Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Applied to 10 schools, well within range for all but 2. Received 5 deferrals so far. Very discouraged. Trying to help him focus on next steps in deferral process. FWIW the schools he applied to are seeing insane application volume increase. For example, Auburn, where EA admits used to be around 75 percent and were 24 percent this year.

I thought we covered this last year. People need to be applying to MORE SAFETIES. Period. I am not trying to be harsh, it is what it is, unfortunately.

Well, as OP pointed out, many schools that were safeties last year aren’t this year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Auburn EA averages 4.21? fml

Remember grades are REALLY inflated.

My kid is in DCPS and for 18 months the entire school district did not give a grade lower than a B. (all C's and below were converted to "P"s which are not calculated into GPAs).
Then, if you signed your name on the papers, you got an A. The standards for As were ridiculously low. In quarters 3 and 4 of 20-21 all work was considered extra-credit. My son
and all his friends ended up with 300% in most classes.

This graduating class is screwed because so many kids have unusually high GPAs. The pool of high GPAs is much higher than usual.

This is so unfair. We live in an ordinary suburb (not DC) where kids have gotten real work and real grades ALL throughout the pandemic. My kids have As, Bs, and Cs on their report cards. SO FRUSTRATING.

Don't you understand, they are BETTER off. They got real work and that means real education.

Please see how warped your perspective is. You do not attend school for a GPA, you attend school to learn. Your kids were BETTER OFF. And the grades they received, they earned.

Anonymous wrote:
Test optional has absolutely lowered the bar for admissions.

Anonymous wrote:There are not the “same number of kids.”

Anonymous wrote:In the past, the pool of students with a real chance of admission to top schools was limited to students with test scores in a given range. Those students are still eligible. In addition, [/u]every single student[u] with a high GPA is now in the “pool.”

Anonymous wrote:If your position is that those kids all had high test scores and simply chose not to submit them, I think you need to prove that.

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the Adcoms can tell who they want without scores.

Anonymous wrote:That’s the beauty of test optional from an Adcom’s standpoint. They can pick who they want without having to be constrained by the threat of taking a ding on the school’s ranking by admitting too many kids with low test scores. It gives them ultimate flexibility, with absolutely no transparency to anyone outside the school, which is why they like it. (See, e.g., reports of kids being asked to withdraw their scores before acceptance).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in your exact same shoes this time last year. My son was deferred by almost every school, with the exception of one straight-up rejection, that he applied EA to. I think he applied to 8 in that round. Two of the deferrals were what he--and his college counselor--considered safeties. He added 4 additional applications to the 6 he was already planning for RD, by January 1. In the end, he applied to about 18 schools. Rejected by 2, waitlisted at 2 (both of which are ranked well below schools he did get into), and accepted into all the rest. While we had a lot of stress around this time, by Christmas, he just convinced himself that something would work out and just moved forward. It's hard to believe, but it does work out. I would pick a true rolling decision safety and get one acceptance under his belt in January or so, if he can. Good luck!

This. The volume of applications has surged, but because each kid (on average) is applying to more schools than before, not because there are more kids applying. So, in the musical chairs game, the number of chairs hasn't changed and the number of butts hasn't changed, there's just a lot more confusion before the music stops (which happens to be where we are right now). I'd advise getting an application or two out to quick rolling decision schools that have clear, modest admission standards and that would be fun to attend (e.g., Arizona, ASU, Kansas, Iowa, Iowa State) to serve as a pressure-release, but then just try to relax and let the process play out: Things almost certainly will end better than they look right now!

More unique applicants are applying to selective schools, schools they would not have applied to under a tests-required scenario. And some portion of those will get admitted (presumably the ones with discordance in the direction of higher gpa/lower scores).

That's probably true to some extent at tippity-top schools, but it's not a meaningful mover at Auburn (where less than 7% of early admits were test-optional) and its ilk, which is OP's focus. It's also probably offset to some extent even in the very top tiers by kids with borderline GPAs who would have had max-ish scores but either didn't/couldn't take the tests or didn't put the same effort into them as they would have in a before-times environment and so are not applying (or at least are less serious competitors for seats).

Would you please stop using the phrase "tippy-top," which diminishes your credibility on this topic. Adults don't talk that way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Auburn EA averages 4.21? fml

Remember grades are REALLY inflated.

My kid is in DCPS and for 18 months the entire school district did not give a grade lower than a B. (all C's and below were converted to "P"s which are not calculated into GPAs).
Then, if you signed your name on the papers, you got an A. The standards for As were ridiculously low. In quarters 3 and 4 of 20-21 all work was considered extra-credit. My son
and all his friends ended up with 300% in most classes.

This graduating class is screwed because so many kids have unusually high GPAs. The pool of high GPAs is much higher than usual.

This is so unfair. We live in an ordinary suburb (not DC) where kids have gotten real work and real grades ALL throughout the pandemic. My kids have As, Bs, and Cs on their report cards. SO FRUSTRATING.

Don't you understand, they are BETTER off. They got real work and that means real education.

Please see how warped your perspective is. You do not attend school for a GPA, you attend school to learn. Your kids were BETTER OFF. And the grades they received, they earned.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in your exact same shoes this time last year. My son was deferred by almost every school, with the exception of one straight-up rejection, that he applied EA to. I think he applied to 8 in that round. Two of the deferrals were what he--and his college counselor--considered safeties. He added 4 additional applications to the 6 he was already planning for RD, by January 1. In the end, he applied to about 18 schools. Rejected by 2, waitlisted at 2 (both of which are ranked well below schools he did get into), and accepted into all the rest. While we had a lot of stress around this time, by Christmas, he just convinced himself that something would work out and just moved forward. It's hard to believe, but it does work out. I would pick a true rolling decision safety and get one acceptance under his belt in January or so, if he can. Good luck!

This. The volume of applications has surged, but because each kid (on average) is applying to more schools than before, not because there are more kids applying. So, in the musical chairs game, the number of chairs hasn't changed and the number of butts hasn't changed, there's just a lot more confusion before the music stops (which happens to be where we are right now). I'd advise getting an application or two out to quick rolling decision schools that have clear, modest admission standards and that would be fun to attend (e.g., Arizona, ASU, Kansas, Iowa, Iowa State) to serve as a pressure-release, but then just try to relax and let the process play out: Things almost certainly will end better than they look right now!

More unique applicants are applying to selective schools, schools they would not have applied to under a tests-required scenario. And some portion of those will get admitted (presumably the ones with discordance in the direction of higher gpa/lower scores).

That's probably true to some extent at tippity-top schools, but it's not a meaningful mover at Auburn (where less than 7% of early admits were test-optional) and its ilk, which is OP's focus. It's also probably offset to some extent even in the very top tiers by kids with borderline GPAs who would have had max-ish scores but either didn't/couldn't take the tests or didn't put the same effort into them as they would have in a before-times environment and so are not applying (or at least are less serious competitors for seats).

Would you please stop using the phrase "tippy-top," which diminishes your credibility on this topic. Adults don't talk that way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Applied to 10 schools, well within range for all but 2. Received 5 deferrals so far. Very discouraged. Trying to help him focus on next steps in deferral process. FWIW the schools he applied to are seeing insane application volume increase. For example, Auburn, where EA admits used to be around 75 percent and were 24 percent this year.

I thought we covered this last year. People need to be applying to MORE SAFETIES. Period. I am not trying to be harsh, it is what it is, unfortunately.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP. So you don’t agree that a student with a 28 ACT who was admitted test optional to a school that has a 35 average for admittees would not have attended a less selective school before not submitting scores was an option? Because that is what you are calling “a tinfoil hat theory.”

I don't agree with the premise that a test optional student would not have been otherwise admitted. There is no way to know this.

I don't agree that the adcoms can't tell whom they want without the scores.

What you are claiming is that competitive schools are lowering the bar for admission. The fact that you are making this up when there is no evidence is the definition of a tinfoil hat theory, yes.

There are the same number of seats and the same number of kids. Top kids who apply smartly all get into great colleges.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Auburn EA averages 4.21? fml [/quote

I heard Auburn deferred many high stat kids (including my own who has a 4.2 weighted) because most likely a safety, which it was in our case. We were disappointed but wasn’t a dream school anyway.

Not sure about that. I think they went strictly by the numbers. My DC has 4.3+ weighted/34 ACT and got in. The kids I’m hearing about being deferred had lower grades and test scores.