My kid isn't getting in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP! But why such hate for UMD? Lots of kids got rejected by UmD this year. I get you have a high stats kid and hoped to get into a selective school. But unfortunately, high stats are not enough. 3 years ago my kid 1580 SAt, 800 on physics, math2, history, 15 APs and 2 beyond AP classes, software entrepreneur, rejected by MIT, Stanford, CMU, Cornell, Penn and Princeton. Only got acceptance from his safety schools UMD, Michigan and Georgia Tech. All honors. My nephew had a similar story, high stats but rejected everywhere. He was beyond depressed when he realized other lower stats kids getting into these schools. That was it for me. For me DC2, we didn’t apply to any school with less than 30% acceptance rate and it has been good so far!
Hang in there. It will be fine. UMD is a good school. Goal is to get an education… it will be met

This is almost the same as my friend's son, SAT 1600, 15 APs all 5, Presidential service award, sports team captain, cello first chair, rejected from dream schools Stanford, MIT, CMU and other top schools, only got accepted from his safety UVA. It took more than a year for the parents and kid to recover from the disappointment.

We have two of those in this household with similar results. Kids with perfect stats/EC getting rejected is nothing new. It happens all.the.time.

Kids work so hard and hope to get into top schools because they were told high stats are not enough for those schools. They did everything they could, school work, ECs, sports, volunteer, etc., but ended up with the same state schools as the neighbor's kids who had good grades but not much ECs and relatively easier high school lives.

Yes but so what? Kids (and parents) need to understand that getting in is NOT the end game here. It's just a starting point... What matters are what they do while in college and what they do after. Most of high performing kids will do it again in college. Many kids who somehow got in unexpectly will get filtered out in 4 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’ve confirmed something I’ve long suspected. My kid goes to a lesser ranked public high school and the neighborhood just nearby is a much higher ranked high school. I always suspected that he would end up in the same place as the rich kids nearby, but they would be disappointed they ended up there while he will be satisfied. He would really like to go to CP and doesn’t know anyone at his high school who would make him feel ashamed of it.

We go to a high school with "rich kids" and no one at our schools makes other students feel ashamed of going to UMD. A lot of the "rich kids," as you say, were rejected this year. So not sure why you think being rich has anything to do with whether kids approve or don't approve of UMD. You honestly sound jealous.

[Anonymous]

It’s not a terrible thing to experience rejection as a kid. I have been rejected by most of the jobs I’ve applied to. So has my spouse. But we just keep trucking. You get rejected, you move on, you make the best of it.

As an adult, it might mean you have to move and uproot your family. But it’s the American way (or human, or whatever) to persevere and keep trying and make the best of it. It’s wrong not to.

Congrats to him for getting in CP. You should make him feel great about that. It’s a big accomplishment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He's been rejected from an ED, deferred from an EA that was considered a safety, rejected from MD Honors, rejected by UVA, did not receive a transcript request last month from the UC's (evidentially a telltale sign you have a rejection coming April 1), received no merit aid from a safety that in the past routinely gave kids like him 10-15K a year, received no scholarship application invitation from another school that in the past routinely gave kids like him big scholarships...I could go on. When you are not full pay there are ways you can tell if a yes is coming from a lot of the schools. Of course there are others, and there's a decent chance he gets into one or two of them, but the trend does not make that feel likely.

He was not "rejected" from MD Honors; he was not invited to Honors. There is a big difference. He was however invited to Scholars, which is a great program.

He should feel good about himself, truly.

[Anonymous]

Just have him apply to two or three bull crap schools that are still taking apps so he can feel like he's "choosing" CP.

[Anonymous]

Not sure if this is a joke or not. From accepted ivy thread:

3.4 GPA
29 ACT
1 AP Class
No EC
Legacy URM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if this is a joke or not. From accepted ivy thread:

3.4 GPA
29 ACT
1 AP Class
No EC
Legacy URM

URM it maybe true

[Anonymous]

Your kid is not a 90% kid with those stats. Not even close. The perspectives here are so warped. Makes me feel so much better about not raising my kids in an environment like this. The college obsession here is both illiberal and elitist.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you/he were not realistic in his applications. He sounds like a great kid. Start applying to other schools with rolling admission as a back up plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The difference between one big public flagship university and another is not too great. The difference in experience between that and a small private is huge. It sounds like OP's kid wanted a small private and they didn't apply low enough on the selectivity scale. Leaving him stuck with a big public experience he was trying to avoid.

Lets be honest. Public school sucks compared to private school. (I went public through grad school and my kids are in public now). I'm sad because a kidlike that could have gotten decent merit at a lower ranked private like Macalester or Oberlin.

Funny, Oberlin produced 4 Nobel prize alums, one of whom turned Caltech from a local vocational school to what it is today.

+1

My 99th-percentile kid is at a lower-ranked private with big merit aid doing very well. Chose it over UMD Honors for the LAC small classes and research opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you/he were not realistic in his applications. He sounds like a great kid. Start applying to other schools with rolling admission as a back up plan.

No schools with rolling admissions are going to be a better option than UMD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you/he were not realistic in his applications. He sounds like a great kid. Start applying to other schools with rolling admission as a back up plan.

No schools with rolling admissions are going to be a better option than UMD

It depends on what the kid is looking for and what is a good fit for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He's been rejected from an ED, deferred from an EA that was considered a safety, rejected from MD Honors, rejected by UVA, did not receive a transcript request last month from the UC's [/b](evidentially a telltale sign you have a rejection coming April 1),[b] received no merit aid from a safety that in the past routinely gave kids like him 10-15K a year, received no scholarship application invitation from another school that in the past routinely gave kids like him big scholarships...I could go on. When you are not full pay there are ways you can tell if a yes is coming from a lot of the schools. Of course there are others, and there's a decent chance he gets into one or two of them, but the trend does not make that feel likely.

Really? My kid didn’t get request and applied to 3. I will be shocked if he doesn’t get into UCSB with 3.9uw and 4.7w. Or now I guess I won’t be but wow, did not know that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough. I’m very sorry. My son was a very average kid, academically. It made it easier in a way. Applied to 12 schools, 10 were state flagships. He got into 10/12 schools and felt really good about himself for the first time in a long time (with respect to school). He attended a large state flagship and is doing very well in college.
My daughter is more of a 90 percentile kid. We will be steering her to similar schools as her brother, however, for a multitude of reasons including taking the damn pressure off a bit that is so woven into living in this area.

As I’m sure I’ll be asked, his schools:

Admitted (29 ACT and 3.4 GPA)
U of SC
Penn State (summer program)
Clemson (summer program)
Alabama
Auburn
Indiana
Ole Miss
UC Boulder
Pitt
TCU

Not admitted: Ohio State and U of GA

That’s awesome, PP. Good for him. Just out of curiosity, where did he decide to go?

I feel for OP’s son. I have a 10th grader who I think is going to be similar and I don’t think a big school would be a good fit so it’s going to be interesting. I commented on a few other recent threads that I feel like the kids in the top but not tippy top are then looking wt the same schools as kids with much lower stats. This PP here is a good example. Her son is in at a lot of schools that people are saying are the kind of ones OP’s kid and similar kids should be planning on, and they aren’t bad schools, but why are the kids working so hard for their 4.4 and their 11 APs if they can get in w/o and a 3.4???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In absolute terms, those are way higher than 90 percent. 1500 is about 98th percentile (https://blog.prepscholar.com/sat-percentiles-and-score-rankings). 11 APs has got to be in the top 1-2 percent. (https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2018/Number-of-Exams-Per-Student.pdf shows about 20 percent of students taking APs took 3 or more in a single year, but that's dominated by seniors. 11 means multiple APs taken in multiple years.)

Remember that your child's HS is not at all representative of the larger world.

This. I don't even know what to make of this post. The reality is your kid is like a 99 percent who thinks he is a 99.9. These are outstanding grades and scores.