do college admissions get ugly at the Big3 when all the parents are Ivy grads?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Legacy doesn't go that far anymore, and so what you see at the Big 3 schools is a lot of "grooming" of kids (tutoring, test prep, travel sports) to have the right profile. For Ivies that's superstar academics (top 3-4 kids in the class), or excellent stats plus recruitable athlete, or excellent stats plus URM, or excellent stats plus parents have mega-millions. I can't think of a single Ivy admit at my kid's school last year who didn't fall into one of those categories.

Do you really think there are only a small handful of kids from "big3" schools that go to Ivy's? Because that really wouldn't be close to accurate. More like 25-35% of the class, and that is before you get to NESCAC/Stanford/Chicago and other top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard has a legacy admit rate of over 30% so I say the Harvard legacies are in good shape.

you're missing the point--they're not. Our Big3 had ONE harvard admit last year and at least 20 kids were alums (that's just the ones I know-between both parents). <5% admit rate at this top school. That's the thing--30% legacy admit rate does work if there is a super high rate of alums at one high school. harvard is not going to dole out 8 admits to legacy kids from a single DC private.

The basic point is that there will be fewer kids going to HYPS etc. than there are parents in that school who went there.

yes, at least an order of magnitude less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Legacy doesn't go that far anymore, and so what you see at the Big 3 schools is a lot of "grooming" of kids (tutoring, test prep, travel sports) to have the right profile. For Ivies that's superstar academics (top 3-4 kids in the class), or excellent stats plus recruitable athlete, or excellent stats plus URM, or excellent stats plus parents have mega-millions. I can't think of a single Ivy admit at my kid's school last year who didn't fall into one of those categories.

Do you really think there are only a small handful of kids from "big3" schools that go to Ivy's? Because that really wouldn't be close to accurate. More like 25-35% of the class, and that is before you get to NESCAC/Stanford/Chicago and other top schools.

Lol. What year are you posting from? It's not 35% of the class. And HYPS are often one each, per school.

[Anonymous]

It hasn’t felt ugly at our school this year. Super-talented class, and yes, many parents from great schools. Of course there are lots of kids applying early decision to the same Ivies. No one has pressured friends not to apply. Who knows how much legacy matters anymore. Everyone understands that outcomes are totally unpredictable especially in the Covid era.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Legacy doesn't go that far anymore, and so what you see at the Big 3 schools is a lot of "grooming" of kids (tutoring, test prep, travel sports) to have the right profile. For Ivies that's superstar academics (top 3-4 kids in the class), or excellent stats plus recruitable athlete, or excellent stats plus URM, or excellent stats plus parents have mega-millions. I can't think of a single Ivy admit at my kid's school last year who didn't fall into one of those categories.

Do you really think there are only a small handful of kids from "big3" schools that go to Ivy's? Because that really wouldn't be close to accurate. More like 25-35% of the class, and that is before you get to NESCAC/Stanford/Chicago and other top schools.

Lol. What year are you posting from? It's not 35% of the class. And HYPS are often one each, per school.

Not at our "big 3"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Legacy doesn't go that far anymore, and so what you see at the Big 3 schools is a lot of "grooming" of kids (tutoring, test prep, travel sports) to have the right profile. For Ivies that's superstar academics (top 3-4 kids in the class), or excellent stats plus recruitable athlete, or excellent stats plus URM, or excellent stats plus parents have mega-millions. I can't think of a single Ivy admit at my kid's school last year who didn't fall into one of those categories.

Do you really think there are only a small handful of kids from "big3" schools that go to Ivy's? Because that really wouldn't be close to accurate. More like 25-35% of the class, and that is before you get to NESCAC/Stanford/Chicago and other top schools.

Lol. What year are you posting from? It's not 35% of the class. And HYPS are often one each, per school.

Perhaps not 35% of the class but definitely more than 1 HYP per school. I see about 4 to 5 to Harvard, I’ve seen 8 to Penn, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Easy. The kid who has two H alumni parents and is also an athlete/URM gets the spot for H!

Or what typically happens is that the spot (singular) goes to an unconnected URM and the Harvard legacies go 0/20. Its wild at the Big3 schools.

It's just crazy that you have this many Ivy grads who are outlier successes stories for their universities (CEOs, managing partners at their law firms, people with national prominence in their fields, etc) and none of their (very bright) kids will get into their parent's alma mater.

It's called reversion to the mean, not surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Legacy doesn't go that far anymore, and so what you see at the Big 3 schools is a lot of "grooming" of kids (tutoring, test prep, travel sports) to have the right profile. For Ivies that's superstar academics (top 3-4 kids in the class), or excellent stats plus recruitable athlete, or excellent stats plus URM, or excellent stats plus parents have mega-millions. I can't think of a single Ivy admit at my kid's school last year who didn't fall into one of those categories.

Do you really think there are only a small handful of kids from "big3" schools that go to Ivy's? Because that really wouldn't be close to accurate. More like 25-35% of the class, and that is before you get to NESCAC/Stanford/Chicago and other top schools.

Lol. What year are you posting from? It's not 35% of the class. And HYPS are often one each, per school.

Perhaps not 35% of the class but definitely more than 1 HYP per school. I see about 4 to 5 to Harvard, I’ve seen 8 to Penn, etc.

what school is this?
Not NCS or STA over the past 2 years as I've seen both these lists each year. It's 0-2 to each of HYPS and Penn per year.
I don't think it's GDS. They get a few Harvards each year but last year was only 2.
Is it Sidwell? Again, I don't think so.

I think your estimates are 5-10 years old.

[Anonymous]

My dd graduated a few years ago from a Big 3. There were two senior boys who were double legacies at an HYP. Neither one wanted to go to that Ivy, but their parents insisted they apply EA. They did, and were the only ones who were accepted to that Ivy, though several others had applied as well. Neither went to that Ivy, and a lot of students felt their applications had kept classmates out of their first choice school. I also wonder how the Big3 felt about the lower yield that they seemed to have to that Ivy.

I haven’t heard about widespread cheating, but I do think lots and lots of the kids get extra testing time that they don’t actually need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Legacy doesn't go that far anymore, and so what you see at the Big 3 schools is a lot of "grooming" of kids (tutoring, test prep, travel sports) to have the right profile. For Ivies that's superstar academics (top 3-4 kids in the class), or excellent stats plus recruitable athlete, or excellent stats plus URM, or excellent stats plus parents have mega-millions. I can't think of a single Ivy admit at my kid's school last year who didn't fall into one of those categories.

Do you really think there are only a small handful of kids from "big3" schools that go to Ivy's? Because that really wouldn't be close to accurate. More like 25-35% of the class, and that is before you get to NESCAC/Stanford/Chicago and other top schools.

Lol. What year are you posting from? It's not 35% of the class. And HYPS are often one each, per school.

Perhaps not 35% of the class but definitely more than 1 HYP per school. I see about 4 to 5 to Harvard, I’ve seen 8 to Penn, etc.

what school is this?
Not NCS or STA over the past 2 years as I've seen both these lists each year. It's 0-2 to each of HYPS and Penn per year.
I don't think it's GDS. They get a few Harvards each year but last year was only 2.
Is it Sidwell? Again, I don't think so.

I think your estimates are 5-10 years old.

Yes. It’s Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard has a legacy admit rate of over 30% so I say the Harvard legacies are in good shape.

you're missing the point--they're not. Our Big3 had ONE harvard admit last year and at least 20 kids were alums (that's just the ones I know-between both parents). <5% admit rate at this top school. That's the thing--30% legacy admit rate does work if there is a super high rate of alums at one high school. harvard is not going to dole out 8 admits to legacy kids from a single DC private.

Keep in mind, not all legacy kids WANT to go to their parents' schools. Ours didn't, and did not apply.

+1. Kid not applying to DH's Ivy school. He's not terribly interested and he understands what many on this thread have said - he's unlikely to be the anointed one or two kids from his big 3 school, because he's not a URM/jock/development case

What’s a development case?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard has a legacy admit rate of over 30% so I say the Harvard legacies are in good shape.

you're missing the point--they're not. Our Big3 had ONE harvard admit last year and at least 20 kids were alums (that's just the ones I know-between both parents). <5% admit rate at this top school. That's the thing--30% legacy admit rate does work if there is a super high rate of alums at one high school. harvard is not going to dole out 8 admits to legacy kids from a single DC private.

Keep in mind, not all legacy kids WANT to go to their parents' schools. Ours didn't, and did not apply.

+1. Kid not applying to DH's Ivy school. He's not terribly interested and he understands what many on this thread have said - he's unlikely to be the anointed one or two kids from his big 3 school, because he's not a URM/jock/development case

What’s a development case?

big $$ donors who work with the university's development office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t forget many of these parents are duplicates as you’re talking about mom/dad for one kid.

no, many if not most kids have least one parent from one of these schools. Some have both.
It's a really, really striking number of parents who attended these top schools. i'm not one of them so i'm not patting myself on the back by saying this. Just observing it.

Not really. Our age group was the last gasp of white supremacy. Much less competitive back then,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Legacy doesn't go that far anymore, and so what you see at the Big 3 schools is a lot of "grooming" of kids (tutoring, test prep, travel sports) to have the right profile. For Ivies that's superstar academics (top 3-4 kids in the class), or excellent stats plus recruitable athlete, or excellent stats plus URM, or excellent stats plus parents have mega-millions. I can't think of a single Ivy admit at my kid's school last year who didn't fall into one of those categories.

Do you really think there are only a small handful of kids from "big3" schools that go to Ivy's? Because that really wouldn't be close to accurate. More like 25-35% of the class, and that is before you get to NESCAC/Stanford/Chicago and other top schools.

Lol. What year are you posting from? It's not 35% of the class. And HYPS are often one each, per school.

Perhaps not 35% of the class but definitely more than 1 HYP per school. I see about 4 to 5 to Harvard, I’ve seen 8 to Penn, etc.

what school is this?
Not NCS or STA over the past 2 years as I've seen both these lists each year. It's 0-2 to each of HYPS and Penn per year.
I don't think it's GDS. They get a few Harvards each year but last year was only 2.
Is it Sidwell? Again, I don't think so.

I think your estimates are 5-10 years old.

I just looked at an incomplete Sidwell list from 2020:

23 to Ivys
38 to top national universities like Stanford/CMU/Emory/USC
29 to tops SLACs (NESCAC/Pomona type schools)
17 to top publics (Michigan/UCLA/UT/W&M/Cal/UVA)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Legacy doesn't go that far anymore, and so what you see at the Big 3 schools is a lot of "grooming" of kids (tutoring, test prep, travel sports) to have the right profile. For Ivies that's superstar academics (top 3-4 kids in the class), or excellent stats plus recruitable athlete, or excellent stats plus URM, or excellent stats plus parents have mega-millions. I can't think of a single Ivy admit at my kid's school last year who didn't fall into one of those categories.

Do you really think there are only a small handful of kids from "big3" schools that go to Ivy's? Because that really wouldn't be close to accurate. More like 25-35% of the class, and that is before you get to NESCAC/Stanford/Chicago and other top schools.

Lol. What year are you posting from? It's not 35% of the class. And HYPS are often one each, per school.

Perhaps not 35% of the class but definitely more than 1 HYP per school. I see about 4 to 5 to Harvard, I’ve seen 8 to Penn, etc.

what school is this?
Not NCS or STA over the past 2 years as I've seen both these lists each year. It's 0-2 to each of HYPS and Penn per year.
I don't think it's GDS. They get a few Harvards each year but last year was only 2.
Is it Sidwell? Again, I don't think so.

I think your estimates are 5-10 years old.

I just looked at an incomplete Sidwell list from 2020:

23 to Ivys
38 to top national universities like Stanford/CMU/Emory/USC
29 to tops SLACs (NESCAC/Pomona type schools)
17 to top publics (Michigan/UCLA/UT/W&M/Cal/UVA)

Is this list public somewhere?