Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

[Anonymous]

I didn’t bring it up in the conversation with the teacher — I think thinking about this stuff that young is basically stupid. I have been surprised by how young the kids are when they start worrying about it. My kid only knows where I went to University because the kids asked her to ask me in fourth grade. They told her she was lucky she had a double legacy. I told her to learn her multiplication tables.

If college admissions is why you are there, the numbers don’t tell the whole story, and you need to know that to play and win the game.
You can believe in the integrity of the Ivy League admissions process all you want, but that’s not going to win you a slot. Ask questions, be quiet, listen to people talk. This stuff is pretty easy to suss out. It is something TT actively discuss and complain about if they think you are safe to vent to. Some embrace it as a fundraising tool, some secretly hate it, but it’s an active part of K12 life.

You can tell your kid’s place in class because they put out a list. It’s called an honor roll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t bring it up in the conversation with the teacher — I think thinking about this stuff that young is basically stupid. I have been surprised by how young the kids are when they start worrying about it. My kid only knows where I went to University because the kids asked her to ask me in fourth grade. They told her she was lucky she had a double legacy. I told her to learn her multiplication tables.

If college admissions is why you are there, the numbers don’t tell the whole story, and you need to know that to play and win the game.
You can believe in the integrity of the Ivy League admissions process all you want, but that’s not going to win you a slot. Ask questions, be quiet, listen to people talk. This stuff is pretty easy to suss out. It is something TT actively discuss and complain about if they think you are safe to vent to. Some embrace it as a fundraising tool, some secretly hate it, but it’s an active part of K12 life.

You can tell your kid’s place in class because they put out a list. It’s called an honor roll.

Most schools these days do not do honor rolls. Particularly in younger grades. Competition is now gauche. Kids know who are the smart kids pretty early. And there are sometimes awards that subtly clue you in (I can anonymously humble brag that my child won a middle school scholar athlete award and it sure was not for their athletic ability).

[Anonymous]

It was a high school senior, not a lower schooler. I have not found competition to be gauche among the parents or kids at these schools, but I’m glad to hear it is considered that somewhere because I find it so and also kind of dumb, especially in lower.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations to your kid! I have no problem for awards won for merit, think kids have a right to be proud of themselves. It’s the competition over if your parents are a double Yale legacy I find very silly.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the smart kids reveal themselves very early on. The question for me is whether these schools are good for those kids who’d be Harvard bound no matter where they went to school. There are positives and negatives to all these places and getting into college is such a small part of life. It’s such a small part of the college experience, but yet it dominates their entire education, start to finish.

[Anonymous]

My kid went to Regis. Not sure why people care if we name schools on an anon forum.

When it comes to college process:

Good: They limit college apps. Parents really dislike this at first and, I think, mostly like it. In every class, there are 10 superstars who could get into every college. This limits those people from gobbling up 200 seats at the top college.

Good: They limit college apps. Again, kids think they need 4 safeties. You need 1 or maybe 2. And all *well done* apps take way longer than you think. Hours and hours.

Okay: List building. The counselors are not equally good and they dont know your kids. You're better off doing this yourself and having them fine-tune. If people use outside counselors, this and essays are where it's helpful

Good; LOR. the counselors know how to do this, I think. And teachers are mostly good too.

Good: No steering. Nobody is saying, dont apply to Harvard.

Good: Self-steering. The kids are very well aware who is legacy, who is QB, who is a lock and if there are 3 or 4 of them applying to Yale, they will often rethink their own chances. Nobody is hiding information. As far as I can tell.

Good: They do essays junior year as an assignment. Tons of kids rewrite, but there's one there if they need it.

Bad: I think the school assumes more people know Regis outside the catholic and regional world than really do. ND knows Regis. Georgia Tech does not. (Good: they reworked the profile recently and I think this was an acknowledgement of that fact)

Bad: extreme grade deflation. You need a 97 to get an A/4.0. It's hard on kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the smart kids reveal themselves very early on. The question for me is whether these schools are good for those kids who’d be Harvard bound no matter where they went to school. There are positives and negatives to all these places and getting into college is such a small part of life. It’s such a small part of the college experience, but yet it dominates their entire education, start to finish.

This is why some of us will tell you over and over again that it's about fit. Figure out where your Harvard-bound-anyway child will feel comfortable and thrive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t bring it up in the conversation with the teacher — I think thinking about this stuff that young is basically stupid. I have been surprised by how young the kids are when they start worrying about it. My kid only knows where I went to University because the kids asked her to ask me in fourth grade. They told her she was lucky she had a double legacy. I told her to learn her multiplication tables.

If college admissions is why you are there, the numbers don’t tell the whole story, and you need to know that to play and win the game.
You can believe in the integrity of the Ivy League admissions process all you want, but that’s not going to win you a slot. Ask questions, be quiet, listen to people talk. This stuff is pretty easy to suss out. It is something TT actively discuss and complain about if they think you are safe to vent to. Some embrace it as a fundraising tool, some secretly hate it, but it’s an active part of K12 life.

You can tell your kid’s place in class because they put out a list. It’s called an honor roll.

Do any of the TT schools do honor roll or class rank or anything like that? I was not aware that any did.

[Anonymous]

Totally agree.

I think people are on anonymous forums to try and figure out what is true and not true about these schools to find fits. Otherwise it’s just adults gawking at insta pages of teens and being competitive with each other about kids who aren’t theirs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the smart kids reveal themselves very early on. The question for me is whether these schools are good for those kids who’d be Harvard bound no matter where they went to school. There are positives and negatives to all these places and getting into college is such a small part of life. It’s such a small part of the college experience, but yet it dominates their entire education, start to finish.

This is why some of us will tell you over and over again that it's about fit. Figure out where your Harvard-bound-anyway child will feel comfortable and thrive.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know about honor roll actually. I would have been against it previous to having been in one, but now I really am for transparency when it comes to schools. I think these schools should standardize test more and release scores to parents. It just disempowers you as a parent if you don’t have the information, and it also cuts your kid off from opportunity for summer programs etc. They say it’s to lower competition, but it doesn’t really do anything other than disempower you as a parent to figure out what’s best for your kid. I’d have no problem with them telling you where and where you shouldn’t apply if I trusted that the secondary school was playing fair with the kids and not courting donors for their annual fund.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t bring it up in the conversation with the teacher — I think thinking about this stuff that young is basically stupid. I have been surprised by how young the kids are when they start worrying about it. My kid only knows where I went to University because the kids asked her to ask me in fourth grade. They told her she was lucky she had a double legacy. I told her to learn her multiplication tables.

If college admissions is why you are there, the numbers don’t tell the whole story, and you need to know that to play and win the game.
You can believe in the integrity of the Ivy League admissions process all you want, but that’s not going to win you a slot. Ask questions, be quiet, listen to people talk. This stuff is pretty easy to suss out. It is something TT actively discuss and complain about if they think you are safe to vent to. Some embrace it as a fundraising tool, some secretly hate it, but it’s an active part of K12 life.

You can tell your kid’s place in class because they put out a list. It’s called an honor roll.

Do any of the TT schools do honor roll or class rank or anything like that? I was not aware that any did.

[Anonymous]

I dont know a TT school that does an honor roll. Or T2 school.

Colleges can tell a little by grade distribution on school profile. If they see no kid has a 4.0, they know a 3.94 is a top GPA

[Anonymous]

Maybe Basis is the only school having honor roll. I am not even sure Basis has it.

Once the GPA is reasonably high at these TT/T2 schools, colleges look at the rigor and standardized test. That said, the student is not competitive with a 3.5 GPA no matter how many advanced courses they take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree.

I think people are on anonymous forums to try and figure out what is true and not true about these schools to find fits. Otherwise it’s just adults gawking at insta pages of teens and being competitive with each other about kids who aren’t theirs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the smart kids reveal themselves very early on. The question for me is whether these schools are good for those kids who’d be Harvard bound no matter where they went to school. There are positives and negatives to all these places and getting into college is such a small part of life. It’s such a small part of the college experience, but yet it dominates their entire education, start to finish.

This is why some of us will tell you over and over again that it's about fit. Figure out where your Harvard-bound-anyway child will feel comfortable and thrive.

Anonymous information from people whose friends’ nieces’ go to HM really isn’t helpful in unearthing the “truth” about school culture. Go on tours. Talk to current/recent students and parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t bring it up in the conversation with the teacher — I think thinking about this stuff that young is basically stupid. I have been surprised by how young the kids are when they start worrying about it. My kid only knows where I went to University because the kids asked her to ask me in fourth grade. They told her she was lucky she had a double legacy. I told her to learn her multiplication tables.

If college admissions is why you are there, the numbers don’t tell the whole story, and you need to know that to play and win the game.
You can believe in the integrity of the Ivy League admissions process all you want, but that’s not going to win you a slot. Ask questions, be quiet, listen to people talk. This stuff is pretty easy to suss out. It is something TT actively discuss and complain about if they think you are safe to vent to. Some embrace it as a fundraising tool, some secretly hate it, but it’s an active part of K12 life.

You can tell your kid’s place in class because they put out a list. It’s called an honor roll.

Your 4th grader at (presumably) Brearley didn’t know her multiplication tables?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t bring it up in the conversation with the teacher — I think thinking about this stuff that young is basically stupid. I have been surprised by how young the kids are when they start worrying about it. My kid only knows where I went to University because the kids asked her to ask me in fourth grade. They told her she was lucky she had a double legacy. I told her to learn her multiplication tables.

If college admissions is why you are there, the numbers don’t tell the whole story, and you need to know that to play and win the game.
You can believe in the integrity of the Ivy League admissions process all you want, but that’s not going to win you a slot. Ask questions, be quiet, listen to people talk. This stuff is pretty easy to suss out. It is something TT actively discuss and complain about if they think you are safe to vent to. Some embrace it as a fundraising tool, some secretly hate it, but it’s an active part of K12 life.

You can tell your kid’s place in class because they put out a list. It’s called an honor roll.

Ummmm...what K-12 NYC private school has an honor roll? For that matter, I don't know top public elementary schools that have them?!