My nephew got into Rice and JHU as an unhooked, white, meh-EC, full-pay boy. Top non-DMV east coast private (thing NYC/NJ/Boston), played a sport for four years, JV Fr - Jr year, then V senior year, not a captain or that good. Solid debater, leader of the debate team, not at the national level, but definitely his strongest EC. Had work experience, worked at an old folks home for 2+ years, and I think wrote his essay about this.

Top student. 1550 SAT unprepped aside from Khan Academy and a review book, took the test once.
Strong GPA - school does not weight and his GPA was a 3.85, which was top 20% of his class, maybe even top 10%, but school does not rank; he was admitted into the Honors Society, which is the top 20% of the class.
All honors/AP level courses when available, BC Calc junior year, 5s on each of the exams he took with the exception of a 4 on the sophomore year AB AP exam(sophomore year: Human Geography, AP Calc AB, Enviromental Science Junior Year: One of the English exams, One of the Spanish exams, Bio, AP Calc BC, APUSH, Senior year: The harder Comp Science, Chemistry, Physics C, The other English and Spanish exam options)

So he is an EXCEPTIONAL student, in my opinion, and Rice was the strongest school to which he was admitted. He applied:
Standford Denied
Harvard Denied
Brown Denied
JHU Accepted
Rice Accepted
He was accepted to other schools that were his low targets/safeties

My daughter had 1410 SAT. 4.1 weighted gpa. 4 year varsity athlete. She got into five liberal arts colleges ranked between 20 and 40. Three of the five gave her significant financial aid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full pay means zilch zero to these colleges, they can fill up their college 10 times with ful pay students and still have more applicants left. What matters is if you can donate million+ or have a connected parent who'll be an asset to student network in some ways.

How do they tell if you can donate?

This is not true, especially this coming year when, if Trump and Christopher Rufo continue to get their way, these colleges are going to all be suffering major financial problems.

Actually they won’t. Typical school in this group get about 2-3% of their budget from Fed grants and less than 15% of their students get Pell money. They are in great shape compared to any T30 University.

A few tweaks in the margins and they close their budget gaps without issue.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full pay means zilch zero to these colleges, they can fill up their college 10 times with ful pay students and still have more applicants left. What matters is if you can donate million+ or have a connected parent who'll be an asset to student network in some ways.

How do they tell if you can donate?

This is not true, especially this coming year when, if Trump and Christopher Rufo continue to get their way, these colleges are going to all be suffering major financial problems.

Actually they won’t. Typical school in this group get about 2-3% of their budget from Fed grants and less than 15% of their students get Pell money. They are in great shape compared to any T30 University.

A few tweaks in the margins and they close their budget gaps without issue.

Most are still test optional, so just get your grades up!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full pay means zilch zero to these colleges, they can fill up their college 10 times with ful pay students and still have more applicants left. What matters is if you can donate million+ or have a connected parent who'll be an asset to student network in some ways.

How do they tell if you can donate?

This is not true, especially this coming year when, if Trump and Christopher Rufo continue to get their way, these colleges are going to all be suffering major financial problems.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's my personal and very rough comparison of LACs to university admissions.

WASP: Ivy-level qualifications (top stats, great ECs, and luck), but not necessarily HYPSM level qualifications. Character traits can be very important. Bowdoin is at this level or pretty close.

T5-10ish LACs: T15-25-ish university qualifications (high stats, really good ECs, and a little luck). Regardless of their ranking, add Wesleyan and Midd to this level for RD. (ED is a different story.)

T10-20 LACs: T20-40-ish university stats (high stats, good ECs) and perhaps demonstrated interest at certain LACs.

T20-30 LACs: T30-50-ish university stats (good stats, good ECs) and perhaps demonstrated interest at certain LACs.

FWIW, my DD was salutatorian, 1540 SAT, great ECs, etc. got into 2/3 WASPs, 1/2 Ivies, 1/1 Ivy+'s, and Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Smith, Scripps, and Macalester. Waitlisted at the other Ivy and an LAC outside the T30. Her only rejection was the one WASP.

Could you please comment on these schools if ED?

Helps with any outside of T-5.

+1

Show demonstrated interest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's my personal and very rough comparison of LACs to university admissions.

WASP: Ivy-level qualifications (top stats, great ECs, and luck), but not necessarily HYPSM level qualifications. Character traits can be very important. Bowdoin is at this level or pretty close.

T5-10ish LACs: T15-25-ish university qualifications (high stats, really good ECs, and a little luck). Regardless of their ranking, add Wesleyan and Midd to this level for RD. (ED is a different story.)

T10-20 LACs: T20-40-ish university stats (high stats, good ECs) and perhaps demonstrated interest at certain LACs.

T20-30 LACs: T30-50-ish university stats (good stats, good ECs) and perhaps demonstrated interest at certain LACs.

FWIW, my DD was salutatorian, 1540 SAT, great ECs, etc. got into 2/3 WASPs, 1/2 Ivies, 1/1 Ivy+'s, and Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Smith, Scripps, and Macalester. Waitlisted at the other Ivy and an LAC outside the T30. Her only rejection was the one WASP.

Could you please comment on these schools if ED?

Helps with any outside of T-5.

Anonymous wrote:Here's my personal and very rough comparison of LACs to university admissions.

WASP: Ivy-level qualifications (top stats, great ECs, and luck), but not necessarily HYPSM level qualifications. Character traits can be very important. Bowdoin is at this level or pretty close.

T5-10ish LACs: T15-25-ish university qualifications (high stats, really good ECs, and a little luck). Regardless of their ranking, add Wesleyan and Midd to this level for RD. (ED is a different story.)

T10-20 LACs: T20-40-ish university stats (high stats, good ECs) and perhaps demonstrated interest at certain LACs.

T20-30 LACs: T30-50-ish university stats (good stats, good ECs) and perhaps demonstrated interest at certain LACs.

FWIW, my DD was salutatorian, 1540 SAT, great ECs, etc. got into 2/3 WASPs, 1/2 Ivies, 1/1 Ivy+'s, and Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Smith, Scripps, and Macalester. Waitlisted at the other Ivy and an LAC outside the T30. Her only rejection was the one WASP.

Could you please comment on these schools if ED?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's my personal and very rough comparison of LACs to university admissions.

WASP: Ivy-level qualifications (top stats, great ECs, and luck), but not necessarily HYPSM level qualifications. Character traits can be very important. Bowdoin is at this level or pretty close.

T5-10ish LACs: T15-25-ish university qualifications (high stats, really good ECs, and a little luck). Regardless of their ranking, add Wesleyan and Midd to this level for RD. (ED is a different story.)

T10-20 LACs: T20-40-ish university stats (high stats, good ECs) and perhaps demonstrated interest at certain LACs.

T20-30 LACs: T30-50-ish university stats (good stats, good ECs) and perhaps demonstrated interest at certain LACs.

FWIW, my DD was salutatorian, 1540 SAT, great ECs, etc. got into 2/3 WASPs, 1/2 Ivies, 1/1 Ivy+'s, and Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Smith, Scripps, and Macalester. Waitlisted at the other Ivy and an LAC outside the T30. Her only rejection was the one WASP.

+1

+2

Anonymous wrote:Here's my personal and very rough comparison of LACs to university admissions.

WASP: Ivy-level qualifications (top stats, great ECs, and luck), but not necessarily HYPSM level qualifications. Character traits can be very important. Bowdoin is at this level or pretty close.

T5-10ish LACs: T15-25-ish university qualifications (high stats, really good ECs, and a little luck). Regardless of their ranking, add Wesleyan and Midd to this level for RD. (ED is a different story.)

T10-20 LACs: T20-40-ish university stats (high stats, good ECs) and perhaps demonstrated interest at certain LACs.

T20-30 LACs: T30-50-ish university stats (good stats, good ECs) and perhaps demonstrated interest at certain LACs.

FWIW, my DD was salutatorian, 1540 SAT, great ECs, etc. got into 2/3 WASPs, 1/2 Ivies, 1/1 Ivy+'s, and Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Smith, Scripps, and Macalester. Waitlisted at the other Ivy and an LAC outside the T30. Her only rejection was the one WASP.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Full pay means zilch zero to these colleges, they can fill up their college 10 times with ful pay students and still have more applicants left. What matters is if you can donate million+ or have a connected parent who'll be an asset to student network in some ways.

Need-aware schools, such as Wesleyan and Bates, consider ability to pay in admission decisions.

Child I know got into Dartmouth:

Top 10%
12 APs
4.0 UW GPA - 4.8 W GPA
SAT 1550
6 Academic Awards
4 Summer Schools
2 Research Papers
8 ECs (Ballet, Tennis, Hockey, Sailing, School Paper, Photography, Film Club and Red Cross)
Peer Recommendation was from a Ukrainian classmate and this stood out because she is ethnically Russians (US National though).
Detailed school recommendations from beloved teachers.

I think she said she also submitted a portfolio? Not sure if it was for Dartmouth. A short film and some photographs.


Using this formula (give or take a few) for my son.

Anonymous wrote:Full pay means zilch zero to these colleges, they can fill up their college 10 times with ful pay students and still have more applicants left. What matters is if you can donate million+ or have a connected parent who'll be an asset to student network in some ways.

How do they tell if you can donate?