Parents of the HS Class of 2021 (Part 2)

Right, these are invite numbers. Still a lot of no hook company on most live WLs. Some expanded their waitlists more than others. I should have but haven’t compared admit #s to 2019. ND wrote a letter that made them seem very confident they will only take 50-150 and expect a more normal yield cycle. Of course, I personally hope they are wrong about that. Seems BC was feeling less confident as they created a huge WL and are playing it very conservatively.

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I think you have a good shot at getting off the ND waitlist. In the accepted students groups there are quite a few that will not be able to attend due to cost.

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OK I’ll add list to join in the fun. :grinning:

S applied to mostly safeties, though I don’t consider UCs safties, so they were the unknown/reaches for him. He applied as a physics major for all schools.

Accepted: University of Washington (small “fig leaf” scholarship); University of Colorado-Boulder (small scholarship); University of Arizona honors ($30k/yr. scholarship); University of Utah ($14k/yr WUE scholarship); Colorado State honors ($10k/yr WUE); Oregon State ($15k/yr WUE); UCD, UCI, UCSB

Waitlisted: UCLA

Rejected: None

I didn’t know what to expect this year. I’ve been hearing for 10 years that the UCs (except UCM and UCR) are not safeties for anyone, even more so if you are engineering or computer science.

I’m happy with S’s results because I didn’t even know if he would get into any UC. Once in awhile I wish that he had applied to a few private schools just to have that option, but he didn’t. All of S’s schools are good schools, so it’s just a matter of what environment feels right to him. And I echo @NateandAllisMom regarding the prospect of having a residential in-person experience this year. Very happy and excited about that.

Congratulations on all of the acceptances, and sorry about the rejections. While the rejections must sting, at least your kids went for it.

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S21 accepted into :

purdue with 10k honors
umd with 5k honors
UMass Amherst with 16k
UIUC
UCSB
UCD
UCSC
BU with 25k presidential scholarship.

Waitlisted : UCB, UCLA, NEU, UNC-CH

Rejected: USC, Cornell, MIT, JHU, UT-Austin

As of now deciding between BU and UCSB (right now at Boston touring…)

Waiting for Stanford today, applied with a little hope that his sister is there now :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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This was a really crazy admissions cycle and we are seeing in our area the kids that went TO had better outcomes at reaches. I wonder if they did split the groups when doing the app review?

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Wow! These admits are insane! What a bright group of kids. I’m secretly hoping the 2022 thread has a few less super high-achievers so me and my S22 will fit in there.

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Good luck to all our Stanford app kids today!!

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Thank you for sharing your experience and thanks to all of the other parents here who have been so supportive during this grueling year. It is also some comfort to see that my kid is in good company with other accomplished students who got their fair share of WL and R. And it’s wonderful to see how many great options our children are considering.

I am not going to list all of my kid’s results because she is fairly private and I respect that. She applied to 12 schools: 2 safeties (accepted w/honors + merit), 2 matches (accepted with merit), and 8 reaches (4 acceptances, 2 WL, and 2R). In retrospect, it looks like her profile was a better fit for selective LACs than T-30 universities. I am proud of her results.

She’s the whole package, genuinely intellectually curious, strong across all subjects, 99% test scores, NMF, rigorous course load, state and national level awards in her ECs, substantial community service, school leadership positions, great writer, and an overall nice kid. Her school does not rank but she is one of the very top students at her very competitive HS.

The kicker is, of course, that friends and classmates got accepted to places that WL or rejected her, many with stats below hers. And those comparisons sting and lead to the inevitable “why”? I know that she will move on and even before Ivy Day a front runner college began to emerge where I know she will be happy and challenged. But yes, the process was demoralizing, especially after this hideous year. I am hoping and praying for a reasonably normal fall for all of our kids.

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Congrats to all! So glad this season is winding up - it has been a stressful one. Very impressed by how many schools everyone’s kids applied to - it was a struggle to get mine to apply to 7 and two didn’t have essays :slight_smile:

Just to play the game here is where he stands (all for business or intended business):

Admitted: University of Florida, UGA (free tuition), Clemson (50k scholarships), Alabama (116k scholarships)

WL: Georgia Tech, UVA (and I didn’t know there was a bar for this :slight_smile: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)

Rejected: UNC Chapel Hill

Toured UGA yesterday and touring the business school next week and has a roommate so likely where he is headed - although he is not giving up on his waitlists yet!

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We toured UGA last year and I was really impressed with it! They are doing all of the right things there for sure.

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Congratulations to all on acceptances! it has been a hard year to say the least. I haven’t posted much, but here are D21’s current line- up. She is planning on majoring in English/Humanities

Admits - Holy Cross, Boston College and William & Mary
WL - Wake Forest and UCB
Rejects - UCSB, UCLA, Claremont McKenna, Wesleyan, UVA and Villanova

She has it narrowed to BC and WM as her brother is currently at Holy Cross. Love Holy Cross, just looking to stretch her wings a bit away from her brother. We are planning to go visit campuses for these two and do a deeper dive into the English departments of both.

Good Luck to all in the decisión making process!

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This was indeed a crazy year. My S21’s friend had similar results with similar stats/accomplishments, and is going to Rice (the original school he’d thought of EDing to and avoiding the craziness). It’s a fabulous school, and you only need one of those! Congratulations to your D21, and good luck on Stanford!

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Are we the only ones who didn’t try any big reaches? I guess had one because she was rejected! LOL
Reject: UGA
Accepted: Rowan/Honors College; JMU/Honors College; CoC/Honors College; Miami Oh; App State/Residential College; UConn; Syracuse; Susquehanna; WVU/Honors College; ECU

Visiting Charleston for the first time next week, and doing 2nd visits at App State and JMU on the way home, then it’s decision time!

Congrats and good luck to everyone!

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A nice coincidence to have options in a 3-state column of SC, NC, and VA. That makes the trip easy.

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Would love to hear advice/lessons learned to help D22. From looking at the results I don’t think the takeaway is apply to a ton of colleges. (More than 15 or so) Several people said they did it out of panic, but I wonder if they would reconsider? Yet, we are in CA and she will apply to some UCs and CSUs — but for poly sci/public affairs.

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A child of some friends had a really good experience at Aiken Honors College for CofC.

I hope that the weather is nice for your trip to Charleston; save some time for shopping on King Street!

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We have zero regrets about applying broadly. S had a lot of targets on his list, which we are narrowing down. If we had been able to travel he would have applied to fewer and demonstrated more interest at privates. The essays were a bit hard to complete but he started in June with early action round. Fatigue was setting in by the time he got to the NE private essays but he was a trooper.

Although he did well with the UCs, we know several friends and family who did not. Excellent students and athletes. I still feel as if UC is highly unpredictable.

Another thought is that my S is pretty open minded and didn’t have his heart set on any school. Also he didn’t dig in on researching schools as much as my friends’ kids did. Didn’t seem to get much out of virtual presentations. So how many may depend on the kid as well. Ed or ed2 would have been an advantage but he wasn’t ready.

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Our rule of thumb for our kids was to cap the number of schools applied to at no more than 9: thus, 2 safety schools, 2-3 reach schools, the rest being (hopefully) matches. We arrived at those categories by looking at both finances and at the information gleaned from Sections C7 and C9-C11 of the Common Data Sets from our targeted schools, with some advice from our high school’s guidance counselors thrown in.

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This has certainly been an eye opening learning experience. The past few months have felt like we’ve been riding the rapids without a raft. Honestly, I wish we had a “do over.” Although S21 has some good options, now I realize he probably should have cast a wider net and applied to more schools. This business of “fit” is a tough one to get past as a mom. Our kids work so hard over so many years, and this year especially, it seems so many have been told they aren’t the right “fit” for the schools they’ve aspired to. It’s demoralizing and unfortunate. Yes, I know there are too many talented students for too few spaces. Still, I can’t help but feel that college admissions now feels more like playing the lottery than being judged on your accomplishments. :cry:

S21’s Stats:
4.0 uw/4.5 w
1600 SAT (one sitting)
10 APs (5s on all tests taken)
800 SAT2
National Merit scholarship winner
Class President x 3 years
Lots of ECs and leadership, including drama, music, scholastic bowl, marching band (state awards for music)
400+ volunteer hours
Part-time job

Final results:
Accepted: Richmond, Villanova (honors), U of SC (honors), JMU (honors)

Waitlisted: Rice, Northwestern, Columbia

Rejected: Yale

Congrats to all on their acceptances. The Class of 2021 is an amazing bunch and I can’t wait to watch them change the world!

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I agree with @NateandAllisMom the UC’s seem more unpredictable than ever, but you never know. Unfortunately for us, we had poor results with the UC’s. We had a few UC acceptances, but not to the UC’s D wanted.

D wanted to remain in-state and I tried to get her to apply to a few OOS schools, but to no avail. It’s all good though. Best of luck next year.

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