@seniormom3 - Sorry to hear of the disappointing news for your son. I hope he has other good choices.
I know its not helpful at this stage, but there are some LACs and other universities that I think truly do value intelligence and are wonderful places for intellectual learning and engagement.
I agree with you regarding the admissions decisions of the Ivies. Many, but not all, of the students I’ve seen get in over the past few years have been recruited athletes, legacies, and “development” cases that have families with very deep pockets - all solid students but not tippy top brilliance. And the schools do this with billions of dollars in endowments, tax-free status, and often grad students teaching the undergrads. And rampant cheating as was exposed at Harvard a few years back and at Dartmouth recently. More reasons why it doesn’t make sense to me why they are held in such lofty esteem based mainly on prestige and an athletic conference created many moons ago…
Instead of blaming non- whites and athletes perhaps you should ask why you were not chosen when other people with your stats ( of all colors ) were. Having said that I truly understand the disappointment of no payoff for what you wanted after 4 long years. And I do not fault you for what you wanted. Ivies may not be a fit for all but they are a fit for some and it is truly possible to want them for themselves, not just the bumper sticker. This year many colleges took between 20 and 15% 1st gen. That shook up the process. And trust when I say that URMs lose out to athletes and legacies and development candidates and internationals as well as people born to greater opportunity. No one is just walking in the front door anymore. Not gonna lie: it is harder for non- minority/non-poor people now. I am just trying to say that while you do have my sympathy over a lost dream, we are all being jostled one way or another.
I’m sorry for all the students who didn’t get accepted to the school they really wanted. College admissions is tough. There are so many kids competing for a limited number of spots.
I believe most colleges want a well rounded class, but I think the mistake families make is assuming that because their high stats kid didn’t get in, that the college (Ivy or not) is only looking for a certain type of student (national or international level award winners) or that they lost out to an athlete, URM, or development student. I think (for kids whose stats put them in the ballpark) that they probably DID accept kids who are really similar to yours, but there are just so many smart, talented kids applying that it must be difficult to choose. Students who have so much going for them have a very good chance of landing in a great place. I wish them well.
@seniormom3 Sounds a lot like our S1. Look into the honors programs at many flagship state universities. They are like colleges within colleges and may not have the reputation of an Ivy, but definitely have the academic rigor.
Some of the schools are more specifically targeting NMS kids beyond mere honors programs. Intelligent kids surrounded by their peers with all of the ‘college’ feel of a big university.
The system is crazy. We felt the same way last year. I wish I had Gates or Buffet kind of money. I would start a university system targeted at the best and brightest. No special consideration for anything other than academic achievement. I would partner with corporate sponsors to ensure no one paid more than a nominal tuition at most.
That is an accomplished kid, congrats seniormom3! I’m sure your child will be able to accomplish great things wherever he/she ends up!
Re: valuing brilliance – there are PLENTY of schools that will value all the attributes your child has to offer. They are strong institutions, but less well known, whose pool of applicants is not completely overwhelmed by too many high-achieving students to choose from. (as the ivies are) That is where your student will shine!
There are 8 Ivy institutions. There are, what, 30, 40, or 50 other US institutions where you can get an equally superior education. And if you look at the department level, there are hundreds or thousands. Want great optics? Go to University of Rochester. English? Go to Kenyon. A top ceramics program? Alfred University in New York.
Great education and bragging rights are two different things, and the vast majority of college applicants recognize this.
Maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t get in. You would be hearing ‘Check Your Privilege’ left and right if you would’ve gotten in. Feel sorry for you? Are you kidding me? If your biggest problem in life is that you didn’t get into an Ivy League college, you have NO problems. Get over the rejections and get over yourself. Whoever told you that you were entitled to admissions anywhere lied to you. If you have a bone to pick, take it up with them. Not with the school who told you from the get go how hard it is to actually get in.
OP wrote: “I just got rejected from the 6 Ivies that I applied to and I feel like the past 4 years of hard work was a waste.”
While I do feel for you and all the kids who didn’t get the news they’d hoped for yesterday (or all season), I think that looking at high school as a means to an end is setting you (and anyone who takes this POV really) for a big disappointment.
I’ve seen some posters over the past few days jump on parents who are offering POVs that may not seem entirely sympathetic. Rest assured many of us have kids with hopes and dreams — and disappointments— just like you. And speaking for myself, I post the same advice I give to my own kids. Allow yourself to be sad and feel down for a few days, then reassess, reengage, reenergize. Best of luck with whatever the future holds.
@supersoaker101, there are no guarantees with Ivies, even for the “perfect” candidates. Every student who wanted to get into an Ivy and who worked incredibly hard to realized that dream can sympathize with your frustration and self-pity. Thousands of applicants who deserved the opportunity – at least on the basis of stats – didn’t get it.
But remember, you did not come up empty-handed either.
So, give the mopes 24 hours – at most! – and then get busy getting happy about the options you DO have. Choose the one that is closest to what you wanted (elite Ivy prestige aside) and invest yourself in getting as much as you possibly can out of your next four years. They will fly by, and four years from now, you will have another chance to demonstrate how uniquely wonderful, talented and capable you are becoming.
Bottom line: Disappointment is survivable. It’s what you do next that matters. So, onward and upward – and all the best.
" but I also know that the 28,000+ other students who applied to these schools were qualified too."
You’re kidding right? The majority(which is around 34,000) are not in fact necessarily qualified too. The vast majority of applicants is well below 3.8gpa AND 34 ACT.
lol, under qualified is not the correct term. That said there are different levels for colleges as anyone can look up the median scores and gpa’s of accepted students. Looking at the graph you can see how many apply way below that for BOTH gpa and ACT scores.
** They already exist in droves. **Most US colleges accept solely based upon the metrics you seem to esteem so infallibly. But the so-called “best and brightest” including most CC students and likely, your son have said that they want to apply to colleges that don’t solely use those metrics as their evaluation criteria
But that’s the rub – these colleges that use holistic evaluations (i.e. not solely based on metrics) get to cherry pick their freshmen classes. And magazines and a huge part of society (and 98% of students/families who use this site) view them as the “best” colleges.
“Schemed by the Ivies” Pfft… kool aid is right. Been there, done that. Tons of kids and parents aren’t drinking. Many parents were shocked that my high achieving DD didn’t apply to my Ivy alma mater – mainly b/c she’s targeting top engineering programs – and my school wasn’t going to give that to her. I didn’t blink an eye and will be happily unloading her stuff this Sept at the big public univ that’s captured her heart.
Here is the reality for students who have the stats/ECs to be strong candidates for Ivy League schools. The playing field just isn’t even. This can work for you or against you in terms of admission depending on factors you have absolutely no control over! These colleges want diversity so you are likely to have the best chances of admission to schools where fewer kids just like you apply. So, it is going to be hardest to get into an Ivy League school if you are Asian. It will be harder to get in if you are white than if you are an URM. If you are from the east coast you will have better luck at a top tier southern school like Vanderbilt, UVA than you will at Brown or Columbia. And it’s more competitive for females than males just about everywhere. Finally, where you go to high school does matter. There are still “feeder” schools to the Ivy League. A kid coming out of, say, Stuyvesant (“gifted” NYC public school) is going to have much better odds of getting into Harvard than a kid with the same profile who’s coming from a public school on Long Island. That’s the reality–and it’s why the appropriate response when someone IS accepted to a top tier school is not “I’m so proud of you!” but “congratulations!” --because admission is more akin to winning a lottery than a sign of relative achievement (many “rejected” students were equally talented). Once you see behind the curtain you become far less impressed by Ivy degrees. Savvy job recruiters know this. So dust yourself off, put the bitterness aside and take heart from the many studies that demonstrate equal future success among top-tier students–whether they end up at an Ivy or a state school. In the end, the school listed on your diploma matters far far less than ability, hard work, people skills and a positive, can-do attitude.
From what I have heard, Stuyvesant is. Harder school to get into from for your average 34/2300 because there are too many others who are geniuses. The top prep schools are the stepping stones. However, what I said above is comparing similar schools. In my suburban NY area, the top kids in one nothing special public school have been doing amazing, a school 2 miles away have been doing poorly (valedictorian with a 35 got rejected from Barnard)… The populations are similar and in fact the top 20% of the lessor school has MORE legacy parents