Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a strange and tough year. Mine got in to Tulane and several other top schools for her desired major and rejected out of hand at Clemson.

Okay. What on earth is your point? Tulane isn't a top school.

And as special as my kid is, being 90th percentile in a world of 99.9th percentile can be a crappy feeling.

Anonymous wrote:When I say no choices I mean- his only choice is CP. It will certainly get the job done. But he is left feeling like a failure and a loser going to the only school he got into instead of someone who was wanted by multiple schools and got to pick his best fit (which would probably still be CP). It would make his 4 years in CP much better knowing it was a choice to be there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough. I’m very sorry. My son was a very average kid, academically. It made it easier in a way. Applied to 12 schools, 10 were state flagships. He got into 10/12 schools and felt really good about himself for the first time in a long time (with respect to school). He attended a large state flagship and is doing very well in college.
My daughter is more of a 90 percentile kid. We will be steering her to similar schools as her brother, however, for a multitude of reasons including taking the damn pressure off a bit that is so woven into living in this area.

As I’m sure I’ll be asked, his schools:

Admitted (29 ACT and 3.4 GPA)
U of SC
Penn State (summer program)
Clemson (summer program)
Alabama
Auburn
Indiana
Ole Miss
UC Boulder
Pitt
TCU

Not admitted: Ohio State and U of GA

Anonymous wrote:OP, I feel for him. It sounds like he did not have safeties. What were his safeties?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a strange and tough year. Mine got in to Tulane and several other top schools for her desired major and rejected out of hand at Clemson.

Okay. What on earth is your point? Tulane isn't a top school.

Ranked better than Clemson overall and even more so for the program which is direct admit in most cases.

Why on earth do you need to crap on other people's schools? The point is that the OP shouldn't feel bad in the least. In a normal year, OP's kid would have been admitted at most or all of the schools to which he applied.

Why? Because you say so? It is absolutely a top school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a strange and tough year. Mine got in to Tulane and several other top schools for her desired major and rejected out of hand at Clemson.

Okay. What on earth is your point? Tulane isn't a top school.

Ranked better than Clemson overall and even more so for the program which is direct admit in most cases.

Why on earth do you need to crap on other people's schools? The point is that the OP shouldn't feel bad in the least. In a normal year, OP's kid would have been admitted at most or all of the schools to which he applied.

Anonymous wrote:OK here's the brutal truth. My kid is a 90% kid who thinks he's a 99% kid. 1500 SAT. 4.5W GPA with a solid rigor- 11 APs but not in hard science or math. He got into Scholars but not Honors at college park. Rejected from UVA. Neither outcome was unexpected, but both still hurt.

We paid for test prep. We paid for a college counselor. We paid for editors for the essay. We did not pay for private K-12. So recs were from public school teachers and administrators who are overworked and can't really glow even if they want to. We filled out a FAFSA.

He's getting rejected or deferred from everywhere (elite publics and privates) except safety schools. I know, it happens. I know we should have been prepared for this. It has to happen to someone.

And as special as my kid is, being 90th percentile in a world of 99.9th percentile can be a crappy feeling. Add to that not being full pay, not being a legacy, and not being a recruited athlete. I wish I could undo the last two years. I wish I could reset as the goal getting admitted to the state flagship and other out of state publics that offer merit aid and call it a day. That's good enough and trying to shoot for more is a dream that is largely reserved for the extra-brilliant, or the upper crust.

If I could do it over I would have him apply to Miami of Ohio and Wisconsin and Pitt and the other public schools that take a lot of kids from this area instead of all these crazy expensive private schools with much smaller classes where kids like him applying are a dime a dozen. At the time he didn't want to because he knew College Park is a better school than all these options. So he'd rather cast a wide net with the more selective private schools. But now it's coming down to the wire and it really feels like he will literally have NO choices. I am regretting his whole strategy. I just hope similar parents out there can hear this and inform their own choices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a strange and tough year. Mine got in to Tulane and several other top schools for her desired major and rejected out of hand at Clemson.

Okay. What on earth is your point? Tulane isn't a top school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I say no choices I mean- his only choice is CP. It will certainly get the job done. But he is left feeling like a failure and a loser going to the only school he got into instead of someone who was wanted by multiple schools and got to pick his best fit (which would probably still be CP). It would make his 4 years in CP much better knowing it was a choice to be there.

How many schools can a student attend? You can’t attend 5 different schools. Not 4. Not 3. Not 2. What is YOUR problem? You only need 1.

How many great wives do you need - 5,4,3,2? What the hell is YOUR problem? If you have only 1 great wife in your lifetime, count your blessings. That is all you need.

I disagree. For some kids, having a process for selecting a good fit is part of the growing up process. Learning about yourself and taking charge of your destiny, academically. To further use your sexist analogy- it's not about the wife you pick, it's about the pool of women who would consider marrying you. If you can only get a date with one woman, are you really picking your wife?