Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:52
Subject: How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:Also, based on our experience, be aware of the OOS Top Publics with single digit OOS acceptance rates with 60,000 and more applications. In addition to Ivies and other T20s, these are some of the most difficult gets. We found that out this last cycle.
+1 on OOS top publics. We looked at overall rates/ scores, which are not at all representative of OOS acceptances. Unexpected WLs to places DC wasn't even really excited about along with acceptances to T10 privates.
Those state schools with limited OOS students are not safeties -- better to focus on honors colleges in state (or on state publics with honors colleges that are more friendly to OOS applicants).
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:52
Subject: How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:Also, based on our experience, be aware of the OOS Top Publics with single digit OOS acceptance rates with 60,000 and more applications. In addition to Ivies and other T20s, these are some of the most difficult gets. We found that out this last cycle.
I really fail to see why those are so attractive to people.
My kids applied to instate public schools but no out of state publics. I'm not paying private $ for public quality. Nope.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:49
Subject: How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Could posters please tell us the intended majors along with the stats? Thanks.
Why? It's just been stated multiple times in this thread that stats are gonna be high at all these schools for the accepted and rejected. They don't tell the whole story. Your kid has the stats. There are just going to be intangibles in this process (i.e. who is the AO looking at your kid's file and what do they value) that you have no control of.
DP. I agree with your point completely, and it's frustrating not to be able to know and/or have control over variables, though the PP is curious about differences in admission results by major, which may be relevant for some schools.
I wish the process weren't so secretive, with regard to enrollment management consultant algorithms and their impact on the process. Yes, many factors are out of applicants' control, but a smitch of predictability would go a long way toward a better crafting of the college list.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:48
Subject: How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:1550 is not considered high.
It is top 1%, higher than any of your children and very high. It also only goes so far because people really don’t understand that academics are a critical but single part of what admissions at top schools look for.
DP here. I'll agree it's very high and it's a great score and good for your kid. But why did you have to throw in that it's higher than any of your children?
My kid actually scored higher, so you're wrong there. Many others did as well.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:47
Subject: Re:How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:3.98uw/1560 (760v/790m), 11 APs, male, full pay, poli sci/IR. All apps were RD.
Attending a T10 where he was admitted off the waitlist in June. Previously planned to attend a low target w/merit
Rejected: Brown, Columbia, Georgetown, UCLA/UCB/UCSD, USC, Vandy
Waitlisted: Michigan, Northeastern (admitted late April but not for Boston), NYU, Tufts, and the T10 (admitted in June)
Accepted: state flagship, other in-state safety, two low targets (T60s)
Hindsight is 20/20. My kid did not have his app ready to apply early - the UCs were the first apps submitted. Didn't finalize Common App essay until Jan 1. If he had to do it over again, he would have applied early somewhere, at least EA. Ultimately it worked out, I think the school he's attending will be a good fit, but it's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride.
My advice is to have multiple targets and safeties that your kid would be glad to attend if not admitted anywhere else. This is not a predictable process from the student perspective. As someone mentioned above, some high-stats students will get into many top schools, some will get into none, and it may not be clear from the outside why that happened, except that top schools are largely looking for the same things.
I'm gonna guess the Top 10 was Northwestern.
Could be Johns Hopkins.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:45
Subject: How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:Nobody can really predict how it will go with the reaches. You need solid safeties and targets. At my kid’s school a few kids with this profile got into reaches and many more dud not. Make sure the list covers all bases.
DP: the problem is that, for students like OP's kid and mine, there are reaches and safeties, there are no targets. So you need 2-3 safeties where the kid will thrive (though is unlikely to love a priori), and a long list of reaches in the T20 to T30.
People say don't shotgun, but with such randomness in the system, it's hard not to. The problem is that applying broadly is very time consuming, as even schools that say they don't track demonstrated interest want to see that you know and love them.
Stinks but there we are.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:44
Subject: How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:4.0/4.6, 1570 (770/800m)
Rejected Yale, Princeton, JHU, Brown
WL Harvard, Cornell, Swarthmore, Wesleyan
Accepted Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, UMD
Math major
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:43
Subject: Re:How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:3.98uw/1560 (760v/790m), 11 APs, male, full pay, poli sci/IR. All apps were RD.
Attending a T10 where he was admitted off the waitlist in June. Previously planned to attend a low target w/merit
Rejected: Brown, Columbia, Georgetown, UCLA/UCB/UCSD, USC, Vandy
Waitlisted: Michigan, Northeastern (admitted late April but not for Boston), NYU, Tufts, and the T10 (admitted in June)
Accepted: state flagship, other in-state safety, two low targets (T60s)
Hindsight is 20/20. My kid did not have his app ready to apply early - the UCs were the first apps submitted. Didn't finalize Common App essay until Jan 1. If he had to do it over again, he would have applied early somewhere, at least EA. Ultimately it worked out, I think the school he's attending will be a good fit, but it's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride.
My advice is to have multiple targets and safeties that your kid would be glad to attend if not admitted anywhere else. This is not a predictable process from the student perspective. As someone mentioned above, some high-stats students will get into many top schools, some will get into none, and it may not be clear from the outside why that happened, except that top schools are largely looking for the same things.
I'm gonna guess the Top 10 was Northwestern.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:40
Subject: Re:How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
3.98uw/1560 (760v/790m), 11 APs, male, full pay, poli sci/IR. All apps were RD.
Attending a T10 where he was admitted off the waitlist in June. Previously planned to attend a low target w/merit
Rejected: Brown, Columbia, Georgetown, UCLA/UCB/UCSD, USC, Vandy
Waitlisted: Michigan, Northeastern (admitted late April but not for Boston), NYU, Tufts, and the T10 (admitted in June)
Accepted: state flagship, other in-state safety, two low targets (T60s)
Hindsight is 20/20. My kid did not have his app ready to apply early - the UCs were the first apps submitted. Didn't finalize Common App essay until Jan 1. If he had to do it over again, he would have applied early somewhere, at least EA. Ultimately it worked out, I think the school he's attending will be a good fit, but it's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride.
My advice is to have multiple targets and safeties that your kid would be glad to attend if not admitted anywhere else. This is not a predictable process from the student perspective. As someone mentioned above, some high-stats students will get into many top schools, some will get into none, and it may not be clear from the outside why that happened, except that top schools are largely looking for the same things.
Attending a T10 where he was admitted off the waitlist in June. Previously planned to attend a low target w/merit
Rejected: Brown, Columbia, Georgetown, UCLA/UCB/UCSD, USC, Vandy
Waitlisted: Michigan, Northeastern (admitted late April but not for Boston), NYU, Tufts, and the T10 (admitted in June)
Accepted: state flagship, other in-state safety, two low targets (T60s)
Hindsight is 20/20. My kid did not have his app ready to apply early - the UCs were the first apps submitted. Didn't finalize Common App essay until Jan 1. If he had to do it over again, he would have applied early somewhere, at least EA. Ultimately it worked out, I think the school he's attending will be a good fit, but it's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride.
My advice is to have multiple targets and safeties that your kid would be glad to attend if not admitted anywhere else. This is not a predictable process from the student perspective. As someone mentioned above, some high-stats students will get into many top schools, some will get into none, and it may not be clear from the outside why that happened, except that top schools are largely looking for the same things.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:26
Subject: How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:Could posters please tell us the intended majors along with the stats? Thanks.
+1
It would be super helpful to see this information.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:22
Subject: How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:Could posters please tell us the intended majors along with the stats? Thanks.
Why? It's just been stated multiple times in this thread that stats are gonna be high at all these schools for the accepted and rejected. They don't tell the whole story. Your kid has the stats. There are just going to be intangibles in this process (i.e. who is the AO looking at your kid's file and what do they value) that you have no control of.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:20
Subject: Re:How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The biggest predictor will be your particular high school. High stats, strong recs, impressive EC's and awards will help, but I think the differentiator is being able to show personal qualities that have been proven over time that you will be a large producer on campus and beyond. It does them no good to have a bunch of brains that never leave their dorm rooms, they want movers and shakers and contributors. It doesn't have to mean extroverted, it just means thoroughly engaged.
I think this is so understated on this board at times. Schools really do dig deep and want to see kids that will succeed in life not just in college. Is this kid gonna go out and the world and be a go getter? They know GPA and ACT alone don't tell this whole story. EC's are so important. That's why you see stats for admits all over the place.
So true. And the way a teacher talks about the kid.
Is it the kid who always helps the teacher out, weighs in, is there for more than a grade......
Matters more than you think.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:16
Subject: How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Could posters please tell us the intended majors along with the stats? Thanks.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:14
Subject: How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
4.0/4.6, 1570 (770/800m)
Rejected Yale, Princeton, JHU, Brown
WL Harvard, Cornell, Swarthmore, Wesleyan
Accepted Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, UMD
Rejected Yale, Princeton, JHU, Brown
WL Harvard, Cornell, Swarthmore, Wesleyan
Accepted Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, UMD
Anonymous
08/05/2025 10:13
Subject: Re:How did your super high stats kid fare (1550 plus and 4.5 plus with max rigor)
Anonymous wrote:The biggest predictor will be your particular high school. High stats, strong recs, impressive EC's and awards will help, but I think the differentiator is being able to show personal qualities that have been proven over time that you will be a large producer on campus and beyond. It does them no good to have a bunch of brains that never leave their dorm rooms, they want movers and shakers and contributors. It doesn't have to mean extroverted, it just means thoroughly engaged.
No point in maintaining a nice campus if the students stay in their rooms
Yes, they want these kids.