Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole string is making me nervous… 4.8 wgpa, 1560 SAT ,captain of a varsity sport , 500+ hours ssl and summer job. Will she get into unc chapel hill? Emory? Duke?

Best to add some safeties there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole string is making me nervous… 4.8 wgpa, 1560 SAT ,captain of a varsity sport , 500+ hours ssl and summer job. Will she get into unc chapel hill? Emory? Duke?

Tell her to get a supplemental rec from her boss. If you are full-pay, choose your ED school wisely. Is she a legacy at UNC? If not, GL, its low % of OOS acceptances has been addressed often on this forum.

If her CA essay and supplementals are unique, she is a very strong candidate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The difference is that people who feel they are entitled to those spots for their kids after paying for tutoring/SAT prep/expensive ECs are being disappointed that they are not getting in everywhere as they assumed they would.

People who make a reasonable list focused on fit, including some safeties they really like are doing fine.

Ahh - the everyone is taking expensive prep so that is why they get a spot. No. Find another story line.

No, everyone who is taking expensive prep thinks that they deserve a spot so they complain loudly when reality does not meet their inflated expectations.

Yep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Which college specifically rejected this kid outright? Name the school.

UVA, VT, also UNC and UMI (we live in VA). Thought all of these were targets. Waitlisted at Vanderbilt, rejected at Ivys

Wait, who has UNC and Michigan out of state as “targets?” Those are lottery schools for anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Which college specifically rejected this kid outright? Name the school.

UVA, VT, also UNC and UMI (we live in VA). Thought all of these were targets. Waitlisted at Vanderbilt, rejected at Ivys

Wait, who has UNC and Michigan out of state as “targets?” Those are lottery schools for anyone.

This. This is the problem. People seem to think if they are aiming for Ivies but know they are very unlikely to get it, then these other universities must be the real targets. In reality these were the reach schools.

I think both sides of this thread are onto something. On the one hand, by sheer numbers admissions to top universities seems hopeless. But OTOH this is caused by peoples outsized expectations coming off a generation of rampant grade inflation and watered down SAT scores. A 1450-1550 SAT score today would scale 80-100 points lower a generation ago. So parents are looking at scores that they thought would be shoe ins for these schools based on their own experience and bringing that forward to now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Which college specifically rejected this kid outright? Name the school.

UVA, VT, also UNC and UMI (we live in VA). Thought all of these were targets. Waitlisted at Vanderbilt, rejected at Ivys

Wait, who has UNC and Michigan out of state as “targets?” Those are lottery schools for anyone.

+1

Example...Michigan had something like 15,000 applications for 4,000 in state slots and 70,000 applications for 4,000 out of state applications.

Do the math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Which college specifically rejected this kid outright? Name the school.

UVA, VT, also UNC and UMI (we live in VA). Thought all of these were targets. Waitlisted at Vanderbilt, rejected at Ivys

Wait, who has UNC and Michigan out of state as “targets?” Those are lottery schools for anyone.

+1. Either your kid is top 10% at TJ or you are starting with an unrealistic definition of match schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Which college specifically rejected this kid outright? Name the school.

UVA, VT, also UNC and UMI (we live in VA). Thought all of these were targets. Waitlisted at Vanderbilt, rejected at Ivys

Wait, who has UNC and Michigan out of state as “targets?” Those are lottery schools for anyone.

NP, but DD had UMich as a target. 4.0 uw, 1580, likely first in her class at a top tier private that sends students to multiple Ivies and other top-20 schools every year. The UMich scattergram showed almost entirely green checks in the general area (DD is up and to the right of everyone in the UMich data set). She was deferred from EA, so we'll see.

It wasn't a safety; it was a target. Just like UVA (where she was admitted OOS).

UNC is a different story just because of the low OOS population (DD did not apply there).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Which college specifically rejected this kid outright? Name the school.

UVA, VT, also UNC and UMI (we live in VA). Thought all of these were targets. Waitlisted at Vanderbilt, rejected at Ivys

Wait, who has UNC and Michigan out of state as “targets?” Those are lottery schools for anyone.

+1

Both are around 15% +/- acceptance for out of staters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Let me guess.. white male?

Being male is a huge admissions boost at most schools because so many more females apply. It’s much easier to get in as a male.

Sorry to burst your little grievance bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Most of these posts on so many of these threads will list some version of "varsity sports" and "captain senior year", etc, etc.
Unless the student is a recruited athlete, high school sports are not in any way a distinguishing EC. At all. Yes, of course your kid should play hs school sports if they like but do not encourage your kid in thinking it is something significant on any college application. Dime a dozen.

So much THIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is missing from these posts is that there was significant grade inflation for the class of 2022 with their junior year online. Junior year is where the rubber meets the road and kids can do well in 5-6 APs or they don't. If everyone did well there is nothing to distinguish someone who got a 4.0 because of online and cheating vs. hard work and intelligence. Now put all these kids with similar GPAs together, with or without tests, and the highest applicant numbers in history and this is what happens. I hope it works itself out for next year!

YES!

I don't even have a dog in this fight but am a teacher. Let's say in a normal year 10% of kids got straight As. Last year it was like 70% at our school. We were told to be super lenient. The district I teach in (DCPS) did not even give out grades lower than a B. So kids who did the work (in any way, shape or form) got As. The rest (who did nothing) got Bs.
Extrapolate this to an entire district of kids and you have a lot of A students. Thousands.

I’ve seen this posted on DC schools forum and is such a lie. I know kids who got C’s during the pandemic. One of my kid’s has always has a B on report card. The Wilson Beacon actually wrote an article about how GPA’s went DOWN slightly during the pandemic. The district may have said to ease up, but it didn’t always translate. We suffered our share of flaky teachers too.

It may have been a “lie” at your school, but it wasn’t in many, many others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole string is making me nervous… 4.8 wgpa, 1560 SAT ,captain of a varsity sport , 500+ hours ssl and summer job. Will she get into unc chapel hill? Emory? Duke?

Tell her to get a supplemental rec from her boss. If you are full-pay, choose your ED school wisely. Is she a legacy at UNC? If not, GL, its low % of OOS acceptances has been addressed often on this forum.

If her CA essay and supplementals are unique, she is a very strong candidate.

“Captain of a varsity sport” is a dime a dozen in applicant pools to top schools, so remove that from your list. What kind of job? Something interesting and different related to the area of application, sure. Waiting tables or running a cash register? Irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrong. 35 ACT, NMS, varsity sports, leadership, same summer job since freshman year of HS, did not get in.

Keep telling yourself it is the same, but is is absolutely not.

Let me guess.. white male?

Being male is a huge admissions boost at most schools because so many more females apply. It’s much easier to get in as a male.

Sorry to burst your little grievance bubble.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole string is making me nervous… 4.8 wgpa, 1560 SAT ,captain of a varsity sport , 500+ hours ssl and summer job. Will she get into unc chapel hill? Emory? Duke?

A kid like that might be happiest where she could be a big fish in a small pond. Look for some well respected d3 schools where she’s skilled enough to walk onto her sport’s college team. It’s often better to excel somewhere easier to get into than be mid pack in a top school. Surely these schools have many wonderful professors, and the knock-down effect means lots of smart kids attending.

Union? Vassar? Skidmore? F&M? Rollins? Sewannee? There are so many good options.