If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never thought about researching where the previous class matriculated and starting from there. That's a good idea. I'm not sure we would have had access to that data, but I guess we could have found at least some of it on social.

I know one college appeared surprised to have an application from my oldest. The school would come to the DC area but never visit DD's school, so they were wondering how she heard of it. Even the small schools appear to have a good handle on the high schools with the students they want and with students most likely to attend. The colleges probably want to keep going back to the good well so to speak.

I don't understand this conversation. Is the point that colleges are more likely to admit students from specific high schools if they have admitted others? Or do you assume if they have admitted a bunch from your high school, more are applying and it will be tougher to get in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never thought about researching where the previous class matriculated and starting from there. That's a good idea. I'm not sure we would have had access to that data, but I guess we could have found at least some of it on social.

I know one college appeared surprised to have an application from my oldest. The school would come to the DC area but never visit DD's school, so they were wondering how she heard of it. Even the small schools appear to have a good handle on the high schools with the students they want and with students most likely to attend. The colleges probably want to keep going back to the good well so to speak.

I don't understand this conversation. Is the point that colleges are more likely to admit students from specific high schools if they have admitted others? Or do you assume if they have admitted a bunch from your high school, more are applying and it will be tougher to get in?

For selective schools, they are more likely to admit if they have admitted in the past. If no one has ever gotten into a certain T20 school from your high school and you are applying, don’t expect to get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not retake the SAT if already at 1500+

I was going to say the opposite. My daughter took it once and got 1510 and thought that was enough. Now everyone around her is telling her she needed at least 1550 and she’s kicking herself for not trying again.

I read an interview with the MIT Dean of Admissions who said it was a waste to keep taking the SAT if you score over 1550-- that 1550 was a good minimum. My DD got 1570, so I advised her not to take it again. Now I wish I'd suggested one more shot at a perfect score. Everyone says it doesn't matter but who knows?

That 1570 isn’t why she didn’t get the result you wanted. I’m sorry but it isn’t. She’s going to go somewhere great and shine, stop beating yourself up about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never thought about researching where the previous class matriculated and starting from there. That's a good idea. I'm not sure we would have had access to that data, but I guess we could have found at least some of it on social.

I know one college appeared surprised to have an application from my oldest. The school would come to the DC area but never visit DD's school, so they were wondering how she heard of it. Even the small schools appear to have a good handle on the high schools with the students they want and with students most likely to attend. The colleges probably want to keep going back to the good well so to speak.

I don't understand this conversation. Is the point that colleges are more likely to admit students from specific high schools if they have admitted others? Or do you assume if they have admitted a bunch from your high school, more are applying and it will be tougher to get in?

For selective schools, they are more likely to admit if they have admitted in the past. If no one has ever gotten into a certain T20 school from your high school and you are applying, don’t expect to get in.

I had no idea. And that is weird, but good to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never thought about researching where the previous class matriculated and starting from there. That's a good idea. I'm not sure we would have had access to that data, but I guess we could have found at least some of it on social.

I know one college appeared surprised to have an application from my oldest. The school would come to the DC area but never visit DD's school, so they were wondering how she heard of it. Even the small schools appear to have a good handle on the high schools with the students they want and with students most likely to attend. The colleges probably want to keep going back to the good well so to speak.

I don't understand this conversation. Is the point that colleges are more likely to admit students from specific high schools if they have admitted others? Or do you assume if they have admitted a bunch from your high school, more are applying and it will be tougher to get in?

For selective schools, they are more likely to admit if they have admitted in the past. If no one has ever gotten into a certain T20 school from your high school and you are applying, don’t expect to get in.

I had no idea. And that is weird, but good to know.

This is 100% true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly? Hired a consultant at the start of junior year or even sophomore year. Shaping a clear "narrative" probably would have given DC a real shot at an Ivy.

You can create that narrative on your own - I did for my kids. You need to look at their activities - find the common threads. Frankly feed the activities list into DeepSeek, Claude, Gemini or Chatgpt (only the paid versions) and ask it to analyze it for:

1. Evidence of major and which one (then choose the one that's the least popular for purposes of admissions)*
2. Give it an example of a narrative (you can get from the book soundbite, or from various national firms who do admissions webinars) and ask it to put a narrative together for you
3. ask for areas of weakness and what types of things kid can do over next summer or year to strengthen position
4. ask for suggested research topics for a capstone project that ties into narrative or standalone research
5. ask for ideal ECs at college that appear to correspond to these interests.

done and done.

DP here. No disrespect but that is a bog standard narrative. What a CC helps you create is an extraordinary narrative that stands out and is aimed directly at entry to the Ivy League. They do know what they're doing. And most parent's are functioning just outside that kind of sphere.

It is telling that DCUM thinks ChatGPT can write brilliant essays and come up with striking T10 worthy narratives. Nope and nope.

I agree that the big CC firms don't do anything you couldn't do yourself, but if you can spend the money on a really qualified one - that is, a former AO - they can package an unhooked strong-stats student into an Ivy candidate IF you have to hire them by the start of junior year at the latest. Needless to say, that is expensive. Still, knowing what I know now, it probably would have been worth the extra 20 or 30 grand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly? Hired a consultant at the start of junior year or even sophomore year. Shaping a clear "narrative" probably would have given DC a real shot at an Ivy.

You can create that narrative on your own - I did for my kids. You need to look at their activities - find the common threads. Frankly feed the activities list into DeepSeek, Claude, Gemini or Chatgpt (only the paid versions) and ask it to analyze it for:

1. Evidence of major and which one (then choose the one that's the least popular for purposes of admissions)*
2. Give it an example of a narrative (you can get from the book soundbite, or from various national firms who do admissions webinars) and ask it to put a narrative together for you
3. ask for areas of weakness and what types of things kid can do over next summer or year to strengthen position
4. ask for suggested research topics for a capstone project that ties into narrative or standalone research
5. ask for ideal ECs at college that appear to correspond to these interests.

done and done.

DP here. No disrespect but that is a bog standard narrative. What a CC helps you create is an extraordinary narrative that stands out and is aimed directly at entry to the Ivy League. They do know what they're doing. And most parent's are functioning just outside that kind of sphere.

It is telling that DCUM thinks ChatGPT can write brilliant essays and come up with striking T10 worthy narratives. Nope and nope.

I agree that the big CC firms don't do anything you couldn't do yourself, but if you can spend the money on a really qualified one - that is, a former AO - they can package an unhooked strong-stats student into an Ivy candidate IF you have to hire them by the start of junior year at the latest. Needless to say, that is expensive. Still, knowing what I know now, it probably would have been worth the extra 20 or 30 grand.

Agreed on the value of a really good independent counselor. As much as I’d like to think of my DC as the most special of snowflakes, the fact is they’re just one of too many qualified applicants. I’m convinced DC’s in-the-know counselor was a key lever in their T5 early admit this cycle. We paid a total of $22,500 for her services, but spent $0 on summer programs since her guidance helped DC win three fully funded scholarships/research opportunities in high school (which I’m sure ultimately boosted the strength of their college application, as well).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not retake the SAT if already at 1500+

I was going to say the opposite. My daughter took it once and got 1510 and thought that was enough. Now everyone around her is telling her she needed at least 1550[i] and she’s kicking herself for not trying again.

[b]

They have no idea what they are talking about. A 1510 doesn’t keep you out of any college.

It will at t10s if you are not hooked. Unhooked to Penn/Brown/Columbia, for ex., should be 1550+. Just to be in the game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not retake the SAT if already at 1500+

I was going to say the opposite. My daughter took it once and got 1510 and thought that was enough. Now everyone around her is telling her she needed at least 1550[i] and she’s kicking herself for not trying again.

[b]

They have no idea what they are talking about. A 1510 doesn’t keep you out of any college.

It will at t10s if you are not hooked. Unhooked to Penn/Brown/Columbia, for ex., should be 1550+. Just to be in the game.

Our DD got in totally unhooked to T10 with 1520.

[Anonymous]

I went on our schools IG from last year and wrote down all the names of schools with kids going for engineering (since that’s the major my DD wanted). Then I circled the ones that had multiple hits. My DD used that list to research schools, plus she had some from her own research. I went to naviance to get a feel for reach, target and safety. Naviance ended up being spot on for our FCPS HS which only keeps 3 years worth of data. I’m a data person and the data’s out there to help us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For us, not waste time thinking too far outside the box. U of Edinburgh? Some dual degree program? Some underrated gem? So many hours researching things I should have known were not really who my kid is.

Great advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went on our schools IG from last year and wrote down all the names of schools with kids going for engineering (since that’s the major my DD wanted). Then I circled the ones that had multiple hits. My DD used that list to research schools, plus she had some from her own research. I went to naviance to get a feel for reach, target and safety. Naviance ended up being spot on for our FCPS HS which only keeps 3 years worth of data. I’m a data person and the data’s out there to help us.

I, too, used the IG to help build the list to research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went on our schools IG from last year and wrote down all the names of schools with kids going for engineering (since that’s the major my DD wanted). Then I circled the ones that had multiple hits. My DD used that list to research schools, plus she had some from her own research. I went to naviance to get a feel for reach, target and safety. Naviance ended up being spot on for our FCPS HS which only keeps 3 years worth of data. I’m a data person and the data’s out there to help us.

I heard an admissions officer from a large college (I can’t remember which one) on YCBK state that they use a computer program to track the performance of kids from each high school once they are in college, so they know that a kid with a 4.2 at XX high school will generally perform at a certain level at their school. So it helps if kids from your high school have attended and done well at their college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly? Hired a consultant at the start of junior year or even sophomore year. Shaping a clear "narrative" probably would have given DC a real shot at an Ivy.

You can create that narrative on your own - I did for my kids. You need to look at their activities - find the common threads. Frankly feed the activities list into DeepSeek, Claude, Gemini or Chatgpt (only the paid versions) and ask it to analyze it for:

1. Evidence of major and which one (then choose the one that's the least popular for purposes of admissions)*
2. Give it an example of a narrative (you can get from the book soundbite, or from various national firms who do admissions webinars) and ask it to put a narrative together for you
3. ask for areas of weakness and what types of things kid can do over next summer or year to strengthen position
4. ask for suggested research topics for a capstone project that ties into narrative or standalone research
5. ask for ideal ECs at college that appear to correspond to these interests.

done and done.

DP here. No disrespect but that is a bog standard narrative. What a CC helps you create is an extraordinary narrative that stands out and is aimed directly at entry to the Ivy League. They do know what they're doing. And most parent's are functioning just outside that kind of sphere.

It is telling that DCUM thinks ChatGPT can write brilliant essays and come up with striking T10 worthy narratives. Nope and nope.

I agree that the big CC firms don't do anything you couldn't do yourself, but if you can spend the money on a really qualified one - that is, a former AO - they can package an unhooked strong-stats student into an Ivy candidate IF you have to hire them by the start of junior year at the latest. Needless to say, that is expensive. Still, knowing what I know now, it probably would have been worth the extra 20 or 30 grand.

"DCUM" doesn't think that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly? Hired a consultant at the start of junior year or even sophomore year. Shaping a clear "narrative" probably would have given DC a real shot at an Ivy.

You can create that narrative on your own - I did for my kids. You need to look at their activities - find the common threads. Frankly feed the activities list into DeepSeek, Claude, Gemini or Chatgpt (only the paid versions) and ask it to analyze it for:

1. Evidence of major and which one (then choose the one that's the least popular for purposes of admissions)*
2. Give it an example of a narrative (you can get from the book soundbite, or from various national firms who do admissions webinars) and ask it to put a narrative together for you
3. ask for areas of weakness and what types of things kid can do over next summer or year to strengthen position
4. ask for suggested research topics for a capstone project that ties into narrative or standalone research
5. ask for ideal ECs at college that appear to correspond to these interests.

done and done.

DP here. No disrespect but that is a bog standard narrative. What a CC helps you create is an extraordinary narrative that stands out and is aimed directly at entry to the Ivy League. They do know what they're doing. And most parent's are functioning just outside that kind of sphere.

It is telling that DCUM thinks ChatGPT can write brilliant essays and come up with striking T10 worthy narratives. Nope and nope.

I agree that the big CC firms don't do anything you couldn't do yourself, but if you can spend the money on a really qualified one - that is, a former AO - they can package an unhooked strong-stats student into an Ivy candidate IF you have to hire them by the start of junior year at the latest. Needless to say, that is expensive. Still, knowing what I know now, it probably would have been worth the extra 20 or 30 grand.

Agreed on the value of a really good independent counselor. As much as I’d like to think of my DC as the most special of snowflakes, the fact is they’re just one of too many qualified applicants. I’m convinced DC’s in-the-know counselor was a key lever in their T5 early admit this cycle. We paid a total of $22,500 for her services, but spent $0 on summer programs since her guidance helped DC win three fully funded scholarships/research opportunities in high school (which I’m sure ultimately boosted the strength of their college application, as well).

Willing to share the name?