Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How about this for a reality check:

4.0 UW, 4.86 W
1560 SAT, 13 AP 8 5s, 5 4s (non-STEM), AP Calc BC 10th grade, through MVC and Linear algebra
4 year varsity athlete
national CS awards
part time job

Rejected: Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Brown
WL: Cornell, Northeastern, Case Western
Accepted: UMD, RIT, RPI

CS major
MCPS Magnet
At UMD on scholarship

Unbelievable that your kid had those stats and did not get into CMU/Cornell. CMU loooks for Math-y kids and Cornell loves student-athletes which is why I am surprised by your kid’s outcomes. Just shows that so much more goes into decisions — including institutional priorities — than just stats.

🤔 I think it shows what we hear all the time: once you have minimum stats based on your profile (geographic area, etc), the whole package comes into play. Kid def had the stats: perfect GPA, good testing, high rigor,

CS aWards are great.

But:

varsity athlete is essentially a tiny EC
+ part time job

Those were the listed ECs. That’s nothing. Leadership? Impact? The kid was denied most places bc ECs were very weak.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went through this for DS who had high stats and good EC's.

Outside of U Pitt and Ohio State we were not sure of any college. We knew he had a good shot, but we knew he could be shut out of every other college.

Ended up getting admitted to 2 of HYPSM, Rice, Duke, U Penn, CMU, U Mich, UVA and couple others.

Your DS got into all these from RD? Are you full pay and from a feeder private?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went through this for DS who had high stats and good EC's.

Outside of U Pitt and Ohio State we were not sure of any college. We knew he had a good shot, but we knew he could be shut out of every other college.

Ended up getting admitted to 2 of HYPSM, Rice, Duke, U Penn, CMU, U Mich, UVA and couple others.

Your DS got into all these from RD? Are you full pay and from a feeder private?

Different poster. My kids attend a "feeder private" and interestingly enough, I'd say that 95% of the Ivy-bound kids were only accepted to a single Ivy and most only accepted to a single top20 school.
I have a 2025 grad who is one of this cohort and she knew all the Ivy-bound kids well as they were generally in the same classes.
She knows a kid going to Harvard who was also accepted to Yale but that's about it in terms of multiple admits.
Why is this?
-more SCEA and ED admits and hooked admits
-less shot-gunning of schools--college counseling really discourages this especially for top kids because it will harm classmates' chances.
-college guidance will advocate or call for ONE school for top kids. They're not going to call Yale and Penn or even Yale and Northwestern for the same kid.

Most of the "I was accepted to 5 Ivies and 4 other top 20 schools' are all public school superstars.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went through this for DS who had high stats and good EC's.

Outside of U Pitt and Ohio State we were not sure of any college. We knew he had a good shot, but we knew he could be shut out of every other college.

Ended up getting admitted to 2 of HYPSM, Rice, Duke, U Penn, CMU, U Mich, UVA and couple others.

Your DS got into all these from RD? Are you full pay and from a feeder private?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
1560 SAT
4.0 Unweighted, 4.57 weighted
14 APs with all fives on the 9 tests taken before applying
Took Calc 3 junior summer, got an A (he LOVES math and will major in it)
Merit Finalist
Captain and MVP of his rowing team (4 years on the team)
3 years juried music with awards
Helped run the family business (with demonstrated financial impact!)

Applied to Yale (legacy AND rowing official visit with pre-read), Princeton, Penn, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Cornell, Uchicago. Waitlisted at Northwestern and Cornell and rejected at the rest.

He going to Penn State, which he was actually happy with from the beginning of the process, thankfully, which is why he only applied to a few top schools.

He is starting out with 66 credits and can graduate in three years with a double major OR in four with an integrated masters (applied math and applied statistic).

Sidebar: We invested the additional money we saved for college which will have a dramatic impact on his financial future. He is thrilled! And he joked about hoping it happened because he is pretty sure the social life is going to be so much better and is convinced he can get a great education pretty much anywhere.

It's sad not even Cornell, didn't apply UVA, UM, GT.. etc?

Anonymous wrote:Very high stats kid here, no national awards but some research and strong essays. Did very well--accepted at HYP and others.

Anonymous wrote:
1560 SAT
4.0 Unweighted, 4.57 weighted
14 APs with all fives on the 9 tests taken before applying
Took Calc 3 junior summer, got an A (he LOVES math and will major in it)
Merit Finalist
Captain and MVP of his rowing team (4 years on the team)
3 years juried music with awards
Helped run the family business (with demonstrated financial impact!)

Applied to Yale (legacy AND rowing official visit with pre-read), Princeton, Penn, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Cornell, Uchicago. Waitlisted at Northwestern and Cornell and rejected at the rest.

He going to Penn State, which he was actually happy with from the beginning of the process, thankfully, which is why he only applied to a few top schools.

He is starting out with 66 credits and can graduate in three years with a double major OR in four with an integrated masters (applied math and applied statistic).

Sidebar: We invested the additional money we saved for college which will have a dramatic impact on his financial future. He is thrilled! And he joked about hoping it happened because he is pretty sure the social life is going to be so much better and is convinced he can get a great education pretty much anywhere.

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.

Anonymous wrote:OP here- the child also has great extracurriculars. Followed their passions even though they didn't go toward activities that have competitions and thus the lack of national level awards. But on the whole I'd say top 2 percent at a rigorous public school, max AP classes, all 5's and 1 4 on 9 AP'a through junior year.

But it is so unclear on how this will all shake out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid had 1580 SAT/36 ACT.
Salutatorian. Private HS in Texas. Basically maxed out GPA with 10 APs at 5.

Great ECs.

Denied at H,P,S
Accepted Vandy, Duke and Oxford.

This is crazy. Harvard, Princeton, Stanford is such a crap shoot even with these stats….so frustrating.
Where is you kid going between Vandy, Duke and Oxford?

None of this is crazy. This person could’ve gotten rejected more than a decade ago. Just having a good score isn’t unique- a lot of people have good scores with course rigor.

+1 Parents don't grasp this until their kid experiences it themselves. These schools are rejecting 95 out of every 100 applicants (it is actually probably more like rejecting 97/98 out 100 if you take out the spots that are essentially reserved for athletes, kids of donors/legacy and questbridge). Your outstanding kid is competing with literally thousands of other equally qualified students for a couple of spots.

Im the parent of the kid denied at H,P and S and accepted to Vandy, Duke and Oxford.
The frustrating part for him is that little sister just got in Stanford, same major, worst stats. 1550/35 top 3% but not salutatorian and quite frankly, worse ECs than her brother.

DS was rejected from all of the Ivy plus schools and ended up at Georgetown. His younger sister had a worse GPA and SAT score but got into Princeton. That's why this admissions game is a crapshoot at the very elite schools. Your DS had some great choices - which one did he pick of the three?

Anonymous wrote:We went through this for DS who had high stats and good EC's.

Outside of U Pitt and Ohio State we were not sure of any college. We knew he had a good shot, but we knew he could be shut out of every other college.

Ended up getting admitted to 2 of HYPSM, Rice, Duke, U Penn, CMU, U Mich, UVA and couple others.