@cu123 not looking for confirmation, her best friends early on got defferred from MIT and denied from every school in RD round. He has similar stats but very poor asian kid, just got off from wait list from Yale two weeks ago.
See, sometimes it does work out. Congrats to your DD’s friend, and guess what, it doesn’t matter if your the first one admitted or the last one admitted.
Your daughter, like many students, has great credentials, but also like all students, she should apply to safety, match, and reach schools that she has carefully selected.
@OHMomof2 getting into a college that offers good need based or merit based aid. She has already decided to pursue computer science and have paid summer internship lined up, so no help is needed in finding job.
Her safety school will be SUNY. Her match schools are engineering schools that are decent in CS.
@mathmom based on navience, her stats puts her in the very top and she gets into every school easily based on unweighted GPA and SAT scores. But we have seen one issue that is based on past few years observation. Not well off asian kids are less successful being admited to elite schools. However it is based on a very small sample size and hence not conclusive enough.
As long as she has at least one, preferably two safeties she likes, don’t worry.
What is your kid’s SAT or ACT score?
The problem is that Naviance only gives you a scatter gram of GPA and Scores. It’s not that useful for holistic admissions. Also at public schools the info is self reported and that makes it suspect, my DD school naviance numbers were totally useless.
Superscores are 1590, one sitting highest scrore is 1570
My kids highschool navience are not self reported, school maintains every thing. It is very well funded public school
I’m not sure any California public (I think the case here?) is “famous.” Sure, Gunn, Saratoga, PAH, Mission San Jose, etc. are extremely well known and have some absolutely terrifically smart kids, but there is no real magnet in California that is analogous to, say, Stuyvesant in NYC or TJ in Virginia or NCSSM in NC, etc. (Sadly, Lowell in SF doesn’t count anymore.)
On balance, based on my knowledge of the California publics, I think being at the top of the class is going to be a strong positive for college admissions, in terms of demonstrating intelligence and drive, but there is a downside in that there are going to be many very strong students in those large high schools. Demographics will work against the top slice of those kids at the elites, just as it does in some ways at Stuyvesant and TJ.
Just my two cents…
Agree ^^^. It is more of able to be top of the class rather than a competitive or an average high school to help a student get into a selective college. The kids able to be at 5% (or even in the 25%) in a competitive high school are usually those able to be in the top 1-2% in his/her local/average high schools. As long as you are top dog(s) in your high school, you are going somewhere.
That’s an awesome score. Many schools don’t super score but it won’t really matter with those scores. Keep in mind that naviance is just a tool not a guarantee. Lots of kids don’t get in where naviance tells them they will. We found for lower matches and safeties it was great. For top schools and reaches it was a literal flip of a coin. Much like anyone’s chances to the top schools. Actually better… Lol… No one or naviance can predict if ivys etc are taking your child. Have many safeties you are happy with. The 2 weeks the kids find out about the top schools can be brutal. We looked at this as a game. Don’t take it too personal
Forgive me for presuming, but are you Asian/Indian by any chance? If so please note that having a child with high stats are a dime a dozen within this racial category. The elite colleges who use holistic admissions will be inundated with similar appearing Asian students: 1) Top grades 2) High test scores 3) STEM interest 4) Overrepresented state
In these cases, the students who make the first cut are those who have done some amazing ECs, are legacy, or have some other hook. For the ultra-elite schools, the Asian composition of the incoming class is typically around 25-30%. But there are many more Asian students that fit this profile than are needed. Of the Asian ethnicities, the most competitive are within the Chinese ethnicity, followed by Indian, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai. There are some Asian communities which are considered diversity targets: Japanese, Nepalese, Burmese, Bhutanese, Cambodian, Lao.
The admissions committees won’t admit to a quota. Instead they call it a ‘target’, and use the term holistic to shape the class in a diverse way. There are only a handful of ways around this target: 1) mega-donor 2) recruited athlete 3) Parent who is on faculty/professor. These students get put into a separate pile and are evaluated with a different lens.
So the best thing is to not lose hope. Admissions at ultra-elite colleges are highly unpredictable. So while you might get lucky, be prepared for the worst. Good to see that you’re preparing by applying to a range of match and safety schools. Best of luck.
Except. Except that this is not all about stats and some one or two fancy internships. You have a full app to fill out, a self presentation. It helps to know what the targets colleges are looking for, the attributes. And not only do you need to show those, but this isn’t just about one or two fancy activities. They want to see the depth and the breadth, they ways an applicant has been engaged with peers, taken on some responsibilities, and offered their help in the community (not always just that hour of homework help or random NHS service.) After all, all this is about how a candidate thinks, the openness to various ECs, the willingness to engage.
If you are a CA resident…just curious why SUNY schools are your kid’s safety schools as opposed to the many CA public colleges that would welcome a student with this kid’s stats.
In addition to the above posts about ORM applying to colleges, I’ll add…if you are from the greater Silicon Valley area, there are a LOT of high flying kids, some at publics and some at privates high schools who will be applying to those elite schools on the east coast.
IIRC, applications are reviewed by geographic area, so your kid’s will be reviewed with all the other high flyers…from both public and private HSs in your area.
She has great stats, and as told to you in other threads…she should cast a wide net. Admissions at some of these elite schools are a VERY low %age of applicants. Not a slam dunk for anyone.
On another thread, OP lives in NY.
OP - Your child has the stats to be competitive everywhere she applies. That doesn’t mean she’ll be accepted everywhere so as others have said, she needs a balanced list. Every applicant, no matter how accomplished needs a balanced list with safety schools.
@SatchelSF Gretchen Whitney in Southern California could be consider analogous to TJ or Stuyvesant.