Congratulations to all the QB students who matched today!
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Not in my view.
Keep in mind in the Harvard litigation data, we learned a personal rating of 3 (âgenerally positiveâ) rather than 2 (âvery strongâ) cut something like 75% of the people who were otherwise considered very strong both academically and in terms of activities. Most other holistic review colleges probably donât cut quite so many like that, but my point is that some equivalent to an only generally positive personal/fit rating from your readers could get you denied in ED at one college, but then some other equally or more selective collegeâs readers could give you the equivalent of a very strong personal/fit rating, and you are then accepted RD there.
And I believe that is likely the explanation for most cases when people get that combination of results, which are not infrequent. If you are unhooked and were qualified enough in terms of academics and activities for Fancy School B, it is likely you were also qualified enough in those ways for Fancy School A (if they are at least similar schools and similarly selective). But I think that personal/fit rating could more easily vary.
Thatâs not really what I think most people have in mind when it comes to âqualificationsâ, and it isnât what I think most people would think of as a âclearâ signalâit is too potentially subjective for that.
That said, I know some people who are disappointed with their ED result (say getting a denial when they expected at least a deferral) take another hard look at things like their main essay, activities descriptions, possibly transferrable supplemental topics, and so on. I am not sure that is warranted in most cases, but the idea you would like to make sure there was not something different you should be doing in those parts of your application at least makes some sense.
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Yes it has definitely been chronological. For both schools.
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Iâll join the trend of waiting on big decisions! My D24 is hoping for an acceptance from her ED, so fingers crossed there. Fortunately she was admitted to our flagship (UGA), and she honestly has a lot of excitement about it, too.
Although she didnât apply to a rolling decision school, the state of Georgia did something really cool this year:
Every senior received a hard copy of their âmatchâ list, which revealed all public technical schools and 4 year universities for which the students had preliminarily satisfied the admissions requirements.
With the exception of UGA, GT and Georgia College and State University, every public school is basically based on academic metrics. Because of our Hope scholarship program, every high school student (public or private) has their transcript and standardized test scores reported to Georgia Futures (this determines scholarship eligibility). So the data was there to run against the baseline standards each school was seeking.
An application is still required (but can be done through the Ga Futures website), but itâs basically a direct admit without the common app effort.
â The colleges listed on your GEORGIA MATCH letter and your GAfutures [Student Dashboard] are an academic match based on your HOPE GPA and they are holding a spot for you in their Fall 2024 Class. We created a way for you to request information from your GEORGIA MATCH colleges and claim your spot for admission to the GEORGIA MATCH college of your choice.â The letters include a QR code that take you to the website, which has tuition info and distance of each school from your home.
While my D and her high school friends didnât need this info, it did provide the âsafety feelingâ of an early rolling admissions acceptance. Far, far more importantly, I imagine there are many students from under-resourced schools who received this letter as a revelation. Itâs physical, so parents likely received the mail. And many of them likely recognized that the combo of cost and distance made some options possible- when perhaps they previously thought college was out of the question.
Clearly this barely makes a dint in access and equity issues, but Iâm proud of our state for creatively reaching so many kids with this info.
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Probably should have tried to add link:
https://www.gafutures.org/college-planning/georgia-match
â GEORGIA MATCH is a simple way for you to know where you are eligible for admission (to be admitted to college), based on your recent high school calculated HOPE grade point average (GPA). We want to make it easy for you to see where you could attend college in Georgia based on your current academic record and to apply to institutions you are most interested in attending! You will still need to submit an application, but that will be easy â keep reading to learn how! Your GEORGIA MATCH colleges are on your [GAfutures Student Dashboard].â
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Who are these âsomeâ saying itâs OK to hire people to write their kidsâ essays, and then justifying it because colleges have institutional priorities for admissions? Care to elaborate?
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This makes sense to me. In addition to the personal rating, I might add institutional priorities as an additional, potentially school-specific component. Some of these priorities are probably similar across schools (such as URM, first gen), but I wonder if others can be more idiosyncratic. Schools with a large gender imbalance, such as Vassar, may be particularly eager for male applicants. When we visited Williams, the AO mentioned that they did not have a single student from the Dakotas and were eager to add some.
That said, I havenât heard any stories about students at S24âs school who were denied ED and later accepted by a different, equally or more selective school in the RD round. But that may just be a small sample issue.
Congrats on UGA - a great admit. Best of luck on the ED.
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Iâve heard plenty of stories like that from my kidsâ public high school -
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Yes - back to this post when I said yes - this is a clear signal about perceived qualifications.
But I should note - to that school, and that school only.
There are kids who get into MIT but not BU (we saw last year).
Vassar may take a kid that Wesleyan doesnât or vice versa.
For that student at that school, it sends a signal about perceived qualification.
It does not necessarily say anything about qualification for another school - which will have its own review methodology.
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This is the greatest thread of all time and I am so grateful for all the wisdom and humor and empathy. I feel so seen and not alone. Thank you to everyone.
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At S24 high school last year one kid got rejected EA USCâŠand accepted RD Harvard. 
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We know of several along the lines of ârejected Stanford REA, accepted Brown RDâ
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So today S24 was supposed to make the final cuts to get down to a reasonable list (per college counselingâs request) and . . . he ended up adding as much as cutting.
In fairness, he is applying to both universities and LACs and I think that naturally creates a somewhat longer list, and a couple of the additions are minimal in terms of burden.
But still, he ended up way over where he was supposedly aiming. Of course in return he is totally committed to stopping the procrastination on his applications . . . starting next week.
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Just one more month of this! He isnât hoping for an REA/ED to relieve him of his misery here, is he?
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That, of course, is exactly his hope (REA in his case).
Theoretically, he understands he really should be working on more applications before then.
Practically, I expect a lot of time spent with his new girlfriend (also a way of relieving misery, I suppose).
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Well, we had a successful deadline day and S24 sent in the music supplement and scholarship essay that was due last night about 4 hours before the deadlines, woohoo! He has one more thing to record this weekend and then prescreens are done! We had a conversation about RD applications and similar to @NiceUnparticularManâs kid he also added more than he removed. I am sure they all wont get done since the number of essays is insane. He did also tell me that he wont be devastated if he doesnt get into his ED school and that his three less reachy reaches would be just as exciting, whew!
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Thatâs a great attitude.
I suspect my S24 actually added some of his new reach schools for a similar reason, to feel a little better about his chances of having other exciting options if he doesnât get into his REA school. Gaming out scenarios, I also wonder if this will mean he will be less inclined to ED II somewhere if he is deferred. We shall see.
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At our HS the valedictorian (2 years ago) was rejected by Stanford in REA (or whatever their equivalent is) but later accepted to Harvard and MIT.
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Why doesnt Emory get more attention on this page? Anyone know? It is not S24s ED and I dont think he will ED2 anywhere but we were so impressed by it. No one talks about it at all.
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