Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:15     Subject: Re:Disappointment
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Was the founder of a non-profit legit? That’s the type of thing an AO will look into


That's the first thing I thought to. She should have left that off. That just looks like striving at that point, and calls into question whether the drive is from student or the parents.

And OP: you may want to talk to your daugther about making assumptions about other people's stats. Maybe people who got into Princeton had lower grades, maybe they didn't. Either way, they had something that Princeton wanted and it's just so poisonous to talk about other students that way.


But it's true. Many of her peers that got in to one of the schools she was WL/rejected do. It's just speaking the truth.


DP. How would you know this?


Because she quite obviously knows these peers that she's referring to?
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:15     Subject: Disappointment
Anonymous wrote:Anyone else facing a lot of disappointment during this cycle? DD got into a couple target schools + most of her safeties... Rejected or WL from the rest. She was (imo and told to us by many others) a great applicant - High stats, great ECs + essays, LORs... Her interviews all went very well, especially JHU. She applied to JHU EA and the rest RD, and we're from NOVA. Intended major is BME (biomed engineering).

Stats:
4.0 UW/4.7 W GPA
1570 SAT (800 M, 770 R&W)
14 APs, all 5s

ECs:
- A few regional awards (STEM)
- 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
- Founder of non-profit
- Research w/ prof at T30
- Competitive summer program for BME
- Lots of community service

Results:
JHU EA - Deferred -> Rejected
Princeton - Rejected
Brown - Rejected
Dartmouth - Rejected
Columbia - Rejected
Duke - Rejected
UVA - WL
Cornell - WL
CMU - WL
UNC CH - WL
VT - Accepted
W&M - Accepted
Lehigh - Accepted
UPitt - Accepted

DD is incredibly upset and so are we... JHU was her dream school but she relied on UVA + CMU as well. Anyone here confused and facing a similar situation?We all were convinced that DD had it in the bag - Worst of all is that many of her classmates w/ lower stats and worse ECs have gotten into a few of these schools.


So your DD got rejected or WL at schools that are ALL under 10% acceptance rates (Ok CMU is 11.4%, not much better). UVA is 9.3% if applying RD.

That is how it works. For the life of me, I do not understand how someone with such high stats can continue to not realize this (year after year after year it happens). She was rejected/WL at all REACHES. And accepted at her Targets and safeties. That is literally how it works, when your Reaches are all basically single digit acceptance rates. You are very likely to be rejected/WL at all.

So you get her excited about the acceptances she had. She knew going in these were are highly rejective schools, so she shoudlnt' be surprised
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:15     Subject: Disappointment
Why did you not do more EAs?
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:14     Subject: Disappointment
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How on earth would you know the stats and ECs of any child other than your own?


DD obviously told me, I think it's pretty common to know these things about some of your classmates.


Your daughter wouldn't know either. Face it, you and your daughter have no idea what all the other students bring to the table - to include their GPAs, test scores, and ECs. All you know for sure is your own kid's stats. That's it.
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:14     Subject: Disappointment
Anonymous wrote:For all the posters here who are speculating about the weak spots in OP’s kid’s application (EC’s personality, no sports, etc), how many kids DON’T have a weak or weaker part of their application? Even if the “whole package” is great? We don’t know the kid. We don’t know what went on during the admissions review of her applications. We don’t know the kid’s school who else from her school applied to the same schools. OP came here looking for support. Let’s see what we can do to make things better.


Thank you, I honestly don't know how you can expect any applicant to have a "perfect" application. Clearly, we didn't have much of an idea of what they were looking for. And DD had many STEM-related clubs + ECs - Not every kid is athletically gifted or interested in sports.
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:13     Subject: Disappointment
Similar boat here, OP. I’m sorry because I know it stings. Luckily your dd has great options still and it will all be ok.
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:13     Subject: Re:Disappointment
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Was the founder of a non-profit legit? That’s the type of thing an AO will look into


That's the first thing I thought to. She should have left that off. That just looks like striving at that point, and calls into question whether the drive is from student or the parents.

And OP: you may want to talk to your daugther about making assumptions about other people's stats. Maybe people who got into Princeton had lower grades, maybe they didn't. Either way, they had something that Princeton wanted and it's just so poisonous to talk about other students that way.


But it's true. Many of her peers that got in to one of the schools she was WL/rejected do. It's just speaking the truth.


DP. How would you know this?
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:12     Subject: Disappointment
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This has to be fake. People cannot be this naive.


+100
How utterly ridiculous - she "thought she had it in the bag."


Right? Who thinks like this?


In her position, how would you not think that you had at least VT + UNC CH in the bag? I'm obviously not referring to the Ivies/higher-ranking schools...
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:12     Subject: Re:Disappointment
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Was the founder of a non-profit legit? That’s the type of thing an AO will look into


That's the first thing I thought to. She should have left that off. That just looks like striving at that point, and calls into question whether the drive is from student or the parents.

And OP: you may want to talk to your daugther about making assumptions about other people's stats. Maybe people who got into Princeton had lower grades, maybe they didn't. Either way, they had something that Princeton wanted and it's just so poisonous to talk about other students that way.


But it's true. Many of her peers that got in to one of the schools she was WL/rejected do. It's just speaking the truth.


And there is more to an application then stats. Clearly that student had something the school wants and your child didn’t.
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:10     Subject: Disappointment
For all the posters here who are speculating about the weak spots in OP’s kid’s application (EC’s personality, no sports, etc), how many kids DON’T have a weak or weaker part of their application? Even if the “whole package” is great? We don’t know the kid. We don’t know what went on during the admissions review of her applications. We don’t know the kid’s school who else from her school applied to the same schools. OP came here looking for support. Let’s see what we can do to make things better.
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:10     Subject: Disappointment
Anonymous wrote: +100
How utterly ridiculous - she "thought she had it in the bag."


What are you even trying to say here? Yes, most of us thought she would at get into at LEAST a couple more schools.
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:10     Subject: Disappointment
Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one who finds HS founders of non-profits to be borderline insulting? I worked in the non-profit world, so did dh. These are serious places and it takes as much (if not more) work than a business to be a really successful one. I know bc we now own a successful business. It's not some vanity project to be started by a 17 year old. So annoying. Change my mind.


Totally agree. I think adcoms see right through that as well.
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:10     Subject: Disappointment
We had a hard, stressful road last year. My DD had some great options but was WL at top choice. Don’t bank on it, but they do move. Mine got in off the waitlist. It happens. That said….talk up the ones she has in hand. She’s clearly super smart and will thrive anywhere!
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:10     Subject: Disappointment
Anonymous wrote:How on earth would you know the stats and ECs of any child other than your own?


DD obviously told me, I think it's pretty common to know these things about some of your classmates.
Anonymous
Post 04/03/2025 20:09     Subject: Disappointment
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This has to be fake. People cannot be this naive.


+100
How utterly ridiculous - she "thought she had it in the bag."


Right? Who thinks like this?