Anonymous
05/27/2026 20:05
Subject: Re:Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
OP: I can’t reconcile the top 15% with the 4.0 GPA at a good private school. How many core AP classes has your kid taken or is scheduled to take?
Anonymous
05/27/2026 18:35
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Girl with 4.0 UW, max rigor, all 5s on APs (including Chem and Calc BC), 1550 and 35, decent ECs but nothing exceptional, from affluent public school in the Northeast is going to Williams.
Rejected by Amherst, Pomona, Dartmouth. WL at Bowdoin and Vassar. Also got into Carleton, Grinnell, Colby, Wesleyan, Bates, several others.
Was the Williams acceptance off the waitlist? You sound like the same poster from that thread. And definitely relevant info.
Yes, probably me.
Other possibly relevant info: I didn’t think her common app essay was that great, although it was original and clearly not written by AI. Her recs were probably strong. She actually submitted 3 teacher recs because she had asked two teachers and then another one who is known to write good recs sort of volunteered herself. DD is planning to double-major in chem and sociology and identified that on her app.
Oh, forgot to mention that she wrote a very strong LOCI. It kind of took her until that point in the application process to actually figure out how to sell herself.
Anonymous
05/27/2026 18:32
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Girl with 4.0 UW, max rigor, all 5s on APs (including Chem and Calc BC), 1550 and 35, decent ECs but nothing exceptional, from affluent public school in the Northeast is going to Williams.
Rejected by Amherst, Pomona, Dartmouth. WL at Bowdoin and Vassar. Also got into Carleton, Grinnell, Colby, Wesleyan, Bates, several others.
Was the Williams acceptance off the waitlist? You sound like the same poster from that thread. And definitely relevant info.
Yes, probably me.
Other possibly relevant info: I didn’t think her common app essay was that great, although it was original and clearly not written by AI. Her recs were probably strong. She actually submitted 3 teacher recs because she had asked two teachers and then another one who is known to write good recs sort of volunteered herself. DD is planning to double-major in chem and sociology and identified that on her app.
Anonymous
05/27/2026 18:25
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:You will have the best results with slacs, if you are willing to go that route. Anything outside Williams is possible. Otherwise, probably looking at 25-50 in national universities.
There is no difference between Williams and other t10 LACs. Stop trolling.
There is in terms of admission from our private. Anything else is doable for top third of class.
That is only relevant to your private.
Probably not. You are just triggered by Williams for some reason. I, on the other hand, have no connections to the school and am a neutral reporter.
Only 60% submit test scores and for some reason Williams chooses to omit the GPA data from their CDS? I suspect that OPs kid would have no problem getting in.
DP: You do seem to have some problem with Williams. My DC had 4.0 UW top private (non-DC), 1580 SAT, good but not stellar ECs. Was accepted at ED Ivy, other WASP, and other top 20, but rejected at Williams.
WASP schools are very small and most of their slots go to athletes and FGLI. I've never heard of a non-hooked kid from our top private getting accepted to Williams.
This sounds fake. How did you ED an Ivy then get into all these other schools?
Kid was accepted RD at an ED Ivy (i.e., not HYP).
Anonymous
05/27/2026 18:25
Subject: Re:Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Title says max rigor but body of post says max rigor in math. Which is it?
Anonymous
05/27/2026 18:17
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Anonymous wrote:Girl with 4.0 UW, max rigor, all 5s on APs (including Chem and Calc BC), 1550 and 35, decent ECs but nothing exceptional, from affluent public school in the Northeast is going to Williams.
Rejected by Amherst, Pomona, Dartmouth. WL at Bowdoin and Vassar. Also got into Carleton, Grinnell, Colby, Wesleyan, Bates, several others.
Was the Williams acceptance off the waitlist? You sound like the same poster from that thread. And definitely relevant info.
Anonymous
05/27/2026 18:12
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Girl with 4.0 UW, max rigor, all 5s on APs (including Chem and Calc BC), 1550 and 35, decent ECs but nothing exceptional, from affluent public school in the Northeast is going to Williams.
Rejected by Amherst, Pomona, Dartmouth. WL at Bowdoin and Vassar. Also got into Carleton, Grinnell, Colby, Wesleyan, Bates, several others.
Rejected by Amherst, Pomona, Dartmouth. WL at Bowdoin and Vassar. Also got into Carleton, Grinnell, Colby, Wesleyan, Bates, several others.
Anonymous
05/27/2026 17:56
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This candidate, as described, is not getting into a T15 or even Vandy (unless a big donation made). It doesn't mean they can't try, it just is unlikely with these stats, even from a private. I'd focus on encouraging him to fall in love with some slacs and schools ranked 20 plus.
So what are the decisive factors here? ECs? or the fact that the kid is in the top 15% and not in the top 5%? Or just the school itself?
Our DC is in public, same GPA (4.0 W/4.5 weighted with max rigor in all subjects), top 5 (not percent, but rank), good ECs (national level awards in math competitions, MIT Primes USA). Other solid ECs as well. But no non-profits etc. Not holding out hope for much but trying to figure out what's possible. Can't fathom spending 10-30K on counselors.
ECs, they are not strong enough as described. Being in top 20 percent of class usually good enough stat wise from a good private, and test scores are good.
You would have to look at the naviance for your public. I really can't speak to what it takes because my experience is with admissions from private high school.
Anonymous
05/27/2026 17:29
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Anonymous wrote:This candidate, as described, is not getting into a T15 or even Vandy (unless a big donation made). It doesn't mean they can't try, it just is unlikely with these stats, even from a private. I'd focus on encouraging him to fall in love with some slacs and schools ranked 20 plus.
So what are the decisive factors here? ECs? or the fact that the kid is in the top 15% and not in the top 5%? Or just the school itself?
Our DC is in public, same GPA (4.0 W/4.5 weighted with max rigor in all subjects), top 5 (not percent, but rank), good ECs (national level awards in math competitions, MIT Primes USA). Other solid ECs as well. But no non-profits etc. Not holding out hope for much but trying to figure out what's possible. Can't fathom spending 10-30K on counselors.
Anonymous
05/27/2026 17:16
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
This candidate, as described, is not getting into a T15 or even Vandy (unless a big donation made). It doesn't mean they can't try, it just is unlikely with these stats, even from a private. I'd focus on encouraging him to fall in love with some slacs and schools ranked 20 plus.
Anonymous
05/27/2026 16:43
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Your student had a strong profile and solid ECs. They are going to be just fine with plenty of excellent college options. I’d question the value of a college consultant that is going to contribute to an unnecessary sense of panic and reconsider whether they’re a good fit or even necessary (we found our private school CCO was sufficient for our needs).
Anonymous
05/27/2026 16:27
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Those ECs seem very strong to me. My child had about 1/10 of your child's ECs - a couple of casual clubs, a bit of volunteering, but no jobs, no internships, no sports, no music, no leadership (but strong grades/scores/teacher recs) and applied to Williams/Amherst/Swarthmore and got in to one of the three (and several other top 10 LACs that they also would have been very happy at.)
That was from a DC public, so maybe the expectations for kids at private schools are higher. But I think the counselor might just trying to lower your expectations; it's all a crapshoot.
Wow! What do you think made your kid standout?
Were they legacy? URM? Major?
None of the above. They wrote an essay about their main hobby, which is messing around on a geeky website. We were all somewhat shocked they were admitted. Again, it's a crapshoot.
Anonymous
05/27/2026 16:17
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:You will have the best results with slacs, if you are willing to go that route. Anything outside Williams is possible. Otherwise, probably looking at 25-50 in national universities.
There is no difference between Williams and other t10 LACs. Stop trolling.
There is in terms of admission from our private. Anything else is doable for top third of class.
That is only relevant to your private.
Probably not. You are just triggered by Williams for some reason. I, on the other hand, have no connections to the school and am a neutral reporter.
Only 60% submit test scores and for some reason Williams chooses to omit the GPA data from their CDS? I suspect that OPs kid would have no problem getting in.
DP: You do seem to have some problem with Williams. My DC had 4.0 UW top private (non-DC), 1580 SAT, good but not stellar ECs. Was accepted at ED Ivy, other WASP, and other top 20, but rejected at Williams.
WASP schools are very small and most of their slots go to athletes and FGLI. I've never heard of a non-hooked kid from our top private getting accepted to Williams.
This sounds fake. How did you ED an Ivy then get into all these other schools?
Many public kids don't withdraw RD applications after they got accepted ED.
This is very very true.
Anonymous
05/27/2026 16:16
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:You will have the best results with slacs, if you are willing to go that route. Anything outside Williams is possible. Otherwise, probably looking at 25-50 in national universities.
There is no difference between Williams and other t10 LACs. Stop trolling.
There is in terms of admission from our private. Anything else is doable for top third of class.
That is only relevant to your private.
Probably not. You are just triggered by Williams for some reason. I, on the other hand, have no connections to the school and am a neutral reporter.
Only 60% submit test scores and for some reason Williams chooses to omit the GPA data from their CDS? I suspect that OPs kid would have no problem getting in.
DP: You do seem to have some problem with Williams. My DC had 4.0 UW top private (non-DC), 1580 SAT, good but not stellar ECs. Was accepted at ED Ivy, other WASP, and other top 20, but rejected at Williams.
WASP schools are very small and most of their slots go to athletes and FGLI. I've never heard of a non-hooked kid from our top private getting accepted to Williams.
This sounds fake. How did you ED an Ivy then get into all these other schools?
Many public kids don't withdraw RD applications after they got accepted ED.
Anonymous
05/27/2026 16:15
Subject: Where did your high stats/ max rigor but OK ECs student end up?
Anonymous wrote:DC goes to a good private in the DMV (not a "Big 5" according to DCUM , but probably one tier below). We recently started working with an independent counselor and were told his ECs are average - lesson learned too late- he's our eldest and being expats, we were not very familiar with the college application landscape in the US where it is increasingly common to hire such counselors at the beginning of freshman year.
DC is in the Top 15% of the class, max rigor in math, 4.0 unweighted GPA, 1550 SAT.
ECs: 2 somewhat competitive but pay-to-play pre college programs related to the intended major (done purely because they were interested in the subjects). School orchestra. School newspaper. Varsity sports, but not recruited athlete. Independent research (but not with a university professor). president of a school club related to their intended major. short unpaid internship in their intended major.
We initially thought these ECs were good, but the independent counselor said that ECs like that do not make DC stand out. Apparently, the research should have been done with a university professor, the internship should have been longer and had a bigger impact, the pay to pay programs scream privilege, presidents of a school club are a dime a dozen at competitive colleges, school orchestra does not carry much weight if the student wasn't part of their county or state youth orchestra, varsity sports don't carry weight if the student isn't a recruited athlete ...
Honestly, the outlook the IC gave us was depressing ... we thought DC was in a strong position. We aren't shooting for ivies but hoping for a T30. We'd be full pay.
If you had a kid with a similar profile, where did they end up?
What is the major?
If business, switch to Econ + something else there’s evidence for.
If math, switch to statistics + something.
If CS, switch to applied math.
If engineering, pick civil or environmental ?
If bio, pick something more niche (computational biology; human origins, bio & behavior; medical humanities; medicine heath & society)
If Poli Sci, pick Middle east studies or PPE or Communications & media)….
It all depends on the precise ECs and the transcript.