Reply to After all the drama, Big3 college admissions are really as strong as ever this year

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you think everyone got where they really wanted you are wrong. There’s a lot of very disappointed family with awesome high achieving kids who were not urm  or hooked that are sorely disappointed. [/quote]

Welcome to 2023. It is what it is. The priorities given to UMC white kids that has permeated for the past two centuries is no longer. The sooner people adapt to that fact, the better.[/quote]

NYC parent here. Not sure what’s going on but I was stunned to see that a top private girls school did not do so great based upon my anecdotal conversations. Like shockingly not great. Including URM’s.

Middle school parent here. When did college become so hard to get into? [/quote]

It has become increasingly hard for upper middle class "regular" white kids because of the proliferation of international, first generation and under represented minority applicants.

Also, the Common Application and Test Optional has lowered barriers for applicants to toss in submissions to many more schools with the push of a button and no additional effort.

The general barriers to entry, writ large, is a good thing, but is an eye-opener for parents who went through the process before 2015 or so, and particularly since COVID.[/quote]

The landscape has been changing all along, not just now. It's not just about the "hooks" or going test-optional. Admissions to US universities is a global market now, and because Covid caused a massive disruption, there is probably a "bump" of foreign applicants that probably made it even more difficult for everyone this year. Good news is that this bump is likely to be temporary, but the trend is toward more internationalization of education, esp US colleges that are coveted worldwide, in a large part because of their holistic admission standards that ensure that people's life choices aren't entirely shaped by 3 high-stakes exams taken at age 17.

As far as local privates are concerned, let's look at some nos. Picking GDS because of the large share of the graduating class who have posted on the Insta page (nearly 100), and the general vibe on DCUM about this school's college outcomes not being as good as previous year's (Sidwell and Maret's have arguably been better than in 2022). 
61 of 98 GDS kids on this page are going to either a top-50 college, top-20 Liberal arts college, or their foreign equivalents (global top 20). That is 62% of the graduating class who have posted so far. The rest are going to a mix of large universities with great resources and opportunities (e.g. Indiana, Vermont, Colorado), nice liberal arts colleges  (e.g. Oberlin, Scripps), colleges with special history or appeal (HBCUs), or foreign unis popular with local students (e.g. St Andrews). 21% is going to a T20 ranked school, including 12 to Ivies.
Whatever the landscape is, these are objectively good outcomes. As a parent of a younger high schooler, I would take the odds of a fifth of the class going to a T20 school (some of the best unis in the world), another 14% going to a great liberal arts college, a total of more than 60% going to colleges that are highly selective, and the rest going to places that can all provide a great education. Sidwell, NCS/STA, Potomac, Maret outcomes are probably comparable or better.

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You are completely ignoring the fact that the majority of T20 admits you are quoting have a hook of some kind.  The problem with looking at these lists from the outside (and as someone with NO knowledge of the specific graduating class) is that you see this large amount of great outcomes as an attainable set. But if you don't have the hook (or often - multiple hooks) that those students had, your chances of admittance to these schools is MUCH lower. You need to remember that LOTS of kids at GDS (and Sidwell) have hooks. (This is not meant as a "woe is me", "its not fair" or any negativity at all....just the facts...) if you have a high achieving white child without hooks in these schools, you are likely to be set aside because there are MANY other strong students applying from your school that can provide ALL of the following - full pay, very strong gpa/testscores, AND an institutional priority.

Also warning - for those of you Ivy degree folks - this might help but it might not if you don't ALSO have a second hook to add to the equation. And if you have just the legacy hook, your kid will ALSO need to be a stellar stats/ec kid. [/quote]

And you seem to be rather presumptuous in your assumption that I (the poster you are responding to) is from the "outside" and have no knowledge about this class. In an anonymous forum, that's quite an assumption. Equally problematic is the assumption that all of the kids with apparently great outcomes from this (or similar) school - more than 60% of the class -  have what you call "hooks". You have also ignored the possibility that some of the so-called hooks are [b]also spectacularly qualified students [/b]who would have gotten into the same colleges even with a [b]different skin tone or ethnicity[/b]. Finally, I know of quite a few "high-achieving white kids" from this school and others, from both 2022 and 2023 graduating classes, who are going to excellent colleges. And many others who have done very well but whose parents seem to think they deserve better, which is also quite presumptuous on their part.[/quote]

1) In fact - I said explicitly that admitted kids were STRONG STUDENTS.  
2) I NEVER separated skin color from other hooks (these include a range legacy, athlete, first gen, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ, VIP, donor) 
3) Interesting - you don't know whether I am also in that community and if you "are", you seem to be very unfamiliar with the T20 hooks 
4) You have no idea whether my child was accepted to T20 or whether my child fits into any of these hooked categories

To be clear - I am NOT saying that the kids with spectacular T20 college admission results have lesser qualifications. Most DO have [b]amazing qualifications[/b]. Let's make this easy by focusing JUST on legacy. There are PLENTY of other kids that are just as spectacular as accepted legacy kids but had no hook. I'd love to see whether those legacy kids with spectacular applications would be accepted without checking the legacy box - they'd never do such a thing because it is a CLEAR advantage.  Note - there are also many legacy kids (who had less spectacular applications) who do NOT get in because they lacked the "spectacular" part of the equation.

This post is NOT about saying kids with hooks are not spectacular.....it's about being realistic about what a spectacular application with no hooks means when you are in a school filled with hooked classmates - many of whom are also spectacular.

People should know that these schools are filled with legacy families and many of those very smart parents have very smart kids. They should also know that these schools have great diversity with bright kids who can bring so many amazing perspectives to a college community. Then there are VIPs scattered across both categories - and sometimes a VIP or donor that can influence on their own standing with neither of those categories.

If you have no hooks at all and you are applying to schools with <10%, <20% admissions rates to start - then add that you are being compared to classmates who are spectacular AND hooked - your chances are even lower. Just the way it is.   
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