@sciencenerd123. Lol. No.
My daughter just had her interview this morning. Seems way too late to matter, no? She said the woman who facetimed her seemed almost bothered and they were off the phone after 5 minutes. Canât be goodâŠ
@hannahfofanna at least you were offered one? My D still hasnât received an invite to interview at all despite admissions telling her she should hear from an Alumni interviewer by a date that is now over a week ago. Have decided not to inquire again at this point as perhaps the alumni interview network is just overwhelmed with applicants. Have same situation at Yale, so guess my daughter is either a very viable candidate or definitely not a viable candidate. Hopefully the former.
@LibbyOK My daughter applied to 9 colleges, interviewed with only Brown and Princeton. Seems like her Princeton interview was two months ago, Brownâs this morning. Who knows what to make of it all. Sheâs been admitted to UVA, so sheâs mentally prepared for a deluge of denials and will remain happy with UVA. Dozens of very accomplished classmates did not get into UVA.
@libbyOk In my DDâs friends group, exactly half received interview in Jan to earlier Feb period, the other half, all qualified Brown applicants, happen to all live close to SV. Seems like Brownâs present at SV is limited.
As a parent of two college-age students going through his second application cycle, Iâd like to share a few thoughts about the state of the application/admission process at the most competitive schools. Iâve read and researched extensively and studied available information on public results sites and common data sets and have come to these conclusions. Many if not most of you have no doubt also done your research and rexognized these things. Note: I am a strong proponent of affirmative action in admissions; my two non-diverse students both are standout academic performers both in high school and college.
First, to all well qualified 2022 applicants, all performance and extracurricular variables being equal, the admissions process is now driven to a large extent by family financial and diversity factors. Many need-blind schoolsâ admissions offices are aware of the fact that an applicant is seeking aid but not his financial circumstances, and you should not assume they ignore this information. And at need aware schools, your financial need will definitely affect your chance of admission.
The influence of financial consideations is also reflected in the greatly enhanced xhances of ED admission. As widely reported, AOs prefer applicants who commit to paying full freight regardless of the fin aid offer. Between 2015 and today, controllong for the size of an EA applicant pool, the chances of an applicantâs EA admission have risen signoficantly as the market has realized this.
Diversity policies have also greatly affected the admissions process. Economically and ethnically non-diverse students today make up a minority of enrollees at many of the most highly ranked schools. This the number of slots available to these applicants and, hence, their chances of admission, are presumably less than half of those reflected on schoolsâ websites and in ranking serviceâsâ listings. Obviously, the same is true to an even greater extent for ethnically and economically diverse applicants. Because most schools have policies that allocate slots along these lines, students-within-these-categoriesâ chances are also affected by the size of their own applicant pool.
Given the very large and growing number of applications schools receive, the result of these realities is that the admissions process is now not simply competitive, but little more than a lottery for the majority of highly qualified applicants. Indeed, the top institutions oftten publicly state that many if not most of their applicants are well qualified academically.
So what are an applicantâs chances? For those EA applicants with truly exceptional skills and diversity hooks, probably good. For the rest, no better than 3 percent on a good day. Another way of stating this is ânext to zero.â
I mention these conclusions because I see so many hopeful applicants on these CC threads ask for their chances and receive answers (guesses) based on their scores and grades. As much as these factors should be primary determinants, they are only a small part of the picture. For good reasons, many with lower stats will have preference depending on financial, diversity status, application track and other factors.
It seems the only way around this problem is to apply to more - and several less competitive - schools, and accept that your chance of admission to the top schools is far less than advertized. This situation is resulting in an application nuclear arms race that only a very few will win. I suggest that college counselors aggressively advise the vast majority of students that it is not worth,applying to the Ivies and other similarly competitive schools, except as a throwaway, and that in any event their chances of admission are virtually nil. Hopefully this will result in more realistic student expectations and a greater likelihood of satisfaction with the schools to which they are ultimately admitted.
LOL D just got her invite this am for a Brown interview.
Still no interview for me. Guess Iâm out. 
Even if true (many donât share this opinion), applicants can ignore this, because it doesnât matter, since it doesnât affect deciding where to apply. Most schools are actually need blind and donât meet full need, making need blind moot.
Quite so, but a schoolâs being need-aware should also not be a factor when deciding where to apply, because it doesnât affect how much you like the school. At both need-blind and need-aware schools, the Net Price Calculator is usually important in deciding where to apply, and a schoolâs meeting full need can be crucial (but, sadly, few schools are in the meet-full-need category).
@Humblepie2022 weâre all gambling here, no one can tell you if you got few of the correct digits on your ticket⊠no way to know if you made it in until the colleges post the winning tickets.
To be honest, all I ask from my colleges is that they either accept [hopefully] or deny me. Waitlist is a pain in the buttocks, and HAVING BEEN THROUGH Brownâs waitlist cycle, waiting till June realllly sucksâŠ
Do you guys know how many people they waitlist on average and how many of those they admit?
i had digits from last year⊠correct me if im wrong but i think we were about 2000 people and around 10% got accepted⊠@IlluminatiIsReal
Praying that Brown at least waitlists me at this point lol. I can work with that. Deferral then waitist would be pretty mean though. That happened to my friend last year, but sheâs at Yale now so sheâs all good (she was deferred then waitlisted by Harvard).
My college advisor was telling me about a girl who was deferred EA, waitlisted RD, and eventually accepted by Georgetown! @sciencenerd123
Most of my friends have already gotten into their schools early. The wait is killing me!!!
only one winning the âapplication nuclear arms raceâ are the schools who are getting thousands if not 10s of thousands more application fees at $75-$100 a pop plus SAT and ACT companies who are getting fees to provide the scoresâŠah capitalism at its best
plus the cost of sending the CSS profile. College board is the google of the education world.
The old joke: McDonalds loses a nickel on every hamburger sold, but makes it up in volume. Schools with $0 application fee cover the processing costs somewhere.
Based on the data from website, they admitted 82 students from the waiting list last year.
I would sell my soul to get into Brown lol seriously. I hope they deferred me because they actually liked me but thereâs no way to tell when they defer 60% of ED applicants.