Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is my experience with 2 kids so not a large sampling obviously.

Having one child at private and another in public, I can say that there is so much more hustling involved for my kid in public. He doesn't have the ready help that my private school child receives. He has to go out of his way to get help from his teachers. Tests are not returned so anything they want to discuss is during lunch office hours. For him, every kid is taking ridiculously high level classes and it's hard to stand-out, and there are so many students the teacher has to engage every year.

His teacher quality (and this is at a W-school) varies. His science teacher this quarter seems to be out 2 days each week for the past month. The kids are you-tubing and learning from outside books that they bought/borrow since classes don't have textbooks anymore. I am not sure how a student learns high level science with a teacher out so often.

So while I understand how important LORs are, I am not sure how important it should be considered depending on the high school.

That's not the issue, though, is it? Should be?
Its what is in fact important. LOR are extremely important.

Not disagreeing with you. But seems like other things are as well, depending on who you talk to. The thing is we never know for sure unless you are an AO, and that even varies by schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think transcript, activities list, and LOR are most important. Kids stress about an essay above all, but it’s not primary

I don’t think LOR are that important. They’re skimmed.

Transcript/rigor, activities, presence of hook or niche focus, high school attended, voice.

Agree that these are the things that matter. Voice.
All very subjective.
And yes, "voice" seems to me a synonym for vibe.

Anonymous wrote:This is my experience with 2 kids so not a large sampling obviously.

Having one child at private and another in public, I can say that there is so much more hustling involved for my kid in public. He doesn't have the ready help that my private school child receives. He has to go out of his way to get help from his teachers. Tests are not returned so anything they want to discuss is during lunch office hours. For him, every kid is taking ridiculously high level classes and it's hard to stand-out, and there are so many students the teacher has to engage every year.

His teacher quality (and this is at a W-school) varies. His science teacher this quarter seems to be out 2 days each week for the past month. The kids are you-tubing and learning from outside books that they bought/borrow since classes don't have textbooks anymore. I am not sure how a student learns high level science with a teacher out so often.

So while I understand how important LORs are, I am not sure how important it should be considered depending on the high school.

That's not the issue, though, is it? Should be?
Its what is in fact important. LOR are extremely important.

This is my experience with 2 kids so not a large sampling obviously.

Having one child at private and another in public, I can say that there is so much more hustling involved for my kid in public. He doesn't have the ready help that my private school child receives. He has to go out of his way to get help from his teachers. Tests are not returned so anything they want to discuss is during lunch office hours. For him, every kid is taking ridiculously high level classes and it's hard to stand-out, and there are so many students the teacher has to engage every year.

His teacher quality (and this is at a W-school) varies. His science teacher this quarter seems to be out 2 days each week for the past month. The kids are you-tubing and learning from outside books that they bought/borrow since classes don't have textbooks anymore. I am not sure how a student learns high level science with a teacher out so often.

So while I understand how important LORs are, I am not sure how important it should be considered depending on the high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think LOR are huge. They're like the only component out of the applicant's control.

Are you talking about LOR from school or the additional LOR from outside of school?

Public kids don't have an advantage here with teachers having so many students. Last year, DD's English and Calc held lotteries for the 25 LORs they were writing. I don't know if they were just saying that (but secretly were selecting) so they don't hurt any students' feelings. Needless to say, it was an extra worry trying to get an 11th grade teacher in the core classes to write a letter.

I hear you, my kids go to a public school too. I still think they're quite important and telling. Maybe it's more that the really good ones help but more than anything, they're scanning to make sure there aren't red flags.

Anonymous wrote:I think LOR are huge. They're like the only component out of the applicant's control.

Are you talking about LOR from school or the additional LOR from outside of school?

Public kids don't have an advantage here with teachers having so many students. Last year, DD's English and Calc held lotteries for the 25 LORs they were writing. I don't know if they were just saying that (but secretly were selecting) so they don't hurt any students' feelings. Needless to say, it was an extra worry trying to get an 11th grade teacher in the core classes to write a letter.

I think LOR are huge. They're like the only component out of the applicant's control.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think transcript, activities list, and LOR are most important. Kids stress about an essay above all, but it’s not primary

I don’t think LOR are that important. They’re skimmed.

Transcript/rigor, activities, presence of hook or niche focus, high school attended, voice.

How important are present 12th grade classes versus classes taken in 9th-12th, particularly for REAs and EAs? DD took 7 APs the first 3 years of high school. With some gained confidence is taking 5 APs (with MV/Dif Eq on top of that).

How important is the school profile for an applicant? Academically and socioeconomically?

Anonymous wrote:I think transcript, activities list, and LOR are most important. Kids stress about an essay above all, but it’s not primary

I don’t think LOR are that important. They’re skimmed.

Transcript/rigor, activities, presence of hook or niche focus, high school attended, voice.

Anonymous wrote:I think transcript, activities list, and LOR are most important. Kids stress about an essay above all, but it’s not primary

+1 Those are the biggies.

I think transcript, activities list, and LOR are most important. Kids stress about an essay above all, but it’s not primary

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not surprising they can, with experience, do a quick first cut.

“I see what your parents do/their degrees if any”

I suspect this only counts against you unless your parents are either (a) no college at all, or (b) extremely rich donor class. Everyone in between, it’s not even an advantage to be an UMC professional who went to a good school.

So are you saying if parents are doctor / lawyer pair (and are not donors to the school), then the expectation is a lot higher?

Or you’re full pay. Which is a lot more impactful than any “expectation deficit”

Anonymous wrote:So is this saying all would-be admits are looked at in the end by the entire committee?

Interesting... I thought some were automatic yes/nos and only the maybes were brought to committee. I suppose each AO has a quota.

Schools are quite different on this. Some have groups of auto-reject and auto-admit, with only the middle going to committee. Others have everyone brought to committee, even if it’s only for a brief review there.

I’m curious about the supplementals. Some schools have so many. What is guiding them as they read those?

Why ask students to write *so* much if only 5 minutes is being spent on the entirety?