Reply to Is it really that hard to get into college?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I've never seen a wealthy full-pay teen with good stats get rejected from Wisconsin, Michigan, and USC. You're going to get into at least one, so absolute worst-case your kid is at a top 40-ish university.

The folks who complain on message boards have mediocre unmotivated kids who simply don't care as much as the parents do. And also, parents with a kid currently at a 20 to 50 ranked school who exaggerate how difficult it is to get in, in an effort to make their kid sound more accomplished than s/he is.

Outside of the super elite, all universities are hard-up for money. A rich kid who looks like s/he'll graduate on time, has parents who are paying cash and will very likely donate, is a highly sought after applicant.[/quote]

I am here to tell you that my spiky full-pay kid with a 1500 SAT score, APs (4s and 5s) galore and a 3.95/4.64 (which means an A in every high school class except 1 btw) was rejected from Michigan and USC[/quote]

How do you end up with a 3.95 out of 4.64 with only one grade that isn’t an A? Did s/he get a D or F in a class. A 3.95/4.00 would be like one B.[/quote]

Why are you trying to calculate and correct when you can't read?  Who grades on a 4.65 scale?  PP said 3.95 weighted/4.65 unweighted, all As one B, that checks.  Maybe don't waste time nitpicking self-reported, anonymous data.[/quote]

Sorry, I misunderstood. I guess I didn’t think it was possible for someone with such a high score to get rejected for Mich or USC. I now see that she meant 3.95 unweighted or 4.64 weighted.[/quote]

Parents on this thread need to wake up to the new admissions reality. Plenty of top students at my DD’s Big 3 were rejected from Michigan and USC. Just look at the admissions rates (approx 10%)and then adjust for athletes, URM, first gen, etc. you’re talking about a very small chance of admissions

Some of the most shocked families this year were ones who thought 1560+ SATs and A/A- at a Big 3 meant guarantee admission to desirable schools. It WAS a bloodbath this year. To parents: don’t say you weren’t warned.[/quote]

I am in my mid 40s and my friends all have kids ages 13-16. All my friends think my kid is so smart with perfect everything. I think reading DCUM gives me anxiety. [/quote]

Your kid is likely smart and a great person.  Reading DCUM doesn't need to give you anxiety.  However, it should let you know the way to lower anxiety is to have a good list of colleges that include REACH, TARGETS and SAFETIES.  The parents stressing are those that don't have good targets or safeties.  And key point: those T and S need to be affordable and somewhere your kid would LOVE to attend.  Make the right list, and understand that you might not get any reaches and you will be fine.

However, when we went to college (late 80s/early 90s) the admission rate at Columbia was 25%, it's now 3%.  And there are 6 M more students applying to colleges now with about the same number of spots in the T50 schools. Add in the common app making it easier to apply and it can be a bloodbath for the elite schools
[/quote]

We will be full pay and expect to pay full private college tuition so money will not be a factor for us.

Our well regarded public sends a ton of students to UVA, VT, W&M as well as other OOS publics like Penn State, UMich, Pitt and other big state schools. The private colleges in the T50 don’t seem to be as popular. Of course there are some kids who will go to SLAC but it is definitely not the majority. I’m hoping this helps my kid who will likely choose a smaller private college and will be full pay.[/quote]

Being full pay definately helps you---it means you can apply to more universities (at $50-100 a pop) and you don't have to worry about merit, as many in top 50 don't give much merit.  [/quote]

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