Help me gauge expectations

[Anonymous]

Please let me know if I’m understanding this- if you score in the 90% SAT and have good grades, you cannot expect to be admitted to a
T30 college? Am I understanding this correctly? No legacy, no URM, no first gen

[Anonymous]

Pretty much. My daughter had 4.6 wgpa, 35 on ACT, amazing ECs leadership and a varsity sport. Essays were on spot.

Best school she got into was UMD.

[Anonymous]

Yes, a 90% score is a 1350. That and "good grades" will not get you into a T30. In addition to "good grades", your daughter needs to be taking the most rigorous courses your high school offers.

[Anonymous]

90th percentile is 1340, so most likely no. Get it up to a 1450 and they will have a shot at schools like tufts, NYU, the UCs, and wake forest

[Anonymous]

If a student has no hooks, the best positioning for test scores is to be around the school’s 75th percentile or higher. If you’re there, and you don’t get admitted, something else in the application didn’t work for the admission officer.

The other caveat is the program/major of interest. If you’re applying for film studies at a typical university, interest in that major may be slim, so you might get admitted with a lower test score. On the other hand, if you’re applying to computer science or engineering, you should try to determine the scores for successful admits to those programs. Typically, they are somewhat higher than the overall school average, particularly the math score.

[Anonymous]

Yep, barring incredible "best student I ever taught in 25 years" recommendations, an international award, or an extraordinarily well-written essay that captures the attention of jaded AOs.

[Anonymous]

Are from Wyoming?

If not, then you have it correct.

[Anonymous]

With those schools, you have to go into it knowing that almost all of the applicants are amazing. This is why you can't go into it feeling entitled to an acceptance at ANY of these super selective schools. Don't put all the eggs in that basket.

[Anonymous]

Correctomundo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please let me know if I’m understanding this- if you score in the 90% SAT and have good grades, you cannot expect to be admitted to a
T30 college? Am I understanding this correctly? No legacy, no URM, no first gen

An expectation, no. A possibility, yes. More than ever, it's important to look at a range of schools--broader than you might think both in both directions.

[Anonymous]

Welll how good are the grades? They’d need to be top grades, 5% of the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are from Wyoming?

If not, then you have it correct.

Is this a DMV thing? From CA, I am almost shocked by the competition in the DMV area. With those stats, there should be more options. Possibly, this might be a function of not enough great schools in the DMV area?

[Anonymous]

Start with math:

10% = 300,000 kids that scored equal or better than you.

T30 schools = <100,000 admits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much. My daughter had 4.6 wgpa, 35 on ACT, amazing ECs leadership and a varsity sport. Essays were on spot.

Best school she got into was UMD.

If the only other schools she applied to were Ivies, Williams and Amherst, this tells us nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are from Wyoming?

If not, then you have it correct.

Is this a DMV thing? From CA, I am almost shocked by the competition in the DMV area. With those stats, there should be more options. Possibly, this might be a function of not enough great schools in the DMV area?

Wha? T-30’s are all over the country, including CA. Kids in CA and nearly every state would struggle to get into any top college, including the many CA colleges on that list.