I don’t get that College Kickstart list. Is says class of 2025 but then 2020 stats? One of those dates needs to be wrong. I think it’s supposed to be class of 2024 with 2020 stats.
No way Colgate let kids off of the WL for class of 2025 (which would be 2021 stats). They were 150 kids overenrolled from the get go. We’ve been privy to that information from the day that D21 committed.
I wonder if UW seemed less lively because the students were all on spring break…
Oh, definitely! I meant to mention that while it was nice to have the campus set aside just for the Admitted Student event, I thought it would have been nice to see the campus when classes were in session. But I completely understand why they did it that way because it might have been overwhelming with an influx of 10k additional people on the campus for the day. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to visit again because of the distance.
IU/Kelly Biz School is a big recruiting hub for Fortune 500 companies!
For all those here looking for gap year and deferral letter information, I have some tips on writing that all-important deferral letter!
Address the “Why”: Colleges want to know why you would like to take a gap year and what you hope to get out of it. You should be able to describe several personal goals and why you want to build your gap year around them.
Don’t Stress If You Don’t Have It All Planned Out: Your deferral letter isn’t binding – if your plans change, your college won’t hold it against you. They are most interested in your intentions for the year and making sure it will be well spent. Colleges know that plans could change and evolve this year based on the real-time situation.
Describe Your Planning Process: If you are working with a gap year counselor, attended a virtual USA Gap Year Fair or have been planning your gap year for some while, you may want to mention that.
Request ASAP: All colleges that offer a gap year deferral have a firm deadline that usually falls between May-July. It behooves your this year to get your request in asap, since institutions may cap how many requests are granted.
Feel free to reach out directly if you have any questions!
Both are amazing schools! Look forward to hearing his final decision.
Here’s a nice piece with some valuable perspective on the process.
Thank you for posting that. Last Thursday, two friends called me in tears because their daughters hadn’t gotten into any of the Ivies they’d applied to and “their dreams were dashed.” I couldn’t do anything but listen, because no one wants advice at that moment, but I hope that at some point they are able to help their kids appreciate the schools that did say yes to them (all “known” schools that no one here would scoff at), even if they aren’t the tippy-top “elite” colleges they expected to attend. Before the process of applying to colleges even begins, I think it’s so important for kids to understand there are no guarantees and a “no” isn’t an indictment of their worth or character. If we wait until after the decisions start rolling in to try to teach this lesson to our kids, it’s going to be a lot harder for them to take in.
So true. As a community, we should help kids understand that their worth is not determined by somebody’s acceptance - be it a college, a friend or an employer.
Having seen my child spend so much time writing and rewriting essays all of 1st semester, I am trying to figure out how much of an impact they had on college acceptances. When comparing stats with friends or even here on CC, I see much of the discussions are on GPA, test scores and other awards/activities.
Do you see a significant impact on admissions because of essays ? Especially for kids with high stats, decent extracurriculars/leadership and full pay.
Even this can be a hard conversation to get right. Having read so many cautionary tales here, most of my early conversations with kiddo were about not getting caught up in the prestige, not getting his heart set on a school, etc and I neglected to emphasize the “no” isn’t an indictment message. His teen brain took my message as something like I didn’t believe he was worthy. I thought it was obvious that I thought he was as qualified as anyone and am totally on Team Kiddo, and any school would be lucky to have him. Once I made it clear (thankfully before rejections came) that I wasn’t questioning his worth by suggesting non-prestige-y schools, he seemed better able to take a broader perspective.
In order to hear the “no” as NOT a judgment of their worth, make sure to clearly state all the things that make them worthy, regardless of the eventual outcome. Rejection still stings, but if they feel like there is a potential “I told you so” from a parent on top of it, that is rough. Not saying anyone here is thinking that way, just my personal observation.
I just created a thread asking for input on Lafayette, Kenyon, and Denison if anyone has thoughts and would like to share. I’d be so grateful!
Think I’ll share with my D! 
Interesting change.
They should also add those couple dozen essay drafts edited, re-edited and finally done for all those college applications.
I’ve wondered what impact essays have, too. While college admissions officers tout their holistic approach and promise that every application is carefully read, it’s doubtful that any AO or application reader is spending a significant amount of time reading each essay. It seems all about quick impressions. That suggests to me that most essays from stellar students would get a “neutral” reader response–neither helping nor hurting them; a few would get an “A+” response–with a helpful bump toward the top of the application pile; and a few essays from otherwise stellar students might be received negatively and actually hurt the applicants’ chances.
Then, too, there are LORs–kids have some control over who they choose to write them, but no knowledge of how well they were represented.
There is some amount of luck involved in the admissions process 
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All schools are different. If you look at the Common Data Set they tell you how important each part of the application is to their admissions process
Last night, my D admitted it still stung to get the rejections from the super reach dream schools, even though she knew the odds were long, especially since one of her friends got into both Yale and MIT.
She said she had believed from my husband’s and my messaging her whole life that she could do/become whatever she wanted if she worked hard, but that it didn’t feel true anymore. I told her that it’s still true – she still can become whatever she wants if she works hard at it. She might not become an MIT- or Yale- trained computer scientist, astronomer, or whatever, but she still can do those things and do them well. Those rejections don’t prevent her from doing what she dreams of, she’ll just be launched from a different (also great but not as name brand) school.
I’m glad we talked about it because I thought I’d done enough to prep her for the rejections, but I guess it’s never enough. Letting her share her thought process and examining/challenging it together (and extra hugs) seemed to help. 
I’m now looking for that article I thought someone on CC posted on Ivy Day about someone who’d been rejected by Yale and ended up at the same place as a high school friend who went there. If anyone has that link, please post as I’d like to share with her too.
Thanks everyone for sharing your perspectives and experiences. Having been educated on CC to adjust my own expectations has really helped me help her get through this process.
If you want an objective “calibrator” for GPA and test scores without the influence of essays, extracurriculars, and letters of recommendation, then spend the $112 Canadian dollars to apply to McGill. I bet that a big data project looking at acceptances/denials from McGill and a bunch of different American colleges would “find” the apps where essays/ECs/LORs helped versus hurt. If the holistic stuff isn’t requested, then it isn’t used.
It’s a bit pricey to do on a lark, though.
An important point. I have nine people reporting to me at work, and I don’t know where most of them went to college. The ones I do know, I know mainly as points of conversation, not meaningful metrics for assessing their performance or potential. Obviously it’s not like college is irrelevant to one’s working life, but very quickly into many careers, it’s far from the biggest factor.
