Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year (2025)
Generous merit (max available at each school): Georgia, Vermont, Clemson, Pittsburgh,
In (no merit): Wisconsin, Michigan, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Columbia, Middlebury
Terminally waitlisted: Notre Dame, Boston College, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Emory
Rejected: Stanford, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Brown, Berkeley

This is a GREAT outcome!!! Congratulations!!

1 T15, 2 T20, 3 T30, 1 Top lac.
AMAZING outcome.

Anonymous wrote:Last year (2025)
Generous merit (max available at each school): Georgia, Vermont, Clemson, Pittsburgh,
In (no merit): Wisconsin, Michigan, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Columbia, Middlebury
Terminally waitlisted: Notre Dame, Boston College, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Emory
Rejected: Stanford, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Brown, Berkeley

This is a GREAT outcome!!! Congratulations!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year (2025)
Generous merit (max available at each school): Georgia, Vermont, Clemson, Pittsburgh,
In (no merit): Wisconsin, Michigan, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Columbia, Middlebury
Terminally waitlisted:

Columbia? Wow …

RD is REALLY hard. It's a total crapshoot. Vanderbilt is down to 2% chance. Boston College would have been s shoe-in for ED but kid was waitlisted RD (classmates with a GPA many tenths of a point lower were admitted earlier ED1 or ED2).

Moral of the story: do not count on RD. It's a crapshoot. Maybe you'll win, likely you won't. Good luck!

These schools were all RD:
Terminally waitlisted: Notre Dame, Boston College, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Emory
Rejected: Stanford, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Brown, Berkeley

The only RD admits were Columbia and Middlebury.

UCLA?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year (2025)
Generous merit (max available at each school): Georgia, Vermont, Clemson, Pittsburgh,
In (no merit): Wisconsin, Michigan, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Columbia, Middlebury
Terminally waitlisted: Notre Dame, Boston College, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Emory
Rejected: Stanford, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Brown, Berkeley

Major?

generally anthropology or sociology. Public health for a few schools.

Public or private HS? Female? Premed plans?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year (2025)
Generous merit (max available at each school): Georgia, Vermont, Clemson, Pittsburgh,
In (no merit): Wisconsin, Michigan, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Columbia, Middlebury
Terminally waitlisted: Notre Dame, Boston College, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Emory
Rejected: Stanford, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Brown, Berkeley

Major?

generally anthropology or sociology. Public health for a few schools.

Anonymous wrote:Last year (2025)
Generous merit (max available at each school): Georgia, Vermont, Clemson, Pittsburgh,
In (no merit): Wisconsin, Michigan, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Columbia, Middlebury
Terminally waitlisted: Notre Dame, Boston College, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Emory
Rejected: Stanford, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Brown, Berkeley

Major?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year (2025)
Generous merit (max available at each school): Georgia, Vermont, Clemson, Pittsburgh,
In (no merit): Wisconsin, Michigan, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Columbia, Middlebury
Terminally waitlisted:

Columbia? Wow …

RD is REALLY hard. It's a total crapshoot. Vanderbilt is down to 2% chance. Boston College would have been s shoe-in for ED but kid was waitlisted RD (classmates with a GPA many tenths of a point lower were admitted earlier ED1 or ED2).

Moral of the story: do not count on RD. It's a crapshoot. Maybe you'll win, likely you won't. Good luck!

These schools were all RD:
Terminally waitlisted: Notre Dame, Boston College, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Emory
Rejected: Stanford, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Brown, Berkeley

The only RD admits were Columbia and Middlebury.

Anonymous wrote:Last year (2025)
Generous merit (max available at each school): Georgia, Vermont, Clemson, Pittsburgh,
In (no merit): Wisconsin, Michigan, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Columbia, Middlebury
Terminally waitlisted: Notre Dame, Boston College, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Emory
Rejected: Stanford, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Brown, Berkeley

Columbia? Wow …

Last year (2025)
Generous merit (max available at each school): Georgia, Vermont, Clemson, Pittsburgh,
In (no merit): Wisconsin, Michigan, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Columbia, Middlebury
Terminally waitlisted: Notre Dame, Boston College, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Emory
Rejected: Stanford, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Brown, Berkeley

Anonymous wrote:I think major matters a lot at the top Flagship schools. Especially later on in the process. There isn’t much Room for stem left, but there is a lot of room for humanities.

Not just flagships, but true everywhere in T25.

If you are not the very top of your cohort (and I mean the very top) & an oversubscribed field, RD is not happening. Expect a lot of waitlists. Start working on those LOCI letters now and figure out where if anywhere, your college counseling office has clout.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T40-T50 are safeties. Generally not predictive for highly selective schools (sub 15%).

Merit at these schools is means to attract students they think who are likely to attend, not a great correlation with acceptance to reach schools. The underlying logic for reach is different from that of merit at safeties.

Reasonable to assume at least one target (15-20%).

Such as…?

Wake Forest? BU BC
Liberal arts Carleton? Colorado Richmond

That’s depressing. Half of the above are worse than T50!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T40-T50 are safeties. Generally not predictive for highly selective schools (sub 15%).

Merit at these schools is means to attract students they think who are likely to attend, not a great correlation with acceptance to reach schools. The underlying logic for reach is different from that of merit at safeties.

Reasonable to assume at least one target (15-20%).

Such as…?

Wake Forest? BU BC
Liberal arts Carleton? Colorado Richmond

I think major matters a lot at the top Flagship schools. Especially later on in the process. There isn’t much Room for stem left, but there is a lot of room for humanities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think better off indication is from EA out of state public’s. GT, UT Austin, uiuc, Michigan, etc which all have sub 10% acceptance.

I think her question was: Does getting merit from top 40-50 predict acceptance to the bunch of schools you just just listed?

The answer is no.

Anxiety level is getting high as decisions are out in the next two weeks. Just wait and you will find out soon. At least you have a couple anchors. To your question, the answer is there is real hope for higher ups, but do not plan around it.