Daughter Hates Her Matches And Safeties

<p>Oregonianmom--please provide more details on your USTA bump-up. I'm a tennis player and would be interested!</p>

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Something I noticed last year was that the girls were particularly hard hit when it came to acceptances to a lot of the schools with 40% or so accept rates. My son's close friend did well at some colleges where his sister who was a better academic candidate was waitlisted. Two highly qualified young ladies I know were not accepted to Vassar and Skidmore.

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<p>This has been a trend for the last few years, and it was our experience when my daughter was applying. Ultimately she got into a great school, but it was apparent that had she been a boy her chances of acceptance would have been higher. I figure what worked against my daughter will hopefully work for my son this year.</p>

<p>Hopefully.</p>

<p>Ho, boy.</p>

<p>D was deferred from the one school where she applied EA: Georgetown. A quick review of their web site shows they don't reject EA applicants, so there's not even a silver lining. They say they accept about 15% of deferred applicants.</p>

<p>Tears. Definitely some tears. She wanted to climb into my bed and snuggle with me, but I sent her away because I thought I had the flu.</p>

<p>Anyway, that was Saturday, and she is doing better now. This is because all of her friends got hammered too. Only one kid from her school was accepted at Georgetown, and the news from Stanford and Brown is gruesome also. </p>

<p>She is back to working on her other applications. Hopefully she will do a better job on them than the Georgetown app . . . .</p>

<p>And no, she isn't thinking of applying to extra matches or safeties. She has chosen to double-down, apparently.</p>

<p>Sorry to hear the news, cindysphinx, about your D's deferral. I remember years ago when D1 was rejected from a super-selective school on the EA round, she figured that it meant that she would not get into ANY super-selective school. It didn't turn out that way, but it did put the fear of diety into her. Luckily, she had safety schools on her list, so she didn't panic.</p>

<p>You tell kids that there is a 10% chance of acceptance, but the reality of what that means doesn't sink into them until they, and all of their friends, get rejection letters. Time to revisit those essays and give them another review, this time with a jaundiced eye.</p>

<p>We'll keep our fingers crossed for your D come March/April.</p>

<p>My nephew was rejected from Stanford this Fri. He is applying to Dartmouth, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Duke, Georgetown, Vanderbilt and NC Chapel Hill (in-state, but everyone from previous year was rejected). He is a legacy at Dartmouth, but he has lost his advantage there by not applying ED. I have tried very tactfully to tell my sister to add more matches and safeties, but not going to listen. I wish my nephew luck come this spring.</p>

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You have to treat it as a rejection, and move on.</p>

<p>You can send an update with semester grades/new awards, etc later. But for now you have to concentrate on your other schools.</p>

<p>You should also treat it as a warning sign. Check your list to make sure you have some sure safeties on it. A deferral from ED may signal that you will not get into schools of its caliber RD.

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<p>Snagged this--written by nngmm on the Waitlist Hell thread. I thought that the warning sign paragraph is especially apropos here.</p>

<p>cindyspinx--</p>

<p>"double down"--LOL </p>

<p>Tears? -- not as if she wasn't aware this could happen. You did your job.</p>

<p>I was an early poster for "if she decides to do it her way, she has to be willing to accept the result." Still my feeling, but here's hoping for the best for her.</p>

<p>Well, I have been following this thread since it's inception. Back to the applications for Cindy's D. But, I can tell you that my niece applied early to Georgetown three years ago and was deferred. She got in RD. She sent in more essays and other relevant information. She was first in her class and had great EC's. Almost perfect writing and math scores. Took almost every AP class the school had to offer. I wish your family all the best and I do feel for you. My D was deferred from her #1 choice years ago and got in RD, but she too, had safeties and other OOS selective publics where she had been accepted.</p>

<p>S was deferred from GT and then waitlisted. This twilight zone of waiting can go a looooog time.</p>

<p>I do hope that she didn't take the "No snuggling...I might have the flu" for a "I told you so".</p>

<p>Whenever I think of acceptance rates at the "uber" schools (those with single or low double-digit rates) I prefer to think of it as such:</p>

<p>10% acceptance rate means 90% of those who applied were NOT accepted. Sometimes it just helps to realize there are so many in the same situation and it is a different way of looking at the same statistic!!</p>

<p>"I do hope that she didn't take the "No snuggling...I might have the flu" for a "I told you so"."</p>

<p>No. I think she believed me, as I was in bed all day! :)</p>

<p>She seems to have picked up the bug anyway . . . .</p>

<p>Cindy, I wish your daughter much luck in getting off the deferred list and in RD. Have her contact her admissions rep and send in any additional materials. My son sent in apps for RD to several schools. Then, last weekend, he learned that he won a national award and scholarship. He immediately sent all the admin reps a quick note of his award. He heard from all of them. So have her contact Georgetown to express her continued interest in the school ... and at the same time, fill out other apps.</p>

<p>She has only taken two SAT subject tests, and Georgetown requires three. I'm not sure whether she will decide to take the other now. It may not be worth the trouble, as Georgetown is the only school that would require it. </p>

<p>Should I tell her to take it? She'd have to study like mad.</p>

<p>Cindy, every year on this board come April a parents posts the following:
gee my kid was rejected at X. Since it was his first choice school, he asked the GC to follow up with the regional ad rep. According to the admissions office, kid had not met the minimal requirements for admission. What do we do now?</p>

<p>Well, the answer isn't what to do in April... the answer is what should the kid have been doing 9 months earlier.</p>

<p>To all the first timers here- don't apply to your state's engineering school if your kid hasn't taken calculus or the math 2 SAT2 if those are the stated requirements. Your kid will NOT get moved to the pile of kids who have applied to Arts and Sciences; your kid will get rejected. Do not assume in a baby bulge year such as this one that the stated requirements do not apply to you. They apply to everyone. Just because once in a blue moon a fantastic, supercalifragalisticexpialidocious kid gets admitted without a stated requirement, doesn't mean that yours will.</p>

<p>To the OP- I can't believe you're even asking the question. At my kids HS the GC would have flagged this and sent the app right back to the kid- nobody was allowed to apply if they hadn't met the stated requirements. GC's felt it reflected poorly on the school and on the student body as a whole if kids regularly ignored what was listed on the college website. Things like "four years of foreign language preferred" were waived-- preferences are not requirements. But the chutzpah of thinking you'll get an early acceptance before completing the three subject tests is beyond me.</p>

<p>Cindy- I suspect Georgetown moved your D's file into the deferred pile assuming that the third score would be forthcoming. You get to decide what your D's next move ought to be-- but in my experience, the likelihood of admissions without the stated requirement is pretty close to zero. Unless she cures cancer in the next few months.</p>

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She has only taken two SAT subject tests, and Georgetown requires three.

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<p>Um.</p>

<p>Why would she even apply? I'm not understanding here. Wishful thinking in action? I'm not trying to crack wise, I'm just baffled at the logic.</p>

<p>Blossom, I think I remember the GT app saying that they woud consider it without the SAT2s for ED. Something of that sort. However, when a school recommends something, it is wise to hustle and get it in the portfolio. You can guarantee that anyone who is missing a SAT2 or other recommended or required part of the app and gets in will have something that the school really wants. That is not the case for the OP's daughter.</p>

<p>Sometimes kids do apply to schools that recommend 4 years of foreign language and they only have three. It is a risk, but if there is a good reason for the school to take the kid sometimes it is a chance worth taking. But it is definitely a risk and can easily be used as a reason to eliminate consideration. With so many kids applying to certain schools like GT, it is easy to eliminate those kids who do not have the required and recommended items. </p>

<p>Cindy, I recommend that your daughter get rolling on the SAT2. A top score on it along with an outstanding midyear report could make a difference in whether or not she is accepted. The other advantage of early apps, is that you do get a second chance to show your stuff. Your D should make good use of that chance.</p>

<p>Just heard from a neighbor that her kid was deferred from his ED choice. Kid had one of his two required teacher reqs written by the choir leader even though the college states that both of the req's must be from academic subjects, and if you'd like a third req it can be from a faculty member who knows you well from another subject.</p>

<p>So neighbor is shocked. I tried to be polite. She asked, "what can he do?" and I said, "maybe he should follow the instructions and get a teacher from an academic subject to write him a rec like they asked for?" and she was indignant.</p>

<p>Don't let this happen to you, people. Just fill out the forms and follow the rules. It amazes me that the same people who can send in extra videos and performance CD's and extra letters and "resume summaries" or cover letters.... all of which the school's don't ask for, but can't be bothered to send it what they do ask for.</p>

<p>Take the time you would have spent on a cover letter or a resume and re-read the damn instructions! then follow them! If you have to ask, "does yearbook count as an academic subject since he gets credit for it" then you have your answer. Nobody asks if physics is an academic subject. Everyone somehow wants ceramics or band to migrate to the top of the academic pile.... as if by magic.</p>

<p>Yes, colleges love kids who are talented in the arts and show commitment and skill there. But not at the expense of reading, riting and rithemetic. Your kid better be competing in the Chopin competition if you are skipping one of the SAT 2's that they ask for.</p>

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<p>If she still wants Georgetown, she should take one more SAT 2 in January. Math doesn't take a lot of review time (if you are good at math). One other SAT 2 that doesn't take too much review is the English Lit one. The son of a friend who needed an extra SAT2 just buzzed through a review book and did just fine. Didn't take more than a day...</p>

<p>I agree with you that coming up to speed in Biology, chemistry or physics might take a while.</p>

<p>I'd leave it up to her.</p>

<p>What happens is that stories spread about this kid or other who got into that school or other without having the required/ recommended items. Yes, it happens. What kids forget is that though it does happen, it does diminish one's odds, already not good, tremendously. It can be a game over omission.</p>