Anonymous
11/26/2025 12:54
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
NO decent college (and no segment of a college, even honors colleges with merit awards) puts together their class solely on test scores. That is just not how things are done in the US system.
The only places that I know of that are composed nearly entirely of kids who test well on one single standardized test are some of the NYC selective private high schools.
The only places that I know of that are composed nearly entirely of kids who test well on one single standardized test are some of the NYC selective private high schools.
Anonymous
11/26/2025 12:40
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Anonymous wrote:With so much talk about colleges that TO, even Dartmouths with only 1/3 submitting as the rest likely scoring under 1450 if they had submitted...which colleges have a majority student body of say 1540 SAT without heavy prepping?
Our DC got 1540 with some self prep and no tutoring. We know she doesn't belong in a MIT, Caltech, Chicago type genius schools full of high scoring geniuses, but so many T30 seem to have at least 1/2 scoring under 1500. Which colleges have majority who could score in mid-1500 without tutoring and superscoring?
No undergraduate school has all "braniacs".
Anonymous
11/23/2025 11:00
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
I graduated in the bottom 5% of my law school class GPA wise because I was just off doing other things in the city, working, meeting new people.
Interestingly, I won the prize for the highest score out of my section on that professional ethics test they give you 3d year.
Interestingly, I won the prize for the highest score out of my section on that professional ethics test they give you 3d year.
Anonymous
11/23/2025 10:47
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:With so much talk about colleges that TO, even Dartmouths with only 1/3 submitting as the rest likely scoring under 1450 if they had submitted...which colleges have a majority student body of say 1540 SAT without heavy prepping?
Our DC got 1540 with some self prep and no tutoring. We know she doesn't belong in a MIT, Caltech, Chicago type genius schools full of high scoring geniuses, but so many T30 seem to have at least 1/2 scoring under 1500. Which colleges have majority who could score in mid-1500 without tutoring and superscoring?
Chicago is not like that anymore. It is 75% ED kids who did not have a realistic chance at ivies. Naviance shows the scores are lower than the kids who get in ivies. HW school shows the same pattern, and Groton, and many other top privates
Just look at the HW matriculation, you are right.
Chicago takes kids all the way to the 3.2-3.4 gpa band.
Northwestern takes kids from 3.4-3.6 gpa band.
JHU takes only kids in the 3.8-4.0 gpa band.
Unhooked.
Yes, it is the same at the good NYC privates and DC schools like STA and Sidwell. If you have 95K and ED1 or 2 they will take you with a GPA lower than 3.5.
We are at a small California private, College Preparatory School, Chicago takes 3.5 or below kids here. All ED1.
Midwest private. 3.5-3.7uw to UChicago. ED required
Anonymous
11/22/2025 23:27
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:“We know she doesn't belong in a MIT, Caltech, Chicago type genius schools full of high scoring geniuses…”
How do you “know” this? I would suggest state school. They have a wide range of kids and she is sure to find her place with such a diversity of test aptitudes.
It’s a troll post. Especially calling Chicago a genius school.
For a long time, Chicago was considered to be a college full of geniuses. Not everyone in the outside world has caught on to the shift if they weren’t on DCUM
Uh, no, it's well known. Google U of Chicago. $6.6 billion in institutional debt. Everyone knows this. Gross mismanagement by the president and the board.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 22:39
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:“We know she doesn't belong in a MIT, Caltech, Chicago type genius schools full of high scoring geniuses…”
How do you “know” this? I would suggest state school. They have a wide range of kids and she is sure to find her place with such a diversity of test aptitudes.
It’s a troll post. Especially calling Chicago a genius school.
For a long time, Chicago was considered to be a college full of geniuses. Not everyone in the outside world has caught on to the shift if they weren’t on DCUM
Anonymous
11/22/2025 22:15
Subject: Re:Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The top 10% of any school will be full of brainiacs.
Take a look at the research. Someone in the top 10% of Haverford will do better than someone in the bottom 25% at Harvard...
So, no one has answered. What is "doing better" post-college? Is it net worth at age 50? Lifetime W-2 income? Salary at age 30?
This whole discussion is misguided - speaking as someone who has retired from a Wall Street career at age 50.
It could mean for example their graduate school destination. Haverford top 10 may go to Harvard law school or Harvard medical school. Harvard bottom 50% may end up at lower ranked graduate schools.
Right, but it's so subjective. This whole discussion is pointless because there's not a standardized way of "doing better".
Example 1: I might say becoming a SWE at Google is "doing worse" than becoming an MD at Goldman in their Dallas, TX office. You might, rightly, disagree.
Example 2: So, Haverford's top 10 might go to Harvard Law, but Harvard's bottom 50% might go to KKR. No MBA needed. Right? Then the Haverford Biglaw (Latham, Kirkland) partner ends up working for the Harvard KKR MD - who is his top client and he's at his beck and call. So Haverford Biglaw makes $6MM a year and Harvard KKR MD makes $16M.
Do you see how this analysis simply fails? Obviously, the opposite could be true. But there's no guarantee. And I know people in all of the examples above. Replace Haverford with Colgate or Midd.
In no universe is $16m per year as an MD a below-median outcome for a Harvard alumnus. What are you smoking???
Anonymous
11/22/2025 22:13
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
So are you going to share, or...?Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:With so much talk about colleges that TO, even Dartmouths with only 1/3 submitting as the rest likely scoring under 1450 if they had submitted...which colleges have a majority student body of say 1540 SAT without heavy prepping?
Our DC got 1540 with some self prep and no tutoring. We know she doesn't belong in a MIT, Caltech, Chicago type genius schools full of high scoring geniuses, but so many T30 seem to have at least 1/2 scoring under 1500. Which colleges have majority who could score in mid-1500 without tutoring and superscoring?
There’s another thread on this: absolute number of students with scores 1530+. The schools with the most are MIT Caltech Penn and Hopkins. Thats where the most brainiacs are these days. Stanford Yale Harvard Princeton were close behind.
1530 means smart, relatively quick, willing to work at the SAT's quirks, and cool under test pressure. The SAT does not test for "braniac" at all.
You are deluding yourselves if you think a T20 college wants a whole freshman class of these kids. I've gone through this process back-to-back for two years, hired several big-name college consultants, and learned what they really want.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 22:08
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Majority of MIT/UChicago/Princeton/Williams etc students are at your 1540 level. The only US school where the typical kid is like that 1600 kid would be Caltech.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think you are assigning value to the SAT that isn’t true. Lots of brainiacs at many schools.
I don’t think you can tell the difference between a kid scoring a 1540 and 1400 if you meet them on the street.
OP here. Please no flame, but at our school, DD and 2 close friends who are similarly smart but not genius types scored 1530-1540 first try, minimal prep. While a true brainiac kid who has been brilliant since 1st grade scored 1600 first try, no one was surprised. Other friends told us their kids scored in the 1300s and need tutors to get up to 1450-ish. Those are the kids who always needed tutors and consistently performed a band under the 1540 kids (bc the school have different tracks for core subjects since middle school) and def under the 1600 kid. We have known all these kids since K and it's been very consistent. I disagree you can't tell the difference between a 1540 and 1400 kid, just as I can tell the difference between my 1540 kid and the 1600 kid. I have also seen kids who were happy in normal courses and got pushed by parents to get tutored into the advanced track math and chem classes and ended up having to drop back down to non-advanced track the following year.
I truly think kids do well in the track they naturally excel in but all have a chance to be very successful when they grow up if they learned in an environment where learn with peers with similar aptitudes and build confidence.
US college admissions is not meritocratic. Maybe your 1540 kids have the right quirky holistic ECs to get into HYPSM while the 1600 kid just has boring academic/music/etc stuff so he has to go to the state school without any competitive scholarships (which also care about the quirky ECs).
Anonymous
11/22/2025 19:17
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:With so much talk about colleges that TO, even Dartmouths with only 1/3 submitting as the rest likely scoring under 1450 if they had submitted...which colleges have a majority student body of say 1540 SAT without heavy prepping?
Our DC got 1540 with some self prep and no tutoring. We know she doesn't belong in a MIT, Caltech, Chicago type genius schools full of high scoring geniuses, but so many T30 seem to have at least 1/2 scoring under 1500. Which colleges have majority who could score in mid-1500 without tutoring and superscoring?
Chicago is not like that anymore. It is 75% ED kids who did not have a realistic chance at ivies. Naviance shows the scores are lower than the kids who get in ivies. HW school shows the same pattern, and Groton, and many other top privates
Just look at the HW matriculation, you are right.
Chicago takes kids all the way to the 3.2-3.4 gpa band.
Northwestern takes kids from 3.4-3.6 gpa band.
JHU takes only kids in the 3.8-4.0 gpa band.
Unhooked.
I thought this is unreal. Then I went to see Harvard-Westlake’s annual report. Yup. It’s real.
It's a unique case, HW and HM have connections to the school.
Every elite private high school has connections to Chicago. (The “connection” is “our kids are strong students even when their GPAs are low and by the way, almost all of them are full pay.”)
Anonymous
11/22/2025 19:10
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:With so much talk about colleges that TO, even Dartmouths with only 1/3 submitting as the rest likely scoring under 1450 if they had submitted...which colleges have a majority student body of say 1540 SAT without heavy prepping?
Our DC got 1540 with some self prep and no tutoring. We know she doesn't belong in a MIT, Caltech, Chicago type genius schools full of high scoring geniuses, but so many T30 seem to have at least 1/2 scoring under 1500. Which colleges have majority who could score in mid-1500 without tutoring and superscoring?
Chicago is not like that anymore. It is 75% ED kids who did not have a realistic chance at ivies. Naviance shows the scores are lower than the kids who get in ivies. HW school shows the same pattern, and Groton, and many other top privates
Just look at the HW matriculation, you are right.
Chicago takes kids all the way to the 3.2-3.4 gpa band.
Northwestern takes kids from 3.4-3.6 gpa band.
JHU takes only kids in the 3.8-4.0 gpa band.
Unhooked.
Yes, it is the same at the good NYC privates and DC schools like STA and Sidwell. If you have 95K and ED1 or 2 they will take you with a GPA lower than 3.5.
We are at a small California private, College Preparatory School, Chicago takes 3.5 or below kids here. All ED1.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 18:37
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:With so much talk about colleges that TO, even Dartmouths with only 1/3 submitting as the rest likely scoring under 1450 if they had submitted...which colleges have a majority student body of say 1540 SAT without heavy prepping?
Our DC got 1540 with some self prep and no tutoring. We know she doesn't belong in a MIT, Caltech, Chicago type genius schools full of high scoring geniuses, but so many T30 seem to have at least 1/2 scoring under 1500. Which colleges have majority who could score in mid-1500 without tutoring and superscoring?
Chicago is not like that anymore. It is 75% ED kids who did not have a realistic chance at ivies. Naviance shows the scores are lower than the kids who get in ivies. HW school shows the same pattern, and Groton, and many other top privates
Just look at the HW matriculation, you are right.
Chicago takes kids all the way to the 3.2-3.4 gpa band.
Northwestern takes kids from 3.4-3.6 gpa band.
JHU takes only kids in the 3.8-4.0 gpa band.
Unhooked.
I thought this is unreal. Then I went to see Harvard-Westlake’s annual report. Yup. It’s real.
It's a unique case, HW and HM have connections to the school.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 18:23
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:With so much talk about colleges that TO, even Dartmouths with only 1/3 submitting as the rest likely scoring under 1450 if they had submitted...which colleges have a majority student body of say 1540 SAT without heavy prepping?
Our DC got 1540 with some self prep and no tutoring. We know she doesn't belong in a MIT, Caltech, Chicago type genius schools full of high scoring geniuses, but so many T30 seem to have at least 1/2 scoring under 1500. Which colleges have majority who could score in mid-1500 without tutoring and superscoring?
Chicago is not like that anymore. It is 75% ED kids who did not have a realistic chance at ivies. Naviance shows the scores are lower than the kids who get in ivies. HW school shows the same pattern, and Groton, and many other top privates
Just look at the HW matriculation, you are right.
Chicago takes kids all the way to the 3.2-3.4 gpa band.
Northwestern takes kids from 3.4-3.6 gpa band.
JHU takes only kids in the 3.8-4.0 gpa band.
Unhooked.
I thought this is unreal. Then I went to see Harvard-Westlake’s annual report. Yup. It’s real.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 18:19
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Anonymous wrote:Curious what is Chicago’s point of view. 3.2-3.4 gpa full pay private school?
What does that mean?
All I can tell you is that the three students who went to UChicago from DC’s private last year were all top 10 percent students. From Scoir, I can see their test scores: 36 ACT, 1540 SAT and 35 ACT. No idea if they were full pay or not.
Anonymous
11/22/2025 18:14
Subject: Which colleges have majority student body of very bright kids but not brainiacs?
Anonymous wrote:Curious what is Chicago’s point of view. 3.2-3.4 gpa full pay private school?
NO that would be Skidmore. Please people, enough.