Bethesda Magazine List of Colleges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised at how many more Bethesda kids seemed interested in SLACs than in Arlington.

That's because SLACs face competition from W&M at half the price for Arlington kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA is on the same level as Georgetown, Wash U, and Cornell in Maryland. Pretty prestigious.

No, it takes higher GPAs and test scores to now get into UVA. The average incoming high school GPA at Georgetown is a 4.03; at Wash .Univ, a 4.11; at Cornell, a 4.04. The median (half higher, half lower) of the top 25% of UVA's entering class of 2017 was a 4.44, median was a 4.29 and bottom 25% at 4.14. Average ACT 33-35.

No. You cannot compare GPAs across different geographies and demographics (which are in play with these schools). For instance, the average weighted GPA at UNC Chapel Hill is 4.66, which is significantly higher than UVA, but also many Ivy League schools. It is also higher than UC Berkeley, but Berkeley has about 99% reported in the top 10%. There is no standard whatsoever for grading across high schools. (And most, particularly the better ones, do not report class rank.) This is why standardized tests still should matter (as they are the only thing that is standardized), but some schools are moving away from them for different reasons.

And that's why most schools also offer the number of students who were in the top 10% of their high school class. For UVA it is 94.6% - 96%. For UNC it is only 78%. You are wrong about reporting class rank. Every high school sends a class profile to college institutions with a breakdown of the rising senior class as to GPA. The first thing any college admissions reviewer does is check to see where the applicant falls across that year's class profile. So it the top student is a 4.03, then a 4.00 weighted might be a relatively strong student whereas a 4.4 student in a class with a top of 4.6 might not be as strong. This is why every college institution tells you the percentage of students that were in the top ten percent of their high school class. And an interesting twist is that the students at UVA who are not in the top ten percent of their high school class are the TJ students, who, because they are already cream of the crop, do just fine at UVA.

I think you need to update your UVA data. This is directly from UVA website from July 23, 2018. Dean J's admissions blog responding to student's question about UVA taking only students in the top 10%:

"I think you're misinterpreting some data. The data says that last year, of the students who attended a school that ranked, 89% were in the top 10% of their class. However, 56% of the applicants came from schools that don't report rank, so the rank stat doesn't tell you about the majority of the incoming class."

Here's link:
http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2018/07/2018-2019-uva-application-essay-advice.html#disqus_thread

I am not a UVA hater but I'm so fed up with this one person (I think it's just one person) on DCUM who constantly quotes the same misinformation about top 10% at UVA.

Even TJ doesn’t rank, and they send a lot to UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA is on the same level as Georgetown, Wash U, and Cornell in Maryland. Pretty prestigious.

No, it takes higher GPAs and test scores to now get into UVA. The average incoming high school GPA at Georgetown is a 4.03; at Wash .Univ, a 4.11; at Cornell, a 4.04. The median (half higher, half lower) of the top 25% of UVA's entering class of 2017 was a 4.44, median was a 4.29 and bottom 25% at 4.14. Average ACT 33-35.

No. You cannot compare GPAs across different geographies and demographics (which are in play with these schools). For instance, the average weighted GPA at UNC Chapel Hill is 4.66, which is significantly higher than UVA, but also many Ivy League schools. It is also higher than UC Berkeley, but Berkeley has about 99% reported in the top 10%. There is no standard whatsoever for grading across high schools. (And most, particularly the better ones, do not report class rank.) This is why standardized tests still should matter (as they are the only thing that is standardized), but some schools are moving away from them for different reasons.

And that's why most schools also offer the number of students who were in the top 10% of their high school class. For UVA it is 94.6% - 96%. For UNC it is only 78%. You are wrong about reporting class rank. Every high school sends a class profile to college institutions with a breakdown of the rising senior class as to GPA. The first thing any college admissions reviewer does is check to see where the applicant falls across that year's class profile. So it the top student is a 4.03, then a 4.00 weighted might be a relatively strong student whereas a 4.4 student in a class with a top of 4.6 might not be as strong. This is why every college institution tells you the percentage of students that were in the top ten percent of their high school class. And an interesting twist is that the students at UVA who are not in the top ten percent of their high school class are the TJ students, who, because they are already cream of the crop, do just fine at UVA.

I think you need to update your UVA data. This is directly from UVA website from July 23, 2018. Dean J's admissions blog responding to student's question about UVA taking only students in the top 10%:

"I think you're misinterpreting some data. The data says that last year, of the students who attended a school that ranked, 89% were in the top 10% of their class. However, 56% of the applicants came from schools that don't report rank, so the rank stat doesn't tell you about the majority of the incoming class."

Here's link:
http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2018/07/2018-2019-uva-application-essay-advice.html#disqus_thread

I am not a UVA hater but I'm so fed up with this one person (I think it's just one person) on DCUM who constantly quotes the same misinformation about top 10% at UVA.

Even TJ doesn’t rank, and they send a lot to UVA.

I am so fed up of just about every other thread on the college forum ending up in Charlottesville.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the fascination with Indiana University? Ton of kids from MD applying with great success (81% acceptance rate).

IU gives lots of OOS merit-money
Party school
Huge Greek life scene
Big 10 sports (especially hoops)
Solid business school

Beautiful campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is interesting. I combined the 2 lists and focused in on some of the usual suspects.

Liberal Arts Colleges: Accepts/applicants
Amherst: 12 of 67
Williams: 11 of 64
Pomona 3 of 63
Swarthmore: 11 of 97
Davidson: 11 of 43
Middlebury: 12 of 58

Wow, look at that crazy Pomona acceptance rate. Surprised to see Swarthmore with 50% more applications than just about any of its peers. Maybe kids don't want to be at a small school way out in the country, but they're willing to consider one closer to a city? Not surprised by the low application totals though - it's definitely a self-selecting group that wants a small school.

Universities: Admit/Applied
Brown: 29 of 295
Columbia: 19 of 268
Cornell: 68 of 463
Dartmouth: 13 of 163
Harvard: 16 of 277
Princeton: 21 of 307
Penn: 36 of 441
Stanford: 16 of 296
U of Chicago: 23 of 221
Yale: 30 of 296

High app totals for Penn. Maybe it's the popularity of Wharton among young men? And look at Cornell - maybe people take a shot at an Ivy acceptance by throwing in an application there? With such similar application totals, it's a little hard to escape the feeling that the same bunch of kids were applying to Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale.

The bigger the school, the more apps you're going to see. Penn and Cornell are the two biggest Ivies and received similar numbers of applications. And yes, I'm sure there's a huge overlap of applicants.

Penn and MoCo HS grad -- a perception still that Penn & Cornell are 'easier' to get into from MoCo than the other Ivies (and it's true to some degree - esp. if you realize the reality is they take a large % of those admitted as early decision from this area - locking in so they aren't still looking at Penn or Cornell as a fall back to HYPS). Check out #s for Duke & UMichigan - that's the same tier of kids applying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the fascination with Indiana University? Ton of kids from MD applying with great success (81% acceptance rate).

IU gives lots of OOS merit-money
Party school
Huge Greek life scene
Big 10 sports (especially hoops)
Solid business school

Beautiful campus.

Pay full freight so UI wants them bad!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the fascination with Indiana University? Ton of kids from MD applying with great success (81% acceptance rate).

IU gives lots of OOS merit-money
Party school
Huge Greek life scene
Big 10 sports (especially hoops)
Solid business school

Beautiful campus.

Pay full freight so UI wants them bad!

No, merit money for OOS is very common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the fascination with Indiana University? Ton of kids from MD applying with great success (81% acceptance rate).

IU gives lots of OOS merit-money
Party school
Huge Greek life scene
Big 10 sports (especially hoops)
Solid business school

Beautiful campus.

Pay full freight so UI wants them bad!

It isn't UI. It's IU. That stands for 'Indiana University'

[Anonymous]

Anybody know when the online version of this list will be released for this year? I know it is available in hard copy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I knew Michigan had gotten competitive but had no idea it was so tough to get in from MoCo. Looks like 1 out of every 6.3 applicants from the listed high schools got in. It's DC's top choice but odds are not looking good. DC likes Wisconsin/Madison also and those odds seem much better.

Tips from anyone on what Michigan looks for in a student (besides good grades and scores of course)?

Michigan is weird. In my kid’s school they turned down the kids who were accepted to Harvard, Columbia and UChicago, but accepted the kids who were just a notch below them. FWIW, my kid was one of those turned down by U of Michigan (got into one of the other schools I mentioned). Excellent stats and ECs, full pay AND spent a summer at a camp on campus and kept corresponding with one of the professors involved with that camp, wanted to attend because of him. If that’s not a demonstrated interest, I don’t know what is. I absolutely believe that they yield protect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised by some of the acceptances. For example, for Blair, there was a high acceptance rate to Oberlin but 0 (out of 12) for Wesleyan.

Wesleyan's admit rate is 15%. Oberlin is 28% -- and was under-enrolled for SY 17-18. Not surprising they would admit more students.

It was just striking that almost all of the Blair kids got into Oberlin and none got into Wesleyan. I know Wesleyan is more selective and prestigious but was still surprised at how many kids were accepted to Oberlin.

Oberlin and Kenyon appear to be actively recruiting at Blair/BCC and Wesleyan is not. Until the pipeline is established, there should be merit money to be had.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I knew Michigan had gotten competitive but had no idea it was so tough to get in from MoCo. Looks like 1 out of every 6.3 applicants from the listed high schools got in. It's DC's top choice but odds are not looking good. DC likes Wisconsin/Madison also and those odds seem much better.

Tips from anyone on what Michigan looks for in a student (besides good grades and scores of course)?

Michigan is weird. In my kid’s school they turned down the kids who were accepted to Harvard, Columbia and UChicago, but accepted the kids who were just a notch below them. FWIW, my kid was one of those turned down by U of Michigan (got into one of the other schools I mentioned). Excellent stats and ECs, full pay AND spent a summer at a camp on campus and kept corresponding with one of the professors involved with that camp, wanted to attend because of him. If that’s not a demonstrated interest, I don’t know what is. I absolutely believe that they yield protect.

Eh, my DD got into Columbia and Michigan and her best friend got into Dartmouth and Michigan. Admissions decisions can be unpredictable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, pretty dismal. I saw the same thing in the Arlingotn magazine this weekend, and I was horrified. At least MoCo is similar. Does going private really help at getting into better schools?

Even if you can get into these schools, you can't pay for them if you are a middle-class family. Almost all of the most competitive ones only give need-based aid, which is generally not available to families who make $100K or more -- and Mont Co and Arlington are filled with families meeting that description.

That explains where people are applying to, and attending, as much as anything. [/quot

Ugh, yes. It’s all about the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda Magazine has published its list of Bethesda area high school applications and acceptances to various colleges. I found this guide to be useful when i was trying to figure out where my kids should consider applying for college.


https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-magazine/september-october-2018/where-bethesda-area-high-school-grads-applied-to-college/2/

Not even one school outside the US?

Sounds fishy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's interesting, but not sure how you use it for college selection. You have no idea of the stats of those accepted/rejected. It is also hard to tell how many acceptances are accounted for by the same student. For example, if three kids get into each of HYP, is that the same three kids or nine separate kids? Although it has its own issues, matriculation stats would in many ways be more interesting.

+1 I can promise you the kids applying to CU-Boulder were not as capable as the ones applying to UVA on average