It sounds as if the son is a wonderful, self-motivated student who will outperform the super-packaged students.

Maybe he’d have a decent (15%) chance even at Penn, Princeton and Yale.

I think the logical strategy, if he’s more intellectual, is to ED 1 and 2 at schools in the Emory/Rice/Tufts/WashU class or the Bates/Colby/Reed class; RD at three dream schools; apply to a true financial safety; then fill out the rest of the list with less-selective private schools, like Fordham or maybe Oberlin, that need full-pay students.

If he wants tailgate parties, he could replace the Emory-tier schools with schools like USC and Tulane, and make schools like Syracuse and the University of Miami the slot-fillers.

He should make a school like JMU that’s sure to give him great aid a financial safety, but, otherwise, for the slot-filler schools, he should focus on need-aware schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kid like this ended up at Cornell.
From a private. The essays are critically important ….

Cornell is pretty easy to get into if you work with the right private admissions consultant. Or if you just do your research and understand what each school is looking for — that research shows in the essays.

Would you mind sharing the name of your independent counselor? We are looking for one for our daughter who's rising Junior.

Anonymous wrote:Shouldn't the $60k a year you are paying let you speak with the counselor your tuition supports?

I doubt their school is that expensive.
OP: What is the average SAT of your kid’s school? We can gauge how good the school is.

Shouldn't the $60k a year you are paying let you speak with the counselor your tuition supports?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue is applying to business. You must have a tight narrative to get into the most competitive business school programs.

This kid does not have that and will not get in. But will likely get in for other majors. This is where you need to be strategic.

Like what?

From OP (assuming intended majors business?)

ECs: 2 somewhat competitive but pay-to-play pre college programs related to the intended major (done purely because they were interested in the subjects). School orchestra. School newspaper. Varsity sports, but not recruited athlete. Independent research (but not with a university professor). president of a school club related to their intended major. short unpaid internship in their intended major.

I’d refocus the business/econ type of activities to be focused on organizational theory/behavior, organizational studies and sociology of organizations and how they work?

Apply:

EA:
Michigan LSA (Organizational Studies, Sociology, Econ); UVA; USC; UT; UNC; Richmond; W&M

ED: Northwestern LOC
ED: Vanderbilt HOD
ED: Cornell ILR Org Studies

Cornell ILR has a 25-30% (or so) ED admit rate? Might be higher.
But you really need work experience with human capital/labor. If you get that this summer, I highly encourage it.

https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/programs/undergraduate-admissions/academics

ILR is basically a prelaw track at Cornell. Why would OP be interested in ILR? Hotel seems to be the obvious choice if the intended major is econ/finance/business.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. His school still follows the AP curriculum but also offers post AP classes. He would have taken 12 APs and 2 post APs in math by the time he graduates. School calculates GPA on a scale of 100, but he has the equivalent of a 4.0 unweighted ( mostly A+s in all classes ). Intended major would be along the lines of economics/ finance / accounting .

This may be the issue: school is not a top private. Top privates don’t give out As easily let alone have 15% of the class getting A+. We have friends in lower tier private with similar profile. Thought bc they were top of class they could aim of r schools like Brown and Dartmouth ED; all rejected and ended up at schools like Wesleyan and Middlebury during RD.

This is not correct. My kid is at a top private in another city which grades on a 100 scale. Median grade is probably a 92. Top kids have a weighted grades above 100. We have a limited number of AP classes. Twenty percent of class to Ivies/ Stanford /Mit. Another 30 percent to T30 colleagues and T10 slacs.

There hasn’t been any worthwhile advice in this thread since page 5. Too many posters with no experience with private school matriculation.

Comment for OP:
We haven’t used him yet but consider paying for the “junior application review” with Dr Hoffman - he’s been discussed here. Former AO with Vanderbilt and Swarthmore.

He might have great feedback on major choice and positioning, esp vis-a-vis Vanderbilt.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. His school still follows the AP curriculum but also offers post AP classes. He would have taken 12 APs and 2 post APs in math by the time he graduates. School calculates GPA on a scale of 100, but he has the equivalent of a 4.0 unweighted ( mostly A+s in all classes ). Intended major would be along the lines of economics/ finance / accounting .

This may be the issue: school is not a top private. Top privates don’t give out As easily let alone have 15% of the class getting A+. We have friends in lower tier private with similar profile. Thought bc they were top of class they could aim of r schools like Brown and Dartmouth ED; all rejected and ended up at schools like Wesleyan and Middlebury during RD.

*aim for

Also want to add from my one person’s observation in our city (outside DMV), T15 schools are taking kids from top privates and brilliant kids from public schools who are low income. The in-between mid-tier private and UMC kids don’t get in.

This. But I think if her kid is in the top 5%, there’s a good chance. OP: How did you come up with the top 15%, considering your kid got mostly A+’s? I think the best prediction is to look at their school’s Scoir. Also, you can see what schools kids with similar profiles from their school ended up this year. That’s a good benchmark and you can go from there.

OP here . His school doesn’t rank. Top 15% it’s just my conservative estimate based on how many kids end up on the honor roll every semester. His rank is probably higher, but I have no way of exactly quantifying that. We do have access to Scoir. The problem with Scoir though is that it only shows you GPA and SAT/ACT stats. You have no idea what ECs these kids did , or if they were a recruited athlete, or legacy. Just based on stats alone, he should be able to get into an Ivy . It’s the ECs that are the issue here based on what the counselor told us.

In my son’s decent private, half of the top 5% academically still got into T20 schools with those ECs. My son was in the top 10% (but not top 5%), and he got into a T30 unhooked with ECs slightly worse than yours.

Half of top 5%, assuming 150 kids school, that's only 3 kids to T20. But that's not a decent private. A decent private sends about 30 to T20.
An average public school sends more than that to T20.

His school is bigger. A public school is massive.

Like the above poster said, it’s much easier to get into a top college if you go to an top private or a public than an in-between private.

Also, we’re talking about unhooked kids here. They send quite a few recruited athletes to Ivies.

To add, the other half still got into T30.

If OP wants an easier process, consider ED Boston College Carroll. It’s not a T30, but student outcomes are decent.

Anonymous wrote:Should really look at Naviance data, but I can’t imagine OP being rejected by UF or NYU.

Yeah, you should have an idea looking into T15% in your school in previous years.
With the Stats , full pay and from a private, T20 should not be a problem, only wild card is your major and ethnic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With a 1550 and 4.0 unweighted (this assumes you got all A's, with no A-'s , etc. but with average EC's, you're looking T50, maybe one or two in the T25. Virginia Tech, University of Rochester, Syracuse, Delaware, etc.

Look to the colleges that give lots of merit for SATs like Alabama, Arizona State, etc.

Ummmmm no! Don't listen to this. Your DC can do far, far better than VT, Rochester, Syracuse, Delaware. Crazy talk.

Agree

Anonymous wrote:With a 1550 and 4.0 unweighted (this assumes you got all A's, with no A-'s , etc. but with average EC's, you're looking T50, maybe one or two in the T25. Virginia Tech, University of Rochester, Syracuse, Delaware, etc.

Look to the colleges that give lots of merit for SATs like Alabama, Arizona State, etc.

Ummmmm no! Don't listen to this. Your DC can do far, far better than VT, Rochester, Syracuse, Delaware. Crazy talk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue is applying to business. You must have a tight narrative to get into the most competitive business school programs.

This kid does not have that and will not get in. But will likely get in for other majors. This is where you need to be strategic.

Like what?

From OP (assuming intended majors business?)

ECs: 2 somewhat competitive but pay-to-play pre college programs related to the intended major (done purely because they were interested in the subjects). School orchestra. School newspaper. Varsity sports, but not recruited athlete. Independent research (but not with a university professor). president of a school club related to their intended major. short unpaid internship in their intended major.

I’d refocus the business/econ type of activities to be focused on organizational theory/behavior, organizational studies and sociology of organizations and how they work?

Apply:

EA:
Michigan LSA (Organizational Studies, Sociology, Econ); UVA; USC; UT; UNC; Richmond; W&M

ED: Northwestern LOC
ED: Vanderbilt HOD
ED: Cornell ILR Org Studies

Cornell ILR has a 25-30% (or so) ED admit rate? Might be higher.
But you really need work experience with human capital/labor. If you get that this summer, I highly encourage it.

https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/programs/undergraduate-admissions/academics

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you are in Ivy or Ivy+ territory but everything else is on the table. It’s not all doom and gloom. Crafting a cohesive application with solid essays is key. What schools do they like? ED1 and ED2 if needed will be very helpful as well. You got this!!

Not true. If ED and with well defined/explained narrative, northwestern and Hopkins are possible.

1550 is barely enough (literally mid) for JHU for an unhooked kid. If only math is top rigor and science course are not (a few PPs pointed out that wasn't clear), then this applicant's stats are not high enough for JHU for an unhooked/non-feeder school kid.

A 1550 scorer will be in the minority at Johns Hopkins. But still, your point remains that OP sounds like their child might be hovering around the top 10% of a second tier private with a 1550 and 4.0 uw max rigor. But with deficient EC's they're looking at UVA as a reach with VaTech as a target. If business is the major, look at early decision to BC, Villanova, Northeastern, Michigan, NYU, USC. ED plus a high SAT is a big selling point for these schools. NYU Stern and Michigan Ross are reaches but if studying economics, they have a chance. Other schools to consider are Penn State, UMass, UConn, Rutgers, etc. They all have reputable business schools and those stats should get some merit aid.