Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has a 3.75 uw, 1500+, with near-maximum rigor at a top private feeder. High impact ECs and excellent writing. They're applying to health & society/public health and adjacent majors as a non-pre-med. Aiming for a T20 (non-HYPSM) -- do they have good chances? All anecdotes/feedback/input is appreciated!

From our feederish high school, one has to be top 15% GPA with near-max rigor to get in to the lower T20 with ED including ED with no hooks. If you want any ivy besides the easier ones (cornell ED or dartmouth ED) or any T10 non-ivy with no hooks you have to have max rigor and be top5-10% GPa, near the very top of the class if you want RD.
3.75 UW is not top 30% for any private in our area, nor at the top two public magnets. A student with that profile and not max rigor, 1500, would be borderline for UVa and W&M in state Ea/RD but would get in ED. Would depend what “near” max rigor meant. No way T20. Ask your high school where 3.75 falls relative to the top 10 or 20% and look on SCOIR

OP said at her school some did get in with 3.75. No need to gaslight any more.

Edge admits are almost always hooked

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has a 3.75 uw, 1500+, with near-maximum rigor at a top private feeder. High impact ECs and excellent writing. They're applying to health & society/public health and adjacent majors as a non-pre-med. Aiming for a T20 (non-HYPSM) -- do they have good chances? All anecdotes/feedback/input is appreciated!

So your kid doesn't care if they attend Brown, with an open curriculum, or Columbia, with very rigid multi-disciplinary requirements? They don't distinguish between Dartmouth's small and remote location versus Chicago's urban location? Or Harvard's Semester system to Northwestern's Quarter system? Maybe look at those and other attributes rather than "T20"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year college counseling at our private told my child to stop at a 1530 (2 attempts) but then we saw it play out and kids with a >1580 had an easier time with admissions despite having the same GPA. It definitely adds to the entire application and I'll do things differently with kid #2. There is little down side.

I hear you but correlation ≠ causation. The kids with higher test scores likely edged out applicants in the other criteria, which gives the illusion of higher test scores drastically improving admissions. Correct me if I'm wrong though!

No, several had identical GPAs, worse extracurriculars but a sky high SAT. Michigan, for example, took the sky high SATs in EA and deferred the rest. There was a definite pattern.

Different major? Essays? Recommendation?
SAT is just a one time test, once you cross the line, no one cares 1500 or 1580.

Ok, i beg to differ. Within a pretty homogenous private school population we saw it make a big difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has a 3.75 uw, 1500+, with near-maximum rigor at a top private feeder. High impact ECs and excellent writing. They're applying to health & society/public health and adjacent majors as a non-pre-med. Aiming for a T20 (non-HYPSM) -- do they have good chances? All anecdotes/feedback/input is appreciated!

So your kid doesn't care if they attend Brown, with an open curriculum, or Columbia, with very rigid multi-disciplinary requirements? They don't distinguish between Dartmouth's small and remote location versus Chicago's urban location? Or Harvard's Semester system to Northwestern's Quarter system? Maybe look at those and other attributes rather than "T20"

Most of the T20, include WAS in that group, are schools on target lists for MBB and other top jobs.
The same schools are the ones overrepresented at T14 law, T25 med, and top5 phD programs in various fields(tends to be ivy/MIT/stanford/NW/Chicago/ cambridge/oxford, UCB, Mich, even for tech phD).
Most of the T20 are also the schools with pre-TO median SAT around 1500 or higher, ie most competitive peer groups. Faculty tend to have the highest% of undergrad and/or phD from top schools, thus connected.
No, Brown v Columbia curriculum or city vs rural setting does not matter much when the goal is the network and outcomes.

DP.

Yuck. So pleased not to live this way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has a 3.75 uw, 1500+, with near-maximum rigor at a top private feeder. High impact ECs and excellent writing. They're applying to health & society/public health and adjacent majors as a non-pre-med. Aiming for a T20 (non-HYPSM) -- do they have good chances? All anecdotes/feedback/input is appreciated!

So your kid doesn't care if they attend Brown, with an open curriculum, or Columbia, with very rigid multi-disciplinary requirements? They don't distinguish between Dartmouth's small and remote location versus Chicago's urban location? Or Harvard's Semester system to Northwestern's Quarter system? Maybe look at those and other attributes rather than "T20"

Most of the T20, include WAS in that group, are schools on target lists for MBB and other top jobs.
The same schools are the ones overrepresented at T14 law, T25 med, and top5 phD programs in various fields(tends to be ivy/MIT/stanford/NW/Chicago/ cambridge/oxford, UCB, Mich, even for tech phD).
Most of the T20 are also the schools with pre-TO median SAT around 1500 or higher, ie most competitive peer groups. Faculty tend to have the highest% of undergrad and/or phD from top schools, thus connected.
No, Brown v Columbia curriculum or city vs rural setting does not matter much when the goal is the network and outcomes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has a 3.75 uw, 1500+, with near-maximum rigor at a top private feeder. High impact ECs and excellent writing. They're applying to health & society/public health and adjacent majors as a non-pre-med. Aiming for a T20 (non-HYPSM) -- do they have good chances? All anecdotes/feedback/input is appreciated!

So your kid doesn't care if they attend Brown, with an open curriculum, or Columbia, with very rigid multi-disciplinary requirements? They don't distinguish between Dartmouth's small and remote location versus Chicago's urban location? Or Harvard's Semester system to Northwestern's Quarter system? Maybe look at those and other attributes rather than "T20"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has a 3.75 uw, 1500+, with near-maximum rigor at a top private feeder. High impact ECs and excellent writing. They're applying to health & society/public health and adjacent majors as a non-pre-med. Aiming for a T20 (non-HYPSM) -- do they have good chances? All anecdotes/feedback/input is appreciated!

From our feederish high school, one has to be top 15% GPA with near-max rigor to get in to the lower T20 with ED including ED with no hooks. If you want any ivy besides the easier ones (cornell ED or dartmouth ED) or any T10 non-ivy with no hooks you have to have max rigor and be top5-10% GPa, near the very top of the class if you want RD.
3.75 UW is not top 30% for any private in our area, nor at the top two public magnets. A student with that profile and not max rigor, 1500, would be borderline for UVa and W&M in state Ea/RD but would get in ED. Would depend what “near” max rigor meant. No way T20. Ask your high school where 3.75 falls relative to the top 10 or 20% and look on SCOIR

OP said at her school some did get in with 3.75. No need to gaslight any more.

Anonymous wrote:DC has a 3.75 uw, 1500+, with near-maximum rigor at a top private feeder. High impact ECs and excellent writing. They're applying to health & society/public health and adjacent majors as a non-pre-med. Aiming for a T20 (non-HYPSM) -- do they have good chances? All anecdotes/feedback/input is appreciated!

Anonymous wrote:DC has a 3.75 uw, 1500+, with near-maximum rigor at a top private feeder. High impact ECs and excellent writing. They're applying to health & society/public health and adjacent majors as a non-pre-med. Aiming for a T20 (non-HYPSM) -- do they have good chances? All anecdotes/feedback/input is appreciated!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is very tough for this to kid get into any of the listed schoold except they have a chance at Cornell and Chicago if they ED. Even for a top private the GPA is too low and while 4.0 is rare at these schools many are clustered around 3.7 or 3.8 so this kid is at 50th percentile (roughly). Rigor and EC will not matter without raw GPA and strong hook. Put gpa and profile with school name in chatgpt and see what it says about rough class rank.

This post is super smart.
At these top privates, GPAs are in a pretty narrow range because much of the class was a top academic kid to get into the school and academic stragglers are counseled out along the way or leave for better fit.

80 kids in the class.
Highest GPA in the class: generally 3.95-3.98
80% percentile: 3.9 (the general cum laude cut off which becomes public knowledge) <---the 15 kids above this are most of your unhooked top20s
50% percentile: ~3.65 (announced by college counseling)
0%: ~3.0 (almost zero kids graduate below a 3.0)

So a 3.8 becomes the 70% percentile in the class and a 3.7 becomes around the 60%. There isn't an equal distribution so this isn't an exact science but it's pretty accurate. That's why 3.7's struggle with top20 admissions. They're literally at the 60th percentile, maybe below. And they're competing against the 35 applicants or 40% of kids from their own school who have better grades.

This isn’t our grade distribution. If 40% of the class enrolls at aT25, your rubric fails.

- non-DMV private

Anonymous wrote:It is very tough for this to kid get into any of the listed schoold except they have a chance at Cornell and Chicago if they ED. Even for a top private the GPA is too low and while 4.0 is rare at these schools many are clustered around 3.7 or 3.8 so this kid is at 50th percentile (roughly). Rigor and EC will not matter without raw GPA and strong hook. Put gpa and profile with school name in chatgpt and see what it says about rough class rank.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is very tough for this to kid get into any of the listed schoold except they have a chance at Cornell and Chicago if they ED. Even for a top private the GPA is too low and while 4.0 is rare at these schools many are clustered around 3.7 or 3.8 so this kid is at 50th percentile (roughly). Rigor and EC will not matter without raw GPA and strong hook. Put gpa and profile with school name in chatgpt and see what it says about rough class rank.

This post is super smart.
At these top privates, GPAs are in a pretty narrow range because much of the class was a top academic kid to get into the school and academic stragglers are counseled out along the way or leave for better fit.

80 kids in the class.
Highest GPA in the class: generally 3.95-3.98
80% percentile: 3.9 (the general cum laude cut off which becomes public knowledge) <---the 15 kids above this are most of your unhooked top20s
50% percentile: ~3.65 (announced by college counseling)
0%: ~3.0 (almost zero kids graduate below a 3.0)

So a 3.8 becomes the 70% percentile in the class and a 3.7 becomes around the 60%. There isn't an equal distribution so this isn't an exact science but it's pretty accurate. That's why 3.7's struggle with top20 admissions. They're literally at the 60th percentile, maybe below. And they're competing against the 35 applicants or 40% of kids from their own school who have better grades.