schools that left a bad taste

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt won’t seem to accept anyone from our school (well regarded private). Every year we have dozens of students accepted to multiple Ivy’s and top 10s but it’s been years since a Vanderbilt acceptance. This year our valedictorian applied ED and didn’t get in. She ended up getting into Stanford, Uchicago, Penn, Dartmouth, and Yale! But not Vanderbilt…
The college counseling department pretty much warns families not to bother with Vanderbilt since they seem to have a weird dislike of our school.

It was Duke for our private. No one from our school has gotten into Duke in decades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Michigan can suck it.

I couldn't have said it better myself, but Duke

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt won’t seem to accept anyone from our school (well regarded private). Every year we have dozens of students accepted to multiple Ivy’s and top 10s but it’s been years since a Vanderbilt acceptance. This year our valedictorian applied ED and didn’t get in. She ended up getting into Stanford, Uchicago, Penn, Dartmouth, and Yale! But not Vanderbilt…
The college counseling department pretty much warns families not to bother with Vanderbilt since they seem to have a weird dislike of our school.

It was Duke for our private. No one from our school has gotten into Duke in decades.

That was the case for us until last year in RD & this year in ED. RD admit also swept the Ivies. ED was unhooked and a miracle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt won’t seem to accept anyone from our school (well regarded private). Every year we have dozens of students accepted to multiple Ivy’s and top 10s but it’s been years since a Vanderbilt acceptance. This year our valedictorian applied ED and didn’t get in. She ended up getting into Stanford, Uchicago, Penn, Dartmouth, and Yale! But not Vanderbilt…
The college counseling department pretty much warns families not to bother with Vanderbilt since they seem to have a weird dislike of our school.

Wonder if we’re at the same school…my son’s college counselor told us flat out not to bother with Vanderbilt because they have some kind of vendetta against the school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UC admissions is rotten as well as a good number of other aspects of UC administration.

1. State audit finding that several schools, highest count Cal, admitted kids of staff, friends, donors who did not meet A-G and gpa requirements being admitted. Cal in particular had more beyond the someone high up put the kid on the list.
2. Public statements from AOs that we are not seeking the most qualified students or being the school’s valedictorian is scored lower than saying you translated mail for your non English speaking parents.
3. UC offering to road show to other institutions how they use test blind, recommendation blind, recruitment tagging and proxy measures to achieve racial targets while claiming to not use race.
4. Doing away with counselor recommendations or any verification of what is put into applications. A Chinese American girl was dancing around giddy at our school that she got into UCLA claiming she was half AA, applying to an AA studies major, wishing to bridge the gap between Chinese and AA students, made up a web site for her organization and plans to immediately switch to a business major. The other Chinese parents think this was brilliant. Everyone knows that UC doesn’t check so the kids brag and laugh about how badly they lied and cheated to get in.
5. The UCSD study that a good portion of students admitted to majors requiring math courses test in at the elementary or middle school level. This is not just UCSD! DC is at another UC and was surprised that his score on the placement test was more than double his dorm mates scores , he’s social science and they are STEM.
6. UC is so focused on pumping in more FGLI that it is now cheaper for low income students to go to a UC than Cal state. This is increasing costs and reducing resources for kids that meet the basic requirements and belong there.
7. UCs are abusing a loophole for visiting researchers, faculty and students to get around the state restriction on number of non instate students. Research labs are filled with Chinese nationals removing opportunities for regular UC grad students and for the few that get a spot difficult because everyone is speaking Chinese.

We're CA residents so while this (if verifiable and true) is disappointing, it just means UCs really aren't a "prize" for top students anymore. It's not the intellectual community worth entering.

amen

[Anonymous]

UC seems a bit disjointed and broken right now. seems like it has good intentions but has just been derailed since the pandemic - it takes for granted the strength of its graduate schools and power of its name brand. but how durable is that with respect to the undergrad school and student experience. there are some really rough stories out there on blogs, substack, reddit.

forewarned I guess ..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA waitlist for NoVA student with high rigor/stats. Shouldn’t have to ED to get into your state school.

My NOVA student got in EA. I bet there is something else going on like no world language AP or no AP Lit or a test score that wasn’t 1500+. What were the test scores? Going ED doesn’t really increase your chances. It is literally a straight line of GPA and the highest test score on my DC’s scattergram, regardless of ED or EA. The cut off is the same.

NP. Not contradicting you, but how do you know who EDs and who EAs? The scattergrams don't account for that.

Our competitive FCPS school has a pretty big area with mixed results: 4.2/4.3/4.4 and scores in 1400s. Some get in and some don't. Does ED make a difference with this group?

Wrong. Our scattergrams allow you to isolate by year and decision plan (ED, EA and RD). Your school must pay for the cheap version.

It also tells you what major applied for if you click on it, which is helpful!

Wish MCPS had these features!

[Anonymous]

Duke. One DC attends, the other rejected, despite having good stats. I know. It happens. But I just can't be all "go blue devils" anymore.

[Anonymous]

NP. Stanford because of how shameless and open they are about donors and legacies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke. One DC attends, the other rejected, despite having good stats. I know. It happens. But I just can't be all "go blue devils" anymore.

I do wonder if they changed things significantly this year. New Dean of Admissions and increased prioritization and commitment to NC abd SC applicants ….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt won’t seem to accept anyone from our school (well regarded private). Every year we have dozens of students accepted to multiple Ivy’s and top 10s but it’s been years since a Vanderbilt acceptance. This year our valedictorian applied ED and didn’t get in. She ended up getting into Stanford, Uchicago, Penn, Dartmouth, and Yale! But not Vanderbilt…
The college counseling department pretty much warns families not to bother with Vanderbilt since they seem to have a weird dislike of our school.

It was Duke for our private. No one from our school has gotten into Duke in decades.

That was the case for us until last year in RD & this year in ED. RD admit also swept the Ivies. ED was unhooked and a miracle.

This gives hope...

[Anonymous]

Princeton. The SCOIR graph for our Big3 private school is comical. All of the admits are REA and hover around the 3.6-3.7 and 1400-1470 range. Anyone else, including tippy top stats kids, was waitlisted or denied except 1 person. They obviously bootlick legacies and will drop all standards for them. Applying is pointless unless legacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern and Case Western are the worst with their yield management.

Mine was accepted at Duke, Northwestern, and Michigan -- waitlisted at Case and BU.

(not complaining! but yield optimization shouldn't exist, it really just adds to the confusion and chaos)

Waitlisting your kid is the perfect solution here. They made the correct assumption your child was highly competitive and would get into higher demand schools. They offered waitlist in the off chance your student had them as their first choice, and presumably your student would let them know that and probably had a decent chance of getting off the waitlist.

+1

This is exactly where waitlisting makes sense.

No it doesn’t. Somehow state schools are able to figure out their yield without playing games with high stats students.

Yield protection schools are a scam.

[Anonymous]

The UCs are a mess. No test scores. No recommendations. Seasonal readers at $2 per app. Multiple ‘impacted’ majors. Zip code used as a proxy for race. (Which would be fine if it wasn’t for the other things). At my DS’s school there were kids (including mine) who got into multiple Ivies (and several into HYPSM) and other T20s but not UCs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke. One DC attends, the other rejected, despite having good stats. I know. It happens. But I just can't be all "go blue devils" anymore.

Same.