<p>Why, thank you! We were extremely fortunate though. Extremely.</p>
<p>Great thread. We haven’t heard anything yet (all regular decision), but I feel confident that my kid will get into some “reach” colleges since she is so awesome!</p>
<p>Two years ago my younger son a B+ student with a relatively high rank due to the quirks of our particular school’s definition of “academic courses” did much better than he expected. He got into Chicago EA, Tufts and Vassar RD and American gave him a Presidential Scholarship.</p>
<p>We live in a rural community in the midwest. My D went to a small public H.S. with limited EC and AP opportunities. However she excelled in the classroom and did well with her test scores. She was a NMF so had some nice early admittances/scholarships. It had been years since a student from our school had been admitted at an Ivy level school but D decided to give it a try. This year she’s having a great time as a freshman at Stanford and likes being able to say that she turned Yale down. This college admission game is such a crapshoot. Reach for the stars as you never know when your number might be drawn.</p>
<p>This is all great advice. I am just sick of hearing that my d should “apply down” essentially. I’ve spent the time on naviance, talked to other parents, etc., and I think she has a better shot at some higher end schools than a number of parents on these boards believe. I’ve been telling her to apply for any school that really “sends” her and let’s see where she lands. </p>
<p>I should mention, I was 65th in my HS class, with 1320 combined SATs (no writing then)–some good ECs but no national championships etc. To many of my friends’ parents’ shock, I was accepted by every place I applied except Amherst. Luckily, I enjoyed the consolation prize of four years at Yale.</p>
<p>My niece applied to and has been accepted to every colleges (n = 8), all awarded her merit money (ranging from 2K to 26K a year). She only applied to schools where her SATS were in the middle 50% or top 25%. The biggest awards came from top 50 schools. </p>
<p>Good student (top 10%) but average SATS…and now very happy.</p>
<p>Son #3 screwed around first 2 years of HS .Junior year he really shifted gears and had 2 years great work . Offered merit aid of 17k as freshman,and junior year of college he got increase to 22.5k .Graduating in ME and accepted into MA-PhD program in NUCLEAR Engineering .Never would have thought this could happen ! Also, all A’s in college .</p>
<p>My 34 ACT, 4.0 gpa daughter was accepted to every school to which she applied. </p>
<p>… And so was my 27 ACT , 3.6 gpa daughter.</p>
<p>Both girls ended up attending good (different) private schools with generous scholarships and were invited into honors programs.</p>
<p>Both attended an urban high school with a large number of struggling (both academically and economically) students.</p>
<p>If you read college confidential too much, you may come away with the idea that only students who attend “competitive” high schools, achieve top grades and test scores, and take a dozen AP classes have a chance at top schools and/or generous merit aid. But we certainly did not find that to be the case.</p>