Get a 23 and me test and hope you have URM blood.
Get recruited for sports.
Find a seriously connected friend.
Donate 7 figures.
Beyond that it's a lottery.

Seriously, you're best off letting your child know that there's no promise of getting into a first choice and not to pin their hopes on one school. Trying to do things to impress colleges will lead to an unhappy high school career.

Anonymous wrote:Get an SAT book. Get an SAT tutor. Get at least a 1400. Write a good essay. Try to average an A in high school.

Sound like you need 1500 not 1400

Anonymous wrote:Get an SAT book. Get an SAT tutor. Get at least a 1400. Write a good essay. Try to average an A in high school.

And DC should take as many AP or honors courses as reasonable and available at DC’s school. Many colleges place significant weight on academic rigor.

Get an SAT book. Get an SAT tutor. Get at least a 1400. Write a good essay. Try to average an A in high school.

If you were really committed to your kid going to a top college, you’d move to wyoming or montana or someplace like that. It’s easier to get in from a remote state that doesn’t send a ton of kids to top schools than it is from the DC metro area/any of the major cities.

What has changed is that the applicant pool became much larger. My cousin graduated from UPenn in the 90s. Even though her parents made about $50K a year, after all financial aid, the family still ended up with about $10K/year in loans and out of pocket costs. No wonder, she was the first kid in many years to go to UPenn from her HS in Philly. She tested well and had excellent grades, but everyone was shocked that she decided to go to UPenn "where the rich kids go". Oh, and she paid the application fees out of her part time earnings.

Fast forward to today - now someone like her would pay zero if accepted to any highly selective college AND colleges expand significant efforts on publicizing this information and doing outreach to the demographics that they previously did not bother/care to connect to. Colleges buy data from SAT and ACT, and someone with my cousin's scores in her zip code would be flooded with emails offering free college trips and application fees waivers. Pick a selective school and look at their statistics on first gen and minorities - if you are a non-minority college educated parent from a typical UMC area, these spots are as unaccessible to your kids as the ones reserved for recruited athletes.

Anonymous wrote:From the aisles I have read over the years, the selective colleges have about 200-300 applicants that are such stand outs that they all will accept if they apply to all. Then it gets harder and the next group fit into the needs of the particular school (eg needs an oboe player). Then it is a crap shoot as to who gets in and who does not.

This has always been the case though. There are the auto admits, the auto rejections and then the kids who are in the vast middle. In that pool, it’s basically a lottery.

What’s changed is grade inflation. So, our 3.5 is now like a 4.5.

Anonymous wrote:From the aisles I have read over the years, the selective colleges have about 200-300 applicants that are such stand outs that they all will accept if they apply to all. Then it gets harder and the next group fit into the needs of the particular school (eg needs an oboe player). Then it is a crap shoot as to who gets in and who does not.

articles, not aisles.

From the aisles I have read over the years, the selective colleges have about 200-300 applicants that are such stand outs that they all will accept if they apply to all. Then it gets harder and the next group fit into the needs of the particular school (eg needs an oboe player). Then it is a crap shoot as to who gets in and who does not.

To get into top tier, you need top scores but you also need something else and unique. It’s not something that you can generally plan though for, you have to be “lucky” that whatever you chose will mean something to colleges when it’s time. Don’t push on athletics. Do it because your kid likes it not because of HPY. Colleges are dropping non revenue producing sports programs right and left. Revenue producing ones are almost impossible to get recruited for and you are super lucky to have a kid at that level.

I see so many kids trying to impress colleges with fakish clubs etc. The Ivies see right through this.

Encourage an outside passion because it’s meaningful to your child or your family and maybe it will work out and maybe it won’t in terms of getting into HYP. If you do this end your kid doesn’t get into a top Ivy, your kid is still an interesting person that’s not burned out and feels like they wasted their life.

Anonymous wrote:I went to college in the late 90s. Getting a jump start on learning about college options for DC

Things have really changed. I feel like as a ‘90s’ kid the stats were really different. Now it seems like your 17 year old needs to cure cancer while riding a unicycle and get a 1500+ and 4.5 GPA to get into Tulane. Tulane, not even Harvard! Back in the day, the people who went to Tulane had 1200+ SATs and B averages.

Aside from supply and demand, what has changed? Kids are smarter? More Tiger parents getting their kids prepped? Did the common app artificially inflate acceptance rates?

What is the magic formula to get accepted into a selective college these days?

Let me in on the secret.

All of the above is true. Lots more applications means a lot fewer acceptances. Access to the internet means a lot more opportunities for kids to do cool things. That means more impressive applicants. To get into top 40, you need those great stats. To get into top 20, you need great stats as always but also something special. You need to either know who you are or have a fake story (with corresponding activities) and sell it. Diversity is also a lot more central now so for rich, white areas like parts of the DMV, it is literally become disproportionately harder to get in (for fair reasons though).

What the F even is a GPA over 4.0. That’s garbage. The highest grade you can get is an A which is a 4.0 so this nonsense to artificially inflate grades makes me insane. Haven’t hey also made the SAT higher scoring?

Smartest thing kids can do these days is to get an actual vocation.

Secret is there is no secret.

I went to college in the late 90s. Getting a jump start on learning about college options for DC

Things have really changed. I feel like as a ‘90s’ kid the stats were really different. Now it seems like your 17 year old needs to cure cancer while riding a unicycle and get a 1500+ and 4.5 GPA to get into Tulane. Tulane, not even Harvard! Back in the day, the people who went to Tulane had 1200+ SATs and B averages.

Aside from supply and demand, what has changed? Kids are smarter? More Tiger parents getting their kids prepped? Did the common app artificially inflate acceptance rates?

What is the magic formula to get accepted into a selective college these days?

Let me in on the secret.