Reply to Do you know a kid who was screwed in the college process in last few years?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A person only gets screwed if a [b]significantly less qualified kid[/b] from the same school gets admitted.

And you didn't get screwed if no one from your school was accepted.  [/quote]

How do you define this?

Here's something I saw on Reddit - I think EVERYONE with a high stats kid should read the below (in answer to the question of how high stats/crazy ECs/awards kids still routinely get rejected:
https://www.reddit.com/r/collegeresults/comments/1kl81su/comment/ms29pcm

Former admissions officer here from a top college, short answer: absolutely.

Here’s why:

I’ve seen plenty of high-achieving students get rejected, even with near-perfect GPAs and test scores. The biggest reasons? They didn’t show a genuine interest in our school, skipped optional supplements (which aren’t really optional unless your main app shows a strong alignment with the school’s mission), or came off as immature or unaware in their essays. Some shared stories that raised more concerns than confidence.

Having amazing stats isn’t a free pass to any university. Every school has a unique culture, and you still need to explain why you belong there specifically. Too often, students assume strong stats are enough, but admissions is just as much as about connecting with the adcom as it is about stats. You essays, recs, and activities need to bring out your personality, character, and alignment with the school.

I’ve read common app essays from students that went on and on about their inspiration and passion for engineering, for a school that did not offer an engineering major/track. Making us wonder, why you were even applying to our school. You have to make every school you apply to feel like they’re you’re #1 choice, because universities also care about their conversion rate of students that they admit, who actually commit, they do not want to offer a seat to students that are not enthusiastic about their school because every seat the school offers, may be the equivalent of rejecting 5 other highly qualified students who would say YES!

Think of it like dating. A 4.0 and a 1500+ SAT is similar to being tall, attractive, and fit. Great for many — but lots of other people check those boxes too. And to stand out, especially to a person who is also attractive and has many options (a highly selective university in our case) you need personality and depth that resonates with the person (school). And even then, you still might get rejected because you simply weren’t what they were looking for at that time, it’s not always personal.

I feel like many students and parents fail to understand the purpose of academic stats. We use these numbers as a way to gauge whether or not you can handle the workload and rigors of our classroom. The more rigorous and prestigious the school, the higher that bar is. But once you’re over it, it’s all about character, values, and alignment.

And here’s the twist: [i]top schools do take chances on students with less-than-average stats, IF their story is powerful, inspiring, and shows grit. Because these schools have the academic resources to support them.[/i] Every year we see students who applied with perfect SAT scores and 4.0 GPAs with <2.5 First semester GPAs. As schools we accept the fact that students will struggle in our classroom regardless of their stats, and we address this by offering an abundance of academic resources to ensure students don’t flunk out, because that’s actually a poor reflection on us. So we can lean on the fact that students who may have not had the best HS academic performance can still do well in our classrooms if they utilize the resources our campus offers.

What sometimes matters more than stats is that the student has something meaningful to contribute and the potential to thrive with the right support.
[/quote]

This should be required reading for every TJ parent and immigrant unfamiliar with holistic admissions.[/quote]

Common on. I agree with all the above, but anyone who spends an hour learning about college admissions knows this.

This is a strawman argument.

Great academics and scores are a given. But even after having outstanding EC's and spending a great amount of time on compelling essays, we see students not get in. The tiny differences in EC's and essays and what those might be are the variables people are trying to understand.

DC got into 2 of the HYPSM's and 5 of T20s. It is still a mystery why some landed and why some failed. It is not correlating with our prior expectations and effort spent.

[/quote]

Huh. That’s not rocket science.

In regular decision, they are trying to fill the class. They had already had too many of your type of kids. None additional were needed.

And as great as the kid was, your kid was clearly not a “must have” auto admit from every top 10 school, which is actually rare anyway.[/quote]

You missed my entire point. You went off on a tangent.[/quote]

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