No U of Alabama in the last three years.
Here is an excerpt from another posters chance me post this morningâŠ
âCaucasian male American in well-regarded public school in New York. (for example, in this yearâs graduating class of 300, over a dozen are going Ivy, including 3 going to Yale).â
Looks like your high schools experience was not shared by all similar schools.
I canât speak for HM or T, but have heard from multiple reliable sources that Riverdale has had a fantastic year. Record #s to Ivies+.
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Every class (year to year) is not equal - or equally strong. At the BS my kid attended, there would be (pre-covid) years with a half dozen admits to MIT and the next year, none.
I am also guessing that how some schools-- and the students at them - navigated covid could also have a role where there are sweeping statements.
If a school usually has a high number of recruited athletes but was in a state where there was limited play during covid, that - compounded by the fact that colleges still have bloated rosters from covid, could have an impact.
As always, there are so many threads to this cloth.
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Thanks! I had specifically heard that from Dalton and Collegiate parents (in both cases with kids who were disappointed so may be some bias) so my fault for extrapolating. Apologies.
I hadnât heard this from D parents (either way), but yes, I did hear that C parents were disappointed.
Thatâs an overly narrow reading of the statement. Itâs not just education from the perspective of the teachers but also learning for the students.
There are three parts to the seeking of excellence:
Education = Teachers
Learning = Students
Research = PhDs and beyond
They want to admit those students who are most capable of learning at the âhighest international levels of excellenceâ without any reference to their gender, race etc. Enabling the âwidest possible accessâ means that itâs not just the highest exam scores (hence interviews to identify the most talented students and contextual offers to account for poor high schools), but it certainly isnât dependent on your ECs or ability at sports.
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At the end of the day was this year really that different than any other? So far, at our suburban MA public HS it seems like things are going pretty much as usual - Iâve heard of a handful of Ivy acceptances so far and expect to hear of others (most kids havenât announced their choices yet). Likewise there seem to be a good number of kids getting into the usual popular choices: BU, Northeastern, UMass Amherst, UVM etc as well as some selective LACs. Every year about 60 kids go to top 50 schools but the mix of schools is always changing and Iâm sure that will be the case this year.
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I just checked our public HSâs profile. Theyâve had 6 or more students matriculate to Columbia, U of Chicago, Northwestern, U Michigan, NYU, amongst others. A couple every year, including last cycle matriculated to Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Cal Tech, MIT, JHU, CMU, etc⊠Class of over 800 students.
In looking back through previous profiles, it looks pretty consistent.
Editing to add that this must be for last cycle since we arenât at May1st yet!
Sorry folks. (At least consistent through last year with Covid uncertainty for '21).
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The results are out for this year? Before May 1?
Thankâs a good point! This must still be last year!. Sorry for the confusion!
Iâll try to edit!
In our very competitive HS, this year has been anything but typical. No Harvard or Northwestern. Very few UMich (we usually get a lot) and in general fewer highly selective schools. In general terms, ethnicity seems to have played a major role. Most of those admitted to highly selective schools had a URM card to play even though they come from very well off families. It seems that ethnicity, not socioeconomic background was a significant factor in our school.
Asian kids seemed to be hurt the most this year. Everyone else did significantly worse than historically. These are my observations from our school. I canât necessarily extrapolate this nationally, but the pattern is repeating itself in all our local public schools.
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I think most people who frequent College Confidential know what âisâ when it comes to college admissions. You quite accurately describe what is. But what people are arguing about in this thread is what is vs. what was, and by extension, what they think selective college admissions should be. The fact that private colleges essentially have legal carte blanche to build their student bodies does not grant their admissions practices immunity from societal criticism, especially when selective colleges are tantamount to tax-exempt hedge funds. Moreover, as an alum and 20+ year interviewer at a T10, I remain a stakeholder of that brand and plan to continue voicing my concerns, as such.
Substitute âlegacy admissionsâ for âdiversity admissionsâ and your line of reasoning mounts an eloquent defense of legacies, which are unfair (no quotes around âunfairâ required) based on any coherent ethical framework. I would extend that unfairness to the lower admissions standards applied to recruited athletes. Others seem to take issue with aspects of diversity initiatives. In sum, one can just throw up his or her hands and say âoh well, private colleges can do as they pleaseâ. Or, one can remain critical of private colleges and the policies with which they disagree. Sustained pressure has, and can, prompt change. Thatâs the subject upon which this thread deals, not non-existent rules. The latter is just the Nth straw man in the thread.
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As more information trickle in from my D22âs classmates, it looks like itâs a down year for HYPSM offers at her school but looking more broadly (other Ivy, Ivy+ and SLACs) the results are probably in line with prior years.
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My Dâs class was particularly strong and they did well in college admissions. I think that during Covid and through the test optional movement, a number of âregularâ public school students have caught up with their private school and elite public school counterparts in applying for spots at top colleges and hoping the funding comes through. That has worked out for several of the students in my Dâs small public high school, which offers very few AP courses.
How do we know one high school has stronger students on average than another? Or one class in one year is stronger on average than another class in another year within the same high school? Without something called standardized test, we canât compare them, can we?
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But hereâs the thing: if, say, Harvard made an âerrorâ in not admitting a kid â or all the ivies made that error â that kid would still rise to the top, and would still be successful! So, it really is ok if that kid doesnât go to an Ivy League school!
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I agree.
They do ask for vertical leap, historic statistics, physical, coach recommendations and Wonderlick Mental Acuity test scores to choose amongst premier players. In the case of current LA Laker LeBron James legacy actually does play a roleâŠ
https://www.si.com/nba/heat/.amp/miami-news/miami-heat-lebron-james-ken-griffey-jr
ââMy last year will be played with my son,â James told The Athletic. âWherever Bronny is at, thatâs where Iâll be. I would do whatever it takes to play with my son for one year. Itâs not about the money at that point.â
Very different than college admissions in many ways. Similar however in that there are far more applicants than spots and part of the decision is subjective and specific to the needs of the one making the decision.
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If that level of evaluation and scrutiny were applied to every student applying to a college, I think there would be a lot more confidence in the process. Anyway, I changed my post-no need to create a long chain about how whether recruitment into the NBA and college admissions are analogous.
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