Reply to S/O - Question to those who think having all kids in a family go to a top school is "no big deal"

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Reply to "S/O - Question to those who think having all kids in a family go to a top school is "no big deal""

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We have four kids who attend or did: Duke, Cornell, and UChicago (our alma mater). We didn't do anything particularly special. Just said we expected them to do well in school with their grades and always had them in a variety of activities.[/quote]

^ I should have mentioned we pay full freight. Very little merit and no financial aid. That's an important part of it, I'm sure.[/quote]

I think up until 2 years ago, your outcome was not unexpected for those schools.  Cornell's size and various colleges,  I think is still doable.  UChicago as a smart legacy with a great essays sure but I hear otherwise it's been really tough unless they went early round last few years.  Not sure about Duke.  Kids with these stats got deferred into regular round last few years.  [b]Everyone is so busy packaging the kids, [/b]the minimums are raising.  These poor kids.[/quote]

That sums it up for me.

We have one in public high school who will have taken 8 APs by the end of junior year, has straight As, and has standardized test scores in the top 90s (percentile). She likes to study, is very organized, and is a quick and efficient worker who never hesitates to take the hardest classes available. But her extracurriculars are light. Her interests are varied and include such things as hanging out with her friends, spending too much time on her phone, and walking the dog. In other words, she does what many DCUM readers do with their spare time. But because she is 16 instead of 50, she is instead supposed to be spending all of her free time at international golf or chess tournaments and/or starting 3 useless nonprofits. She's very smart but hasn't found her niche. She lacks a specific passion to which she has devoted herself (which in many cases really means a passion to which we parents have devoted ourselves) since age 4.

In the UK and Canada, she'd get into a top school. In the U.S., I think her chances aren't great. [/quote]

Your daughter will be fine.  More than fine.  She'll enter whatever very good college she gets into with drive and organization, and a sense of intrinsic motivation. You need to expand your concept of "top school." (At the same time, you need to accept that straight As and 96% standardized test scores actually legitimately make her average for the very top Ivys, which are full of 99.9%ers.  And that's fine, she'll still be fine.)[/quote]

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