Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend - it’s a beautiful Sunday morning here in England. I really appreciate your support (hug emoji, thumbs up, replies, etc.) - this is a fantastic community! As I re-read my post, I think I may have come across as more downbeat than we felt - yes, my D22 was disappointed by the US rejections (as were we) but she is very grateful to have her UK options and (knock on wood she secures the required A-level grades) is excited to head to Oxford (her overall first choice going in) this fall.
My heart, however, breaks for the academic superstars (such as this student) who had similar outcomes. Yes, they did get some acceptances but for all of the top US institutions to pass on them is quite mystifying to me (in the UK, they would have been snapped up by Oxford and Cambridge). The upside, of course, is that their rare talents are distributed more widely across the US academic ecosystem.