Anonymous wrote:This whole process sets kids up to feel disappointed when they get into very good schools. We have to teach kids these top schools are a coin flip and to be happy with the results.

I have some perspective on this because I had an older sibling who got extremely disappointed they didn't get into a certain school and got super depressed and almost sabotaged the whole thing. And the school they were going to was a top 15 ranked school anyway.

Yes, but when your child is going through this process, you see that some kids have more of that luck — or perhaps more accurately, their application just sings a different tune.

It resonates with multiple different schools and admissions offices. The kid who is not the very top of the class getting into 4-5+ top 20s. Something in that application is speaking to the admissions offices in a compelling way in RD.

It might be a combo of things, but there is something of a formula.

UCLA is very good outcome.

Well thought out list is key. The shotgunning for T-20’s makes things difficult for everyone and it’s become a what-came-first-the-chicken-or-egg situation. Admissions is unpredictable, which drives kids to apply to more schools, which created more chaos and unpredictability. I have to admit that as a parent (‘24) I was anxious and tried to encourage my high stats-but-nothing-extraordinary kid to apply to more schools. They drew the line at 11 (one T-10, a couple T-20ish, a few T-40ish, and 2 60ish.) it worked out well with one rejection, three waitlists, and 7 acceptances. And most importantly, choices that they were excited about. I’m glad my kid drew the line and had a school CC (private school) who had time to sit down with them and put together a workable list. CC’s at a lot of bigger schools often don’t have this kind of time, and then it falls on the parents or outside counselors.

Anonymous wrote:No, he was not screwed. I read the post and from my quick read, he made a poor rea choice. The college list looks like a kid shooting for prestige vs well thought out list. The kid should have targeted schools and programs that valued his expertise (jazz music). His strategy was not good. His stats are fine but not stellar for those schools. Given his pre existing relationship to princeton, I would have put that one early or another school with strong jazz program. His common app essay topic was risky, but I guess could be memorable if written well? Those top schools have many supp essays and those matter. Hard to make them all good if applying to 20+ schools.

The post has been deleted on Reddit- what was the essay topic?

This whole process sets kids up to feel disappointed when they get into very good schools. We have to teach kids these top schools are a coin flip and to be happy with the results.

I have some perspective on this because I had an older sibling who got extremely disappointed they didn't get into a certain school and got super depressed and almost sabotaged the whole thing. And the school they were going to was a top 15 ranked school anyway.

Make that 8 essays for some schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, he was not screwed. I read the post and from my quick read, he made a poor rea choice. The college list looks like a kid shooting for prestige vs well thought out list. The kid should have targeted schools and programs that valued his expertise (jazz music). His strategy was not good. His stats are fine but not stellar for those schools. Given his pre existing relationship to princeton, I would have put that one early or another school with strong jazz program. His common app essay topic was risky, but I guess could be memorable if written well? Those top schools have many supp essays and those matter. Hard to make them all good if applying to 20+ schools.

You have to write a different essay for each application?

Yes, 3-5 essays per application. So 20 apps could mean 60-100 essays.

Anonymous wrote:No, he was not screwed. I read the post and from my quick read, he made a poor rea choice. The college list looks like a kid shooting for prestige vs well thought out list. The kid should have targeted schools and programs that valued his expertise (jazz music). His strategy was not good. His stats are fine but not stellar for those schools. Given his pre existing relationship to princeton, I would have put that one early or another school with strong jazz program. His common app essay topic was risky, but I guess could be memorable if written well? Those top schools have many supp essays and those matter. Hard to make them all good if applying to 20+ schools.

Why wouldn't Stanford value his jazz music expertise? Which school would value it more, and why?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what were his stats?

IIRC 1520, all As with six A-, top 20% of class (informally school does not rank)

So typical for the huge applicant pool that apply to these schools. Result’s aren’t surprising.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh. My DC has the exact same stats from a DC "Big3" (literally the same number of A minuses with the rest being As and the same SAT) and also top admit was UCLA.

We were actually quite happy with these results. Did not expect an Ivy.
Committed to a lower ranked school with a bunch of merit aid.

How come? Top 25% Sidwell go to ivy plus.

Not top 25% but 25% goes to Ivy Plus. The 25% includes all institutional priorities.

Yep.
25% go to Ivy+. This is NOT the top 25% of the class by any means. probably 1/2 are actually in the top 25%.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh. My DC has the exact same stats from a DC "Big3" (literally the same number of A minuses with the rest being As and the same SAT) and also top admit was UCLA.

We were actually quite happy with these results. Did not expect an Ivy.
Committed to a lower ranked school with a bunch of merit aid.

How come? Top 25% Sidwell go to ivy plus.

Not top 25% but 25% goes to Ivy Plus. The 25% includes all institutional priorities.

Anonymous wrote:Huh. My DC has the exact same stats from a DC "Big3" (literally the same number of A minuses with the rest being As and the same SAT) and also top admit was UCLA.

We were actually quite happy with these results. Did not expect an Ivy.
Committed to a lower ranked school with a bunch of merit aid.

How come? Top 25% Sidwell go to ivy plus.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The post is now deleted but I read it. No he didn’t get screwed. He is going to UCLA. His list was a prestige list, and didn’t have any real targets or safeties. And he didn’t ED 1 or 2 anywhere.

Oh gosh. Was he outed by this post?

Probably decided it was unwise and asked for it to get taken down.

There were a number of replies.

Probably not a good idea to post if music community would pick up on it. A parent might have told them to get it taken down. Might have offended recommenders/music teacher.

Someone responded on Reddit that their friend went to the poster’s school and identified him right away. That’s probably why he took his post down.

Huh. My DC has the exact same stats from a DC "Big3" (literally the same number of A minuses with the rest being As and the same SAT) and also top admit was UCLA.

We were actually quite happy with these results. Did not expect an Ivy.
Committed to a lower ranked school with a bunch of merit aid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The post is now deleted but I read it. No he didn’t get screwed. He is going to UCLA. His list was a prestige list, and didn’t have any real targets or safeties. And he didn’t ED 1 or 2 anywhere.

Oh gosh. Was he outed by this post?

Probably decided it was unwise and asked for it to get taken down.

There were a number of replies.

Probably not a good idea to post if music community would pick up on it. A parent might have told them to get it taken down. Might have offended recommenders/music teacher.