Based on my experience, that is not true – including at top schools. But it really doesn’t matter what my experience is – what will matter is the policy at the school your son eventually choose to matriculate at.
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The discussion on the role of race in college admissions is limited to one, and only one, thread on this site, and this isn’t it. Several posts deleted.
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Depends on the individual course vs. the intended major.
But there may be other, important benefits:
For my daughter, for some college courses the AP background gave her a head-start, making the (more-advanced) college course less tasking, leaving her more room to put extra effort into other courses in the same semester. Result: Higher College GPA, latin honors,…
Other AP classes she was able to apply towards an easy minors, or to satisfy some general education/distribution requirements. Trust me that in itself was a “big deal” - because with so many great professors and classes only available certain days/times, it was crucial that her schedule had “freed up” somewhat!
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This is probably true. I agree.
You can go to the AP website and see by school and by AP Test grade how they handle it and which course they allow you to waive or test into (depending on school policy). Each school is different but it’s not arbitrary from one student to the next.
This is not necessarily related to whether the school is at a “higher tier” (whatever that means, but I’m assuming you mean something like the school’s ranking). It varies by school policy and can also be related to whether the school’s introductory classes happen to match up with what is covered and tested for the APs.
For example, UC Berkeley would accept all of my son’s APs and allow him to pass out of various major and distribution requirements, while UC Davis would not accept most of them.
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If AP classes are the most rigorous at your son’s school, why wouldn’t you want him to take them, though? I am not understanding the scam part.
I will agree that for some kids, it makes no sense to take AP exams. None of mine did. The only reason to take the exam in my opinion is if you are hoping for college credit (which, you are right, selective schools don’t usually grant), or if the quality of your high school isn’t known to Admissions Offices.
Taking AP exams does not affect, or help, college admissions, something not everyone realizes (not directed at you OP)
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That’s right. Which is why applying to 20 schools, mainly reaches, is not a good approach. I have to wonder if the applications hinted to these institutions that the student felt they were second tier.
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That would be foolish and he applied to a mix and did receive offers of substantial scholarships (merit-based) at a few second tier and a third tier, large public university. What was unexpected was that a school like BU, which in the way past had acceptance rates closer to 30% (it is a very big school and takes many many students), then more like 20% more recently, should now be below 10% !
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Yes - that is something that everyone has been learning over the past few years. With so many students using technology to easily apply to so many more colleges than ever before, whatever we knew to be true about college “x” is no longer true.
It also means the decision-making process forced upon colleges regarding each individual are increasingly harder to comprehend by outsiders.
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I think this is spot on. Every school has their own criteria of things their looking for. Some look at the common app essays, others ignore it. Some do everything just based on quantitative GPA, some completely ignore SAT/ACT (even if its submitted). Some want a lot of demonstrated interest some don’t care if you’ve never even looked at their website.
If you don’t cater each application to each school to make them think they’re the kids #1 choice it’s pretty obvious to them and at very highly competitive schools the result is usually not an acceptance.
It sounds like your son was accepted at a school that he’s very happy attending - so is the issue that some schools rejected him? Welcome to the club - I doubt there are many on these boards that didn’t get some rejections. He’s in good company.
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I am not sure about this. A friend’s son just got off the waitlist at Duke. He checks all the boxes for disfavored demographics.
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It’s not just demographics - it’s institutional priorities. He had something that they were looking for, hence the acceptance.
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I am happy for him and think he ended up at a school which is ideal for him. What angers me somewhat is that he worked so hard with the expectation that he would have done better. Maybe he could have hung out more w his friends than having focused so much on his studies ? But then again, I don’t think he would have done anything different, he is just a kid who enjoys learning, likes working hard and takes whatever he does seriously.
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Maybe this was the problem. With 20 schools, how much time could he have had to customize the school specific essays/short answers? For most of the “top” or even “second” tier schools, especially those that practice holistic admissions, they are also looking for the applicants’ “fit” with their school as they put together their class. Your son has excellent academic credentials, but appears to be in that group of “average excellent” that are competing with a large cohort of similarly academically accomplished applicants (way more of them than seats available). The applicants from this group that get in often have an advocate in the AO who read an essay or LoR that really stood out to them. I have no idea what your son did for essays, but I just find it incredibly hard to do a good job on essays for 20 schools. Cutting and pasting the same thing seems like a real temptation and now we are talking very generic essays that would not likely get an AO excited about an applicant.
In any event, your son can only attend 1 college. It sounds like the one he got in is more than an adequate platform for him. Now it is time to get excited about the next 4 years there.
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Here’s the bottom line: It’s taken from the Georgia Tech website but you can plug and play any Top 40 university.
If you are applying to XYZ school, you will be reviewed through a holistic admission process, we consider every single element of your application and weigh that in comparison not only with the applicant pool, but also with institutional priorities.
This type of evaluation means that every piece of your application is evaluated – course rigor, GPA, test scores, contribution to your community and essays. We have outlined what we look for in each portion of the application, and it is important to remember that all of these factors, not one, help us determine not only if you are an excellent student, but whether or not you would be an excellent fit here at XYZ school
Holistic admission is utilized to ensure enrollment of a first-year class who will be diverse, innovative thinkers and problem solvers.
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Getting into college isn’t a prize to be won, but a match to be made.
Your kid got into college! And is happy with the options available! That equals a big success from my point of view.
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Done better by whose standard(s)?
I get the sense that you think there’s a huge difference in these schools at the upper tier. Within certain programs there might be but the difference is miniscule on the college in total.
US News - the schools often shuffle up or down a few positions and the only thing that’s changed is the criteria US News decided to use that year for weighting.
BU is not a very large school (~16K enrollment) - and has a history of giving out $0 merit (they do give some very selective full boat scholarships).
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Is that really true? Finding a brilliant student at MIT or Havard is only a happy accident?
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Stats are not enough. Plenty of kids out there with stellar stats. Even after the schools filter for the kids with top stats, there are more than they can accept. So they need to then look at ECs and other factors. Looking at your original post, your son doesn’t seem to have anything particularly exemplary in ECs, which is probably why he had some difficulty with the T10/20 schools. Even at the T50 schools like Case, there are a lot of kids with stellar ECs. At the T10/20 level, the kids have astounding ECs like national/international competition in sports/performing arts or founding start-ups/charities. Just look at the posts about who was accepted at the T10/20 schools.
When you say “accomplished musician” does that mean competing (and excelling) at the national and international level? Our friend’s daughter was traveling all over the world for choir competitions/exhibitions. Another kid was competing at a national level in her individual sport, placing in the top 20. At the extreme, one kid was flying around the world with her horse competing in equestrian events. This is the kind of EC your son was competing against.
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