These humble brag threads are the worst. “I totally didn’t expect it because my kid only had a 1580 and only got runner up in their highly selective nations ecs, but they got into every T20…much to my surprise!!!”

Anonymous wrote:It was a bumpy ride for DC. CC recommended ED to a school with a 10 to 15 % AR, but DC chose to ED to their first choice with a sub-10% AR, deferred (eventually reject). Then submitted 12 RD applications and ED2 to another sub-10% school, deferred again (eventually reject). On Ivy day, DC got two acceptances.

Wow!! Congratulations

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Anonymous wrote:Sounds like no 1560+ scorers got shut out from T15!

Definitely not true.

Someone did a bit of math based on the school 75th percentiles before the pandemic and the vast majority of them go to T20

That analysis is bad. They treated superscore data reported by colleges the same as single-sitting data reported by the College Board. In reality, there are a lot more 1560+ superscores than single-sitting scores.

It was a bumpy ride for DC. CC recommended ED to a school with a 10 to 15 % AR, but DC chose to ED to their first choice with a sub-10% AR, deferred (eventually reject). Then submitted 12 RD applications and ED2 to another sub-10% school, deferred again (eventually reject). On Ivy day, DC got two acceptances.

I wouldn’t say “underestimate” but we tried to keep expectations low and really looked for targets/likelies that he’d enjoy attending.

DS got into 1 far reach, 2 reaches, 3 targets, 3 likelies. Rejected from 2 far reaches.

He’s thrilled with the outcome.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. And I think it's because the tide is finally turning a bit, in favor of students. The jig is up, so to speak, in many of these schools' admissions policies.

Very different environment from when my older two went through this process 3 and 5 years ago.

I have never seen so many kids get off waitlists, for example, and have schools continue to contact them with additional merit money, after the May 1 supposed deadline.

When is the tide against students? What does this even mean?

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like no 1560+ scorers got shut out from T15!

Is Vanderbilt considered top 15? My DC was rejected full pay with a 35 (not superscored) in RD.

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Anonymous wrote:Our private high school had more kids than usual get into T30s and fewer get into T10s

So the insta page looks great with Notre Dame and Northwestern and UChicago, but you dont know how those kids were all hoping for HYPSM etc. Where our HS usually sends a couple to each each year.

Same. My 2024 got into an Ivy RD and there were about 7 other Ivy admits his year. This year only 1 sport recruit Ivy admit at the school.

It was a tough year for Ivies- but tons of T20-30s and some Duke/MIT/Hopkins. We saw more Ivy admits at publics this year. Due to Trump and avoiding endowment tax, etc.

What does this mean? Why would Ivies that admit more public-school students be related to avoiding the endowment tax?

This is true for princeton but not sure about the others that are larger

This is assuming that public school students get financial aid and private school students do not get financial aid from Princeton. Not sure.

I know plenty of wealthy families sending their kids to public school and then sending them off to ivy League colleges. But they are well funded, excellent public schools in wealthy communities.

And Trump admin was mosning about them as only for private school elites. There was an active push to draw more public school numbers. Also- more rural locations.

I read the 3,000 undergrad student cap and the amount of endowment available per student cap was designed to let some smaller conservative colleges, favored by the administration , get out of the endowment tax.

But it did allow Princeton to slip through the cracks of the ivy league endowment tax because they have a much lower number of students.

Princeton lobbied for that cap.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. And I think it's because the tide is finally turning a bit, in favor of students. The jig is up, so to speak, in many of these schools' admissions policies.

Very different environment from when my older two went through this process 3 and 5 years ago.

I have never seen so many kids get off waitlists, for example, and have schools continue to contact them with additional merit money, after the May 1 supposed deadline.

Let’s be honest about whats happening - it’s all about the money and who is willing to pay what. Many top students choose to follow the money and can be found at many different levels of schools these days - status seekers with deep pockets may not be the brightest, but they will take up spots the really talented kids on a budget turn down. I saw this first hand at our HS. …

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Anonymous wrote:Our private high school had more kids than usual get into T30s and fewer get into T10s

So the insta page looks great with Notre Dame and Northwestern and UChicago, but you dont know how those kids were all hoping for HYPSM etc. Where our HS usually sends a couple to each each year.

Same. My 2024 got into an Ivy RD and there were about 7 other Ivy admits his year. This year only 1 sport recruit Ivy admit at the school.

It was a tough year for Ivies- but tons of T20-30s and some Duke/MIT/Hopkins. We saw more Ivy admits at publics this year. Due to Trump and avoiding endowment tax, etc.

What does this mean? Why would Ivies that admit more public-school students be related to avoiding the endowment tax?

This is true for princeton but not sure about the others that are larger

A university's tax is lower based on the # of public school enrollees?

Tax is only imposed on schools that have at least 3000 tuition paying students. Princeton does not charge tuition to families making under $250K

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Anonymous wrote:I think the tide has turned a bit too. Lots of school have results that look more like a decade ago, than the past 8 or so years, especially beter than 2021-2025.

I wonder how much to keep stressing about the SAT. It's in range for top 20 for pre-2019 (based on that historic data) but there is still a sense of 1500+ or bust. When to just say "this is a great score and you've earned the right to apply anywhere."

It’s up to your kid to decide this, not you. When they are done with testing, they are done. You don’t need to be “stressing” all.

Drop the leash, mom.

My experience is that parents with your attitude had kids that never had a chance at 1500

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Anonymous wrote:Sounds like no 1560+ scorers got shut out from T15!

Definitely not true.

Someone did a bit of math based on the school 75th percentiles before the pandemic and the vast majority of them go to T20

My thoughts on the process swung wildly between feeling super confident and really pessimistic. Turned out somewhere in the middle… accepted at 8 of 13 places including 2 super reaches. I think the healthy amount of paranoia I got from DCUM was helpful for creating a balanced list. That said, I don’t know if DC would have been happy at their safety schools, but understood the need to have them on their list.

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Anonymous wrote:The college counselor underestimated my kid. She was continually surprised when he got into reaches and high reaches. I had considered many of the CCO reaches to be targets, and I think I was right. This is my 4th time, so I am pretty good at this game.

Can you give us examples of where your DS got into vs where CC thought would be his reaches (your targets?). From your experience, do you think the better results have something to do with him being a male and his intended major?

Major was business/economics. CCO designated reaches accepted to: Boston College, Georgetown, UVA, UNC, Florida, UGA, Tulane, & UCLA. I thought Tulane, BC, UGA, and Florida were targets.

Did they customize the UVA application to talk about major/economics? Or was that covered in personal essay?

No, he did not change the UVA application at all. Same application to all schools. His personal essay was not about major. It was about something not found anywhere else on the app (his family). I think it showed his personality (kindness, empathy, and humor). Also, he wrote his essay without any help and I think it sounded like a 17 year old. There is definitely a little luck involved and whether your application resonates with readers.

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Anonymous wrote:Our private high school had more kids than usual get into T30s and fewer get into T10s

So the insta page looks great with Notre Dame and Northwestern and UChicago, but you dont know how those kids were all hoping for HYPSM etc. Where our HS usually sends a couple to each each year.

Same. My 2024 got into an Ivy RD and there were about 7 other Ivy admits his year. This year only 1 sport recruit Ivy admit at the school.

It was a tough year for Ivies- but tons of T20-30s and some Duke/MIT/Hopkins. We saw more Ivy admits at publics this year. Due to Trump and avoiding endowment tax, etc.

What does this mean? Why would Ivies that admit more public-school students be related to avoiding the endowment tax?

This is true for princeton but not sure about the others that are larger

This is assuming that public school students get financial aid and private school students do not get financial aid from Princeton. Not sure.

I know plenty of wealthy families sending their kids to public school and then sending them off to ivy League colleges. But they are well funded, excellent public schools in wealthy communities.

And Trump admin was mosning about them as only for private school elites. There was an active push to draw more public school numbers. Also- more rural locations.

I read the 3,000 undergrad student cap and the amount of endowment available per student cap was designed to let some smaller conservative colleges, favored by the administration , get out of the endowment tax.

But it did allow Princeton to slip through the cracks of the ivy league endowment tax because they have a much lower number of students.

Princeton had to increase the financial aid they offered to do that. Seems like a much better use of endowment dollars than using it for whatever garbage we are doing with our tax dollars at this point.