Reply to Average Student at Big 3 - Where did your kid end up going to college?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]In our experience at two big 3's recently, and with stepkids in publics like BCC, sort of depends what average means in terms of college admissions. It seems like at these schools there is a top 20% that are taking all the most challenging courses, are National Merit SF's or end up improving by SATs enough to be in the 2300 range, grades almost all As (rarely 100% As at the top independents) and are realistically looking at the top Ivys and LACs. Then there may be a lower 10% that are struggling academically, not really focused on academics in HS or for college etc.  Then there is everyone else kind of in the middle, ie not in the absolute most accelerated courses for every subject, in the 2000-2200 SAT range, grades some As and Bs and even low Bs or Cs here and there. And I think if anything those kids may benefit the most from being at a private with strong academics, where they have much more individualized college counseling, can have perhaps a super close relationship with a few teachers that could end up writing very personal recommendations, more chances for leadership and intense involvement in extracurriculars within the school.  College admissions is a real crap shoot, [b]but the middle kids seem to end up places such as Wash U, Vanderbilt, Tufts, U Va, Wesleyan, NYU, CCMC or even Cornell if lucky or some hook/connection, and places like Tulane, Emory, U Mich, Colby, Wake Forest, Davidson, Kenyon if maybe not quite as lucky or without super extracurriculars.[b] And when they get to those places, they will do great academically in general because they will have really learned to write, and speak and think in small groups and under pressure.  Some of my kids classmates have transferred successfully to much more academically high-profile schools after a year or two, having done incredibly well at their first institution. [/quote]

These lists don't really make sense to me. Davidson, for instance, is significantly harder to get into than NYU & is ranked much higher: http://colleges.startclass.com/compare/2878-3052/New-York-University-vs-Davidson-College  
& is pretty comparable to Wesleyan (if anything it has slightly more competitive admissions, but the difference is so small that   comparing their admissions is really splitting hairs ): http://colleges.startclass.com/compare/782-3052/Wesleyan-University-vs-Davidson-College

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