<p>To all of the parents of Ivy League + Stanford + MIT accepted students: </p>
<p>First, Congrats on the acceptances! :) </p>
<p>Second, Do you have any tips and info for future applicants? </p>
<p>Thanks, </p>
<p>IvyLeagueMom2020</p>
<p>Ivy. Are you talking to this year’s accepted students or any year? For this year, the only current acceptances would be early ones.</p>
<p>Regarding what to do…your student needs to have TOP grades, TOP SAT or ACT scores, excellent letters of reference, excellent essays. </p>
<p>Even with that, one needs to realize that these schools accept about 5% of applicants…translation…95% are not accepted. In those not accepted, there are some mighty well qualified applicants.</p>
<p>What CAN and SHOULD you do? Make sure you have a well balanced list of schools on your application list. Absolutely apply to those Ivies and the like if you feel you are a well qualified candidate. But do NOT count on admission to these schools. There are very few applicants who are guaranteed an offer of admission (and they would include folks like the offspring of presidents, those donating MILLIONS to the school, and the like).</p>
<p>The only think I would add is to remember, you need to stand out. And while you might think being president of a club, or captain of a team will do that, think about it a little more. In your school alone, how many clubs and teams are there, and they all have presidents and captains. Now expand that to your town, county state etc. You get the idea. </p>
<p>Try to think about some of your interest and see if there is something outside of school that you can do that will really make you stand out and show that you know how to take advantage of opportunities that are out there for you to explore. Being a Val, Sal, Capt. or Pres is an accomplishment, but you absolutely won’t be the only one applying who has that on their application. You want to stand out if you can.</p>
<p>Well, my offspring finished college quite a long time ago now. (I joined the board when I had a kid in law school.) </p>
<p>That said, I think it helps to have independent verification of excellence. So, if your kid is a good writer or artist, have him/her enter [About</a> Scholastic | The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards](<a href=“http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/artwriting.htm]About”>http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/artwriting.htm) or other contests where his/her work will be judged by experts. </p>
<p>Artists should also check out [Home[/url</a>] (National Portfolio Day). In fact, if that’s your kid’s strength, start looking at the rules of a few colleges regarding submission of art works. It takes time to get a good portfolio together. </p>
<p>If (s)he’s good at math and doesn’t have access to math competitions at school, [url=<a href=“http://www.usamts.org/]USA”>http://www.usamts.org/]USA</a> Mathematical Talent Search](<a href=“http://portfolioday.net/]Home[/url”>http://portfolioday.net/) might be of interest. </p>
<p>If (s)he is a good actor, [National</a> Shakespeare Competition - English-Speaking Union of the United States](<a href=“http://www.esuus.org/esu/programs/shakespeare_competition/]National”>ESU National Shakespeare Competition - The English-Speaking Union) might be of interest. </p>
<p>If (s)he excels in historical research and is a good writer, shelling out $40 to submit to this [Varsity</a> Academics | Home of the Concord Review, the National Writing Board](<a href=“http://www.tcr.org/tcr/]Varsity”>The Concord Review, Inc. - tcr/cfva.htm) might be worth it. </p>
<p>This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, of course. The idea is that having a respected, independent organization vouch for your excellence helps. In most cases, it’s not just the winners who help their apps. The very fact a kid sought out these competitions is a plus. Getting any recognition definitely helps. It’s a good thing if your history teacher says you wrote the best research paper submitted by anyone at your high school your year. It’s a better thing if it gets published in The Concord Review.</p>
<p>Defining yourself as IvyLeagueMom isn’t really a good thing to do. Please do not be one of those pathetic parents who thinks that success is only found in a handful of colleges. It’s way too much pressure on a kid, and it’s simply not true.</p>
<p>Must agree… the name is premature.</p>
<p>Not to worry, it is my high school D who is shooting for the Ivies, I based my name on her goals. :)</p>
<p>The best thing you can do is make sure that you and your kid realize that there are many great schools outside of the Ivy League and that he/she can be happy at one of those schools and get a great education.</p>
<p>Your daughter needs to be painfully aware of the admissions statistics at the Ivies. They are VERY low. She needs to understand that a LOT of very well qualified applicants get denied admission every year…and some at multiple Ivy schools.</p>
<p>She absolutely MUST have schools with excellent admissions chances on her application list. These could be the MOST important schools she chooses. It’s easy to choose the Ivies. But if that is ALL you think you want, it becomes very hard to pick other schools that are more attainable.</p>
<p>The best gift you can give your daughter is the reality check that the Ivies are great schools…but there are PLENTY of other great schools as well. </p>
<p>Then help her find some for HER application list.</p>
<p>OP you have gotten some great advice here. Read it carefully.</p>
<p>As a parent, the very best thing you can do is seek out and promote to you daughter target and safety schools. Try to find ones that will spark her interest and enthusiasm. Take her to visit them. You won’t need to promote the reach schools to her. They’re easy to fall in love with.</p>
<p>jonri has great advice. The applications for these organizations can be a pain in the a$$. Help your daughter out by promoting her work. Find the opportunities and help with the applications and start early! Turnaround on awards can be many months. Junior year could be too late to help.</p>
<p>With regard to reach school applications, think about the one or two sentences the admissions officer will say to sum up your daughter to the committee who is about to take a vote. As parentofpeople suggested, there needs to be something special and interesting there. If she just does everything the typical high achievers do she’ll come across as just, well, typical.</p>
<p>Don’t just spew stuff out on the application. Think about what every word, award and activity says about you. Start early, write, set aside for a week and repeat.</p>
<p>I think many see this as contest for the highest rank, highest and most test scores and most activities; whereas, the admissions officers aren’t really looking for that.</p>
<p>@parentofpeople Well said!</p>
<p>If you haven’t visited schools, it is hard to know if they are a good fit.
Schools within the Ivy athletic conference are also very different from each other.
Students just look pathetically desperate when they apply to all of them.</p>
<p>It is not a good way to live, for your daughter, thinking too much about getting into an Ivy. They are just schools. (I speak from experience.) Top SAT’s aren’t the biggest factor, either. The main thing is that selective colleges are trying to assemble an interesting mix of students, as a whole, so it is really about how the individual will add to that whole. You cannot really control that.</p>
<p>Tell your daughter to enjoy high school and help her pursue her interests naturally. She can apply to a range of schools and she will end up where she should end up. Going outside of her school to pursue interests is always a good thing too, if it deepens them.</p>
<p>Have you asked her why she wants to go to an Ivy? What is her reasoning? Try to help her understand how many great schools are out there. Loren Pope’s “Colleges that Change Lives” (book and website and fairs) and “Looking Beyond the Ivies” are good resources.</p>
<p>Tell your daughter that it doesn’t make sense to shoot for the Ivy League.</p>
<p>Rather, it makes sense to aim for colleges that are well suited for her and affordable for her family. The selection may include one or more schools that happen to be in the Ivy League – or similarly selective schools that are not part of that sports league – but the Ivy designation shouldn’t be the reason for applying.</p>
<p>My kid who got into an Ivy has since graduated from a different school that was a better school for him. I think a large part of why he got in was that he was himself 100%. He even told his interviewer it wasn’t his first choice (he was a comp sci guy and ended up choosing a more tech oriented school.) He got grade grades and great scores, but more importantly he pursued the thing that interested him to a level that was well beyond that of the average high schools student. (Took AP Comp Sci as a freshman and worked part time and summers in the field doing work at a level that got him fantastic outside recommendations.)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say you should shoot for the Ivy League, but you should be aware that there may be better schools out there for your kid. And that the chances are so low of being accepted that it’s more important to figure out what those other great schools are, and where your kid would be happy, rather than focusing on seven schools that have very different strengths and weaknesses.</p>
<p>I made my kid apply to one Ivy because he was a legacy and our high school had pretty good acceptances from them, I figured he’d still be better off there than his two safeties, but none of the other schools he applied to were Ivies.</p>
<p>The Ivy League schools are not all the same in academic and non-academic fit factors. For example, Cornell and Dartmouth are rather different schools.</p>
<p>In any case, fixating only on super-selective schools is basically asking for a letdown if the student has no other school that she likes.</p>
<p>Here is what can happen if the student has no safeties that she likes:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/47867-were-picking-up-pieces-but-what-went-wrong.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/47867-were-picking-up-pieces-but-what-went-wrong.html</a></p>
<p>
Many on this forum seem to think that admissions to selective colleges like the ones you have listed are primarily based on GPA, test scores, class rank, and other numbers. While it does help to have good numbers, it’s quite common for lower scoring students to be chosen over higher scoring students. Selective colleges are generally not looking for robots who always get top scores on tests and don’t do much else. They are looking for dynamic individuals who truly enjoy learning, accomplish amazing things outside of the classroom, inspire those around themselves, enhance the college campus with their experiences and personalities, are likely to make an impact on the college/world, etc. The vast majority of the postings I’ve seen in the decision threads for selective colleges on this forum have great stats, but they often do not have great subjective criteria like ECs, awards, and other things that makes them unique from the many other applicants. This can lead to surprising conclusions from the threads, such as the rejected posters in the Stanford RD thread having higher median GPA/SAT/class rank/course rigor/… than the accepted posters. </p>
<p>I’d also think about why Ivy League? The Ivy League is an athletic league in the northeast. It is not a collection of the best 8 colleges by any academic, reputation, or other measure. There are many colleges, including ones outside of the northeast, that are also excellent and may be a better fit.</p>
<p>1)Think of these schools as zoos, art or auto collections. Ask yourself whether you are an exotic worthy of inclusion? Would you rank a space on Noah’s Ark?
2)Got Mandarin? How about yuan?
3)Better to be rich man or poor man than the oreo middle.
4)You can be perfectly unhappy at the perfect school.<br>
5)Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.
6)You don’t always get what you want, but hopefully you get what you need, wherever that may be.
7)Many of the Ivy League schools are difficult and expensive to travel to if you don’t live in the northeast. If you don’t live there, you may never see your child/parents/family/childhood friends again.
8)For the brand/label conscious applicant, best not to sport a LV or Fendi bag at your alumni interview.</p>
<p>"I’d also think about why Ivy League? The Ivy League is an athletic league in the northeast. It is not a collection of the best 8 colleges by any academic, reputation, or other measure. There are many colleges, including ones outside of the northeast, that are also excellent and may be a better fit.,</p>
<p>OP, why do you think the Ivies are somehow more special or magical than other elite universities? What do you think binds them together and separates them apart from the others, and who told you that?</p>
<p>Seriously, “Harvard Schmarvard” by Jay Mathews is a good read for anyone who believes he has to attend one of these schools to succeed or be happy. I always remind applicants that students make their own success, not institutions. As a proportion of the population, very few of those having the greatest societal impact attended any of these schools; indeed a few dropped out.</p>