Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When people talk in threads like these about a kid being "hooked" because a parent went to a certain school, is simply being a legacy that much of a leg up in admissions? My wife and I went to 2 different Ivy League schools. Does that mean our kids are going to have a much easier time getting into those schools than their peers solely because we went there 20 years ago? We barely donate and are otherwise inactive alums. When I was an undergrad, I was a first generation college student and anecdotally heard that my school gave the same amount of extra points to kids who were first generation as those who are legacies. I thought that in the time since we graduated, legacy status meant less and less as time went on and schools turned to other characteristics to give kids a boost. But these threads seem to make it appear that schools are a slam dunk for legacy kids so long as they are competitive otherwise. Anyone have any context for how much legacy status actually matters at Ivies these days? Is it a lock? Merely a tie-breaker? Something akin to athletic recruit status or 1st generation or URM bonus points?

First of all, as has been pointed out here relentlessly, athletic recruits barely move the needle at all in admissions unless they have the academic stats as well--sadly my excellent athlete is learning this the hard way. Your legacy status will not work if you have not donated. You have to be high 6 to 7 figure donors or be very very high profile (like a senator) for the legacy status to mean anything.

Anonymous wrote:When people talk in threads like these about a kid being "hooked" because a parent went to a certain school, is simply being a legacy that much of a leg up in admissions? My wife and I went to 2 different Ivy League schools. Does that mean our kids are going to have a much easier time getting into those schools than their peers solely because we went there 20 years ago? We barely donate and are otherwise inactive alums. When I was an undergrad, I was a first generation college student and anecdotally heard that my school gave the same amount of extra points to kids who were first generation as those who are legacies. I thought that in the time since we graduated, legacy status meant less and less as time went on and schools turned to other characteristics to give kids a boost. But these threads seem to make it appear that schools are a slam dunk for legacy kids so long as they are competitive otherwise. Anyone have any context for how much legacy status actually matters at Ivies these days? Is it a lock? Merely a tie-breaker? Something akin to athletic recruit status or 1st generation or URM bonus points?

Anonymous wrote:When people talk in threads like these about a kid being "hooked" because a parent went to a certain school, is simply being a legacy that much of a leg up in admissions? My wife and I went to 2 different Ivy League schools. Does that mean our kids are going to have a much easier time getting into those schools than their peers solely because we went there 20 years ago? We barely donate and are otherwise inactive alums. When I was an undergrad, I was a first generation college student and anecdotally heard that my school gave the same amount of extra points to kids who were first generation as those who are legacies. I thought that in the time since we graduated, legacy status meant less and less as time went on and schools turned to other characteristics to give kids a boost. But these threads seem to make it appear that schools are a slam dunk for legacy kids so long as they are competitive otherwise. Anyone have any context for how much legacy status actually matters at Ivies these days? Is it a lock? Merely a tie-breaker? Something akin to athletic recruit status or 1st generation or URM bonus points?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I need to know where the bottom unhooked kids are going, not the top.

Elon, smu, tcu, sewanee, muhlenburgh, American, trinity, Syracuse. Not bad schools at all! These are full pay. Kids who need aide or instate are doing JMU, UMBC, CNU, or small liberal arts colleges like Juanita, Wooster etc.

Interesting. I guess my 11th grader must be at the bottom of the class at their Big3 because the college counselor recently recommended almost every school on this list: Elon, SMU, TCU, Syracuse, Sewanee, Muhlenburg, Trinity. Unfortunately, my DC isn’t really thrilled about any of these schools. Really wishing we sent DC to public. 34 ACT and 3.1 GPA.

Bad news. This is where she or he can realistically get in. Good news, do what all the bottom NCS/STA kids do, go to trinity for a year, get a 4.0 - be sure to get a 4.0 even if it means picking uninteresting easy classes, and then transfer to UVA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I need to know where the bottom unhooked kids are going, not the top.

Elon, smu, tcu, sewanee, muhlenburgh, American, trinity, Syracuse. Not bad schools at all! These are full pay. Kids who need aide or instate are doing JMU, UMBC, CNU, or small liberal arts colleges like Juanita, Wooster etc.

Interesting. I guess my 11th grader must be at the bottom of the class at their Big3 because the college counselor recently recommended almost every school on this list: Elon, SMU, TCU, Syracuse, Sewanee, Muhlenburg, Trinity. Unfortunately, my DC isn’t really thrilled about any of these schools. Really wishing we sent DC to public. 34 ACT and 3.1 GPA.

Bad news. This is where she or he can realistically get in. Good news, do what all the bottom NCS/STA kids do, go to trinity for a year, get a 4.0 - be sure to get a 4.0 even if it means picking uninteresting easy classes, and then transfer to UVA.

Anonymous wrote:OP, my DS had around a 3.1 at a Big 3 and it was several years ago (pre-Pandemic) so the goalposts have moved, but he was admitted to Occidental, Santa Clara and Fordham, all of which seemed like great choices. And FWIW I know kids who have gone to Syracuse and found it life changing. It has a really strong alum network and provides a lot of opportunity. The hardest thing about being at a high pressure school is the feeling that the good options your kid still has are not good enough. It’s hard on the kids, but once they get to college and get away from the Big 3 bubble everything seems better. Good luck! Your child is going to do just fine.

Anonymous wrote:This obsession has to stop. It's literally killing kids.

Anonymous wrote:OP, my DS had around a 3.1 at a Big 3 and it was several years ago (pre-Pandemic) so the goalposts have moved, but he was admitted to Occidental, Santa Clara and Fordham, all of which seemed like great choices. And FWIW I know kids who have gone to Syracuse and found it life changing. It has a really strong alum network and provides a lot of opportunity. The hardest thing about being at a high pressure school is the feeling that the good options your kid still has are not good enough. It’s hard on the kids, but once they get to college and get away from the Big 3 bubble everything seems better. Good luck! Your child is going to do just fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I need to know where the bottom unhooked kids are going, not the top.

Elon, smu, tcu, sewanee, muhlenburgh, American, trinity, Syracuse. Not bad schools at all! These are full pay. Kids who need aide or instate are doing JMU, UMBC, CNU, or small liberal arts colleges like Juanita, Wooster etc.

Interesting. I guess my 11th grader must be at the bottom of the class at their Big3 because the college counselor recently recommended almost every school on this list: Elon, SMU, TCU, Syracuse, Sewanee, Muhlenburg, Trinity. Unfortunately, my DC isn’t really thrilled about any of these schools. Really wishing we sent DC to public. 34 ACT and 3.1 GPA.

Just curious but what did you expect with a 3.1 gpa? Not that those schools are bad - but how high were your expectations?

Honestly, I don’t know what I expected! Maybe Tulane, Miami, Bucknell, Colby? DCUM says that is where the bottom 25% of the big 3 go? The GPA is an upward trend (3 Cs in 9th) so probably a bit higher at the end of the year and by end of senior year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I need to know where the bottom unhooked kids are going, not the top.

Elon, smu, tcu, sewanee, muhlenburgh, American, trinity, Syracuse. Not bad schools at all! These are full pay. Kids who need aide or instate are doing JMU, UMBC, CNU, or small liberal arts colleges like Juanita, Wooster etc.

Interesting. I guess my 11th grader must be at the bottom of the class at their Big3 because the college counselor recently recommended almost every school on this list: Elon, SMU, TCU, Syracuse, Sewanee, Muhlenburg, Trinity. Unfortunately, my DC isn’t really thrilled about any of these schools. Really wishing we sent DC to public. 34 ACT and 3.1 GPA.

I think if your child does an ED to Tulane or Wake Forest or Colby or Bates they would have a good shot with that GPA and ACT score. We know Big 3 kids with similar stats that have gotten in ED to those schools.

Bate’s with a 3.1 seems like a stretch.

Any of those with a 3.1 is a stretch… ACT is excellent - kudos to her. A 3.1 GPA is a straight B, not even close to a B+. This means there are those three Cs from freshman year and probably some B- in other years which honestly isn’t great. It’s better than dropping but a 3.1 isn’t in the highly selective college range and Tulane, bates and wake are all highly selective. If you are full pay use your ED wisely. With that great ACT she would have a real shot at good colleges but highly selective won’t take 3.1 regardless. Depending on what your DD wants I would say ED for GW, Fordham, Syracuse, bucknell, conn coll, college of Charleston, Rhodes etc. 3.1 is bottom 25% at big 3…or at least at STA/NCS. It’s a bell curve and 50th percentile kids are in the B+ Range generally. Also since big 3 schools don’t weight you also need to realistically say is the 3.1 from honors math or regular track etc and really evaluate her work load compared to peer applicants. That’s why you need to be really smart about ED. She’ll be more competitive there since all the kids who don’t get in ED to top 20 schools are then flooding those schools as their targets/safeties when they are likely your DD reach. College admissions sucks!!! Also maybe she can spin the 3 Cs from freshman year as covid related, but also, how on earth did she get three Cs with remote learning? Most school graded so gently that year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I need to know where the bottom unhooked kids are going, not the top.

Elon, smu, tcu, sewanee, muhlenburgh, American, trinity, Syracuse. Not bad schools at all! These are full pay. Kids who need aide or instate are doing JMU, UMBC, CNU, or small liberal arts colleges like Juanita, Wooster etc.

Interesting. I guess my 11th grader must be at the bottom of the class at their Big3 because the college counselor recently recommended almost every school on this list: Elon, SMU, TCU, Syracuse, Sewanee, Muhlenburg, Trinity. Unfortunately, my DC isn’t really thrilled about any of these schools. Really wishing we sent DC to public. 34 ACT and 3.1 GPA.