This is exactly because lower income kids do not have the resources to achieve the academic levels required for admissions to these colleges.
Well, that, and the fact that they are criminally overpriced.
2 Likes
We live to serve 
2 Likes
I agree with you. And I think all colleges would do a lot better in attracting and admitting a racially and socioeconomically diverse class if they simply lowered their cost of attendance.
3 Likes
Not the case at UC.
True for all but Berkeley, with UCLA being especially good. UIUC is also good, as is SUNY Stony Brook, and some others.
What is needed is both good financial aid AND having low income kids getting an education which would allow them to qualify for admissions. So UVA has excellent financial aid, but poor kids from Virginia are not getting the education required to be admitted. So the number of poor kids at UVA is ridiculously low.
3 Likes
Whatās really needed is a reversal of the winner-take-all society America has become, which has even warped the mission and policies of the educational system. But I digress.
8 Likes
Ooh, I would love to see a separate thread on this, or to be pointed to an older thread on this topic if there is one. I am so curious about this. My spouse and I were just wondering today if kids from rich families āfail to launchā at the same rate as everyone else. What happens when they go to college and just kind of get through it? How does that look different from the outside compared to less wealthy families? To be clear, I am not defining the term āfailure to launchā, nor am I criticizing anyone who might be placed in that category. People have all kinds of struggles that lead to many different outcomesā¦ Would love to hear your perspective!
2 Likes
If future income is any indication . . .
3 Likes
Yes, mine had a similar experience with a tutorung nonprofit. Seems like so many kids in her magnet school started these! One may have been music related as well. She volunteered andā¦crickets. Nothing happened.
There was another kid in our area who is lovely but whose mom ran a nonprofit and claimed it was the kid. We always joked about whether the nonprofit would still be around when kid X went to Harvard. Funny thing, kid X just posted she is going to our state flagship!
Maybe the fact that mine did not āstartā her own but rather did some Meals on Wheels here, some violin for old folksā home there and some tutoring for NHS actually helped her get into top schools!
3 Likes
Our public school heavily subsidizes AP cost for FARMs families.
1 Like
Dās public high school, which had 40% kids on free and reduced lunch, payed for AP tests for all students in the corresponding classes, BUT taking the AP test was mandatory to receive the corresponding AP course credit on the transcript (I believe it has something to do with funding; the more kids take AP exams, the better). However, one would have to pay on their own if they wanted to take an AP exam without completing the corresponding AP course.
Who told you that Harvard took someone off the waitlist?
@scattermomgram - the blog with the article you shared back in March (based on 2025 data) has been now posted some 2026 info. Another Year of Record-Breaking College Applications! - Collegiate Gateway
2 Likes
Iām seeing posts that there has been Brandeis and bucknell WL movement.
1 Like
Yes, thanks @akabo1 , I saw that. Sigh on having a kid fall in perhaps the worst timing ever. I think next year could be as bad but if they add back in test requirements (as MIT, UNC, and some others have already), it might shift back. Itās a small consolation to see your studentās dream-not-achieved school (Williams) be in the mind-blowing, unprecedented stat side of the bar chart - but only small. 
Hoping when all is said and done and we move out of this stage of a long (hellish, chaotic) application process and into the time where sheās actually attending, this will all be a wince in the past.
YUP what you just stated! Love to read about your second topice. lol
The NC state system decided not to require test scores next year (after having said they would require them). The Tennessee publics will require tests next year (in addition to Florida publics and some Georgia publics, but they also required tests this past cycle).
https://www.northcarolina.edu/standard-test-requirement-waiver/
Huh - thought I remember reading about UNC schools bc Iām originally from there. But yes, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, several military, and - of course - Georgetown, which has always loved those test scores!
(Aside: I remember my daughter deciding not to apply to Georgetown bc they required every test, ever taken which would even go back to her CTY scores (where you take in middle school bc of high standardized test scores) - it wasnāt even the scores, it was the principle. She was annoyed. Lol!)
For sure there will be many more that stay test optional, especially if they do a better job with yield calculations this year, but I think there will be a lot that reinstate them.
All will be water under the bridge for my 1580-scoring DD where they didnāt really weigh in all that much this past year. Ah wellā¦
1 Like
Wow, Stanford yield very close to 100% for the class of 2025!
1 Like
The previous link didnāt consider gap year kids correctly when calculating yield. The actual figures are:
Applied During Class of 2025 Cycle ā 1757/2190 = 80% Yield
Gap Year Kids from Class of 2024 Cycle = 369 Students
Total Class Size = 1757 + 369 = 2126
Yield does not equal 2126/2190 = 97%, as listed in link.
2 Likes