Pure curiousity - your kids school stats and where they're going

[Anonymous]

B average (83) at a N.E. boarding school. Student body pres, varsity athlete, prefect, eagle scout. No AP courses. We are full pay but not super wealthy ($200k hhi, 3 kids to put thru college). He got into several SLACs who gave him $10-12k each but decided he wanted biggger....

Attending William & Mary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:B average (83) at a N.E. boarding school. Student body pres, varsity athlete, prefect, eagle scout. No AP courses. We are full pay but not super wealthy ($200k hhi, 3 kids to put thru college). He got into several SLACs who gave him $10-12k each but decided he wanted biggger....

Attending William & Mary

Good choice. My kid picked the SLAC, but I preferred W&M. As colleges go, it's relatively small and academically vet strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:B average (83) at a N.E. boarding school. Student body pres, varsity athlete, prefect, eagle scout. No AP courses. We are full pay but not super wealthy ($200k hhi, 3 kids to put thru college). He got into several SLACs who gave him $10-12k each but decided he wanted biggger....

Attending William & Mary

How did you afford boarding school? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

SAT 1580
3.94 GPA
Captain of sports team
2 4's 4 5's on AP
SAT II - 3 taken 780,800,800
Excellent Community Service
NMF

Rejected U Penn
Rejected - Northwestern
Accepted - Rice University
Accepted - Georgetown
Accepted - Villanova
Accepted - Notre Dame
Accepted - Lehigh

[Anonymous]

Crazy how hard it is to get into these places.

Don't know why those schools rejected a school sport captain with a 1580 SAT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Straight As, attends Blair math/science magnet (MCPS).

1580 SATs

10 APs, scored all 5s.

Plays musical instrument, has won many competitions and plays in local youth orchestra.

Going to UMD-CP.

No offense but this sounds exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good stats are necessary but not sufficient for admission. DC is Columbia-bound with As and A-s with 1560 SATs from a Big 3. Just one AP at the start of senior year. Accepted at Brown and Berkeley too. Unhooked, just embarrassingly strong recs from teachers and college counselor.

How do you know this? At DC's school, the recs were sent directly to the colleges and DC not allowed to see them.

It is generally considered a good idea to check the box where you waive your right to see the recommendations, but:

You should ask the teachers before they write the recommendation what they will say. If you don't like the answer and don't think it accurately describes you, get someone else. Some teachers like some kids more than others. Most want their kids to succeed.

Of course this does not help with the GC, but you can ask them also, and it is entirely legitimate to discuss. Do not be shy!

Most kids that age can't spot damning with faint praise.
Pretty sure most teachers are pretty good at this.

Yes, and that is why it should be discussed and not assumed.

but what they don't tell you is they gave a couple of other kids applying to that same college even better recs. You can't ask them about that.

Like you may think "Sally is a very talented and hard working student" sounds great.

Compare to "Bob is one of the top 1 or 2 students I've taught in this subject in the last 25 years."

I'm just saying most kids don't know the key phrases that may make all the difference.

Yeah, but the kid is either one of the top students in the past 25 years or he/she is not. Are you saying you should shop around until you find someone to lie about your kids’ abilities? You could wreck the credibility of the whole school for admissions to that college after your kid gets in and struggles

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:41: DC also plays an unusual sport, is president of a school organization, and has over 1,000 service hours.

Jesus Christ.

I want to kill myself.

I know - we're killing these kids by encouraging them to do all this stuff in high school -why?

[Anonymous]

SAT 1580
3.94 GPA
Captain of sports team
2 4's 4 5's on AP
SAT II - 3 taken 780,800,800
Excellent Community Service
NMF

Rejected U Penn
Rejected - Northwestern
Accepted - Rice University
Accepted - Georgetown
Accepted - Villanova
Accepted - Notre Dame
Accepted - Lehigh

Where did he/she decide to go? I hope Rice, as our DD is having a wonderful time there. Go Owls!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Crazy how hard it is to get into these places.

Don't know why those schools rejected a school sport captain with a 1580 SAT

Penn and Northwestern are both extremely selective - they probably already had a few ED admits from kids whose profiles matched PP’s kid. We don’t know how PP’s kid applied (ED, EA, RD ...) but getting into those schools RD is a crapshoot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:41: DC also plays an unusual sport, is president of a school organization, and has over 1,000 service hours.

Jesus Christ.

I want to kill myself.

I know - we're killing these kids by encouraging them to do all this stuff in high school -why?

PP here. This is my kid's nature. I have done nothing to encourage it. Nothing at all.

If you were to meet her, you would not guess that she is such a high achiever. She comes across as very laid-back.

[Anonymous]

As a non-Helicopter parent I have no clue. I just show up to things when forced to.

[Anonymous]

34 ACT, 3.9 unweighted, loads of APs, decent EC but nothing amazing......Cornell ED

[Anonymous]

Think back to when you were a kid, and ask yourself whether your parents knew your exact GPA, exact SAT score, and number and score on all APs. No, they didn’t. We pitied those few, stressed, overmanaged kids. Is EVERYONE like this now? And we wonder what’s so wrong with young adults?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Think back to when you were a kid, and ask yourself whether your parents knew your exact GPA, exact SAT score, and number and score on all APs. No, they didn’t. We pitied those few, stressed, overmanaged kids. Is EVERYONE like this now? And we wonder what’s so wrong with young adults?

Excellent point