My kid isn't getting in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’ve confirmed something I’ve long suspected. My kid goes to a lesser ranked public high school and the neighborhood just nearby is a much higher ranked high school. I always suspected that he would end up in the same place as the rich kids nearby, but they would be disappointed they ended up there while he will be satisfied. He would really like to go to CP and doesn’t know anyone at his high school who would make him feel ashamed of it.

We go to a high school with "rich kids" and no one at our schools makes other students feel ashamed of going to UMD. A lot of the "rich kids," as you say, were rejected this year. So not sure why you think being rich has anything to do with whether kids approve or don't approve of UMD. You honestly sound jealous.

Honestly, read these boards. It's the parents, not their [students'] peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough. I’m very sorry. My son was a very average kid, academically. It made it easier in a way. Applied to 12 schools, 10 were state flagships. He got into 10/12 schools and felt really good about himself for the first time in a long time (with respect to school). He attended a large state flagship and is doing very well in college.
My daughter is more of a 90 percentile kid. We will be steering her to similar schools as her brother, however, for a multitude of reasons including taking the damn pressure off a bit that is so woven into living in this area.

As I’m sure I’ll be asked, his schools:

Admitted (29 ACT and 3.4 GPA)
U of SC
Penn State (summer program)
Clemson (summer program)
Alabama
Auburn
Indiana
Ole Miss
UC Boulder
Pitt
TCU

Not admitted: Ohio State and U of GA

That’s awesome, PP. Good for him. Just out of curiosity, where did he decide to go?

I feel for OP’s son. I have a 10th grader who I think is going to be similar and I don’t think a big school would be a good fit so it’s going to be interesting. I commented on a few other recent threads that I feel like the kids in the top but not tippy top are then looking wt the same schools as kids with much lower stats. This PP here is a good example. Her son is in at a lot of schools that people are saying are the kind of ones OP’s kid and similar kids should be planning on, and they aren’t bad schools, but why are the kids working so hard for their 4.4 and their 11 APs if they can get in w/o and a 3.4???

To work on getting a great high school education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope PP and their student are OK, but this is classic DMV or DCUM bubble-speak. This is not meant as disrespect.

Your student's stats are phenomenal by almost any measure. It is the expectation and perspective that is off. The expectation for this process is to have target schools including a couple leaning yes, a couple safeties that are absolute yes - and that the student feels good about them. The reaches are by definition just that, reaches. Then at the end you have 2, 3 maybe 4 to choose from (unless you ED binding of course). That is if you feel that "choices" is a sign of success, which is odd because a student can only attend one college.

Setting the right list early, setting the perspective are both critical - the truth is that attending any school in the top 50 in the USA is terrific and students do well after they finish at all of them. So much more than the name of the school at work.

If your student is smart enough to work for and achieve those results in HS, they are going to be fine, better than fine. They need perspective from someone, and then they need to go off to college and have fun for a month or two then never think about this process again.

+100
Well said PP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK here's the brutal truth. My kid is a 90% kid who thinks he's a 99% kid. 1500 SAT. 4.5W GPA with a solid rigor- 11 APs but not in hard science or math. He got into Scholars but not Honors at college park. Rejected from UVA. Neither outcome was unexpected, but both still hurt.

We paid for test prep. We paid for a college counselor. We paid for editors for the essay. We did not pay for private K-12. So recs were from public school teachers and administrators who are overworked and can't really glow even if they want to. We filled out a FAFSA.

He's getting rejected or deferred from everywhere (elite publics and privates) except safety schools. I know, it happens. I know we should have been prepared for this. It has to happen to someone.

And as special as my kid is, being 90th percentile in a world of 99.9th percentile can be a crappy feeling. Add to that not being full pay, not being a legacy, and not being a recruited athlete. I wish I could undo the last two years. I wish I could reset as the goal getting admitted to the state flagship and other out of state publics that offer merit aid and call it a day. That's good enough and trying to shoot for more is a dream that is largely reserved for the extra-brilliant, or the upper crust.

If I could do it over I would have him apply to Miami of Ohio and Wisconsin and Pitt and the other public schools that take a lot of kids from this area instead of all these crazy expensive private schools with much smaller classes where kids like him applying are a dime a dozen. At the time he didn't want to because he knew College Park is a better school than all these options. So he'd rather cast a wide net with the more selective private schools. But now it's coming down to the wire and it really feels like he will literally have NO choices. I am regretting his whole strategy. I just hope similar parents out there can hear this and inform their own choices.

OP, curious what your college counselor is saying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you’ve confirmed something I’ve long suspected. My kid goes to a lesser ranked public high school and the neighborhood just nearby is a much higher ranked high school. I always suspected that he would end up in the same place as the rich kids nearby, but they would be disappointed they ended up there while he will be satisfied. He would really like to go to CP and doesn’t know anyone at his high school who would make him feel ashamed of it.

We go to a high school with "rich kids" and no one at our schools makes other students feel ashamed of going to UMD. A lot of the "rich kids," as you say, were rejected this year. So not sure why you think being rich has anything to do with whether kids approve or don't approve of UMD. You honestly sound jealous.

Agree. There is something ugly about the tone in the first post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if this is a joke or not. From accepted ivy thread:

3.4 GPA
29 ACT
1 AP Class
No EC
Legacy URM

URM it maybe true

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if this is a joke or not. From accepted ivy thread:

3.4 GPA
29 ACT
1 AP Class
No EC
Legacy URM

URM it maybe true

+1

Maybe but it’s most likely a disgruntled mom of a high stats kid.

Literally nobody has no ECs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough. I’m very sorry. My son was a very average kid, academically. It made it easier in a way. Applied to 12 schools, 10 were state flagships. He got into 10/12 schools and felt really good about himself for the first time in a long time (with respect to school). He attended a large state flagship and is doing very well in college.
My daughter is more of a 90 percentile kid. We will be steering her to similar schools as her brother, however, for a multitude of reasons including taking the damn pressure off a bit that is so woven into living in this area.

As I’m sure I’ll be asked, his schools:

Admitted (29 ACT and 3.4 GPA)
U of SC
Penn State (summer program)
Clemson (summer program)
Alabama
Auburn
Indiana
Ole Miss
UC Boulder
Pitt
TCU

Not admitted: Ohio State and U of GA

That’s awesome, PP. Good for him. Just out of curiosity, where did he decide to go?

I feel for OP’s son. I have a 10th grader who I think is going to be similar and I don’t think a big school would be a good fit so it’s going to be interesting. I commented on a few other recent threads that I feel like the kids in the top but not tippy top are then looking wt the same schools as kids with much lower stats. This PP here is a good example. Her son is in at a lot of schools that people are saying are the kind of ones OP’s kid and similar kids should be planning on, and they aren’t bad schools, but why are the kids working so hard for their 4.4 and their 11 APs if they can get in w/o and a 3.4???

To work on getting a great high school education?

You don't need 11 APs for a great HS education. Honestly, after seeing how this plays out and the fact that my junior DD would be really happy at several less competitive LACs that would meet our budget, I've really been encouraging her to put more balance in her schedule. Insisted on only 3 APs in junior year and I'd like her to stick with that senior year. It's plenty. She has ADHD and works like crazy with this schedule.

[Anonymous]

You said he's only getting into his safeties. Was UMD what you were counting as a safety? Are there any others?

With admissions being as it is now, IMO, kids should be applying to more "safeties" and really spend a lot of time finding ones they would love to go. They are out there. If he just needs to feel like he has choices, there are lots of colleges with later deadlines
https://blog.prepscholar.com/colleges-with-late-application-deadlines-complete-list

Sure, they are going to be lower ranked than UMD but they are options.

[Anonymous]

OK here's the brutal truth. My kid is a 90% kid who thinks he's a 99% kid. 1500 SAT. 4.5W GPA with a solid rigor- 11 APs but not in hard science or math. He got into Scholars but not Honors at college park. Rejected from UVA. Neither outcome was unexpected, but both still hurt.

We paid for test prep. We paid for a college counselor. We paid for editors for the essay. We did not pay for private K-12. So recs were from public school teachers and administrators who are overworked and can't really glow even if they want to. We filled out a FAFSA.

He's getting rejected or deferred from everywhere (elite publics and privates) except safety schools. I know, it happens. I know we should have been prepared for this. It has to happen to someone.

I have questions.

1. What are the safety schools? Are they a better fit than Maryland?
2. What on earth does the college counselor have to say about this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The difference between one big public flagship university and another is not too great. The difference in experience between that and a small private is huge. It sounds like OP's kid wanted a small private and they didn't apply low enough on the selectivity scale. Leaving him stuck with a big public experience he was trying to avoid.

Lets be honest. Public school sucks compared to private school. (I went public through grad school and my kids are in public now). I'm sad because a kidlike that could have gotten decent merit at a lower ranked private like Macalester or Oberlin.

Funny, Oberlin produced 4 Nobel prize alums, one of whom turned Caltech from a local vocational school to what it is today.

+1

My 99th-percentile kid is at a lower-ranked private with big merit aid doing very well. Chose it over UMD Honors for the LAC small classes and research opportunities.

What makes a kid a 99th-percentile kid? 99th of what?

[Anonymous]

There are about 40,000 seniors in the 99th percentile. This is good for our country. We have a lot of smart kids. But they don’t all get to go to Ivies.

[Anonymous]

Send him where he can get a solid undergraduate education at a state university. With any luck, he does very well there. Then he can apply to a number of grad schools, which is a whole different ball game from applying to undergrad. And his student debt load will be lower. Win-win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough. I’m very sorry. My son was a very average kid, academically. It made it easier in a way. Applied to 12 schools, 10 were state flagships. He got into 10/12 schools and felt really good about himself for the first time in a long time (with respect to school). He attended a large state flagship and is doing very well in college.
My daughter is more of a 90 percentile kid. We will be steering her to similar schools as her brother, however, for a multitude of reasons including taking the damn pressure off a bit that is so woven into living in this area.

As I’m sure I’ll be asked, his schools:

Admitted (29 ACT and 3.4 GPA)
U of SC
Penn State (summer program)
Clemson (summer program)
Alabama
Auburn
Indiana
Ole Miss
UC Boulder
Pitt
TCU

Not admitted: Ohio State and U of GA

That’s awesome, PP. Good for him. Just out of curiosity, where did he decide to go?

I feel for OP’s son. I have a 10th grader who I think is going to be similar and I don’t think a big school would be a good fit so it’s going to be interesting. I commented on a few other recent threads that I feel like the kids in the top but not tippy top are then looking wt the same schools as kids with much lower stats. This PP here is a good example. Her son is in at a lot of schools that people are saying are the kind of ones OP’s kid and similar kids should be planning on, and they aren’t bad schools, but why are the kids working so hard for their 4.4 and their 11 APs if they can get in w/o and a 3.4???

To work on getting a great high school education?

You don't need 11 APs for a great HS education. Honestly, after seeing how this plays out and the fact that my junior DD would be really happy at several less competitive LACs that would meet our budget, I've really been encouraging her to put more balance in her schedule. Insisted on only 3 APs in junior year and I'd like her to stick with that senior year. It's plenty. She has ADHD and works like crazy with this schedule.

That's true. You don't need SAT 1550+, 10+ APs, countless EC hours to get into UVA or UMD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are not alone. I wish DD who is also 1500, 4.4 and has math and science APs had concentrated on the state schools and tried to get merit. Results so far --UVA, no. Defers at Georgetown and Richmond. Yes from MD, Pitt, and Penn State. All good schools. Something will work out. I wish we had gone the Alabama, SC, etc. route. Hang in there.

A defer from Richmond??

Wow. That's rough. Maybe that's an example of the school not thinking your DD will really show up there.