Anonymous wrote:

As the parent of a recent unhooked graduate, I can assure you that unhooked kids do sometimes get admitted to the top schools. I am not relying on what my school says, but rather what I and my friends have experienced. But you can believe otherwise if it makes you feel better.

Hey pp, you are just repeating what op say--- rare vut sometimes happens, slim. But you finish it in a way that sounds disagreeable. Stingy psyche.

Not just repeating what OP said. My experience in observing DC and DC's unhooked (but highly accomplished) friends was that their chances were not "slim to none". OP claimed that she knew the "truth" and that I needed to "dig deeper" and not just believe what my school said. My actual experience told me differently. These are real people who did not have hooks yet still got in because they were great kids and had worked hard to get to where they were. It does happen, and it is not as rare as some people want to believe.

Not OP, but looking at it logically: 2000 kids, 50/50 female/male. So 1000 seats for males. 10% for international. That leaves 900 seats. Another 15% for first gen. That leaves 750 seats. 20% for athletes - that leaves 550 seats. Another 15% for legacy and development - now we are down to 400 seats. Plus geographical diversity, URM, faculty, etc. So there is actually very few seats for the unhooked when you look at the number of high school kids applying all over the country.

Anonymous wrote:For those of you looking at matriculation from top private high schools, here is the truth: if you have a high stats kid with no hook, the chances of your kid going to ivy is slim to none. The ivy bound kids are mostly - athletes, development ($$$$), arts, and URM. Example - Harvard - 2 athletes, 2 high stats w symphony level world competition wind instrument, and 3 kids w connected and $$$$ parents. Your high stats kid w no hook would be guided towards UVA, Michigan, Wash U, U Chicago even though he may be a better student than the ivy bound kids.

As parents, we all think our children are spectacular, but we really don't know how strong the rest of the class is. What really torpedoes a student's elite college admissions chances are their teachers who give them ho-hum recommendations. When 10-15% of the class applies to any single Ivy and the school does not rank, the recs determine the pecking order. If your student's teachers aren't writing how much they love your student on report cards, they're just not "special" enough for the tippy top colleges. While they will all try to make the strongest possible case for your DC, they teach a lot of typical smart well polished upper middle class teens. But "UVA, Michigan, Wash U, U Chicago" are pretty good for kids born on third base who didn't have to hit a triple themselves.

As the parent of a recent unhooked graduate, I can assure you that unhooked kids do sometimes get admitted to the top schools. I am not relying on what my school says, but rather what I and my friends have experienced. But you can believe otherwise if it makes you feel better.

Hey pp, you are just repeating what op say--- rare vut sometimes happens, slim. But you finish it in a way that sounds disagreeable. Stingy psyche.

Not just repeating what OP said. My experience in observing DC and DC's unhooked (but highly accomplished) friends was that their chances were not "slim to none". OP claimed that she knew the "truth" and that I needed to "dig deeper" and not just believe what my school said. My actual experience told me differently. These are real people who did not have hooks yet still got in because they were great kids and had worked hard to get to where they were. It does happen, and it is not as rare as some people want to believe.

If you're unhooked you have to be really interesting. The issue is parents of normal, above average kids delude themselves into believing their kids are super interesting. Great grades, test scores, sports captain, student government, tutoring youth, foreign volunteering isn't HYPS interesting. There are kids like that in literally every high school.

Anonymous wrote:Hate to agree but what OP says is true. DD into ivy and on the outside looks unhooked but what people don't know is my family (different last name) has ancestors that funded a professorship. Same with friend - SIL sits on board. DD grades are As and Few Bs but definitely not top 10% of class. Without this hook, doubt DD could have gotten in.

If kids got into Ivies with those stats, people might not know WHAT your hook is, but they'll certainly know one exists.

Anonymous wrote:As the parent of a recent unhooked graduate, I can assure you that unhooked kids do sometimes get admitted to the top schools. I am not relying on what my school says, but rather what I and my friends have experienced. But you can believe otherwise if it makes you feel better.

Hey pp, you are just repeating what op say--- rare vut sometimes happens, slim. But you finish it in a way that sounds disagreeable. Stingy psyche.