Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke’s place on this list is interesting. At our private, Duke is generally considered an easier admit than the ivies and MIT, especially early. When DD was torn between Brown and Duke ED, her CC advised her to choose Duke because she would be more likely to get in.

Localish so a decent amount get into Duke, far less to ivies and they are the stronger students.

I think Duke is still a bit polarizing since it’s a young institution but it’s only becoming more popular among top students. At some high schools its reputation hasn’t caught up to reality, which sounds true of your district, but at others (like mine in NY) kids who could’ve also aimed for Harvard or Princeton sometimes ED to Columbia, Duke, or Wharton.

Being local I think they are plenty aware of how good it is, just more that top students want to spread wings more. I’m sure that’s true of all local schools to whatever it’s near to some extent. I always viewed the appeal as the top school version of the migration to the south.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke’s place on this list is interesting. At our private, Duke is generally considered an easier admit than the ivies and MIT, especially early. When DD was torn between Brown and Duke ED, her CC advised her to choose Duke because she would be more likely to get in.

Localish so a decent amount get into Duke, far less to ivies and they are the stronger students.

I think Duke is still a bit polarizing since it’s a young institution but it’s only becoming more popular among top students. At some high schools its reputation hasn’t caught up to reality, which sounds true of your district, but at others (like mine in NY) kids who could’ve also aimed for Harvard or Princeton sometimes ED to Columbia, Duke, or Wharton.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke’s place on this list is interesting. At our private, Duke is generally considered an easier admit than the ivies and MIT, especially early. When DD was torn between Brown and Duke ED, her CC advised her to choose Duke because she would be more likely to get in.

It used to be a significant help for ED at Duke up until 2-3 years ago. They started the NC/SC tuition break and Covid application surge shook it all up.

yes this. it has changed a lot. RD is harder than RD at cornell/dartmouth/Brown but ED used to be a bit easier and now is around the same since the Carolinas favortisim

Our school might just have a lot of legacies but RD is generally easier than ivies, even now.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah this entire thread is people basically just ranking which universities they think are best. Not actually reality of where kids go.

+100

Anonymous wrote:Duke’s place on this list is interesting. At our private, Duke is generally considered an easier admit than the ivies and MIT, especially early. When DD was torn between Brown and Duke ED, her CC advised her to choose Duke because she would be more likely to get in.

Localish so a decent amount get into Duke, far less to ivies and they are the stronger students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duke’s place on this list is interesting. At our private, Duke is generally considered an easier admit than the ivies and MIT, especially early. When DD was torn between Brown and Duke ED, her CC advised her to choose Duke because she would be more likely to get in.

It used to be a significant help for ED at Duke up until 2-3 years ago. They started the NC/SC tuition break and Covid application surge shook it all up.

yes this. it has changed a lot. RD is harder than RD at cornell/dartmouth/Brown but ED used to be a bit easier and now is around the same since the Carolinas favortisim

Anonymous wrote:Duke’s place on this list is interesting. At our private, Duke is generally considered an easier admit than the ivies and MIT, especially early. When DD was torn between Brown and Duke ED, her CC advised her to choose Duke because she would be more likely to get in.

It used to be a significant help for ED at Duke up until 2-3 years ago. They started the NC/SC tuition break and Covid application surge shook it all up.

Duke’s place on this list is interesting. At our private, Duke is generally considered an easier admit than the ivies and MIT, especially early. When DD was torn between Brown and Duke ED, her CC advised her to choose Duke because she would be more likely to get in.

For perspective, here's my kid's large public high school in Florida over the past few years:

Valedictorian (with 4.0uw/1560-1600): UF Honors
Rest of top 1% (4.0uw/mid-1500s): UF
Rest of top 3% (3.9-4.0uw/low-1500s): FSU
Rest of top 20%: other universities in FL
Remaining 80%: no college (maybe some CC courses)

One upshot: if your kid went to my kid's school, your kid would not be accepted to any of the schools mentioned in this thread, no matter how smart they were, how hard they worked, or what academic results they achieved. Just for perspective.

Our local college counselors seem barely to have heard of OOS schools (apart from football). College counseling is "Should this kid apply to college?" If yes, then it's "Do they have any shot at UF or FSU?"

High stats/normal EC kids go to state flagships, especially in VA.

Anonymous wrote:This is a s/o of the Duke vs Northwestern post below.

Here is what I've noticed at our selective NYC public:

--Top 10% or high stats + hook: HYP + Columbia + Penn (Wharton, VIPER or Engineering) .
--High stats, missing national level ECs or hook: Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern, Brown, Penn
--High stats + normal ECs OR some flaw on their record (like a bad grade or two) - Cornell, Chicago, JHU - these kids do very well with ED to the latter two.
--Mid to lower stats + no hook - public school or T50 possibly with merit. Most parents won't pay full for that level.

S and M are rare (most commonly high stats URM); no one gets into Dart or Vandy, for whatever reason

Curious if this is similar to other selective/feeder schools.

This post is really wild, but anyway most kids don’t fall into your categories at my kids school.

Top 10%/high stats, national
or international EC’s and NO hook.

Anonymous wrote:BC is a safety at our school but it's a jesuit HS and BC loves our kids. Some college lists for top kids are HYP and BC or ND or Georgetown. And nothing else. And the HS is fine with that list.

correct, depends on hs

Anonymous wrote:BC is a safety at our school but it's a jesuit HS and BC loves our kids. Some college lists for top kids are HYP and BC or ND or Georgetown. And nothing else. And the HS is fine with that list.

A T50 with a < 20% acceptance rate is just fine. If that's a safety, great.

Anonymous wrote:duke again disgustingly overrated on here

Depends on high school. It’s very hot at our school. A lot of subsets like it - smart kids who want sports, Jewish kids, not a grind but also not an easy a college. it has a full ride for tip top.

Our Val did it ED. Five years ago, that kid would have applied to Harvard or Princeton.

Anonymous wrote:test-in private .. that's interesting

DP my nephew is at a test-in 7-12th private school in the NY area. They submit some sort of scores and have to have WISC IQ scores send too, and apply in 6th. I think that type of school is not too different from governors schools or other privates that are highly selective. They are not typical pay-$ and get in privates.