Williams ED Bloodbath?

[Anonymous]

With a school like Williams, I always thought the PURPOSE of ED was for priority admits. RD is for the rest of us. Not like CWRU or Lehigh where they have to concern themselves with yield.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wish Naviance would have an indicator for all
Schools if those accepted were:

Athletes
URM
Legacy
First
Questbridge

Would be the fairest way for those applying to know their actual shot they have and plan accordingly.

Our school has never had anyone accepted who did not meet one of the above criteria so it significantly skews the results in Naviance / makes it looked more attainable than it is for an unhooked kid.

If a public, I get it. If a private, this should be pretty easy to figure out.

For public schools, I think it’s best to focus on the red xes. Any or all the green might be hooked. See where the rejections start. If it’s T10, they may start at perfect stats but as you move down the rankings, it’s more useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Considering what is happening in the world, referring to results for early admissions as a “bloodbath” is tone deaf and offensive.

For many years, the term "bloodbath" has been an accepted slang word within college admissions discourse. It's just a dead metaphor that people use all the time when talking about highly rejective schools. I'm sure OP meant no harm.

And?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school counselors have access to this function to identify “hooks”-at least in SCOiR-and they should be notifying parents!!

Someone posted a link last year to a guide Harvard Westlake gives parents of juniors/seniors and every school should aspire to do this. It provides stats for hooked and unhooked students who were accepted to various schools in the prior year’s admissions process (maybe multiple cycles, I can’t remember exact details now). I don’t understand why schools hold this info back when college matriculation is one of their main “selling points” and sharing this info will increase the likelihood of positive outcomes.

Do they consider it a hook to have an Academy Award or Grammy Award winner for a parent?

Yes, in part because of fame and in part because the parents have good potential to be generous donors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Williams ED gives no boost over RD (RD admissions rate is higher for unhooked applicants) because only 1 ED round, 1/3 of class is athletes, and then there’s Questbridge etc.

Nobody unhooked should be applying ED to Williams.

Of course, nobody unhooked should be applying to SCEA schools at this point either. And yet…

i know unhooked kid who got into Williams ED last year. My unhooked kid got into a different school on the earlier list of schools to which nobody should be applying. For sure, keep you eyes open. Don't go in expecting all great outcomes. But top kids are getting in places. It does happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams ED gives no boost over RD (RD admissions rate is higher for unhooked applicants) because only 1 ED round, 1/3 of class is athletes, and then there’s Questbridge etc.

Nobody unhooked should be applying ED to Williams.

Of course, nobody unhooked should be applying to SCEA schools at this point either. And yet…

i know unhooked kid who got into Williams ED last year. My unhooked kid got into a different school on the earlier list of schools to which nobody should be applying. For sure, keep you eyes open. Don't go in expecting all great outcomes. But top kids are getting in places. It does happen.

There will always be exceptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Five is a crazy number to such a small school but you”ll notice all of these admits have hooks:

-2 athlete
-2 legacy
-1 URM with interesting life story

My theory is that college counseling at these privates doesn’t provide any useful data to parents because the truth is that they do very little to help the non-hooked population get into the elite colleges. With legacy becoming more and more obsolete, look to future admits to private school to be Uber-rich or college recruitable athletes-your average smart kid without an extra need not apply!!

Yep. Gotta have a hook.

The rest go to the Ohio States of the world.

[Anonymous]

Our private feeder sends 3+ kids to Williams, usually in RD. 5 last year, 4 of which were RD. ED is for hooked kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t have time to read through all the comments but my children’s school had 5 seniors admitted to Williams last Friday. 2 athletes, 2 legacies and 1 refugee from Afghanistan. It was like a textbook illustration of why not to apply ED.

Wow. What school?

A boarding school in Mass

It took three pages to find out we are talking about a likely feeder school. Talk about burying the lead.

?? This was about the five kids that got in, including the Afghan refugee

Right from a Massachusetts boarding school that is almost certainly a feeder. Completely useless info.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With a school like Williams, I always thought the PURPOSE of ED was for priority admits. RD is for the rest of us. Not like CWRU or Lehigh where they have to concern themselves with yield.

Williams is also concerned about yield. Despite having an ED round their yield is only 44% which is pretty low.

[Anonymous]

There will be a college acceptance bloodbath period. You need to prepare yourself. Your straight A, perfect SAT score, perfect extracurricular kid probably won't get into any top schools unless they are poor, athletes, or are extraordinarily unusual, out of the box, thinkers and that comes across in their application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school counselors have access to this function to identify “hooks”-at least in SCOiR-and they should be notifying parents!!

Someone posted a link last year to a guide Harvard Westlake gives parents of juniors/seniors and every school should aspire to do this. It provides stats for hooked and unhooked students who were accepted to various schools in the prior year’s admissions process (maybe multiple cycles, I can’t remember exact details now). I don’t understand why schools hold this info back when college matriculation is one of their main “selling points” and sharing this info will increase the likelihood of positive outcomes.

Do you have the link? I’d like to send it to our private college counseling office.

Think this it. Holy sh*t eye-opening.

https://students.hw.com/Portals/44/completehandbook2023.pdf

The Harvard data for this school is not impressive at all. Once you take out legacy and recruited athlete. Eight admits out of 105 applications over the last three years?

Meanwhile in 2023,
14 to Harvard
10 to Columbia
9 to Stanford
8 to Cornell
7 to Penn
6 to Brown
5 to Yale.... and so on.

Does that mean - a lot of athletic recruits and legacy???

Yes, HW has a significant athletic program and for kids who want to go out of CA for college, HW students are the "go to" for the elite eastern colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There will be a college acceptance bloodbath period. You need to prepare yourself. Your straight A, perfect SAT score, perfect extracurricular kid probably won't get into any top schools unless they are poor, athletes, or are extraordinarily unusual, out of the box, thinkers and that comes across in their application.

this has been going on for three years, why are folks shocked?

[Anonymous]

People really don’t know how to read… their ED acceptance rate was ~25% this year. It’s not that crazy. Columbia and Duke are projected to be ~11-12% this year (basically half). Williams is a hard admit but far from a blood bath

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will be a college acceptance bloodbath period. You need to prepare yourself. Your straight A, perfect SAT score, perfect extracurricular kid probably won't get into any top schools unless they are poor, athletes, or are extraordinarily unusual, out of the box, thinkers and that comes across in their application.

this has been going on for three years, why are folks shocked?

No one really believes it until it happens to their kid.