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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it’s amazing that PP’s daughter is doing so well at Duke, but i also find myself irrationally angry about her getting waitlist elsewhere. Like what could possibly be better than that resume??  I’m an alum interviewer for an ivy and stories like this are the reason i took several years off. It was too depressing to see amazing applicants get rejected or wait listed…[/quote]

I'm an Ivy alum and worked in an Ivy admissions office as a grad student. Sadly, this resume is rather pedestrian among the most elite schools. Keep in mind, though, at the end of the day you only need one acceptance letter. [/quote]

I know about a dozen DMV kids who were admitted to Ivies in the past year and none of them have a resume of this quality.  They are very smart, do well in school but nothing like this.  I know because I have one such kid.

There are plenty of Ivy admits who get in on much less than this girl. 
If I know more than a dozen there are hundreds more.

[/quote]

My spouse and I have six university degrees between us, and that includes three from an Ivy. We have spent eight years collectively studying and working in Europe and Asia. Personally, these experiences have severely humbled me and exposed to me to some super smart, resourceful people - many whom will someday have kids competing with TJ grads (and my kids) for a winning spot at a top US college or university.  I cannot count the number of families I’ve met who have kids who are trilingual, and others with nearly four languages.  These families are musically accomplished, stellar academically and are, too, very involved within their community.  These families are both US citizens, as well as international. Alternatively, there are so many strong candidates who will never come near the benefit of the above, but still earn a seat at an Ivy.   Indeed, OP’s high school career is/was impressive, but I’m confident that everyone agrees that, Ivy or not, she will thrive due to her drive and determination.

You ask what’s missing from the resume? I’m not sure the checklist exists in elite college admission. Everyone who gets serious consideration is accomplished, similar to the OP.  I was not a member of the admissions team, but was fortunate to gain extraordinary firsthand insight into the extremely competitive admission process.  There are thousands and thousands (not a dozen) of applicants who look out-of-this-world exceptional. The admissions staff put a lot of energy into selecting a new class. It’s not easy, may appear wholly random - on the surface,  but it works. Today, I am certain I would NOT make the cut and so glad it’s behind me! 
[/quote]

Harvard interviewer PP here. Yes, there are many accomplished kids applying each year, but this girl is absolutely one of them. Perhaps she’s missing some of the awards someone with a profile like hers usually has like an AIME Qualification, but that’s of course just a small piece of the puzzle and she has a lot of other things going for her. It could have even come down to her essays, with Duke finding something in them that they really liked while other similar caliber schools did not like as much. But again, fixation on the ivy label in this situation is completely unwarranted. There are schools that are equally, if not more, reputable and competitive than the ivies such as Stanford, Duke, MIT, Caltech, etc. She just as easily could have gotten into a scholars programs at an ivy and been rejected from Duke, Stanford, Caltech, etc. There are many situations I’ve seen where kids do really well with the ivies and miss out on several top non-ivies. Ultimately, all of these schools have to make tough calls and some of these decisions are made on the margin, and even then you have to remember admissions teams consist of people with their own inherent biases and blind spots. What’s clear is that this girl would have been able to handle the rigor of any college, so it likely came down to non-academic reasons for her acceptances and rejections.[/quote]

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