If you kid got into their reach school what do think helped?

[Anonymous]

White male. 1390 SAT, 3.76 UW GPA with 12 AP classes.

Accepted to school where he was around 50% for grades and test score, but admission rate was 14%, so kind of a lottery.

Things that helped:
- full pay
-ED

What the school said helped in admission letter: his essay. Admit letter mentioned specifics from essay. I assume that’s at least partly automated, but it was pretty cool.

Also had strong recs, including from an AP teacher who gave him a B first semester and who he initially butted with. He was able to turn that around, and I think she wrote a good rec.

Also, DS had a good story about what he planned to major and minor in, both of which were reflected by volunteering he did in high school, which was also what his essay was about.

[Anonymous]

**butted heads with**

[Anonymous]

What helped most was his approach to the whole admissions process as a game to play and win. He decided that ED1 was a huge advantage for him because we have been saving for 18 years for it. He decided where to play his ED card based on where he liked and where ED matters. Strong grades and SAT, and then he crafted his ECs and essays to provide anecdotes so that his application presented a clear and consistent story of who he is, so boiled down that the AO could read it and recall “oh that’s that kid from the public school who is really into X/unusual hobby and wrote the funny essay about why he loves that hobby.” Top 5 university USNWR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And money + URM is the golden ticket.

This was the golden ticket, now it's high stat First Gen or white male.

Are you being sarcastic?

I have noticed the disparities in male vs. female applicants in the common data sets. Is being a male really consider an advantage at this point?

Yes. The advantage for males is slight, but real.

But not in top 10-top 20 schools. It's been documented at the top schools they have no problem balancing gender because large numbers of qualified males and females apply in equal numbers.

When you start going down in rankings below #30 it slowly starts giving a very tiny advantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Match stats, URM and full pay. There are admissions books which basically say such applicants are a golden goose, with admissions reps literally giddy when they come across them.

+100 DCs good friend was this. They got into 5 Ivies.

Ivies are need blind and some not very diverse. At admitted students day, mine was surprised by lack or URM presence (confirmed by current URM student) and high percentage of elite private school white/Asian kids in her admitted students group.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But all of these elite schools have been posting big numbers of URM in their incoming classes. I guess because your kid could not 'visually' identify the ones that checked that box, perhaps some weren't so honest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And money + URM is the golden ticket.

This was the golden ticket, now it's high stat First Gen or white male.

Are you being sarcastic?

I have noticed the disparities in male vs. female applicants in the common data sets. Is being a male really consider an advantage at this point?

Yes. The advantage for males is slight, but real.

But not in top 10-top 20 schools. It's been documented at the top schools they have no problem balancing gender because large numbers of qualified males and females apply in equal numbers.

When you start going down in rankings below #30 it slowly starts giving a very tiny advantage.

At the SLACs the disparity is huge, even at the top

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Match stats, URM and full pay. There are admissions books which basically say such applicants are a golden goose, with admissions reps literally giddy when they come across them.

+100 DCs good friend was this. They got into 5 Ivies.

Ivies are need blind and some not very diverse. At admitted students day, mine was surprised by lack or URM presence (confirmed by current URM student) and high percentage of elite private school white/Asian kids in her admitted students group.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But all of these elite schools have been posting big numbers of URM in their incoming classes. I guess because your kid could not 'visually' identify the ones that checked that box, perhaps some weren't so honest.

Or it could be that URM presence was lower than the “elite private school white/Asian” presence bc many (no, not all) URMs lack resources and parent time off to be able to travel to an admitted students day, while the elite private school families mentioned would be far more likely to be able to attend. I certainly wouldn’t take the lower URM presence to indicate that white students lied about their race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And money + URM is the golden ticket.

This was the golden ticket, now it's high stat First Gen or white male.

Are you being sarcastic?

I have noticed the disparities in male vs. female applicants in the common data sets. Is being a male really consider an advantage at this point?

Yes. The advantage for males is slight, but real.

But not in top 10-top 20 schools. It's been documented at the top schools they have no problem balancing gender because large numbers of qualified males and females apply in equal numbers.

When you start going down in rankings below #30 it slowly starts giving a very tiny advantage.

Yale had more than 6,000 more female applicants than male per most recent CDS. Brown had 10,000 more female applicants but almost identical number of acceptances.

[Anonymous]

We’re fairly certain it was the sustained investment in voodoo magic. The sessions with Madame Laveau were expensive, but so worth it. Wife fainted a few times, but, really, who doesn’t during the application process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Match stats, URM and full pay. There are admissions books which basically say such applicants are a golden goose, with admissions reps literally giddy when they come across them.

+100 DCs good friend was this. They got into 5 Ivies.

Ivies are need blind and some not very diverse. At admitted students day, mine was surprised by lack or URM presence (confirmed by current URM student) and high percentage of elite private school white/Asian kids in her admitted students group.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But all of these elite schools have been posting big numbers of URM in their incoming classes. I guess because your kid could not 'visually' identify the ones that checked that box, perhaps some weren't so honest.

They don't all post "big URM numbers." This one didn't. And, it wasn't.

It's not always a scam or conspiracy, you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Match stats, URM and full pay. There are admissions books which basically say such applicants are a golden goose, with admissions reps literally giddy when they come across them.

+100 DCs good friend was this. They got into 5 Ivies.

Ivies are need blind and some not very diverse. At admitted students day, mine was surprised by lack or URM presence (confirmed by current URM student) and high percentage of elite private school white/Asian kids in her admitted students group.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But all of these elite schools have been posting big numbers of URM in their incoming classes. I guess because your kid could not 'visually' identify the ones that checked that box, perhaps some weren't so honest.

Or it could be that URM presence was lower than the “elite private school white/Asian” presence bc many (no, not all) URMs lack resources and parent time off to be able to travel to an admitted students day, while the elite private school families mentioned would be far more likely to be able to attend. I certainly wouldn’t take the lower URM presence to indicate that white students lied about their race.

I am the poster who observed. This could be true. But, the campus as a whole did not seem diverse either, and the students we spoke with confirmed. But, the numbers don't indicate that this school is diverse if you look carefully. So, I don't think people are lying either. I was just observing and noting that dome people on this board make sweeping generalizations without any experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And money + URM is the golden ticket.

This was the golden ticket, now it's high stat First Gen or white male.

Are you being sarcastic?

I have noticed the disparities in male vs. female applicants in the common data sets. Is being a male really consider an advantage at this point?

Yes. The advantage for males is slight, but real.

But not in top 10-top 20 schools. It's been documented at the top schools they have no problem balancing gender because large numbers of qualified males and females apply in equal numbers.

When you start going down in rankings below #30 it slowly starts giving a very tiny advantage.

Yale had more than 6,000 more female applicants than male per most recent CDS. Brown had 10,000 more female applicants but almost identical number of acceptances.

Yes was about to say something similar to this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re fairly certain it was the sustained investment in voodoo magic. The sessions with Madame Laveau were expensive, but so worth it. Wife fainted a few times, but, really, who doesn’t during the application process?

Sadly, I feel I need to come clean: that was an attempt at satirical levity folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paid $150 K for private high school with well-connected college counselors who could pick up the phone, chat with the college AO, and make all the difference in the world.

BS as top private school parent that is a myth

This. It is a total lie. Sure, any counselor can call the someone in the office who is assigned to their region, but in no way do they make the decisions. This is Bs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paid $150 K for private high school with well-connected college counselors who could pick up the phone, chat with the college AO, and make all the difference in the world.

BS as top private school parent that is a myth

This. It is a total lie. Sure, any counselor can call the someone in the office who is assigned to their region, but in no way do they make the decisions. This is Bs.

This happened our our FCPS public too. Appreciate the effort, but sadly it didn’t help. What would have helped is if his advisor had warned him not to change languages in 11th grade.