Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter sounds a lot like yours, both in personality and in her school situation. Fit was very important. Was waitlisted at Rice in RD; is now very happy at William & Mary.

Thanks. What was ED/SCEA school if any?

SCEA: Yale, rejected.
RD: Princeton (rejected); Rice and WashU (WL); admitted to Carleton and W&M. Also admitted with merit money at St. Olaf and Pitt (rolling).

This was 1560, National Merit, 4.0 UW at a private. Normal ECs (nothing over the top). Older sister is at Berkeley; she had no desire to go there, based on school size and general experience of older sister. Wanted medium-size, excellent teaching, warm connections with smart/friendly students.

Unhooked high stats kid from competitive metropolitan areas: do not SCEA. ED1 somewhere and ED2 if don’t get in. It worked out here, but it often does not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who kids who are credible Ivy applicants, there are no targets. There are just "reaches for all" and then straight to likelies. You might think that a WashU or an Emory would slot it, but they don't--they're reaches for all (where "all" means all).

By your logic, every year the ivies will be full of admits who are only admitted to ivies and no other school at all??
Yes, there is a yield protection issue.
But not every school yield protect.
Emory is great, but not by gaming the system to increase its yield rate.

No. A credible Princeton applicant, say one who has a 10-15% shot at acceptance, will have a better shot at Emory (call it 2x, 20-30%), but Emory still will be a reach (because it's not a target for anyone applying RD). Drop down another tier to Case Western or whatever, and acceptance is likely. There's no "target" ground in between (save perhaps a couple of the strongest public schools).

For OP, a likely that with the prestige and academic experience of a (mythical) target: McGill.

Anonymous wrote:Wit those preferences, I don't know why Northwestern isn't on your reach list (unless she hates the quarter system or the chicago area).

I think it's optimistic to say UCSD is a safety -- it's a really hard admit and the California politics keep swinging around so that they often can't admit many out of states -- so maybe she goes to Holton and they've admitted similar girls in the past, but with the swing in California priorities, maybe not now. UCDavis seems like more of a safety, but even then probably a reach. UCSanta Cruz maybe a bit easier. What about Wisconsin or UMass? Delaware actually has a really strong chemistry program, so that might be a good add.

I had a similar kid and I agree that "targets" are tough, although the line between safeties and targets is pretty blurry. We basically had a lot of reaches, and then a few safeties. If you can afford to apply to a lot of reaches, that can be worth it, since it's all a crap shoot once you're a potential admit for those top schools. The "targets" mostly seemed like they'd be substantially more expensive than the safeties, and not that much measurably a better experience for my kid.

I am also wondering why JHU is not on her reach list. Great programs in chemistry, chemEng, computational chem/bio.

Wit those preferences, I don't know why Northwestern isn't on your reach list (unless she hates the quarter system or the chicago area).

I think it's optimistic to say UCSD is a safety -- it's a really hard admit and the California politics keep swinging around so that they often can't admit many out of states -- so maybe she goes to Holton and they've admitted similar girls in the past, but with the swing in California priorities, maybe not now. UCDavis seems like more of a safety, but even then probably a reach. UCSanta Cruz maybe a bit easier. What about Wisconsin or UMass? Delaware actually has a really strong chemistry program, so that might be a good add.

I had a similar kid and I agree that "targets" are tough, although the line between safeties and targets is pretty blurry. We basically had a lot of reaches, and then a few safeties. If you can afford to apply to a lot of reaches, that can be worth it, since it's all a crap shoot once you're a potential admit for those top schools. The "targets" mostly seemed like they'd be substantially more expensive than the safeties, and not that much measurably a better experience for my kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter sounds a lot like yours, both in personality and in her school situation. Fit was very important. Was waitlisted at Rice in RD; is now very happy at William & Mary.

Thanks. What was ED/SCEA school if any?

SCEA: Yale, rejected.
RD: Princeton (rejected); Rice and WashU (WL); admitted to Carleton and W&M. Also admitted with merit money at St. Olaf and Pitt (rolling).

This was 1560, National Merit, 4.0 UW at a private. Normal ECs (nothing over the top). Older sister is at Berkeley; she had no desire to go there, based on school size and general experience of older sister. Wanted medium-size, excellent teaching, warm connections with smart/friendly students.

Those schools are all reaches RD for ANY KID ON THE PLANET. Because they have admissions rate RD from 3-10%.

My kid was the one who got into 2 Ivies RD but was rejected outright RD from Vanderbilt (and Northwestern). Waitlisted terminally from Emory and WashU. They had about the highest stats they could have. It still wasn't enough and those schools were not targets in RD.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO WAY are Emory or Washington U or Vanderbilt targets in RD.

I had a kid with OP's kid's stats last year from a feeder private (25% to ivies) and this kid was waitlisted RD at WashU and Emory and outright rejected from Northwestern RD but got into 2 Ivies RD.

These other top25 schools are not targets unless they're applied to ED and even then I'd hesitate to call them such. RD they are definitely not a target for anyone.

Vandy RD 3% acceptance rate. Lower than ivies.

EMory 11%. OP has a good chance getting in. Again, this is a great school, we are not disparaging the school here. Just the numbers. Vandy is no necessarily a better school.

Although 11% is still a reach Emory RD is 7%, WashU RD is 9%. All reaches

I am guessing you will think Tulane is also a reach (RD 3% acceptance rate)?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also considered universities that are known for their chemistry or stem departments, like u Illinois, Wisconsin, u Chicago, Purdue, Georgia Tech, etc.

OP: how do I Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue and Georgia Tech compare to Cal Berkeley? DD toured Cal and thought it was too large. How would their academics compare to U Washington? TIA

USNWR - Top Undergraduate Engineering Programs 2026

1.MIT
2.Stanford
3.Georgia Institute of Technology
3.University of California, Berkeley
5.California Institute of Technology

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO WAY are Emory or Washington U or Vanderbilt targets in RD.

I had a kid with OP's kid's stats last year from a feeder private (25% to ivies) and this kid was waitlisted RD at WashU and Emory and outright rejected from Northwestern RD but got into 2 Ivies RD.

These other top25 schools are not targets unless they're applied to ED and even then I'd hesitate to call them such. RD they are definitely not a target for anyone.

Vandy RD 3% acceptance rate. Lower than ivies.

EMory 11%. OP has a good chance getting in. Again, this is a great school, we are not disparaging the school here. Just the numbers. Vandy is no necessarily a better school.

No slone said your disparaging any school. You're just wrong.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO WAY are Emory or Washington U or Vanderbilt targets in RD.

I had a kid with OP's kid's stats last year from a feeder private (25% to ivies) and this kid was waitlisted RD at WashU and Emory and outright rejected from Northwestern RD but got into 2 Ivies RD.

These other top25 schools are not targets unless they're applied to ED and even then I'd hesitate to call them such. RD they are definitely not a target for anyone.

But by this logic, are you saying the 2 Ivies are easier admits than Wash U, Emory and Northwestern?

Or are you saying Emory field protects so would WL someone with higher stats and accept kids with outside of top10% stats from top high schools?

Hard to make generalization based on one person's results.

What are you talking about? Are you the resident Emory basher? Do you not understand probability? If there is a 5% chance of getting into Cornell and a 7% at Emory, and you happen to get into Cornell, that doesn't mean you'll get into Emory because its a 2% higher chance. That is what a reach means.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NO WAY are Emory or Washington U or Vanderbilt targets in RD.

I had a kid with OP's kid's stats last year from a feeder private (25% to ivies) and this kid was waitlisted RD at WashU and Emory and outright rejected from Northwestern RD but got into 2 Ivies RD.

These other top25 schools are not targets unless they're applied to ED and even then I'd hesitate to call them such. RD they are definitely not a target for anyone.

Vandy RD 3% acceptance rate. Lower than ivies.

EMory 11%. OP has a good chance getting in. Again, this is a great school, we are not disparaging the school here. Just the numbers. Vandy is no necessarily a better school.

Although 11% is still a reach Emory RD is 7%, WashU RD is 9%. All reaches

UCal-San Diego
Georgia Tech

Anonymous wrote:Who kids who are credible Ivy applicants, there are no targets. There are just "reaches for all" and then straight to likelies. You might think that a WashU or an Emory would slot it, but they don't--they're reaches for all (where "all" means all).

I agree it's hard for eligible Ivy candidates to have confident targets. At our school, only kids with GPA lower than 3.8 (so below top 20% rank) apply to Emory ED (I can see from Naviance), and among those admitted during RD, matriculation is 50% or lower in the past 5 years. Emory knows they have low yield from our top kids, so why would they accept a top kid during RD?

Anonymous wrote:Who kids who are credible Ivy applicants, there are no targets. There are just "reaches for all" and then straight to likelies. You might think that a WashU or an Emory would slot it, but they don't--they're reaches for all (where "all" means all).

By your logic, every year the ivies will be full of admits who are only admitted to ivies and no other school at all??
Yes, there is a yield protection issue.
But not every school yield protect.
Emory is great, but not by gaming the system to increase its yield rate.

Anonymous wrote:NO WAY are Emory or Washington U or Vanderbilt targets in RD.

I had a kid with OP's kid's stats last year from a feeder private (25% to ivies) and this kid was waitlisted RD at WashU and Emory and outright rejected from Northwestern RD but got into 2 Ivies RD.

These other top25 schools are not targets unless they're applied to ED and even then I'd hesitate to call them such. RD they are definitely not a target for anyone.

But by this logic, are you saying the 2 Ivies are easier admits than Wash U, Emory and Northwestern?

Or are you saying Emory field protects so would WL someone with higher stats and accept kids with outside of top10% stats from top high schools?

Hard to make generalization based on one person's results.