Kids who applied to Stanford and Berkeley

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD - 1550 SAT, Top 2% of class (in the top 10 students) at a well regarded public high school. Not full pay. 4.0 UW, not sure of Waited but I want to say 4.6 or 4.7.

It wasn't pretty. We had a wide range but we did apply to a couple of top schools.

Denied at Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley.

Wait-listed at Middlebury, Rice, and Barnard.

Accepted with lots of merit aid at Tulane, Fordham, Lafayette and some decent publics.

Accepted with No Merit at U Richmond, W&L.

I do think being a female hurt her especially at the SLACs. I would very much caution expectation setting.

Holy crap I’m so depressed.

Don't be depressed -- looked at with a proper perspective, this high-performing student had earned some excellent options, although maybe not first choices. Accepted to 5 top schools, 3 with lots of merit aid! Pretty impressive IMHO. Lafayette with big merit? Where do I sign!

The lesson you should take is choose your ED wisely as that might have made the difference at the WL schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD - 1550 SAT, Top 2% of class (in the top 10 students) at a well regarded public high school. Not full pay. 4.0 UW, not sure of Waited but I want to say 4.6 or 4.7.

It wasn't pretty. We had a wide range but we did apply to a couple of top schools.

Denied at Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley.

Wait-listed at Middlebury, Rice, and Barnard.

Accepted with lots of merit aid at Tulane, Fordham, Lafayette and some decent publics.

Accepted with No Merit at U Richmond, W&L.

I do think being a female hurt her especially at the SLACs. I would very much caution expectation setting.

Holy crap I’m so depressed.

Don't be depressed -- looked at with a proper perspective, this high-performing student had earned some excellent options, although maybe not first choices. Accepted to 5 top schools, 3 with lots of merit aid! Pretty impressive IMHO. Lafayette with big merit? Where do I sign!

The lesson you should take is choose your ED wisely as that might have made the difference at the WL schools.

Lafayette with lots of help is far from a tragedy. Great school. But not sure my daughter will be able to swing a 1550. She’s an excellent student and ambitious but that’s rarified air. That’s why I keep telling her that her lacrosse hook is something to be leveraged. She recently decided that she doesn’t want to do prospect clinics. I tried to convince her of the value of being recruited but she’s dug in and I pushed as hard as I dare. Her choice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD - 1550 SAT, Top 2% of class (in the top 10 students) at a well regarded public high school. Not full pay. 4.0 UW, not sure of Waited but I want to say 4.6 or 4.7.

It wasn't pretty. We had a wide range but we did apply to a couple of top schools.

Denied at Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley.

Wait-listed at Middlebury, Rice, and Barnard.

Accepted with lots of merit aid at Tulane, Fordham, Lafayette and some decent publics.

Accepted with No Merit at U Richmond, W&L.

I do think being a female hurt her especially at the SLACs. I would very much caution expectation setting.

Holy crap I’m so depressed.

Don't be depressed -- looked at with a proper perspective, this high-performing student had earned some excellent options, although maybe not first choices. Accepted to 5 top schools, 3 with lots of merit aid! Pretty impressive IMHO. Lafayette with big merit? Where do I sign!

The lesson you should take is choose your ED wisely as that might have made the difference at the WL schools.

I'm the PP (this was my DD). If you can afford full pay - yes. If you cannot and you need to compare offers then you do not have the luxury of ED. I do not doubt had my daughter been full pay some of the WL and Reject schools might have had a different outcome. We also would have applied to other schools that are below the tippy top but known for not giving merit. As it was those were off the table. But we had an economic reality that we needed to contend with. My take away - short of ED - was how important it is to show real interest in the schools that are likely viable. My DD definitely had better outcomes at schools were she demonstrated strong interest.