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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yeah OP = sorry everyone is being so harsh about your request but it's just hard to say in this environment and more kids get rejected than admitted to almost all of the top 100 schools.   So that's why everyone is being so negative.

But yes, my DS got into 1 of his reaches and rejected from 4 other reaches.  He ended up at a target and is very happy he chose that school.

I'm in it now with my DS 2023 senior and it really is all about the idea that no school is perfect, admissions is hard to predict,[b] he will get into some school and probably like it,[/b] he has schools in the reach, target and safety that he would like to attend.  And he knows from his older brother there is no school that is really perfect and you don't have to pick the school that is ranked highest.

Note as well - I know a few kids from my older DS year that transferred - even from high-ranking schools - so it really is better to focus on what your kid wants versus how a school is ranked.[/quote]

The bolded part is what I think my family needs to focus on.  The reason all these people are saying their kid is so happy they chose the school they did is, at least partially, b/c it's the only school they know as a student.  Kids can be happy at a lot of places if they can let go of the idea that there was one perfect school for them.  I was happy at my college, but I know I would have had a completely different and, likely, completely happy experience at a much larger school.  My kid loves a T25 school with scary admissions rates, no ED option, but also without super high average stats for freshman class.  No hook here, so we know the chances are slim.  I think you have to be OK going somewhere where your stats are higher than the average. [/quote]

And "going somewhere where your stats are higher than average" is perfectly fine. Keep in mind that a 1350 SAT is ~90th percentile.  Still someone who is really smart, and your kid will do just fine surrounded by others like that even if they have a 1580.  In fact, it might be helpful to learn to associate with a variety of people, because nobody is in a job where everyone is a "genius".  Good practice for life.

If you want to choose a bigger school with more range of scores, then pick the honors college to find your group of "higher scoring" kids.

[/quote]

Agree with you.  The “stats higher than average” comment says a lot about that poster.  Stats aren’t everything.  There are really bright kids who are lte bloomers, creative kids who don’t do well in traditional  HS settings, etc.  Thise kids have a ton to offer.  Your “high stats” kid may gain a different perspective.[/quote]

So, what's the point of working hard for those A's in the intense classes?  The response above is disingenuous.  I'm wondering what's the benefit of all that work if you could also get to the same spot with regular classes and more free time.  I mean, I like that idea, but I'm not sure how that would fly with kids who have heard about the importance of class choice and grades since they were in middle school.  [/quote]

The benefit of working really hard for those A's?  To actually learn, perhaps? To expand your knowledge base? 
  The concept that your "1580/4.8W" student can only function around others with similar stats is an attitude problem.  There are plenty of really smart people who don't appear that way on paper after HS.

But your "1580/4.8W" will do just fine with kids with "1350/4.0 W"---or at least they should do just fine if they don't have an attitude that they are so much smarter than everyone else and entitled to be around only equally bright kids.   Both are smart kids, in the top 10% of college bound kids.  I graduated from a T10 university, yet at work was surrounded by people from all levels of universities.  Nobody cared---nobody asks what your SAT score was or really where you went to college(after you get your first job).  What matters is what you did in college, and what you do on the job.  I know plenty of really smart people who attended their local state U where the avg SAT was 1050/1100---that was the place they could afford and they had a great experience.  [/quote]

You are missing the point.  There are lots of kids who were told in MS that they needed the 1580/4.8 to get into a good college by their schools and took it to heart. So, they take AP classes in subjects that don't interest them.  Seriously, the math that some of these kids are doing in 12th grade will NEVER matter once in college or the real world.  Not everyone wants to be an engineer, but heaven forbid they don't take math senior year. They are told that they won't get into a good school if they take classes they really like and not the ones that "colleges want to see."

Except...........Some kids don't take it and they will all get into the same schools, but the one with the same course load likely sacrificed a lot.  It's not about being smarter, necessarily. It's about taking an easier pathway and ending up in the exact same space.[/quote]

Who told them that and why did you, as a parent allow/promote it?  The colleges specifically say you do not need to take every AP and you should take what interests you.  Why not listen to what they are telling you??  They can smell these over prepped, over processed kids from a mile away.  They kids are so freaking entitled and think they are special because they did all of this work that was forced on them as the formula for a top school.  Now they think they are entitled to a spot.  The school do not want a class of special snowflakes who feel entitled to be there because they to 17 APs.  They want bright kids who had their own initiative and wrote their own story of who they wanted to be instead of following the AP and certain EC formula.  They have an over abundance of those applications—how could they ever choose?  They want kids who have a vision of who they wi want to be and have interests and curiousity about the world.  Kids who took classes to learn, not to get a weighted A.[/quote]

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