Good overview article on the current state of college admissions

Parents Forum
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<p>The article mentions her spending a summer working with her Latvian grandfather, not a URM category as far as I know. </p>

<p>Googling her mom's name turns up the parents' wedding listing in the NYT, which says she is Filipino, which is not URM according to the HHS definition:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.apiahf.org/policy/culturalcompetence/20040710comments_underserved.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.apiahf.org/policy/culturalcompetence/20040710comments_underserved.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The wedding article also suggests a comfortable family background: father is an orthopedic surgeon and mother was an OR nurse at Mt. Sinai studying for her M.S.N. at the time of their wedding 20 years ago.</p>

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<p>Her credentials are no big deal - very common</p>

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<p>APOL not Zoosermom, but Naviance produces a piece of software called Counselor's Office ( <a href="http://naviance.com/products/workspacek12/co.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://naviance.com/products/workspacek12/co.html&lt;/a> ) that is a whole package of stuff that helps high school students and counselors keep track of the college application process. The most useful bit is the scattergram. In principal anyone could make their own scattergrams using any spreadsheet software. The program has grades in the vertical axis, SAT scores in the horizontal axis and then color codes acceptances (green) and rejections (red). It may also show deferrals, waitlists (blue) or early action admits and rejections by using different shapes in addition to colors. There will be a separate scattergram for each college, usually with at least a couple of years worth of data. It makes it very easy to see what your child's chances might be. For example at some schools there were no rejection below certain SAT scores or GPAs which were well below my son's. But at Stanford the only two acceptances were from the middle of the pack. (I later found out one was an athlete the other a URM and a legacy and politically connected.) Other places (Harvard) a quarter of the kids with my son's stats were accepted.</p>

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<p>Zooser, another poster put up the link to the Bronx Science Naviance scattergrams. </p>

<p><a href="https://connection.naviance.com/fc/s...hsid=bxscience%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://connection.naviance.com/fc/s...hsid=bxscience&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>password for guest entrance is guest1</p>

<p>All scattergrams are fascinating, in my opinion. They reveal the nuances of acceptance patterns from school to school.</p>

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<p>Yes, I'm sure the Stanford stats from California high schools don't look nearly as arbitrary as ours did. I have to wonder which public schools around here do get treated more fairly by Stanford. Our HYP stats look the way you'd expect. Top students get in - with occasional outliers who still have decent grades and stats, but are noticably lower than the others. One presumes they brought something else to the table, unforunately the scattergram doesn't tell you what. That's where a real live counselor can give you the scoop if they are willing.</p>