DMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

That is the worst "back in my day" i have ever heard. Elizabeth II had private tutors and didn't experience any hardship until WW2 broke out. So comparing how UMC kids in the 2020s are doing to the heir presumptive of England in the 1940s is just dumb. Compare how UMC kids today are doing with how Prince George and the other two are doing, ok?

as if these kids dont have private tutors! and central air and more international travel and cleaner water and central heating and spa showers and Mexican food.

the better childhood than QE makes sense to me. are kids are not living better than the richest royalty today? okay, I give you that.

QE2 had multiple full time private tutors in lieu of going to school. That is not anywhere close to the same as having a tutor 1-2 hours a week.

also, do you think QE2 couldn't get Mexican food and Buckingham palace wasn't heated?

[Anonymous]

Also, central heating already existed in the US middle class as early as 1950s, if not earlier. So

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But keep in mind, it's not always sunshine and rainbows for those you deem "lesser" who were accepted into ivies or T20.

My nephew from GA was accepted into Penn and has struggled this entire first year. He's on academic probation right now after failing to maintain a 2.0 his first semester. My SIL said right now he's above a 2.0 for this semester but just barely. He was top of his class at his GA private but their academic rigor clearly wasn't where it should have been. His private didn't even offer AP courses! That's a big red flag, IMO. They tout it as "not teaching to the test" but look what happens when you don't teach to the same standard as most other schools - your students come out unprepared.

Thats embarassing. Just embarassing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

So places where there is both high population density and a very high concentration of wealth produce the most kids who get into elite schools? Who would’ve guessed?

[Anonymous]

Thats why its better to stand out in an ok school vs. your "top" schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

That is the worst "back in my day" i have ever heard. Elizabeth II had private tutors and didn't experience any hardship until WW2 broke out. So comparing how UMC kids in the 2020s are doing to the heir presumptive of England in the 1940s is just dumb. Compare how UMC kids today are doing with how Prince George and the other two are doing, ok?

I cannot imagine her childhood was that plush. Money makes life comfortable but that was just one part of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

So places where there is both high population density and a very high concentration of wealth produce the most kids who get into elite schools? Who would’ve guessed?

Not by percent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

That is the worst "back in my day" i have ever heard. Elizabeth II had private tutors and didn't experience any hardship until WW2 broke out. So comparing how UMC kids in the 2020s are doing to the heir presumptive of England in the 1940s is just dumb. Compare how UMC kids today are doing with how Prince George and the other two are doing, ok?

I cannot imagine her childhood was that plush. Money makes life comfortable but that was just one part of it.

SHe was literally on the cover of time magazine.

rincess_Elizabeth_on_TIME_Magazine,_April_29,_1929.jpg" border="0" class="embeddedImage" />

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try living in NJ if you think the DMV is bad.

+1. Or suburban NY.

Or Silicon Valley - esp with a S Asian family name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't sleep last night and was watching 2025 "watch me as I open my acceptances" videos on youtube.
Many kids getting in to a half dozen top20 schools with a 3.9/1400/33/10 APs from schools in underrepresented states. I'm not even talking about Mississippi but places like Oregon, Arizona, etc.
It's the same on Reddit. Kids have these INSANE results (like they're choosing between Princeton, Duke and Penn) and then you read their stats and they have a 33 and no AP exams (despite taking 10 AP classes) and they're ASIAN or white as can be.
It's freaking night and day.

a friend of mine who has worked in admissions for 20 years at a couple T5 schools says this area is like North Shore of Chicago. It's a full tier down from NYC, suburban NYC, NJ, Palo Alto, some LA, and Boston. IOW we're not very special. And this area isn't even uniquely competitive.

I think we suffer from kinda boring kids with good teeth. Well off, hard working, great stats, kinda diverse in the same ways and .. pretty cookie cutter. It's tough for this one little moment in an otherwise super nice life. Our kids have had a more plush childhood that the Queen of England did. And if this little chapter is tricky -- oh no, they might have to go to Emory! -- really, we should thank our lucky stars

So places where there is both high population density and a very high concentration of wealth produce the most kids who get into elite schools? Who would’ve guessed?

Not by percent

Sorry, I worded that wrong; I didn’t mean kids who get into elite colleges, I meant who are *competing for admission* to elite schools.

[Anonymous]

Get over it! We are lucky to live in an affluent area. Apply out West or Midwest, or South, where schools are seeking out more DC kids. Forget New England....

[Anonymous]

Great news for my kids. They go to a title 1 public school district and we live in a high poverty zip code, Midwest state

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try living in NJ if you think the DMV is bad.

Bay Area CA is the toughest. Applications far outnumber any other area except the LA basin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you be willing to live in Arizona or Oregon, and send your kid through public schools there?

Geographic diversity at top school is also really valuable. These schools can get very intensive group think from the coastal bubbles. It actually does matter. It results in a better education for everyone, not just a great opportunity for the kids from these other places.

Also consider that the kid from Arizona with the 33 and a few AP exams likely had to work very hard to seize every academic opportunity that came their way to get to the point where they are applying to and getting into these schools. They tend to be special kids and real standouts. You only see their numbers but you're talking valedictorians, class presidents, kids who are standout musicians, debaters, mathletes, etc. And again, doing this in environments where academics are not always prioritized and where they don't have a zillion peers doing the same stuff. They have to be self motivated in a way that kids in the DMV never have to self motivate because of the culture here, because of who their parents are, because their peers are often all pushing in that same direction.

Like sure, it feels unfair when you look at it on the surface. But in reality those kids are EARNING their admission to those schools, and you just don't see it because you are comparing apples (your kid and all the kids like your kid in the DMV area) to oranges (these kids from far less represented areas who are like the standout Ivy League hope of their entire school or hometown and have never had a chance to be in a school environment filled with kids similar to them).

I was an orange and now I live in DC and am raising an apple. You don't know. It's not the easy gift you think it is. It's hard. My kid has a zillion more and better opportunities than I did growing up where I did, and is also just savvier about the world and speaks the language of professionals better than I did even up graduating college. And she might wind up at a perfectly good but not tip top college despite having better grades, more APs, better test scores. Guess what? She's going to be fine and she will have far fewer barrier to success than I did. She doesn't have to learn a whole new world and navigate everything with parents who have no clue and are suspicious and overwhelmed by it all. She's still better off even if she doesn't go to an Ivy.

Perspective, OP. You need to step outside your bubble a bit.

Stop preaching. OP here and I grew up in rural America.
I got a great education in a town in a red state that most of DCUM would scoff at. YOU need to get out of your DC bubble.

I grew up in a rural red section of a blue state and you did not get a great education. You just think that you did. At my old HS last year 1 person took AP chem and 6 took AP calculus. It’s a different world despite what you work to convince yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you be willing to live in Arizona or Oregon, and send your kid through public schools there?

Geographic diversity at top school is also really valuable. These schools can get very intensive group think from the coastal bubbles. It actually does matter. It results in a better education for everyone, not just a great opportunity for the kids from these other places.

Also consider that the kid from Arizona with the 33 and a few AP exams likely had to work very hard to seize every academic opportunity that came their way to get to the point where they are applying to and getting into these schools. They tend to be special kids and real standouts. You only see their numbers but you're talking valedictorians, class presidents, kids who are standout musicians, debaters, mathletes, etc. And again, doing this in environments where academics are not always prioritized and where they don't have a zillion peers doing the same stuff. They have to be self motivated in a way that kids in the DMV never have to self motivate because of the culture here, because of who their parents are, because their peers are often all pushing in that same direction.

Like sure, it feels unfair when you look at it on the surface. But in reality those kids are EARNING their admission to those schools, and you just don't see it because you are comparing apples (your kid and all the kids like your kid in the DMV area) to oranges (these kids from far less represented areas who are like the standout Ivy League hope of their entire school or hometown and have never had a chance to be in a school environment filled with kids similar to them).

I was an orange and now I live in DC and am raising an apple. You don't know. It's not the easy gift you think it is. It's hard. My kid has a zillion more and better opportunities than I did growing up where I did, and is also just savvier about the world and speaks the language of professionals better than I did even up graduating college. And she might wind up at a perfectly good but not tip top college despite having better grades, more APs, better test scores. Guess what? She's going to be fine and she will have far fewer barrier to success than I did. She doesn't have to learn a whole new world and navigate everything with parents who have no clue and are suspicious and overwhelmed by it all. She's still better off even if she doesn't go to an Ivy.

Perspective, OP. You need to step outside your bubble a bit.

Stop preaching. OP here and I grew up in rural America.
I got a great education in a town in a red state that most of DCUM would scoff at. YOU need to get out of your DC bubble.

I grew up in a rural red section of a blue state and you did not get a great education. You just think that you did. At my old HS last year 1 person took AP chem and 6 took AP calculus. It’s a different world despite what you work to convince yourself.

But is that due to the quality of the school , or the quality of the student body?