Another school that has really risen in status is Tufts.

Anonymous wrote:Two other schools that have really climbed in status since the 1970s are Brown and Duke. The Price of Admission describes how Brown's Dean of Admissions sold the lack of distributional requirements to John Kenneth, George Harrison's kid, and others.

Yes, Brown was known as the "armpit of the Ivy League" when I was in high school in the 70s. Now it's one of the elite. Kudos to them.

US News is a scam anyway. Quite of few schools have found ways to inflate the number of applicants, for example, to lower their acceptance rate. Then like lemmings they become "hot" schools. Reed College is an extremely rigorous school that routinely places the most students in Phd programs but refuses to cooperate with US News and is "punished". It used to be ranked very highly and when they stopped submitting their info, US News ranked them last. because of the uproar that followed they now stick them somewhere in the middle. OP, you are wise to resist this.

Good point re Duke and Brown. Duke made a major push into the mid-Atlantic market in the '80s, riding on the crest of enthusiasm for the Blue Devils as college b-ball media coverage took off at the same time. And, Brown really transformed itself in the mid-late '70s and into the '80s. What had been a hard-drinking school for New England preppies in a dull and depressed mill town became a haven for boho-chic preppies from NYC and LA.

It's interesting that some of the southern schools are now following Duke's northward strategy and trying to attract more students from this area -- e.g., Tulane, W&L, Davidson, and Sewanee.

You have to remember that just as there are very minor differences among the many qualified applicants to these schools, there are also very minor differences in the quality of education that the schools offer -- despite what US News wants you to believe. This means that marketing and branding play an increasingly important role in the admissions game as schools try to distinguish themselves and gain market share.

^^ John Kennedy Jr

Two other schools that have really climbed in status since the 1970s are Brown and Duke. The Price of Admission describes how Brown's Dean of Admissions sold the lack of distributional requirements to John Kenneth, George Harrison's kid, and others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The competitive parenting around this issue is real and ugly. And it is much worse at the "big 3" schools than other privates, that also send kids to great colleges.

OP, be proud of your DC for showing the self-awareness to not get caught up in all that.

Back in the 1970s at NCS they used to post a list of where each girl applied and then they put check marks by the schools she got in, a master list put up in a hallway. It was taken down when a girl attempted suicide.

So true. That's why I hate it when the conversation on these forums veers to the Big 3. Lot's of nice kids attend and I know nice parents as well but the use of these schools for bragging rights by a great many insecure parents is tiresome and boorish beyond measure. No one knows about or cares about the Big 3 outside of Washington. No one is impressed by the Big 3 outside of Washington.

I really feel sorry for OP's kid. Worrying that your kid will be outed and you'll be embarrassed because he/she doesn't attend a school that you deem worthy of respect. Way to make your kid feel lousy about himself. It's disgusting.

You clearly misinterpreted my post. I would never make my kid feel lousy and I'm going to be thrilled wherever he goes. I just feel a certain amount of pressure that he not go to a community college or to not such a great school and I know he doesn't want to go to UMD. He is a junior so I have more than a few months to think about this. I think once we find some safety schools and some "appropriate reach" schools that he really likes I'll feel better. Right now he talks about schools that he has heard of and most are really hard to get into.
On the other hand, I'm not sure I want to pay for a small, never heard of school when UMD is much cheaper and at least people have heard of it. Lots to worry about

Point taken and sorry for judging you. Clearly I was wrong. I'd be interested to know what schools you consider "never heard of schools". You might be surprised!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The incredible increase in highly qualified applicants has increased the stress level in terms of getting in anywhere, but has also resulted in an atmosphere where many more schools are considered desirable and a great result even at the big 3-5 DC privates. It is no longer expected that even the very top students at these schools will necessarily get in or even want to get into HYPS, many still do, but others by choice or if not admitted to HYPS end up at other great places, and clearly in the 25-20 years since we parents were in college, the academic quality in terms of the accomplishments and abilities of the students has gone way up at about the top 25-50 schools. So I think that the atmosphere now is more "we are all in this together worrying about whether our kid will get in anywhere given how random and crazy it all seems" and not so concerned about impressing each other with one or a few pinnacle schools.

I've just been through the process and I absolutely saw this. Stanford, Northwestern, and U Chicago are all much harder to get into, and seem to have much higher status among DC's classmates, than in our day. I too could tell a story about qualified Big 3 kids and Northwestern this year.

Yup -- college admissions have become much more competitive. Starting in the late '80s, the applicant pool swelled as US students increasingly applied to schools beyond their home regions and international schools were added to the mix. The advent of the US News rankings and the web created even more admissions hype. The rising tide lifted all boats, so schools we thought of as B list back in the day are all tougher to get into now. And some schools have become much hotter -- Stanford, NW and Chicago are prime examples. These schools have become stronger, offering students much more than they did 30-40 years ago, and they've become better at marketing themselves as well. As a result, parents and kids realize that the Ivies aren't the only game in town.

And to think that when I graduated from a top California public high school in the '80s, we felt sorry for the kids who had to go to Stanford. My God -- they didn't even get into Cal, much less an East Coast school! Of course, they had the last laugh.

Anonymous wrote:The incredible increase in highly qualified applicants has increased the stress level in terms of getting in anywhere, but has also resulted in an atmosphere where many more schools are considered desirable and a great result even at the big 3-5 DC privates. It is no longer expected that even the very top students at these schools will necessarily get in or even want to get into HYPS, many still do, but others by choice or if not admitted to HYPS end up at other great places, and clearly in the 25-20 years since we parents were in college, the academic quality in terms of the accomplishments and abilities of the students has gone way up at about the top 25-50 schools. So I think that the atmosphere now is more "we are all in this together worrying about whether our kid will get in anywhere given how random and crazy it all seems" and not so concerned about impressing each other with one or a few pinnacle schools.

I've just been through the process and I absolutely saw this. Stanford, Northwestern, and U Chicago are all much harder to get into, and seem to have much higher status among DC's classmates, than in our day. I too could tell a story about qualified Big 3 kids and Northwestern this year.

The incredible increase in highly qualified applicants has increased the stress level in terms of getting in anywhere, but has also resulted in an atmosphere where many more schools are considered desirable and a great result even at the big 3-5 DC privates. It is no longer expected that even the very top students at these schools will necessarily get in or even want to get into HYPS, many still do, but others by choice or if not admitted to HYPS end up at other great places, and clearly in the 25-20 years since we parents were in college, the academic quality in terms of the accomplishments and abilities of the students has gone way up at about the top 25-50 schools. So I think that the atmosphere now is more "we are all in this together worrying about whether our kid will get in anywhere given how random and crazy it all seems" and not so concerned about impressing each other with one or a few pinnacle schools.

Anonymous wrote:My best friend went to NCS and after to Stanford. Mid-nineties. She said that she was in the top third of her class but not the top and Stanford wasn't considered great (only Princeton Harvard Yale were at the time) but not considered a total letdown like Duke or Northwestern so she was neither pitied nor celebrated, just left alone for an acceptable but not great outcome. So - agree with PP - totally warped. Maybe things have changed.

I

Well, nowadays stellar applicants from the "Big 3" independent schools (and from other schools) are routinely rejected at the "total letdowns", as you term Duke and Northwestern. The college application situation today is totally different. Everything has been kicked up a notch, or several notches.

My best friend went to NCS and after to Stanford. Mid-nineties. She said that she was in the top third of her class but not the top and Stanford wasn't considered great (only Princeton Harvard Yale were at the time) but not considered a total letdown like Duke or Northwestern so she was neither pitied nor celebrated, just left alone for an acceptable but not great outcome. So - agree with PP - totally warped. Maybe things have changed.

Do any other parents at big 3 schools feel pressure about their kid going to a good school?

My DD's elite private school used to post everyone college acceptances until last year when 4 kids went to High Point University (which very few people had ever even heard of). Now, the list is nowhere to be found on the website. I won't list which school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The competitive parenting around this issue is real and ugly. And it is much worse at the "big 3" schools than other privates, that also send kids to great colleges.

OP, be proud of your DC for showing the self-awareness to not get caught up in all that.

Back in the 1970s at NCS they used to post a list of where each girl applied and then they put check marks by the schools she got in, a master list put up in a hallway. It was taken down when a girl attempted suicide.

So true. That's why I hate it when the conversation on these forums veers to the Big 3. Lot's of nice kids attend and I know nice parents as well but the use of these schools for bragging rights by a great many insecure parents is tiresome and boorish beyond measure. No one knows about or cares about the Big 3 outside of Washington. No one is impressed by the Big 3 outside of Washington.

I really feel sorry for OP's kid. Worrying that your kid will be outed and you'll be embarrassed because he/she doesn't attend a school that you deem worthy of respect. Way to make your kid feel lousy about himself. It's disgusting.

You clearly misinterpreted my post. I would never make my kid feel lousy and I'm going to be thrilled wherever he goes. I just feel a certain amount of pressure that he not go to a community college or to not such a great school and I know he doesn't want to go to UMD. He is a junior so I have more than a few months to think about this. I think once we find some safety schools and some "appropriate reach" schools that he really likes I'll feel better. Right now he talks about schools that he has heard of and most are really hard to get into.
On the other hand, I'm not sure I want to pay for a small, never heard of school when UMD is much cheaper and at least people have heard of it. Lots to worry about