<p>this is CC101, but its a nice overview for those parents new to the game....</p>
<p>
[quote]
The sad truth about college admissions</p>
<p>Your honors student may earn straight A's, spend summers digging irrigation ditches in Guatemala, and captain the soccer team...but it still may not be enough for him or her to get into a top school. Here's why.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Some of the stuff they were listing as stellar credentials...5 ap classes, National Commended Scholar, after school community service...those are things that are ho-hum by CC standards.</p>
<p>I'm having trouble getting the article from the link. Anybody else?</p>
<p>I can't pull it up either.</p>
<p>looks like they moved it...try this:
<a href="http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708300337%5B/url%5D">http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708300337</a></p>
<p>first few paragraphs
[quote]
Melissa Dzenis was devastated when she found out she hadn't been accepted to Yale, where she applied Early Action last year. The Pelham honor student cried for two nights straight, says her mother, Estrellita. "It was a very stressful time for the whole family. I told her things happen for the best. God has a reason for everything."</p>
<p>Granted, Yale has a long history of breaking the hearts of bright Westchester teens, but even by its own standards, Melissa would appear to be a worthy candidate. There's the five AP courses she took, her stellar test scores (she was a National Merit Honors-commended student), the three sports she played, the hours she spent tutoring her peers after school, the slew of other honors she received (including Vice President of the National Honor Society), and even the weekends spent coaching Girls CYO basketball teams ("I didn't sleep very much," she jokes). There's also the summer job at her grandfather's woodworking factory in Latvia, her Model UN experience, and the fact that she's played the flute and piano since grade school. In other words, she has the credentials. Beyond all that, however, when she speaks, Melissa comes across as intellectually curious and genuinely passionate about learning. And, after all, isn't that what colleges are looking for?</p>
<p>The problem is that there are thousands of Melissa Dzenises and not enough freshman spots at top universities like Yale. If this were three or four years ago, Melissa probably would be singing "Boola Boola" (Yale's fight song), but in the past year seniors from Rye to Hendrick Hudson (and, of course, even outside Westchester) have come face to face with a troubling reality: The college admissions process is stacked against them.</p>
<p>Historic numbers of applicants have swelled the admissions offices of the nation's most competitive schools (an elite group of a couple dozen colleges that, rightly or wrongly, has come to dominate the focus of our nation's bright young things). Williams, for example, saw an increase of 1,000 applicants in the last year, while Northwestern's applicant pool grew by 19 percent (largely due to its decision to accept the common application). Meanwhile, Harvard had 23,000 students vying for 1,662 spots.</p>
<p>Making matters worse, schools that were once considered "safeties" by top students-like Tufts and the University of Michigan-are "basically Ivy League now" in terms of the competition to get in, notes Chappaqua's Lisa Jacobson, founder of Inspirica, a tutoring and SAT prep program.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>woah thats our local newspaper</p>
<p>this is what happens when your family doesnt get the newspaper</p>
<p>"There's the five AP courses she took, her stellar test scores (she was a National Merit Honors-commended student), the three sports she played, the hours she spent tutoring her peers after school, the slew of other honors she received (including Vice President of the National Honor Society), and even the weekends spent coaching Girls CYO basketball teams ("I didn't sleep very much," she jokes). There's also the summer job at her grandfather's woodworking factory in Latvia, her Model UN experience, and the fact that she's played the flute and piano since grade school. "</p>
<p>I don't see anything in the above that indicates that such a student would be a Yale EA admit or even a Yale admit RD. No surprise in the decision to me. I agree that it's CC101.
The only thing newsy about the article is that so many parents and students still are surprised by how competitive colleges now are due to the large numbers of high school seniors, a number that will continue to increase until about 2011.</p>
<p>As the article said, "There are a thousand Melissas..."</p>
<p>The positive side to this big crush of applicants is that all those Melissas will be (or should be) looking closely at colleges other than the Big Dozen or so. Perhaps the word will finally spread that there are other schools that do a fine job educating students. In the end, I think that is a healthy reform of the higher education situation.</p>
<p>I dislike the term "hook", but it is what it is. I think an inventive student, otherwise qualified, should include a fishhook in his application brightly labeled "this is my hook".</p>
<p>I guess that until the most selective colleges really do something to dismantle the admissions arms race, students will go to rediculous extremes to make themselves noticed. I would enjoy seeing just one of these colleges take the applications of all academically qualified students, pick them randomly and see what happens.</p>
<p>I think that part of the frustration and disappointment is that the hooks that would've helped the Melissas of this world are beyond their control: they can't just decide to become a recruited athlete, URM, legacy, or full-pay student (if the context were a need-aware one). I'm sure she and others like her feel like "what else could I possibly have done . . . and still I wasn't good enough." </p>
<p>Of course going to Tufts, Bowdoin, or Mich is not exactly high tragedy, but you've still got to feel for a student like her.</p>
<p>Commended? In Westchester? Non-recruited athlete? I'm not buying that sob story. I'm really not buying that the situation was different four years ago. Say what??</p>
<p>Her GCs showed her the scattergrams from her Pelham high school. She knew the standards for students from Westchester were impossible. </p>
<p>Heck, there were probably a couple of hundred of superior applications from Westchester alone--probably most of them were from Westchester girls! that is one of the most competitive counties in the nation.</p>
<p>The story would have been more effective if it was about a kid from a working class suburb.</p>
<p>I'm not from Westchester, but all the other stuff in that article about the kids could have applied to mine- 5+ APs, Nat'l Commended, All-District/Conference Athlete, All State musician, six varsity letters, top 3% of his class...
And we never even considered that he had the right stuff to shoe him in at Yale! What is this reporter thinking? He needs to do some CC surfing.</p>
<p>"I think that part of the frustration and disappointment is that the hooks that would've helped the Melissas of this world are beyond their control: they can't just decide to become a recruited athlete, URM, legacy, or full-pay student "</p>
<p>Judging by her name and her mom's name, it seems that Melissa was a URM. More evidence that being a URM, legacy or full-pay student isn't guaranteed to tip in at places like HPYS even students who would be accepted in a heartbeat at less competitive colleges. No surprise here, though, for anyone who has been reading CC for a while.</p>
<p>when I read the quote my first thought was " what's a * top* school?"</p>
<p>Does it mean a school that has international name familiarity and one that will impress your dentist? Or does it mean one that is a good fit academically, has a strong student body and opportunities for students to succeed in a variety of areas?</p>
<p>Just what is the criteria? ;)
* rhetorical question- Ive taken CC 101 so I already know the answer for the prototypical parent*</p>
<p>Is scattergram information for admissions from a particular high school only available through Naviance?</p>
<p>zoosermom-- guidance counselors having been constructing scattergrams for years. IMO, they are one of the best tools available to students, their parents & GCs in formulating an application strategy for any given student at a particular HS. Naviance is a relatively new system that allows those scattergrams to be web-accessible to users through a password protected connection, maintained & input by the HS's GCs. To cheers' point, virtually any school worth their salt would have allowed (or required) their college-applying students to view the HS's scattergrams either through Naviance or by inspection of manually-input graphs.</p>
<p>"zoosermom-- guidance counselors having been constructing scattergrams for years."</p>
<p>Zoosersister's GC doesn't give out that information, unfortunately.</p>
<p>Many schools do not give out their scattergrams--but they do allow parent and child to come in and meet with GC and view the scattergrams.</p>
<p>Interesting point about the URM status, NSM.</p>
<p>doubleplay--your son does sound like a good candidate--because of his gender.</p>
<p>Zoosermom---can you go into more details as to what a scattergram is? Is it a software product GC use? if so, how does the school buy it? I have not heard of it. I would like to mention it to the guidance counseling office at local public hs. Thank you for your insight, and wisdom! APOL</p>