Was your competitive kid get shut out from all top 40 schools?

[Anonymous]

My unhooked high GPA, 35 ACT white kid with leadership was admitted to four in T40 and WL at three others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dont know if any are "Top 40" (number seems arbitrary).
Rejected: Harvard, Penn
Waitlist: NEU, UVA
Accepted: WM, CWRU, Lehigh, BU, UMD, UMN, OSU, Pitt

Poster above. AMAZINGLY collegevine.com was exactly right in predicting DS's outcomes. Rejected from reaches, waitlisted at 2 of 3 hard targets and accepted to 1 hard target and all targets and safeties.

Congrats! what major?

CS...surprise!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got locked out despite what looked like the whole package (stats / EC / class rigor). Not sure if the essays or recommendations were off. Kids getting in from the same school with less rigor and lower scores seem to generally have some hook (i.e. sports, URM, etc.). My kid was truthful on their application and wrote all their own essays. Will never know if something was off on the application or if just too many kids wth similar profile.

Are you implying that some kids got in who didn't write their own essays??

Most kids I know have their essays edited by their parents, relatives, friends, teachers, school counselors or paid private counselors. It goes from just a quick read without much commentary, to a complete re-write. I have to say that often, editing is rather heavy! Be careful with that, because it does't mean the kid has better chances. College admissions officers know how to detect a voice. If the essay reads like a patchwork of voices, it will take the application down a few notches. Don't think heavy editing always helps.

I don’t think this is true. Google essays that worked (JHU is one). These essays are better than most short stories I read. My kids essay sounded like a -7 year old and reject / waitlist city.

I've read them too, and again, be careful with that. Admissions officers aren't stupid. If your kid has average stats, having a Pulitzer essay will raise red flags. You want everything to be consistent. If your kid has strong English and Social Science AP grades and exam scores,won writing competitions and edited the student newspaper, then obviously their essay is expected to be stellar. If your kid has won multiple Science Olympiad competitions with a high GPA, they could also be a strong writer. But a gpa of 3.5, Bs and Cs in non-AP English, test-optional AND a well-written essay? Hmmm. Fishy.

Also, kids can have very interesting and unique stories to tell, but essays full of grammatical mistakes and awkward turns of phrase. It won't get them into HYPSM, but it might get them into other selective colleges. The content is more important than the delivery. The voice has to be authentic, even if imperfect.

You've got to think carefully about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, next year will bring a new level of uncertainty with the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action . Low income will likely become the new hook for maintaining diversity and who knows how that will affect upper middle class kids, but probably not for the best.

The best source for how bad this year was at your school is your own student (if they know seniors) or your college counselors.

Two-income GS-15 fed families in DMV are low income relative to rich Manhattan families who send their kids to private prep schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, next year will bring a new level of uncertainty with the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action . Low income will likely become the new hook for maintaining diversity and who knows how that will affect upper middle class kids, but probably not for the best.

The best source for how bad this year was at your school is your own student (if they know seniors) or your college counselors.

Two-income GS-15 families in DMV are low income relative to rich Manhattan families who send their kids to private prep schools in Manhattan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one is really applying to 40-50 schools, are they??

Of course not. OP's question is poorly phrased, but we know what is meant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

this is what we are finding, too.

DC has much higher stats than most of their peers, but shut out at T20 while the peers with lower stats getting in.. but, DC is a CS major, and the others aren't.

Major definitely matters.

Which is actually fine because not all the generally top ranked schools are better or even very good for CS. Plenty of 40-100 schools have excellent CS programs and invest in them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got locked out despite what looked like the whole package (stats / EC / class rigor). Not sure if the essays or recommendations were off. Kids getting in from the same school with less rigor and lower scores seem to generally have some hook (i.e. sports, URM, etc.). My kid was truthful on their application and wrote all their own essays. Will never know if something was off on the application or if just too many kids wth similar profile.

Are you implying that some kids got in who didn't write their own essays??

Most kids I know have their essays edited by their parents, relatives, friends, teachers, school counselors or paid private counselors. It goes from just a quick read without much commentary, to a complete re-write. I have to say that often, editing is rather heavy! Be careful with that, because it does't mean the kid has better chances. College admissions officers know how to detect a voice. If the essay reads like a patchwork of voices, it will take the application down a few notches. Don't think heavy editing always helps.

And two spaces after a period....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, next year will bring a new level of uncertainty with the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action . Low income will likely become the new hook for maintaining diversity and who knows how that will affect upper middle class kids, but probably not for the best.

The best source for how bad this year was at your school is your own student (if they know seniors) or your college counselors.

Two-income GS-15 families in DMV are low income relative to rich Manhattan families who send their kids to private prep schools in Manhattan.

But more than the median income for the DMV. Get perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To answer OP’s question, no my kids did not get shut out. They have the usual high stats, test scores and ECs and got into top (>t15) schools coming from a public school. They did spend a ton of time on their essays. One is spiky and the other a generalist. One did ED and the other RD. They had a lot of options. So, all anecdotal but two more data points for you.

Were they full pay? Bc I think that makes a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got locked out despite what looked like the whole package (stats / EC / class rigor). Not sure if the essays or recommendations were off. Kids getting in from the same school with less rigor and lower scores seem to generally have some hook (i.e. sports, URM, etc.). My kid was truthful on their application and wrote all their own essays. Will never know if something was off on the application or if just too many kids wth similar profile.

This is my kid, too, but my kid is from a magnet with super high stats. There aren't *that* many kids with the same stats and rigor.

It just seems like after a certain threshold, it becomes like a lottery.

My kid also from a magnet. Honestly, I have no idea what happened. I think perhaps it was hard from their application to assess the rigor. STEM kid so essays not a strong suit.

Essay quality is a big deal for top schools. I think most high starts kids get sunk because their profiles are too similar. These schools want artists and English majors too. So much stem, stem, stem around here. They’re all competing with each other.

+1

You need a sob story essay, most applicants do not realize that.

Yes overcoming hardship is a solid hook but usually not easy to plug into around here.

They want a URM sob story.

That's not really true. It's much more nuanced. Just read the posts here. It was very common for the Sidwell and GDS parents to note that it was URMs getting into "top" schools. But those are not sob story kids. Kids at Anascotia and Eastern are not taking spots from anyone. But yes, there's a definite advantage this year for the privileged kids with a grandparent from Puerto Rico and Nigeria over the privileged kids with a grandparent from China or Sweden. Like or don't like. They're not bad kids. It used to be the Wasps. Then Jews for a while. Now it's something different. There will always be more applicants than spaces. And schools will prioritize different groups at different times. Consequently, it doesn't feel meritocratic to many people.

But it never was

You could have been the smartest Black, Asian or Latino woman on the planet in 1952 but you're still not getting into Harvard.

If your child doesn't have the right grandparent - but has all the necessary grades, APs, test scores, ECs, but no connections - I wouldn't bother with top 10 schools. Go to the next level. Visit if you can. Do the calculator. Really get to know whatever school it is that your child has a passion for. Check the admit rates for your high school. Penn hates our school. Cornell really likes it. Duke is very temperamental. Tailor the application accordingly. And throw that ED card. Smartly. Sometimes it works out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got locked out despite what looked like the whole package (stats / EC / class rigor). Not sure if the essays or recommendations were off. Kids getting in from the same school with less rigor and lower scores seem to generally have some hook (i.e. sports, URM, etc.). My kid was truthful on their application and wrote all their own essays. Will never know if something was off on the application or if just too many kids wth similar profile.

Are you implying that some kids got in who didn't write their own essays??

NP but I’m not implying that, I will say outright that some kids who got in didn’t write their own essays.

and some fudged or outright lied on some of their activities.

[Anonymous]

Locked out of T40 here. If I had to guess, due to the following:
- CS major
- majority student
- magnet school
- truthful ECs that were all STEM-related and did not stand out
- Common varsity sport
- wrote own essay that highlighted their personality but was not a sob story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest is only 14 and not even in high school yet but I have heard of kids who seem perfect on paper get shut out.

I actually started a thread yesterday about parent involvement in starting non profits and businesses for their kids to look good for college admissions. I am not confident my kids can get admitted into a top college in today’s climate. It seems you need something unique and special. My kids are smart, play multiple sports well and are just your typical well redounded UMC kid. I’m still undecided if I want to jump through hoops to help my children have impressive sounding fluff for their college admissions or just let them be (likely not do anything especially impressive besides typical school clubs and sports).

The latter! Being a teenager is hard enough without having to start a non-profit and take 10 AP courses. Do people hear themselves? Our kids are not vessels for our own ambitions and status anxieties.

FWIW - we have one kid in college and two more in MS. They're gonna grow up normally, do what they want outside the classroom and they'll probably go to a state school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got locked out despite what looked like the whole package (stats / EC / class rigor). Not sure if the essays or recommendations were off. Kids getting in from the same school with less rigor and lower scores seem to generally have some hook (i.e. sports, URM, etc.). My kid was truthful on their application and wrote all their own essays. Will never know if something was off on the application or if just too many kids wth similar profile.

Are you implying that some kids got in who didn't write their own essays??

NP but I’m not implying that, I will say outright that some kids who got in didn’t write their own essays.

Sour grapes!