Anonymous wrote:20/21 was when everything changed. Those admitted in 2020 all got in by the usual metrics. Schools shut down in February/March of 2020. Seniors that year missed prom and graduation and most of the last few months of their high school experience. But the college application process remained the same. Everyone needed to submit their test scores. Everyone had their ECs. GPAs tended to reflect genuine academic merit.

It was the next class - those that graduated in 2021 - when everything changed. For those kids - particularly the public school students - school effectively stopped midway through junior year. No in person school. No extracurriculars. No sports. No SAT or ACT. The public schools remained 'virtual" for an absolutely criminal amount of time. All grades were now inflated. In retrospect, it was absurd and ridiculous and I will never forgive the politicians and teachers unions responsible for throwing kids under the bus.

But that was the year when everything changed. There is before and after.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, and I can only speak for our school, each year has been decidedly different - 21/22/23/24. It’s maddening and I can’t imagine being a college counselor.

X1000000

Very little college information, on DCUM and similar boards, are relevant or pertinent, in 2024.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only Class of 2027. And for URM students: all previous years are irrelevant.

Not so. URMs just need to discuss the minority status in essays. It’s then just as relevant in the past.

Perhaps even easier, URMs receiving one of the College Board Recognition Program awards can simply list that in the app to indicate their URM status. That's only around the top 10% for the minority group, but URMs should be prepping for PSAT for this purpose.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2022 had no ECs, had their junior year online before everyone even knew how to do it, and was TO. It was a train wreck.

That is class if 2021.

Class of 2021 had their SENIOR year during the worst growing pains of online classes. They missed the last 9 weeks of their junior year to online. No one was even trying for those 9 weeks- it was just kind of written off as a short school year.

Class of 2022’s entire junior year was online.

My ‘21 grad had half of their senior year online but was also able to do their sport. Things were a lot better in 2021 than 2020. 2020 was my kids junior year and his spring sport was cancelled, his prom was cancelled, his ACT test date in March and then May was cancelled. By the time they got back to school in fall 2020, things were much better. Yes class of 2022 had big impacts but 2021 had the biggest.

The 20-21 year was $hitshow for academics. Schools still didn’t know how to teach quality online courses. And for every kid who was cheating, there was another kid not cheating and/or dealing with depression but competing against the cheaters inflated grades for admission. Only kids whose families weren’t concerned about Covid went back to sports that soon. Anyone with a vulnerable parent or grandparent at home still sat out and was again compared to those who could take the risk.

I agree it was the worst, but was it worst for juniors? I could argue it was worst for public school NY kids who were in maybe 5th grade and lost two full years (privates went back hybrid a year earlier). The wealthier have bounced back better. There are plenty of kids who were on one track - those kids who really pull themselves up by their own force of will - who were totally tossed off the track.

Kids who missed a year of lax? Eh

We’re taking about college admissions here, not general quality of life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2022 had no ECs, had their junior year online before everyone even knew how to do it, and was TO. It was a train wreck.

That is class if 2021.

Class of 2021 had their SENIOR year during the worst growing pains of online classes. They missed the last 9 weeks of their junior year to online. No one was even trying for those 9 weeks- it was just kind of written off as a short school year.

Class of 2022’s entire junior year was online.

My ‘21 grad had half of their senior year online but was also able to do their sport. Things were a lot better in 2021 than 2020. 2020 was my kids junior year and his spring sport was cancelled, his prom was cancelled, his ACT test date in March and then May was cancelled. By the time they got back to school in fall 2020, things were much better. Yes class of 2022 had big impacts but 2021 had the biggest.

The 20-21 year was $hitshow for academics. Schools still didn’t know how to teach quality online courses. And for every kid who was cheating, there was another kid not cheating and/or dealing with depression but competing against the cheaters inflated grades for admission. Only kids whose families weren’t concerned about Covid went back to sports that soon. Anyone with a vulnerable parent or grandparent at home still sat out and was again compared to those who could take the risk.

I agree it was the worst, but was it worst for juniors? I could argue it was worst for public school NY kids who were in maybe 5th grade and lost two full years (privates went back hybrid a year earlier). The wealthier have bounced back better. There are plenty of kids who were on one track - those kids who really pull themselves up by their own force of will - who were totally tossed off the track.

Kids who missed a year of lax? Eh

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2022 had no ECs, had their junior year online before everyone even knew how to do it, and was TO. It was a train wreck.

That is class if 2021.

Class of 2021 had their SENIOR year during the worst growing pains of online classes. They missed the last 9 weeks of their junior year to online. No one was even trying for those 9 weeks- it was just kind of written off as a short school year.

Class of 2022’s entire junior year was online.

My ‘21 grad had half of their senior year online but was also able to do their sport. Things were a lot better in 2021 than 2020. 2020 was my kids junior year and his spring sport was cancelled, his prom was cancelled, his ACT test date in March and then May was cancelled. By the time they got back to school in fall 2020, things were much better. Yes class of 2022 had big impacts but 2021 had the biggest.

The 20-21 year was $hitshow for academics. Schools still didn’t know how to teach quality online courses. And for every kid who was cheating, there was another kid not cheating and/or dealing with depression but competing against the cheaters inflated grades for admission. Only kids whose families weren’t concerned about Covid went back to sports that soon. Anyone with a vulnerable parent or grandparent at home still sat out and was again compared to those who could take the risk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2022 had no ECs, had their junior year online before everyone even knew how to do it, and was TO. It was a train wreck.

That is class if 2021.

Class of 2021 had their SENIOR year during the worst growing pains of online classes. They missed the last 9 weeks of their junior year to online. No one was even trying for those 9 weeks- it was just kind of written off as a short school year.

Class of 2022’s entire junior year was online.

My ‘21 grad had half of their senior year online but was also able to do their sport. Things were a lot better in 2021 than 2020. 2020 was my kids junior year and his spring sport was cancelled, his prom was cancelled, his ACT test date in March and then May was cancelled. By the time they got back to school in fall 2020, things were much better. Yes class of 2022 had big impacts but 2021 had the biggest.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, and I can only speak for our school, each year has been decidedly different - 21/22/23/24. It’s maddening and I can’t imagine being a college counselor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only Class of 2027. And for URM students: all previous years are irrelevant.

Not so. URMs just need to discuss the minority status in essays. It’s then just as relevant in the past.

Perhaps even easier, URMs receiving one of the College Board Recognition Program awards can simply list that in the app to indicate their URM status. That's only around the top 10% for the minority group, but URMs should be prepping for PSAT for this purpose.

URMs are not getting accepted more we will see when the data comes out but for now my DC and friends with high SATs and GPAs are not getting in the top schools. May be URM and legacy might give you heads up but not middle class URM.

To clarify, are you saying that your high stats URM, with a National Hispanic/African American/Indigenous Recognition Program award listed in their app (and/or their friends with same), was denied in the current admissions cycle?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only Class of 2027. And for URM students: all previous years are irrelevant.

Not so. URMs just need to discuss the minority status in essays. It’s then just as relevant in the past.

Perhaps even easier, URMs receiving one of the College Board Recognition Program awards can simply list that in the app to indicate their URM status. That's only around the top 10% for the minority group, but URMs should be prepping for PSAT for this purpose.

URMs are not getting accepted more we will see when the data comes out but for now my DC and friends with high SATs and GPAs are not getting in the top schools. May be URM and legacy might give you heads up but not middle class URM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only Class of 2027. And for URM students: all previous years are irrelevant.

Not so. URMs just need to discuss the minority status in essays. It’s then just as relevant in the past.

Perhaps even easier, URMs receiving one of the College Board Recognition Program awards can simply list that in the app to indicate their URM status. That's only around the top 10% for the minority group, but URMs should be prepping for PSAT for this purpose.