Parents of Ivy admits — what were their ECs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:My DC is at Princeton. He was not pointy. Big public high school. Strong GPA, class rigor, test scores, etc. He played a varsity sport throughout HS, was in the audition-only jazz choir. Strong writer, enjoyed learning, good relationships with his teachers. Not a legacy, not a recruited athlete, not URM. We joke that maybe he got in because he was homecoming king.

Full pay?

Everyone at an ivy is full pay except those with low incomes.

This is so not true.

I was at a consortium recently with presentations from 8 AOs from diff schools. Yale, Brown and Harvard said this precise thing. Each also said their income thresholds for free tuition and also tuition, room and board. All but one offer nothing other than need based scholarships.

Brown: https://finaid.brown.edu/aid-types/grants-scholarships#:~:text=Brown%20University%20does%20not%20offer,determined%20solely%20on%20financial%20need.

Yale: https://finaid.yale.edu/costs-affordability/types-aid/scholarships-and-grants#YS

Harvard: https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works#:~:text=There%20are%20no%20merit%2Dbased,all%20of%20your%20demonstrated%20need.

Columbia: https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/content/does-columbia-offer-merit-scholarships

Cornell: https://finaid.cornell.edu/types-of-aid/grants-and-scholarships

Penn: https://admissions.upenn.edu/affording-penn/how-it-works#:~:text=Penn%20does%20not%20offer%20merit,US%2C%20Canada%2C%20and%20Mexico.

Princeton: https://admission.princeton.edu/cost-aid/how-financial-aid-works#:~:text=Princeton%20financial%20aid%20is%20awarded,not%20considered%20when%20awarding%20aid.

Just so you know, this is for families "with typical assets" which colleges usually cap at 200-250k outside retirement

That is not a lot of money for parents of grown children - likely middle aged.

Huh, depends on your perspective. 200-250K/year sounds like a lot of money to me. FWIW: I live in (expensive) DC, have two teenagers, and my husband and I are in our 50s.

[Anonymous]

Lots of good advice here too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has it ever occurred to any of you that if “packaging” is what gets a kid into an Ivy, maybe students at Ivies aren’t more exceptional than smart kids at other elite schools who packaged less or not at all? People set on Ivies seem to think it’s the student cohort - not the education, per se - that makes the Ivies great, but if the cohort is mostly smart kids artificially made to look amazing, maybe the cohort is more like the emperor with few clothes. Just something to consider.

I think that is true. Packaged networkers with no substance are getting in, not the best and brightest.

This has always been true

Some of the smartest kids at TJ are heading to UVA in the fall.