Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like so many straight A students who were chief school newspaper editor, captain of a varsity sports team, volunteering, and more who can't even get to VA Tech. I don't know what people who get into schools like Michigan or the Ivy Leagues are doing in high school.

Michigan's acceptance rate is 20%. 25% of the students who even bother to submit an SAT score, scored below a 1350. So you likely have 40% of Michigan's freshmen class who scored well below what DCUM thinks is a "good" score.

Sometimes I think the embellishment of a lot of students and their parents gaslights us into thinking that only the tippiest tippiest top get into decent colleges. Then along comes facts like this to bring everyone down to earth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most colleges are very easy to get into.

This. There are thousands of schools that most kids can get into.

Sure, but they’re schools at risk of closing. No thanks

No, there is a wide gap of 100s of coleges between ivy/ivyplus and colleges at risk of closing. VT iand clemson are not that hard. JMU is even less hard. Elon and Bama are easier still. None of these are at risk of closing.

The PP said “there are thousands of schools that most kids can get into.” No one is talking about schools like Clemson. We are talking about regional publics and smaller colleges, and the truth is many of these schools are on shaky financial ground.

Clemson, VT are competitive. JMU is also getting more selective. Any school worth its salt, is somewhat competitive. It doesn’t mean you have to be a rocket scientist, but you have to get good grades, be involved in extracurriculars, sit for the SATs and prep for them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like so many straight A students who were chief school newspaper editor, captain of a varsity sports team, volunteering, and more who can't even get to VA Tech. I don't know what people who get into schools like Michigan or the Ivy Leagues are doing in high school.

My daughter's friend who got into Yale was an Asian male with a very high wGPA who won Science Olympiad competitions and is an advanced string player.

Straight A doesn't mean anything, OP, you should know this. There is a world's difference between an A in a regular classs and an A in an AP class. Kids who get into the top colleges have 10+ APs, have a national level EC, etc. Your newpaper editing and team captainship worked a generation ago, but not today.

This is sounds exhausting. Kids have no time to be kids.

They have a ton of time. It's really not that unachievable. We have a ton of college options. If you don't want to be competitive for the top ones, tap out and go to a decent one.

If you go to school all day, play sports after school, eat dinner and have hours of homework, how the hell do you have a ton if time?

The super smart ones only need 2hrs a night for homework when peers need 3-4. Top kids also utilizes weekends to get ahead for the next week. They do it themselves, are highly internally motivated and then if it works out end up at an ivy with a majority of peers the same (the 60% who are unhooked). Most high school students in the top 20% of their HS would not be happy in such an environment. Weird that so many aim for it yet only a few truly thrive in it

Anonymous wrote:DS is friendly with a kid who is one of the top 10 chess players in the country for his age. Near perfect GPA, SATs, and a boatload of other fairly impressive ECs. Advanced 3+ years in math, was taking college courses as a sophomore. Got rejected from Harvard. (Did get into Yale, but still - what else was Harvard looking for?)

A top 5 chess player, obviously.

Anonymous wrote:Go to a top private school. You can get into Yale or another top10 school without the nationally ranked extracurriculars. Just do extremely well in school (top 5-10%) and have ordinary extracurriculars (head of a few clubs, etc). It's extremely hard to be at or near the top of a class of very bright kids but it's a pretty reliable formula.

This! These are highly selective top schools. Only the very best are admitted. Too many parents and their kids feel entitled to one of these spots bc their kid, in their minds, is smart or special.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most colleges are very easy to get into.

This. There are thousands of schools that most kids can get into.

Sure, but they’re schools at risk of closing. No thanks

No, there is a wide gap of 100s of coleges between ivy/ivyplus and colleges at risk of closing. VT iand clemson are not that hard. JMU is even less hard. Elon and Bama are easier still. None of these are at risk of closing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like so many straight A students who were chief school newspaper editor, captain of a varsity sports team, volunteering, and more who can't even get to VA Tech. I don't know what people who get into schools like Michigan or the Ivy Leagues are doing in high school.

My daughter's friend who got into Yale was an Asian male with a very high wGPA who won Science Olympiad competitions and is an advanced string player.

Straight A doesn't mean anything, OP, you should know this. There is a world's difference between an A in a regular classs and an A in an AP class. Kids who get into the top colleges have 10+ APs, have a national level EC, etc. Your newpaper editing and team captainship worked a generation ago, but not today.

This is sounds exhausting. Kids have no time to be kids.

The top kids canget the 1530+ first try, ace all the hard APs, and find time to have 3-4 meaningful ECs as well as at least state level
academic recognition. And they sleep too. The competition is that fierce.

My neighbor’s kid plays violin, varsity football, 7 AP’s 5, lost his virginity at 13, editor of school newspaper, 1570 SAT. Waitlisted at Harvard, Yale. Princeton admit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like so many straight A students who were chief school newspaper editor, captain of a varsity sports team, volunteering, and more who can't even get to VA Tech. I don't know what people who get into schools like Michigan or the Ivy Leagues are doing in high school.

My daughter's friend who got into Yale was an Asian male with a very high wGPA who won Science Olympiad competitions and is an advanced string player.

Straight A doesn't mean anything, OP, you should know this. There is a world's difference between an A in a regular classs and an A in an AP class. Kids who get into the top colleges have 10+ APs, have a national level EC, etc. Your newpaper editing and team captainship worked a generation ago, but not today.

This is sounds exhausting. Kids have no time to be kids.

The top kids canget the 1530+ first try, ace all the hard APs, and find time to have 3-4 meaningful ECs as well as at least state level
academic recognition. And they sleep too. The competition is that fierce.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full pay helps

Do you indicate full pay on the application? How does full pay help?

You apply Early Decision, and the admit rates are much more favorable if you do that.

Good to know. Will log this info for later!

Anonymous wrote:Getting into the second tier schools like Mich really isn’t that hard. You just need the stats and scores. And you need to be strategic, know which regions and which schools the college likes the pull kids from. There are schools that have 3-4 kids accepted into Mich every year. This may not be where your HS sends kids. So figure out if they send kids to NYU or another school.

This. t11-t25 are not terribly hard to get into. Michigan specifically is a “backup” for ivy/stanford/duke admits

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full pay helps

Full pay may help at VT but UVa and WM and ivies are all need blind stop making excuses

Full pay does help at some schools. Maybe not UVA or WM….but Hopkins and Harvards of the world have more interest in their donors than their students. We’ve seen that in the admissions scandal.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe VT is easier OOS because all the DC kids I know that applied were accepted…decent students but not top of the class

Nah don’t believe the instate hype: its above average /not top from in-state too

Anonymous wrote:DS is friendly with a kid who is one of the top 10 chess players in the country for his age. Near perfect GPA, SATs, and a boatload of other fairly impressive ECs. Advanced 3+ years in math, was taking college courses as a sophomore. Got rejected from Harvard. (Did get into Yale, but still - what else was Harvard looking for?)

Money.

Anonymous wrote:Full pay helps

Full pay may help at VT but UVa and WM and ivies are all need blind stop making excuses

Anonymous wrote:Like so many straight A students who were chief school newspaper editor, captain of a varsity sports team, volunteering, and more who can't even get to VA Tech. I don't know what people who get into schools like Michigan or the Ivy Leagues are doing in high school.

Anyone with some hard classes and good but not great scores can get into VT with this, even without all As. ECs /essaysare not used for VT except for borderline cases. They dip below the top30% at my school. UVA and Michigan require more. Ivies require hardest courses in all areas and all As/top5% and better ECs than this.