Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is faculty a big hook?

IMO yes

If it's tenured faculty, definitely. And if it's some chaired professor, VERY definitely.


Non-tenured, I'm not sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is faculty a big hook?

IMO yes

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Our soon to be valedictorian of a top private (and probably on financial aid) did not get into an IVY but multiple 25-50% ranked kids with legacy were accepted. An AA child that currently takes the lowest math level just go into an IVY too. It has been a VERY awkward week in school for a lot of these kids. They see the rich and URM's getting in and the middle and lower income white kids, getting deferred or rejected.

That doesn't mean the valedictorian won't get in RD. The early decision bump goes to the hooked. Everyone knows that.

I am the PP. Some of the rich have legacy, some don’t have any hooks. The URM aren’t hooked with anything but their skin color. We are talking about nice kids but not the top of the class by any means. In a school that talks about treating everyone equally, it is quite apparent college’s do not. Money or minority is what gets you in these days.

Spare us your whining. Maybe your kid is just less qualified.

how can you be less qualified than being admitted based on skin color or ethnic origin?

maybe your kid is a complete jerk like you and it came across that way in the interview and essay. white grievance is so off-putting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Our soon to be valedictorian of a top private (and probably on financial aid) did not get into an IVY but multiple 25-50% ranked kids with legacy were accepted. An AA child that currently takes the lowest math level just go into an IVY too. It has been a VERY awkward week in school for a lot of these kids. They see the rich and URM's getting in and the middle and lower income white kids, getting deferred or rejected.

That doesn't mean the valedictorian won't get in RD. The early decision bump goes to the hooked. Everyone knows that.

I am the PP. Some of the rich have legacy, some don’t have any hooks. The URM aren’t hooked with anything but their skin color. We are talking about nice kids but not the top of the class by any means. In a school that talks about treating everyone equally, it is quite apparent college’s do not. Money or minority is what gets you in these days.

Spare us your whining. Maybe your kid is just less qualified.

how can you be less qualified than being admitted based on skin color or ethnic origin?

Anonymous wrote:Is faculty a big hook?

IMO yes

Anonymous wrote:If your child is applying for admission now, she/he is not a valedictorian, and you likely would not know the grades or the backgrounds or the ecs of those who may have gotten in.

Most valedictorians are rejected.

Is faculty a big hook?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Our soon to be valedictorian of a top private (and probably on financial aid) did not get into an IVY but multiple 25-50% ranked kids with legacy were accepted. An AA child that currently takes the lowest math level just go into an IVY too. It has been a VERY awkward week in school for a lot of these kids. They see the rich and URM's getting in and the middle and lower income white kids, getting deferred or rejected.

That doesn't mean the valedictorian won't get in RD. The early decision bump goes to the hooked. Everyone knows that.

I am the PP. Some of the rich have legacy, some don’t have any hooks. The URM aren’t hooked with anything but their skin color. We are talking about nice kids but not the top of the class by any means. In a school that talks about treating everyone equally, it is quite apparent college’s do not. Money or minority is what gets you in these days.

Spare us your whining. Maybe your kid is just less qualified.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid made it into yale EA. She has a talent on the national level, is 1st in her class, took a ton of APs and got great LOR etc. 1500 SAT. She is in a group chat with accepted students and the GC is 250+ ppl so far. They all have "something". High grades and tests are not enough, not even close.


FY!- we make 175K HHI, have another in college and our total cost is 18,979. The ivy league is extremely generous.

Congratulations. My kid is at Yale now and loves it. For Yale what I notice is that they select happy, self-assured, non-competitive kids, just wait until you start meeting her classmates. They appreciate what their classmates bring to the table. Maybe it is the same at other schools but I stopped thinking about it as being a "lottery" there is definitely a method to the madness. They really think hard about what each kid brings to the community, stats are a bar but the least important IMO.

I also believe your kid is a legacy and URM, correct?

Yes, the ENTIRE CLASS is URM. 100 %.
That’s why your kid is going to state school.

My dd who has been accepted to Yale is not URM, not legacy. She is white.

Athlete? Stats please? EC?

Conservatory level on instrument, in national ensemble, National AP scholar 17 APs, Valedictorian, 1500 SAT

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Our soon to be valedictorian of a top private (and probably on financial aid) did not get into an IVY but multiple 25-50% ranked kids with legacy were accepted. An AA child that currently takes the lowest math level just go into an IVY too. It has been a VERY awkward week in school for a lot of these kids. They see the rich and URM's getting in and the middle and lower income white kids, getting deferred or rejected.

That doesn't mean the valedictorian won't get in RD. The early decision bump goes to the hooked. Everyone knows that.

I am the PP. Some of the rich have legacy, some don’t have any hooks. The URM aren’t hooked with anything but their skin color. We are talking about nice kids but not the top of the class by any means. In a school that talks about treating everyone equally, it is quite apparent college’s do not. Money or minority is what gets you in these days.

Here's something interesting - despite increased applications at almost every school, most are actually admitting fewer kids Early.

Number of students admitted ED/SCEA
Yale -48
Harvard -29
Princeton -56
Penn -33
Brown +31 (out of 728 additional ED applications)
Cornell -138
Dartmouth +9 (out of 240 additional ED applications)
Duke -7 (out of 762 additional ED applications)

That stops the trend of schools filling more and more of their classes before the Regular Decision process begins. Maybe they feel like having 50% of your seats taken before reading a single RD application doesn't provide enough flexibility. I don't know - it's just interesting.

Below are the stats from the Ivy League schools (and some others) that have reported so far this year, along with last year's stats. The overall takeaway is surprising probably to no one. More people are applying, and smaller percentages are getting in. In the Ivy League, the percentage decrease in accept rates is down double digits at Yale and Brown (10.2% and 13.7%, respectively). I think a lot of Brown's 20.8% increase in ED apps can be attributed to its removal of student loans from financial aid packages this year. Now students can apply ED to Brown without having to wait for competing offers that might have excluded student loans.

I don't know what changed at Duke this year, but they are in high demand. And I remain surprised at the high ED accept rates at SLACs. It feels like they are the last vestige of predictability - kids whose stats are near the top of those schools' applicant pools can still anticipate being admitted. Whereas at the Ivy schools, I think lots of top stats kids are still not admitted.

Yale SCEA
2017: 842 out of 5,733 (14.7%)
2018: 794 out of 6,016 (13.2%)
Apps up 4.9%, accept rate down 10.2%
NOTE: I know the gross acceptance rate is down only 1.5% percent. But 1.5 is 10.2% of last year's 14.7% acceptance rate, which is why I say the acceptance rate is down 10.2%

Harvard REA
2017: 964 out of 6,630 (14.5%)
2018: 935 out of 6,958 (13.4%)
Apps up 4.9%, accept rate down 7.6%

Princeton SCEA
2017: 799 out of 5,402 (14.7%)
2018: 743 out of 5,335 (13.9%)
Accept rate down 5.4%

Penn ED
2017: 1,312 out of 7,074 (18.5%)
2018: 1,279 out of 7,110 (18.0%)
Accept rate down 2.7%

Brown ED
2017: 738 out of 3,502 (21.1%)
2018: 769 out of 4,230 (18.2%)
Apps up 20.8%, accept rate down 13.7%

Cornell ED
2017: 1,533 out of 6,319 (24.3%)
2018: 1,395 out of 6,159 (22.6%)
Accept rate down 7%

Dartmouth ED
2017: 565 out of 2,270 (24.9%)
2018: 574 out of 2,474 (23.2%)
Apps up 9%, accept rate down 6.8%

MIT EA:
2017: 664 out of 9,557 (6.9%)
2018: 707 out of 9,600 (7.4%)
Accept rate up 7.2%

Duke ED
2017: 875 out of 4,090 (21.4%)
2018: 882 out of 4,852 (18.2%)
Apps up 18.6%, accept rate down 14.9%

Johns Hopkins ED
2017: 610 out of 2,037 (29.9%)
2018: 641 out of 2,068 (31.0%)

Middlebury ED 1
2017: 326 out of 650 (50.2%)
2018: 297 out of 654 (45.4%)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools are always several steps ahead, just when you think you figured out their formula, they flip the script. They are looking for genuine intellectual ability, rare talent and kids who are not "created" by parents and college consultants. They have their ways of figuring this out. It's less about the schools they come from, once you pass the academic bar, the rest weighs a lot more.

HYP grad here. The top schools stay a few steps ahead but you’d be surprised at how many kids without ultra-rare talents figure out the formula and make it in.

Hence the influx of recent Water Polo "enthusiasts".

I live in California and water polo is like religion out here. Trust me, there is no shortage of great players. East coast poseurs will not fool anyone.

no one in CA talks like that - you probably live in Fairfax VA

Most of the water polo players at Harvard are from CA, Southern CA prep schools specifically. I grew up in Southern CA at a big sports school and most of the varsity water polo players were also good enough swimmers (water polo season and swim season do not overlap there) to attract attention from college swim teams.

How many kids from Louisiana charter schools got in?

If your child is applying for admission now, she/he is not a valedictorian, and you likely would not know the grades or the backgrounds or the ecs of those who may have gotten in.