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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DS is a 10th grader at a suburban public.  He is in all AP and Honors courses and a straight-A student.  Just got back from PSAT and was in the 98th percentile without prep.  He is a smart kid but seems to have no interests or EC that will make a different.  He is on the golf team, and that's all he really does at school, and he isn't a great golfer/won't be recruited.  I am trying to figure out how to make him interested in college apps and start to develop a passion or interest in general.  Summer after 9th grade he did nothing.  He wants to go to a place like MIT or an ivy, and that just won't happen even with good ECs of which he has none.  I mentioned this to my friend who works at a top DC private and she bluntly said, well he will get into a school like UMD or BC/BU if he is lucky.  I was taken aback as this is a kid who is at the top of his grade and views himself as "better than" a school like UMD or a 40/50 school like BC or BU.  He won't be hooked for admissions anywhere, aside from us being full pay which I know is not a hook but she said it can make a difference at some SLAC.  What do I do??????????[/quote]

[b]He is not ivy level, nor MIT or any top 10. The unhooked kids at those schools are naturally 99th percentile on standardized tests their whole lives , without prep. A large portion are 99.7-99.9.[/b] Thats  why that person is telling you not possible or atleast highly unlikely. [/quote]

You have no way knowing any of this. [/quote]
Not PP but I am a professor at a T40-60 private and did a postdoc at a T10 after a phD at an ivy. TheT10/ivy students are completely different: well over half of them are similar to the top 5% at my current place. The T10 offered many workshops on teaching to highly gifted students and had data showing it has gotten much more skewed to the top 1% than it used to be, due to US being bigger, highly intelligent international students coming here, and the “name” /prestige factor that makes (t10) known to all in the US, whereas it used to be more regional 30 yrs ago. Anyone who has taught in one of these places understands it is very different than when (my peers) attended in the 80s/90s. The difference is why one of my high schoolers will be encouraged to apply to my university or similar, and the other one we will encourage ivy/top10. He needs more mental peers than exist in his high school. The other one is typical gifted kid (in our area that is >95th percentile in 2 of 4 areas, decided in 3rd grade). They might have a shot at the top but if they got in would flounder. [/quote]

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