“If you think your backgrounds will be held against you at these schools, why would you want to send your kid there? They don’t sound like very good fits for your family”
It’s just another example of hypocrisy, along the lines of “I despise how elite colleges admit so many undeserving URM/legacies/development/athletes, and I’d give my right arm for my kid to get in and have those people as classmates.”
If indeed 80% of schools are straight-stats and require no common app, then your “problem” that the admissions office is secretly going to use the info that you worked at Macy’s 10 years ago against you goes away. Yay!!