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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Parent of a high stats kid from another private school...our college counselors made it very, very clear that all bets are off for ANY college with acceptance rates <20%.  Those schools cannot be counted on for any kid.  They insisted that kids have at least [b]3 schools with acceptance rates over 50% and at least one had to have an acceptance rate over 60%.[/b]  Other than that, kids were strongly encouraged to find at least [b]5-6 schools in the 20-50 percent[/b] range that they could really be happy at.

This seemed to work well when the advice was followed...the ones that ended up unhappy are those who disregarded the advice and just put in a couple of safeties and shotgun 20 plus applications for schools with <15% acceptance rates.  These kids and their parents are now blaming the counselor for not doing more.

I'm not saying that is what is going on at Sidwell but it is certainly the case that people are upset that the process/outcomes were different that what they were 4-5 years ago and they didn't want to hear it.[/quote]

New to this thread..(at least since April surge)...the concerning part of admissions this year is that I hear of SOOO many students who are not accepted to these schools despite having great stats and activities.  Maybe for yield protection?  It feels very hard these days to feel confident in creating even a list of matches/safeties. Very much hoping that the CCO will be able to gain insight from what happened this year.[/quote]

Here is an example... The University of Wisconsin has long been seen as a fantastic "safety" for high stats kids. This year, not only did they delay notification for EA until the end of January, but they also waitlisted tens of thousands of applicants, admitting only a half the incoming class (plus yield) on EA, deferring the rest to the RD pool. Add to it, that kids with over 1500 and over 3.6 UW MCPS were part of the deferred or denied group. So all of the sudden, applicants in the 3.2-3.6 range with say 1450 are no longer shoe-ins there. That means applicants start having to look at - I am just making up names - Kansas, Clemson, Indiana, iowa etc for that 100% admission somewhere else.[/quote]

Right...so you can't put all of your eggs in Wisconsin anymore.  Find another >50% (or ideally, >60%) school that has things your kid loves.  Preferably one that not everyone in the DMV is fixated on.  This is the problem...when only Wisconsin or one or two other schools are deemed as acceptable "safety" schools, they get flooded with applications.

There is nothing special about Wisconsin--it's a great school but it is a flagship state school...so is Ohio State and Indiana and there are (approximately) 47 others.  Also some amazing SLACs out there.[/quote]

OT, but yes, Wisconsin is specail when compared to OSU or Indiana or most other flagships. That is why it is popular.[/quote]

What makes it "special"?  And when a flagship is deemed special and becomes "popular" it cannot be counted on as a safety anymore (see UVA, UMichigan).  But, by all means, your kid should apply to Wisconsin...but find other schools that they like that they can count on getting into.  A range of schools.  Not one safety and 19 reaches.  Not one safety, one target and 18 reaches.  Because last year's safety may be a target this year.

For the record, I'm from the midwest.  Some of the smartest kids in my high school went to Wisconsin.  Great school.  But some of the smartest also went to Indiana and Ohio State and University of Cincinnati.  Former high school classmates of mine who went to these schools are academics, judges, doctors, heads of hospitals.  And these schools have only gotten better over time.[/quote]

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