<p>Parent of Ivy Hopeful --
The comments you've received are mostly because your daughter's matches are usually not considered matches for any student. They don't meet what many people consider to be the criteria for a match. And...a couple of her safeties are not considered safeties for the same reason. Even with that said, congratulations on the many fine choices she has.</p>
<p>SJTH - I just loved your S's story, and the realistic view and justifiable pride with which you wrote it. Columbia should be a wonderful place for him.</p>
<p>This is a great thead -- I hope many more stories are posted to counter some of the threads of disappointment.</p>
<p>hmm...D2 was a one and done!;) DI sports hook with very good GPA/ACT and she was happily signed, sealed and delivered earlier in the year. I keep saying I feel like I am missing out on the party....meh!
I do wonder how she would have fared if she would have been willing to continue talks with coaches back east who contacted her. Guess we will never know!</p>
<p>2boysima: Thanks for explaining I didn’t get that. At DD school UC’s, except EECS at UCB, are considered safeties and Counselor asks students to apply anywhere from a minimum of 2 to all. Since DD applied to EECS at UCB hence it was considered a match.</p>
<p>Congratulations to all of you and your kids.</p>
<p>I’m here for some advice. I have a 9th grade boy in a small Southern California private school and I’m trying to get a handle on what we’re going to be dealing with a few years from now with college admissions. </p>
<p>My son is basically a solid student who has always been more motivated by whether a class is fun or interesting, rather than by the grade he gets in it. He gets B’s in his core classes, and A’s in his electives (music). Somewhere along the line, his standardized test-taking gene has faded away. His class took the PSAT in the fall just for practice without any prep and his scores were pretty bad. I imagine that with some test prep, he might improve them a little but I don’t see him cracking more than 1600 in the SAT. </p>
<p>Although his small school is very well regarded and has sent grads to Ivy U’s and other big time colleges around the U.S. and abroad, I don’t see him matching up well when I see the GPAs and test scores of some of the kids who get in these great schools and even in some of the state schools. </p>
<p>Maybe I’m freaking out, but I just want to see if any of you doubted your kids abilities at this stage and were pleasantly surprised by how that did in their acceptances this month.</p>
<p>^^^: I analyzed for many years DD school data in terms of student matriculating to top colleges and their records/achievements. Since it is difficult to know the GPA of any other students I extrapolated from the average the school report on the profile to schools. </p>
<p>This is where I went wrong. I thought with a weighted average of B+ the top 20% will be weighted A- or above. Since the school have consistently send top 12 - 15% to HMSPY; I thought if DD remain at weighted A- or above she will be in contention for a spot there. My analysis was after that point it is more important to have a rigorous course load than a higher GPA.</p>
<p>So I never bothered with her report card while my DW was always mad because most of her friends had much higher GPA. </p>
<p>My analysis worked fine for all colleges except Harvard which I think is very obsessed with top students from each school. So if your target school is H then the only way to guarantee a spot in H is to be valedictorian with all the awards you can get.</p>
<p>parentofivyhope
Wow…congratulations on what anyone would consider stellar admissions results. You and your d might want to start a blog with tips on how to get into these schools… </p>
<p>But Duke and JHU a match? Both of these schools reject multiple students from my son’s hs school each year…and these are top kids (one I know got into Cornell and Dartmouth but was rejected at JHU). I would tell almost all kids to stay away from considering these schools a match. Too selective. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the major, as she applied for Computer Engineering and JHU is reach in Biomedical Engineering and Duke for pre-med.
It actually doesn’t make much sense for her to apply to JHU and Duke for computer Engineering because CMU would be a better choice for her.</p>
<p>I think by the time she realized that she was done with the applications and so she sent those in.</p>
<p>And all of the school on her match list i.e. Rice, JHU, Duke , and UCB are very fond of AP National Scholars.</p>
<p>Morton, I would freak out too after reading some of the stories on this thread. Don’t do it, though. My D was a solid B student in core classes with A’s in art. She happened to test very well, but this isn’t necessarily a benefit when you have a kid whose grades are not reflective of her abilities–and grades are still the number one measure.</p>
<p>Good news is that more and more schools are becoming SAT-optional. Most important is that your S take classes that challenge him, but don’t stress him out so much that he has no time for EC’s.</p>
<p>For D, we looked for high matches–we didn’t think that being at what would be a reach for her would be a great idea, but needed a good level of intellectual curiosity among the students.</p>
<p>She’s a freshman at a NOrtheast LAC and very happy. There IS a school–and more than one–at which your son can be happy.</p>
<p>One hint–I wouldn’t tell your son that you are on a board like this until at least his junior year–but you can spend that time gleaning tons of good info from the significant collective wisdom of the posters here. Enjoy the journey!</p>
<p>Thank you all for sharing your happy stories. Congratulations to all your kids!</p>
<p>morton, your kid is only in 9th grade. You can’t reliably extrapolate from that PSAT score to his eventual performance on the SAT. Boys especially tend to mature a lot between 9th grade and 11th grade. Help him find his extracurricular interests and support that. It is really not about the scores.</p>
<p>I have a nice admissions story about standardized test scores. My son was diagnosed with an LD - visual processing defect (I think it’s called) in 10th grade. The biggest impact it has had on his academic life is that it makes him a very slow reader - too slow to finish timed tests. We applied for extra time on the SAT and were turned down, possibly to his secret relief, as it makes a long test almost unbearable. He took the PSAT and got OK scores, but not nearly as high as one would have predicted from his grades. He ended up never taking the SAT at all - he felt that the ACT played more to his strengths. We got him some tutoring for the English/Reading sections and he self-studied for math and science and got a cumulative score of 30 - an excellent score given his reading issues but on the low side for his dream school, Stanford. Also, because he reads so slowly he never took any AP or honors classes in English or History, so while he is in the top 10% of his class he is probably not in the top 5%. However, he really poured a lot of himself into the Stanford app and wrote what I think is one of the best essays of his life - charming, fun, and quirky, just like himself. When that email came from Stanford in Dec. admitting him - well, I made him show me, and even then I didn’t believe it until the big envelope came. He is so excited, and I really can’t imagine a school that would fit him better.</p>
<p>POIH, your daughter is like mine, one of a small minority of high-achieving girls interested in engineering. Those girls are highly sought-after. When my d applied to college it was like having a star football player in the house. We got recruiting phone calls from schools that she was actually interested in, like UCLA. It’s really surprising that that there are still so few women interested in electrical engineering and computer science. That may be changing though. I hope so.</p>
<p>geek_son is sort of an outlier at his high school. Most folks there expected him to go Ivy; they don’t recognize the name of Caltech, let alone Harvey Mudd (his dream college, admitted ED with merit, very happy end of story for him). </p>
<p>But a few weeks ago, the teacher handing out the latest round of academic awards brought tears to his eyes with this: “Hey, are we sure about this last certificate? I mean, this kid is /only/ a National Merit Scholar… and he /only/ got accepted to one of the top colleges in the country… are we sure this is right?”</p>
<p>For a kid who keeps a low profile and doesn’t seek (or receive) much recognition, that moment was pure gold. For a mom, the subsequent bear hug and grins were reason to carry a camera everywhere. :)</p>
<p>Only thing to say about his application is that Mudd was a perfect fit for his interests, stats, and personality. He fell in love with it right away and then had no interest in other colleges; if I hadn’t pushed him to bag a couple of academic/financial safeties in September, he would have been a one-and-done. I harbored worries that they might question why no science club, robotics, USAMTS, or other ECs with high geek factors – apparently they thought well enough of his many other passions, qualities, and quirks. I also worried a bit about the topic he chose for an essay, but he pulled it off beautifully and it became a strong point in his app. It was a lesson for me in trusting his instincts and letting the process work itself out.</p>
<p>Geek Mom, I love the social vibe at Harvey Mudd. We visited on a Friday night, and everyone was in the courtyards of the dorms lounging on the sofas and grilling burgers. It looked like such a nice low-key way to end the week. I’m sure your son will have a great time there.</p>
<p>MarinMom, yes, nice and low-key and so friendly and open. When we visited, it was like he’d found his people. The students he met were welcoming from the start, and it was so nice to see him pal around and have a good time with students he hardly even knew. I think it’s going to be a wonderful place to work his butt off for the next four years! ;)</p>
The students he met were welcoming from the start, and it was so nice to see him pal around and have a good time with students he hardly even knew. I think it’s going to be a wonderful place to work his butt off for the next four years! ;)</p>