I love this, though I agree it depends on whether or not they in turn instead overload the WL to a meaningfully higher degree than in prior years. If they do, then they’re somewhat violating the spirit of the “no deferral” thing. But if the # of kids on the WL in the end is similar to prior years, then awesome.
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Being in a very similar boat with my S24, I agree it can be somewhat nervewracking at this stage given that they potentially could get in almost anywhere, but the odds are still long at the most selective colleges.
But for what it is worth–with academic profiles like that (which I assume you know are extraordinary even among the “high numbers” kids), I think “normal HS” ECs actually can be enough for a variety colleges, it is just really a matter of whether a given set of readers/committee members click on the personal/fit stuff. Which again is completely unpredictable, but I think as long as the application list and essays were reasonably thoughtful, the odds are high that there will be some really fun choices to make.
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“Teenage Squid Games” made my morning.
Meanwhile, today is C24’s 18th birthday. We sang to them before school, and I embarrassed myself by breaking down into tears halfway through. All of it just hit me in that moment – I could picture my husband singing to C as a newborn and now there was this adult standing in front of me.
Lord knows how I’m gonna make it through admissions decisions. Buy stock in Kleenex, y’all.
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It’s my understanding that post-Varsity Blues some schools do a random audit of acceptances and go back and ask the school counselor to verify file contents (including ECs). Any EC that is big enough to move the needle on admission is going to be verifiable (e.g. international competition).
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Yeah, I think a lot of the unverified exaggerations and such that worry some kids are not actually material to colleges anyway.
But for anything serious, they are basically relying on a random audit system to keep people honest.
My best friends daughter who is applying right now as a transfer from cc to UCs was telling me she met a girl at UCLA who transferred last year from cc with a 2.8 and lied/exaggerated her ecs. She met my friends daughter at some UCLA event for prospective students. My friends daughter is very sweet and a bit gullible so take that with a grain of salt. But it made me feel really angry that there is such bold ec inflation and the honest kids are getting rejected.
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I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.
It seems that many on CC feel admissions to certain elite schools are out of reach for the academically gifted who don’t have those standout ECs. Getting that personal connection to admissions team is important - which is why I always stress the value of strong essays to make that connection.
Our academically gifted S had some very run of the mill ECs, minimal club memberships, and no real leadership positions. He landed many of his top pick schools, in large part I believe, due to the strength of his essays.
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Our S24 had bad freshman year with Pandemic scare. He is working on bringing up his GPA. He has decent SAT scores and ECs. His 1st choice and reach school UF has holistic admission and it is pretty much coin toss, IMHO. On the other end, USF only uses GPA and Test scores to determine admission. I feel USF is more objective and we believe that it is a match for him.
Some of our friends suggested us to use some application services to help with essays. We didn’t use any with the belief that he can produce original essay that may or may not excel compared to the run of the mill essays from students who used such services.
The admission process has been stacked in favor of the wealthy and most of the middle class suffer.
A typical middle class student needs to be a super(wo)man to be admitted to the top schools on merit.
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It will be interesting to see what happens with S24- he chose to write his essay about a day doing a hobby he loves that is fairly specific and unique. I feel like it gives an interesting and unique angle to who he is that is no place else on the application. Initially he started writing about his sport which he truly loves, but the fact that he has played this sport all through HS and some of his extra curriculars had to do with it did not given them any “new” information about him. I am glad he decided to change his topic. We will see what happens.
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Our CC explicitly said no writing about the sport (high level) nor about his academic interest (obvious from ECs, LoR and transcript). Sounds like your S had a great angle - IMO “small moments” make the best essays.
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I’ll be curious how S24’s essays are perceived. I thought his personal statement for the common app was good - and very true to his personality and interests - but it wasn’t a unique topic. His supplemental essays for his ED school were quite strong, but the competition is fierce so who knows . . . He is a very solid writer, but is more STEM oriented so that made (and will make) essay writing much tougher.
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My daughter has similar stats. Sometimes I think “She’s going to get into everywhere!” Ten minutes later I think, “OMG why didn’t she apply to any true safeties? She’s getting rejected everywhere.”
And so it goes.
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I’ve been happy to look at supplementals, but I refused to look at S24’s main Common App essay, so I literally have no idea what he actually wrote.
I did this because we have been close throughout the process and while I would like to believe that is mostly a positive for him, I am very aware he is the one applying to college. So I thought it was critical for there to be one big thing, the most personal thing, which I had not affected in any way.
Of course it was fine for him to work with others, including our excellent college counseling staff, on his main essay. I very much trust they helped him do something good and true to himself.
But it is definitely interesting to literally have no idea what that means in practice.
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I love to see this - makes me feel better! Half the time I think my son is going to get in to his dream school and the other half I worry that his “safety” is in jeopardy (which went from a 60+% rate to low 40s% last year. I feel like there are so many contradictory examples out there! But, this is our third child - I know that he will end up someplace appropriate for him! (I just need to remind myself of that quite often!)
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Again for what it is worth, I think it is very clear from what I have read from AOs that a pretty basic (but competent) expository writing style is perfectly fine for this purpose. The critical thing they are looking for is not the writing itself, but the actual reflection incorporated into the substance of the essay, which then gives them what they at least believe is a real insight into how the kid thinks about things they value in their college community.
This forum has discussed before not putting too much pressure on essay writing, which I mostly agree with, but I do think this is an important thing to know about these most selective colleges. It is actually really challenging for many good students to do something truly personal and reflective, not technically, but rather because they might have done little or no such writing before, and certainly rarely with any sort of stakes at all.
So on the one hand, this is very daunting because even, say, award-winning creative writers may struggle to write application essays that actually resonate with the readers at the most selective colleges.
But on the other hand, literally any of these great kids, no matter what their normal writing interests, could potentially nail it–with some reader. And the exact same essay could then get a “meh” from another reader.
I never like calling this random, because that isn’t quite right. But it is definitely subjective, and unpredictable. But in a way which actually means really all these kids can do whatever it is that can be done.
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I laughed a little at this because our S was exactly the same. Very STEM oriented, and he found it very difficult to shift to writing with a more personal tone. To his credit, he recognized that essay writing would, for him, be very challenging so he started really early. He tossed out many essays very early until he found some good ones to refine. He went through many, many edits and revisions, but in the end I think he was rewarded for the effort.
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Random aside, but I am now a full-blown convert to the Cult of the Rolling Likely. Of course a likely is a likely, but having an actual acceptance very early in the process sure does have a lot of psychological benefits.
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We have one of those - phew! And an option for him to get into their BS/MD program as well!
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I agree whole-heartedly with you about that!
I agree that you never know what will resonate. I’ve found many of the “essays that worked” that schools post to be rather meh which just goes to show you how subjective it can be.
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