Disappointment

[Anonymous]

My kid last year had similar results. Only one reach acceptance. And lots of rejections and waitlists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was the founder of a non-profit legit? That’s the type of thing an AO will look into

That's the first thing I thought to. She should have left that off. That just looks like striving at that point, and calls into question whether the drive is from student or the parents.

And OP: you may want to talk to your daugther about making assumptions about other people's stats. Maybe people who got into Princeton had lower grades, maybe they didn't. Either way, they had something that Princeton wanted and it's just so poisonous to talk about other students that way.

[Anonymous]

+100
How utterly ridiculous - she "thought she had it in the bag."

What are you even trying to say here? Yes, most of us thought she would at get into at LEAST a couple more schools.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s a combo of difficult major plus generic ecs for her phenotype. Is she also Asian?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I smell a 🧌

Do you think her profile is too "basic"? She says she regrets not picking more creative ECs, although I think her ECs were perfectly suited for her major + demonstrated her passion.

Yeah, I agree there is nothing that stands out in her ECs.

ECs:
not impressive: - A few regional awards (STEM)
Actually good: - 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
everyone has one: - Founder of non-profit
this year AOs don't like research for some reason: - Research w/ prof at T30
everyone has one: - Competitive summer program for BME
everyone has this: - Lots of community service

This year I heard Stanford retracted an acceptance because the applicant lied about volunteer hours.
Are those 200 volunteer hours @ local hospital registered with the school?

Yes, she made sure that everything was registered. I'm assuming the more "basic" ECs were the factor harming her application?

You would think so, but Cornell would be thrilled to take in this applicant (without great ECs). WL from Cornell seems to suggest there is something wrong.

You are making assumptions about Cornell which flat out are not true and then using your flawed assumptions to suggest that the child had a flawed application. I doubt that her application had any flaws.

The OPs child looks like a typical "Average Excellent" candidate who in a less competitive environment would have received some wins in her reach list. But things are very competitive now and this year is even tougher than many because of population.

If there is a weak spot it is in the ECs as several posters have pointed out. It isn't that they are bad, they aren't bad at all, they just don't stand out anywhere. There is a lot of good but nothing great. The biggest gap that I see is leadership and this one trips up a lot of kids. There isn't anything that the OP mentions in their daughters profile that demonstrates leadership.

She has some great options and it is time to mourn for a bit then move on because she does have some great options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one who finds HS founders of non-profits to be borderline insulting? I worked in the non-profit world, so did dh. These are serious places and it takes as much (if not more) work than a business to be a really successful one. I know bc we now own a successful business. It's not some vanity project to be started by a 17 year old. So annoying. Change my mind.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not just the DMV. We live in a mid-size city in another region and kids here are going through the same thing during the past few cycles. Our kids just happened to be coming into the admissions process during a very unpredictable time when a lot of old assumptions went out the window.

+1.

Personally, I think the yield algorithms are making decisions that I wonder whether a human would make.

[Anonymous]

Asian is the only way this makes sense

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry.
Agree that it’s the major. My kid experienced this last year except did get in one of your kid’s WL schools. I’m surprised about the UVA WL with her stats. Did your daughter apply EA to UVA? What kind of high school does she attend?

VT, Pitt, Lehigh all were in the running for engineering for our kid. VT would be fantastic, Pitt too. Lehigh was in the running until the very end. Hopefully she can get excited at the admitted student days. Tough process for sure.

Yes, we were honestly shocked that she didn't get in - She applied RD. Many classmates with far lower stats + less impressive ECs got in. She attends a mid-sized public high school, pretty competitive. I know the cycle was very tough this year, but we definitely didn't see this coming.

How on earth would you know the stats and ECs of any child other than your own?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was the founder of a non-profit legit? That’s the type of thing an AO will look into

That's the first thing I thought to. She should have left that off. That just looks like striving at that point, and calls into question whether the drive is from student or the parents.

And OP: you may want to talk to your daugther about making assumptions about other people's stats. Maybe people who got into Princeton had lower grades, maybe they didn't. Either way, they had something that Princeton wanted and it's just so poisonous to talk about other students that way.

But it's true. Many of her peers that got in to one of the schools she was WL/rejected do. It's just speaking the truth.

[Anonymous]

This is why Trumps EO is so important. There may be others who had lower grades / scores but were accepted.

[Anonymous]

How on earth would you know the stats and ECs of any child other than your own?

DD obviously told me, I think it's pretty common to know these things about some of your classmates.

[Anonymous]

Non-profit, research, and summer camps are so over.

This year AOs didn't put much weight on these items. It's better to work on school related activities, varsity, clubs, student council.

[Anonymous]

She was WL at UVA because she applied RD, it’s much more competitive in RD, especially from NOVA and since she didn’t apply Early Action (with all of her classmates who apply ED elsewhere) she was signaling that she wasn’t really that interested in UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes. Bad personality maybe. But also just a very competitive cycle.

I'm definitely biased but she's a very motivated, hardworking girl... Always willing to help someone out. Watching decisions crush a lot of her confidence is so painful. I told her that she shouldn't compare herself to her peers, but idk how most people wouldn't be incredibly upset if a classmate w/ lower stats and less effort made it in instead of you.

You need to stop this part, the comparing. Neither you or your daughter know what the entire application packet of her peers with "lower stats" actually looks like. You think that you know the stats but you quite possibly do not. And, you don't know what the rest of the application looks like.

Your daughter looks like a great student and she had the academics to get over the bar and into the game which is a great accomplishment but comparing to others only leads to frustration because you don't really know yet you assume. Don't let that kind of angst consume your daughter. She has some great options and it is time to work on loving one of those options.

Agree you need to stop comparing.

And stop complaining. My DC's TOP choice, bar none, was Virginia Tech. She did not get in. The OP's daughter should be very grateful for her excellent options.