<p>The GC could call and find out if there is any area your S could explain or bolster to help him. But in reality, if he is on the WL they probably don’t have any such concerns. Your S can send a letter reiterating his desire to attend the school[s], updating his app with any new honors won, etc. I don’t know if that would make any difference–probably not–but at least he would feel that he had done what he could. If your S is prepared to move on, I’d just have him stay on the WLs and turn his attention to choosing between his acceptances.</p>
<p>Tough one as a parent of my own bright kids. You can’t help but wonder what these schools are looking for. From what the OP describes, his son sounds like a great applicant. Wait, not a perfect score on the SAT? Does this disqualify him? The whole process is just so capricious.</p>
<p>Vent here and then encourage him to move on and embrace his wonderful choices.</p>
<p>Your kid got into four US News top 30s, and that’s a disappointing “full shut out”? Which one is furthest from home? </p>
<p>He was hardly shut out then. Nobody with any stats or resume is a shoe in for those top schools. Please don’t make your student feel like he/she was shut out. There are excellent schools on his list of acceptances. Enjoy the great choices, pick the one that is the best fit and move ahead.</p>
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<p>That’s doing very well considering UNC’s state mandate to admit 82% of in-state students means it’s not unusual for HYPS admits to be rejected by them. </p>
<p>Your son is accepted to several great schools. What are you complaining about? There are plenty of 2400/36/4.0 students got rejected from top schools every year. That is common sense and well expected.</p>
<p>We really should refer brand new posters to a dictionary.
Admittance to 4 great schools is more than my youngest even applied yo, and only one less than her sister did.
A full shut out, is oddly exactly how it sounds.
No choices, at which point the student would still have the option of - taking a gap year & reapplying, going with community college or other open admission school, applying to schools who advertise they still have seats for qualified applicants.</p>
<p>But to have 4 choices that many students would be proud to have and call it a shut out to draw attention?
Tsk tsk tsk.</p>
<p>This is a bizarre OP and thread. </p>
<p>Goodness. Perspective check needed, aisle 4.</p>
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<p>If your son is happy, then be happy.</p>
<p>Oh, for god’s sake people, the OP has made it clear what she meant. She has also made it clear that her S values the choices he has.</p>
<p>Do we HAVE to start on the ritual savaging of anyone who dares to vent here about a <em>perfectly understandable</em> sense of disappointment? Can we just stop?</p>
<p>If the OP is allowed to vent, why can’t the readers? 
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<p>Everyone doesn’t have to always agree with everyone, and sometimes, the disagreements are where we learn the most. </p>
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<p>If you buy one ticket with 3% chance of winning, you have a 97% chance of not holding a winning ticket.</p>
<p>If you buy ten tickets each with an independent 3% chance of winning, you have a 74% chance of not holding a winning ticket.</p>
<p>I am sure someone like quantummech can check the numbers …</p>
<p>Yes, he has some excellent options.</p>
<p>But the larger lesson is, once gain, the highly selective colleges and universities are highly selective. But highly selective doesn’t necessarily equate with best, nor with best fit for each applicant. We used three categories and assured that our kids had entries in each category: Reach, match, virtually automatic admit. #1 put one Ivy into his reach schools, which we called a lottery entry. He didn’t get in. But he got into every other place, including one (UChicago) that has long been borderline “top 10” but during his year of application had a much higher acceptance rate than the most selective Ivies. He attended Chicago. #2 applied to just one highly selective (non-Ivy) university. The rest were art schools. Got into all. Attended RISD.</p>
<p>This was not an agonizing process because the expectations were “pragmatic.” Look for colleges that truly fit your multidimensional interests (programs, atmospherics, location).</p>
<p>“There was no place for a kid like this at a top 10 college?” Not unless he is a minority or first generation international student in this country with parents from overseas. Just returned from an ivies tour and all of their admission information speeches were brutally frank about this. (We were shocked.) Carnegie Mellon will accept about 50 white male candidates for next year for their computer science program. They received over 6,600 applications just for the CS dept. this past admission cycle and they only take 130 students and 30% were female. Don’t let the admission statistics on the web sites fool you. It depend on the program as to their admission rates. The ones which are very popular (STEM) have much, much lower rates than you are led to believe due to the large number of apps. </p>
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<p>So what’s wrong? He did not get shut out (being shut out means getting 0 affordable admissions).</p>
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<p>They can vent. Somewhere where it does not constitute an attack on the OP. There is a thread specifically for getting things off one’s chest. Just a suggestion.</p>
<p>I have not witnessed any attacks on the OP- but I totally appreciate the suggestion for where a person could place such a thing. Thanks! 
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<p>Laughing, because the OP’s list of colleges is almost an exact duplicate of our son’s a few years ago.
Denied 2 Ivys and Stanford
Waitlisted Rice
Accepted UNC, UVA, Vanderbilt, U-MD, William and Mary, Villanova, Wake Forest…(couple more I don’t remember)</p>
<p>The difference is he was thrilled with the outcome, and so were we.
He is very happily attending one of the above lowly (sarcasm) schools where he was accepted.</p>
<p>*Unfortunately, every school’s admissions decisions are discrete from all others…so a three per cent chance of getting in for the average really smart, involved student without any special hooks (other than being a fabulous all-around kid) is really just about a three percent chance ----the chance doesn’t multiply by applying to more schools.
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<p>This has the premise exactly backwards. If the admission decisions were truly independent, then they would be additive. (Think dice rolls. You have a 1 in 6 chance of rolling a double on any given roll of two dice. You have a 2 in 6 chance of rolling a double in two rolls. And no, a 6 in 6 chance in 6 rolls does not mean you are guaranteed a double.) It is the fact that the decisions at highly selective places like the Ivies are made on similar considerations - i.e., NOT discrete from all others - that leads to the outcome that applying to all of the Ivies does not mean that you have an 8x greater chance of admission.</p>
<p>Agree that there are some very good choices in his acceptance list, but understand the disappointment as his stats are quite good. What kind of financial aid, if any, did he need?</p>