Go visit and then decide, if you can travel!
@bretsky: That’s crazy.
- I don’t think your HS classmates understand how capricious and far-from-fair admissions to the American Ivies/equivalents are.
- When it comes to churning out Silicon Valley founders, Waterloo is up there with MIT and Stanford.
I’m an American, so I’d have to pay more for Waterloo than you do, but for CS, the only schools I’d choose over Waterloo are HSMP.
You’re in HS so you fall in to the trap of thinking that admissions difficulty is heavily correlated with the level of education or alumni success when that isn’t always the case.
@ANormalSeniorGuy: Stop thinking of schools along just one (arbitrary) dimension and bucket by category instead. The way public schools admit and the stuff they emphasize (especially for in-state) may be pretty different from the stuff the elite privates emphasize.
"For future applicants to Ivies:
In my opinion, if you’re an unhooked applicant (meaning not URM/legacy/athlete/first-gen or someone with connections or from an underrepresented area) the only possible way of getting into multiple Ivies is to have a very strong focus in one field. Having that “spike” really helps."
@doorrealthe I fully agree. The Ivies seem to really prefer “pointy” kids. I think that for many middle class kids they grow up with access to and interests in a number of different areas (sports, music, Scouts, performing arts and academic-type pursuits and many will naturally carry 3 or 4 of these into high school as they really enjoy the activities. In addition, it seems like some suburban parents push their kids into being on one varsity team (even though this may provide diminishing returns in terms of being too well-rounded (i.e., not "pointy enough) and taking time away from studying.
The problem that occurs for international kids is that they may not have enough extracurricular opportunities and competitions to become pointy enough for an Ivy, particularly if their interests lie in a non-STEM field, which then hurts them in admissions. This is just another example to illustrate how the whole Ivy admissions process is just becoming a bit of a joke.
That just shows how important it is to have a balanced list of schools to apply to. Especially since, with ever increasing competition and idiosyncracy at the top (really the top 100 now), many match schools should be considered reaches and many that were safeties 5-10 years ago should be considered matches.
BTW, I do think that LACs (especially the really small/tiny ones) appreciate well-roundedness more as they need kids who do multiple things and not enough numbers to do so.
@PurpleTitan Thanks. I agree on both your points. DD spent a lot of time on picking match and safety schools and ended up with some great choices. On your second point, the London kids do very well with not only getting into top 20 LACs (particularly as many other UK kids are not still not aware of them) but really enjoying the educational experience.
I agree that Ivies are searching for kids with a “spike” in their application, but if you center your high school experience around trying to get into one of these schools, you just wasted 4 years of your life. Just have fun, enjoy your time being a kid, explore the fields you’re interested in and hope for the best. If you don’t get accepted to your dream school, move on with your life. There are things far more important than an acceptance letter
^Also, you shouldn’t dream about schools.
“Just have fun, enjoy your time being a kid, explore the fields you’re interested in and hope for the best.”
Yes, I agree. I probably didn’t articulate that I do not approve of kids (or their parents) who try to make themselves pointy only to get into an Ivy League college. If a kid enjoys, say, playing, say 2 varsity sports, writing for the school newspaper and playing in a garage band, then he/she should continue to do so.
What should I write in my LOCI if I have no significant improvement in my honors and etc, Please help, I am desperate!!! I didn’t apply to any safety school, so this is my last chance.
@futureleader14 which school u r waitlisted. Write a strong LOCI that how that college is ur first choice. Tell them that u ll go if taken off the WL. Let them know u r a good fit. Write a strong passionate essay.