Reply to Fighting for Fractions .. roughly 2% of college students go to a "top 30" school

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why is everyone fighting so hard to get their kids into a "top 30-ish" school?

Less than 5% of college students attend a top 50 college. About 2.4% of college students in the US attend a top 30 college. Roughly 1% attend a "top 20" college. What is the point in fighting to be such a tiny fraction of college students.

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Simple math: 2-3% go to the top30ish. Most parents with top 20% kids think their kids are top 2-3% and thus entitled to it. Grade inflation has made the problem much worse, when 10-15% of students at many high schools graduate with 4.0uw, over 50% with 4.0+ Weighted. 25-30 years ago, one kid maybe two would have 4.0uw. 
Same with the Top10/ivy, under 1% of college students attend: Most parents with top 10% kids think they are top1% and thus entitled to a spot. Factor in hooked spots and unless you are truly a 99%ile kid you have no realistic shot nor would the school be a great fit. If parents were able to more accurately assess where their student stood relative to the pool it would cause less wasted reaching. 
As a parent with a 99.9%ile kid, top everything academically+creative, as well as a 98%ile kid as well as a 92-93rd%ile kid, the difference between their academic potential is clear, despite the fact that all qualified for at least some portion of the academically gifted and talented program in our public schools. We moved to private for 4th-6th-7th and all were tracked into different math groups and the differences were suddenly very apparent. [/quote]

This is compounded by children's activities.  Most parents think that their children have outstanding EC activities which sets them apart.  In most cases they don't.  How many times do parents say that their kids have leadership positions?  When in reality they are president of a club with 10 kids in it and that there are over 50 clubs in high school.  Or they have a non-profit which the parents started and run for their kid.

These parents also think that their kid has a great essay.  They probably don't.  
  
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Literally everyone thinks their kid has a great essay that made admissions officers cry. I've seen that posted so many times, you'd think AOs were sitting around wringing out handkerchiefs.
99% of T30 admit essays are fine, and don't really move the needle.[/quote]

Why do schools still request essays? [/quote]

yup, pointless unless you do it standardized testing style[/quote]

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