Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP: you’ve gotten some great advice here and I don’t really think there’s anything else anyone can say. I would expand your list. There are schools that will value your kid more than Duke and Vanderbilt.

Your kid should also try to improve their profile to be more competitive and memorable:

- Get a summer internship at library of congress or similar federal library/museum. Tie job into Americas 250th & history.

- Write AP capstone on related 250th offshoot topic tied to niche interest.

- get LOR from both.

This is really excellent advice!

This is really great advice. I am PP with a kid rejected by Duke RD after ED deferral. Being econ major was an issue, I think. Duke recently did loosed that their priorities are humanities and interpretive social sciences.

https://dukechronicle.com/article/duke-chronicle-admissions-officers-discuss-enrollment-targets-challenges-in-arts-and-sciences-council-diversity-artificial-intelligence-transfers-academics-20260410

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP: you’ve gotten some great advice here and I don’t really think there’s anything else anyone can say. I would expand your list. There are schools that will value your kid more than Duke and Vanderbilt.

Your kid should also try to improve their profile to be more competitive and memorable:

- Get a summer internship at library of congress or similar federal library/museum. Tie job into Americas 250th & history.

- Write AP capstone on related 250th offshoot topic tied to niche interest.

- get LOR from both.

This is really excellent advice!

Anonymous wrote:UMC FCPS Public. 3.95/4.5 GPA, 1520 SAT one sitting, will take again, one varsity sport, lots of volunteer work, PT summer job, VP of an academic club 3 years, tutoring. An academic department award in 10th. 9 APs through 11th, scheduled for 6 in 12th. 10th grade AP exams - 2 5s, 2 4s.

Duke ED
Vanderbilt
UVA
VT
W&M
UNC
Mich
Wisc
UGA

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous
UMC FCPS Public. 3.95/4.5 GPA, 1520 SAT one sitting, will take again, one varsity sport, lots of volunteer work, PT summer job, VP of an academic club 3 years, tutoring. An academic department award in 10th. 9 APs through 11th, scheduled for 6 in 12th. 10th grade AP exams - 2 5s, 2 4s.

Duke ED 👎
Vanderbilt 👎
UVA possible esp ED
VT likey
W&M likely
UNC 👎
Mich 👎
Wisc likely
UGA unlikely

Rigor seems fine. Sat is fine

Awards missing (academic in school award means very little)

Ecs are very mediocre and will add very little

Why would kid consider schools with such varying student population numbers? Such different experiences

Without the list of AP's taken along with the list of AP's offered at the school but not taken by this student, you cannot determine rigor the way the college will. This process has been detailed by AO's on blogs for years as well as in the 2018 book Who Gets In and Why. The rigor-race has amped up since then, due to parental pressure more kids are let into honors or AP, making the number of AP or the weighted GPA irrelevant without context.
Ivy+ schools are not subtle at information sessions: they want applicants to challenge themselves with coursework in every area, especially the areas they do not plan to study and/or feel weaker in. Multiple said almost the exact same phrase in tours from 2022-2024 when we toured all over with both of ours.

This student, with the two 4s and two 5s on AP so far, is not likely a top-20 contender unless the 4s were notoriously difficult and/or rare APs for a 10th grader. The AP scoring was shifted in 2024 such that quite a large group gets 4 or higher. 4 is the new 3 for most AP tests. Top schools only accept 5s and have been that way since 2021, even before the change in AP score distribution.
Most APs offered to 10th graders are easy and should be easy 5s for a student who is T20/ivy level.

9 aps thru junior year likely means in fcps:

Ap world his (yes)
Ap comp sci (no)
Ap csp (yes)
Ap lang (yes)
Ap gov or us his (yes)
Ap math (no if precal, yes if calc ab and then bc)
Ap env sci (no)
Ap other Science (yes)

So prob 7/10 are considered rigorous

About a third of our school does 7 to 9 of these 9 by the end of 11th. The top group has BC, APUSH, APLiterature, APChem, APPhys1 plus might have APPhysC or AP Bio by the end of 11th, plus some easy ones(World, Lang are done in 10th) These are the students on track to get into ivy+ types if the grades are high.
AP Lang and AP world are not considered rigorous at our school. They let over half the grade take them.

At most fcps’ ap world history is considered “most rigorous” if taken on 10th. Esp bc at many fcps high schools, ap offerings through 10th, ap offerings are fairly limited.

OP here and APs are fairly limited before 11th at our school. We don’t have class rank but I wonder if his counselor would give him an unofficial estimate.

I held a little back on ECs to not make him identifiable but this thread is pretty discouraging.

Most have said uva ed is a decent shot. That’s not discouraging, is it?

He would love to go to UVA. He just isn’t sure about EDing there and never seeing if he could have gotten into Duke. He accepts Duke is a long shot (maybe not as long as it actually is but he knows it is a high reach for everyone) but he also knows that ED at Duke would be the only possibility. He was feeling he would be in with UVA EA. Our HS does well at UVA.

We are in a somewhat similar situation with a "standard strong" kid who is debating whether to ED to a high reach school she loves, or play it safe(r) and ED somewhere more attainable. We are impressing on her that if she goes with the first option, she needs to be comfortable ending up at Pitt or another safety or maybe/hopefully target. There can be a cost to playing the game this way even if it's frustrating. But if a kid loves a school and will always wonder what if, that's important too IMO.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous
UMC FCPS Public. 3.95/4.5 GPA, 1520 SAT one sitting, will take again, one varsity sport, lots of volunteer work, PT summer job, VP of an academic club 3 years, tutoring. An academic department award in 10th. 9 APs through 11th, scheduled for 6 in 12th. 10th grade AP exams - 2 5s, 2 4s.

Duke ED 👎
Vanderbilt 👎
UVA possible esp ED
VT likey
W&M likely
UNC 👎
Mich 👎
Wisc likely
UGA unlikely

Rigor seems fine. Sat is fine

Awards missing (academic in school award means very little)

Ecs are very mediocre and will add very little

Why would kid consider schools with such varying student population numbers? Such different experiences

Without the list of AP's taken along with the list of AP's offered at the school but not taken by this student, you cannot determine rigor the way the college will. This process has been detailed by AO's on blogs for years as well as in the 2018 book Who Gets In and Why. The rigor-race has amped up since then, due to parental pressure more kids are let into honors or AP, making the number of AP or the weighted GPA irrelevant without context.
Ivy+ schools are not subtle at information sessions: they want applicants to challenge themselves with coursework in every area, especially the areas they do not plan to study and/or feel weaker in. Multiple said almost the exact same phrase in tours from 2022-2024 when we toured all over with both of ours.

This student, with the two 4s and two 5s on AP so far, is not likely a top-20 contender unless the 4s were notoriously difficult and/or rare APs for a 10th grader. The AP scoring was shifted in 2024 such that quite a large group gets 4 or higher. 4 is the new 3 for most AP tests. Top schools only accept 5s and have been that way since 2021, even before the change in AP score distribution.
Most APs offered to 10th graders are easy and should be easy 5s for a student who is T20/ivy level.

9 aps thru junior year likely means in fcps:

Ap world his (yes)
Ap comp sci (no)
Ap csp (yes)
Ap lang (yes)
Ap gov or us his (yes)
Ap math (no if precal, yes if calc ab and then bc)
Ap env sci (no)
Ap other Science (yes)

So prob 7/10 are considered rigorous

About a third of our school does 7 to 9 of these 9 by the end of 11th. The top group has BC, APUSH, APLiterature, APChem, APPhys1 plus might have APPhysC or AP Bio by the end of 11th, plus some easy ones(World, Lang are done in 10th) These are the students on track to get into ivy+ types if the grades are high.
AP Lang and AP world are not considered rigorous at our school. They let over half the grade take them.

At most fcps’ ap world history is considered “most rigorous” if taken on 10th. Esp bc at many fcps high schools, ap offerings through 10th, ap offerings are fairly limited.

OP here and APs are fairly limited before 11th at our school. We don’t have class rank but I wonder if his counselor would give him an unofficial estimate.

I held a little back on ECs to not make him identifiable but this thread is pretty discouraging.

Most have said uva ed is a decent shot. That’s not discouraging, is it?

He would love to go to UVA. He just isn’t sure about EDing there and never seeing if he could have gotten into Duke. He accepts Duke is a long shot (maybe not as long as it actually is but he knows it is a high reach for everyone) but he also knows that ED at Duke would be the only possibility. He was feeling he would be in with UVA EA. Our HS does well at UVA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous
UMC FCPS Public. 3.95/4.5 GPA, 1520 SAT one sitting, will take again, one varsity sport, lots of volunteer work, PT summer job, VP of an academic club 3 years, tutoring. An academic department award in 10th. 9 APs through 11th, scheduled for 6 in 12th. 10th grade AP exams - 2 5s, 2 4s.

Duke ED 👎
Vanderbilt 👎
UVA possible esp ED
VT likey
W&M likely
UNC 👎
Mich 👎
Wisc likely
UGA unlikely

Rigor seems fine. Sat is fine

Awards missing (academic in school award means very little)

Ecs are very mediocre and will add very little

Why would kid consider schools with such varying student population numbers? Such different experiences

Without the list of AP's taken along with the list of AP's offered at the school but not taken by this student, you cannot determine rigor the way the college will. This process has been detailed by AO's on blogs for years as well as in the 2018 book Who Gets In and Why. The rigor-race has amped up since then, due to parental pressure more kids are let into honors or AP, making the number of AP or the weighted GPA irrelevant without context.
Ivy+ schools are not subtle at information sessions: they want applicants to challenge themselves with coursework in every area, especially the areas they do not plan to study and/or feel weaker in. Multiple said almost the exact same phrase in tours from 2022-2024 when we toured all over with both of ours.

This student, with the two 4s and two 5s on AP so far, is not likely a top-20 contender unless the 4s were notoriously difficult and/or rare APs for a 10th grader. The AP scoring was shifted in 2024 such that quite a large group gets 4 or higher. 4 is the new 3 for most AP tests. Top schools only accept 5s and have been that way since 2021, even before the change in AP score distribution.
Most APs offered to 10th graders are easy and should be easy 5s for a student who is T20/ivy level.

9 aps thru junior year likely means in fcps:

Ap world his (yes)
Ap comp sci (no)
Ap csp (yes)
Ap lang (yes)
Ap gov or us his (yes)
Ap math (no if precal, yes if calc ab and then bc)
Ap env sci (no)
Ap other Science (yes)

So prob 7/10 are considered rigorous

About a third of our school does 7 to 9 of these 9 by the end of 11th. The top group has BC, APUSH, APLiterature, APChem, APPhys1 plus might have APPhysC or AP Bio by the end of 11th, plus some easy ones(World, Lang are done in 10th) These are the students on track to get into ivy+ types if the grades are high.
AP Lang and AP world are not considered rigorous at our school. They let over half the grade take them.

At most fcps’ ap world history is considered “most rigorous” if taken on 10th. Esp bc at many fcps high schools, ap offerings through 10th, ap offerings are fairly limited.

OP here and APs are fairly limited before 11th at our school. We don’t have class rank but I wonder if his counselor would give him an unofficial estimate.

I held a little back on ECs to not make him identifiable but this thread is pretty discouraging.

Most have said uva ed is a decent shot. That’s not discouraging, is it?

He would love to go to UVA. He just isn’t sure about EDing there and never seeing if he could have gotten into Duke. He accepts Duke is a long shot (maybe not as long as it actually is but he knows it is a high reach for everyone) but he also knows that ED at Duke would be the only possibility. He was feeling he would be in with UVA EA. Our HS does well at UVA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP: you’ve gotten some great advice here and I don’t really think there’s anything else anyone can say. I would expand your list. There are schools that will value your kid more than Duke and Vanderbilt.

Your kid should also try to improve their profile to be more competitive and memorable:

- Get a summer internship at library of congress or similar federal library/museum. Tie job into Americas 250th & history.

- Write AP capstone on related 250th offshoot topic tied to niche interest.

- get LOR from both.

This is really excellent advice!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP: you’ve gotten some great advice here and I don’t really think there’s anything else anyone can say. I would expand your list. There are schools that will value your kid more than Duke and Vanderbilt.

Your kid should also try to improve their profile to be more competitive and memorable:

- Get a summer internship at library of congress or similar federal library/museum. Tie job into Americas 250th & history.

- Write AP capstone on related 250th offshoot topic tied to niche interest.

- get LOR from both.

This is really excellent advice!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous
UMC FCPS Public. 3.95/4.5 GPA, 1520 SAT one sitting, will take again, one varsity sport, lots of volunteer work, PT summer job, VP of an academic club 3 years, tutoring. An academic department award in 10th. 9 APs through 11th, scheduled for 6 in 12th. 10th grade AP exams - 2 5s, 2 4s.

Duke ED 👎
Vanderbilt 👎
UVA possible esp ED
VT likey
W&M likely
UNC 👎
Mich 👎
Wisc likely
UGA unlikely

Rigor seems fine. Sat is fine

Awards missing (academic in school award means very little)

Ecs are very mediocre and will add very little

Why would kid consider schools with such varying student population numbers? Such different experiences

Without the list of AP's taken along with the list of AP's offered at the school but not taken by this student, you cannot determine rigor the way the college will. This process has been detailed by AO's on blogs for years as well as in the 2018 book Who Gets In and Why. The rigor-race has amped up since then, due to parental pressure more kids are let into honors or AP, making the number of AP or the weighted GPA irrelevant without context.
Ivy+ schools are not subtle at information sessions: they want applicants to challenge themselves with coursework in every area, especially the areas they do not plan to study and/or feel weaker in. Multiple said almost the exact same phrase in tours from 2022-2024 when we toured all over with both of ours.

This student, with the two 4s and two 5s on AP so far, is not likely a top-20 contender unless the 4s were notoriously difficult and/or rare APs for a 10th grader. The AP scoring was shifted in 2024 such that quite a large group gets 4 or higher. 4 is the new 3 for most AP tests. Top schools only accept 5s and have been that way since 2021, even before the change in AP score distribution.
Most APs offered to 10th graders are easy and should be easy 5s for a student who is T20/ivy level.

9 aps thru junior year likely means in fcps:

Ap world his (yes)
Ap comp sci (no)
Ap csp (yes)
Ap lang (yes)
Ap gov or us his (yes)
Ap math (no if precal, yes if calc ab and then bc)
Ap env sci (no)
Ap other Science (yes)

So prob 7/10 are considered rigorous

About a third of our school does 7 to 9 of these 9 by the end of 11th. The top group has BC, APUSH, APLiterature, APChem, APPhys1 plus might have APPhysC or AP Bio by the end of 11th, plus some easy ones(World, Lang are done in 10th) These are the students on track to get into ivy+ types if the grades are high.
AP Lang and AP world are not considered rigorous at our school. They let over half the grade take them.

At most fcps’ ap world history is considered “most rigorous” if taken on 10th. Esp bc at many fcps high schools, ap offerings through 10th, ap offerings are fairly limited.

OP here and APs are fairly limited before 11th at our school. We don’t have class rank but I wonder if his counselor would give him an unofficial estimate.

I held a little back on ECs to not make him identifiable but this thread is pretty discouraging.

Most have said uva ed is a decent shot. That’s not discouraging, is it?

He would love to go to UVA. He just isn’t sure about EDing there and never seeing if he could have gotten into Duke. He accepts Duke is a long shot (maybe not as long as it actually is but he knows it is a high reach for everyone) but he also knows that ED at Duke would be the only possibility. He was feeling he would be in with UVA EA. Our HS does well at UVA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous
UMC FCPS Public. 3.95/4.5 GPA, 1520 SAT one sitting, will take again, one varsity sport, lots of volunteer work, PT summer job, VP of an academic club 3 years, tutoring. An academic department award in 10th. 9 APs through 11th, scheduled for 6 in 12th. 10th grade AP exams - 2 5s, 2 4s.

Duke ED 👎
Vanderbilt 👎
UVA possible esp ED
VT likey
W&M likely
UNC 👎
Mich 👎
Wisc likely
UGA unlikely

Rigor seems fine. Sat is fine

Awards missing (academic in school award means very little)

Ecs are very mediocre and will add very little

Why would kid consider schools with such varying student population numbers? Such different experiences

Without the list of AP's taken along with the list of AP's offered at the school but not taken by this student, you cannot determine rigor the way the college will. This process has been detailed by AO's on blogs for years as well as in the 2018 book Who Gets In and Why. The rigor-race has amped up since then, due to parental pressure more kids are let into honors or AP, making the number of AP or the weighted GPA irrelevant without context.
Ivy+ schools are not subtle at information sessions: they want applicants to challenge themselves with coursework in every area, especially the areas they do not plan to study and/or feel weaker in. Multiple said almost the exact same phrase in tours from 2022-2024 when we toured all over with both of ours.

This student, with the two 4s and two 5s on AP so far, is not likely a top-20 contender unless the 4s were notoriously difficult and/or rare APs for a 10th grader. The AP scoring was shifted in 2024 such that quite a large group gets 4 or higher. 4 is the new 3 for most AP tests. Top schools only accept 5s and have been that way since 2021, even before the change in AP score distribution.
Most APs offered to 10th graders are easy and should be easy 5s for a student who is T20/ivy level.

9 aps thru junior year likely means in fcps:

Ap world his (yes)
Ap comp sci (no)
Ap csp (yes)
Ap lang (yes)
Ap gov or us his (yes)
Ap math (no if precal, yes if calc ab and then bc)
Ap env sci (no)
Ap other Science (yes)

So prob 7/10 are considered rigorous

About a third of our school does 7 to 9 of these 9 by the end of 11th. The top group has BC, APUSH, APLiterature, APChem, APPhys1 plus might have APPhysC or AP Bio by the end of 11th, plus some easy ones(World, Lang are done in 10th) These are the students on track to get into ivy+ types if the grades are high.
AP Lang and AP world are not considered rigorous at our school. They let over half the grade take them.

At most fcps’ ap world history is considered “most rigorous” if taken on 10th. Esp bc at many fcps high schools, ap offerings through 10th, ap offerings are fairly limited.

OP here and APs are fairly limited before 11th at our school. We don’t have class rank but I wonder if his counselor would give him an unofficial estimate.

I held a little back on ECs to not make him identifiable but this thread is pretty discouraging.

Most have said uva ed is a decent shot. That’s not discouraging, is it?

Anonymous wrote:OP: you’ve gotten some great advice here and I don’t really think there’s anything else anyone can say. I would expand your list. There are schools that will value your kid more than Duke and Vanderbilt.

Your kid should also try to improve their profile to be more competitive and memorable:

- Get a summer internship at library of congress or similar federal library/museum. Tie job into Americas 250th & history.

- Write AP capstone on related 250th offshoot topic tied to niche interest.

- get LOR from both.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous
UMC FCPS Public. 3.95/4.5 GPA, 1520 SAT one sitting, will take again, one varsity sport, lots of volunteer work, PT summer job, VP of an academic club 3 years, tutoring. An academic department award in 10th. 9 APs through 11th, scheduled for 6 in 12th. 10th grade AP exams - 2 5s, 2 4s.

Duke ED 👎
Vanderbilt 👎
UVA possible esp ED
VT likey
W&M likely
UNC 👎
Mich 👎
Wisc likely
UGA unlikely

Rigor seems fine. Sat is fine

Awards missing (academic in school award means very little)

Ecs are very mediocre and will add very little

Why would kid consider schools with such varying student population numbers? Such different experiences

Without the list of AP's taken along with the list of AP's offered at the school but not taken by this student, you cannot determine rigor the way the college will. This process has been detailed by AO's on blogs for years as well as in the 2018 book Who Gets In and Why. The rigor-race has amped up since then, due to parental pressure more kids are let into honors or AP, making the number of AP or the weighted GPA irrelevant without context.
Ivy+ schools are not subtle at information sessions: they want applicants to challenge themselves with coursework in every area, especially the areas they do not plan to study and/or feel weaker in. Multiple said almost the exact same phrase in tours from 2022-2024 when we toured all over with both of ours.

This student, with the two 4s and two 5s on AP so far, is not likely a top-20 contender unless the 4s were notoriously difficult and/or rare APs for a 10th grader. The AP scoring was shifted in 2024 such that quite a large group gets 4 or higher. 4 is the new 3 for most AP tests. Top schools only accept 5s and have been that way since 2021, even before the change in AP score distribution.
Most APs offered to 10th graders are easy and should be easy 5s for a student who is T20/ivy level.

9 aps thru junior year likely means in fcps:

Ap world his (yes)
Ap comp sci (no)
Ap csp (yes)
Ap lang (yes)
Ap gov or us his (yes)
Ap math (no if precal, yes if calc ab and then bc)
Ap env sci (no)
Ap other Science (yes)

So prob 7/10 are considered rigorous

About a third of our school does 7 to 9 of these 9 by the end of 11th. The top group has BC, APUSH, APLiterature, APChem, APPhys1 plus might have APPhysC or AP Bio by the end of 11th, plus some easy ones(World, Lang are done in 10th) These are the students on track to get into ivy+ types if the grades are high.
AP Lang and AP world are not considered rigorous at our school. They let over half the grade take them.

At most fcps’ ap world history is considered “most rigorous” if taken on 10th. Esp bc at many fcps high schools, ap offerings through 10th, ap offerings are fairly limited.

OP here and APs are fairly limited before 11th at our school. We don’t have class rank but I wonder if his counselor would give him an unofficial estimate.

I held a little back on ECs to not make him identifiable but this thread is pretty discouraging.

Most have said uva ed is a decent shot. That’s not discouraging, is it?