what is CV? Class Valedictorian? @usma87 Yes more and more kids are applying to more and more schools - either out of fear, or bc using the Common App makes it easier to apply to so many schools. If CV refers to Valedictorian - no such thing as automatic to any school. Some high schools have only 1 VAL and others have as many as hit a certain GPA - at one school I saw 40. Unfortunately I have seen too many Vals get rejected over and over again.
D18 has an UW 4.0, eight STEM APs, ACT 35, good STEM EC, genetics research intern at UGA, etc. She was rejected by Stanford REA and WashU. Admitted at Bama, Clemson, UGA, and GaTech (in-state). Major is Psychology (or one of its more biological variants).
Two of her friends are also NMF but with even higher stats and ECs (ACT 36, more APs, sports). Rejected by Stanford REA, waitlisted at WashU, rejected by MIT. One was admitted to UGA and GaTech, another to Clemson, UCSD, and UCLA. Their major was BME or similar.
It has been a bloodbath here for the higher ranked colleges so far (and it wasn’t in previous years).
@green26knight wow. that is sad. what does he want to study?
@LuvMyKids2 He’s a chemistry major and participated in Cosmos last summer. For the past two years he’s done chemical studies for an ongoing ecological/environmental project for the state. He also has a black belt in karate and is a 4-year varsity starter in his sport, current team captain. He plays two instruments and has been first-chair/section leader for the past three years. He only works during the summers because his 0 period band class starts at 6:30 am (4 years of this!) and he plays sports after school and on the weekends. He has 200+ hours volunteering at the local food bank. He didn’t participate in any state or national competitions during high school but he twice competed in an international competition in middle school. He wrote about his experiences in that competition on his Common App, but I don’t think he mentioned it on his UC app. I didn’t read his essays but his college advisor said they were creative, thoughtful and really well-done. His recs were probably average for his school. He attends a magnet school with dozens of other high-achieving kids, and he took the most rigorous schedule they offer. His guidance counselor was brand new this year so I don’t know what she said about him.
He did tell me that 19 kids were accepted to UCLA from his school last year, and this year they accepted 1. No waitlists, just straight rejections.
@LvMyKids2 nuclear engineering. He’s in at three of the top four, so all is well. I’m just surprised based on what we were told by GC and others. The landscape changed very quickly.
@droppedit i don’t count Stanford or MIT as an awful reject bc they are so selective and I hardly know anyone who has gotten in besides a Hispanic URM 1st gen (Stanford) and then 2 people where both their parents went to Stanford. I have known many athletes from local high schools who go to Stanford. But for your daughter I am surprised by Wash U. Even more so because they don’t have an essay requirement so her ECs, test and grades would hold their own. That is puzzling. But she has great choices. The other 2 friends again, would not even count on MIT or Stanford, but washU surprises me.
@jackbelchos " He didn’t participate in any state or national competitions during high school but he twice competed in an international competition in middle school"
do you mean for his sport or his instrument?
@usma87 My husband and I were talking about that the other night. My son is a 99 and we held him back instead of putting him in kindergarten at the age of 4 like we both were. I wonder how different things would have looked if he had graduated last year.
Thank you all for answering all my questions. It is just so crazy. But I think having gone through it last year and going at it again in the near future for my next child, I seem to think that it is a crapshoot. You do the best you can with what you can control and hope for the best. I do think essays are becoming a very large part of showing a college who you are. And sometimes it seems being well rounded is just not the best thing. I know for my 1st child a passion was what most likely set her apart. She did other things, but being strong at her passion and getting state and international awards helped. But who knows. Maybe major, recs, her essays…I feel that 99% of the time it works out the way it should.
i had heard of the baby bulge too. I think there is definitely some truth to that.
@LvMyKids2 Neither, but it’s a well-known competition. I really don’t want to give away too much information about it.
@jackbelchos no problem. I understand.
@jackbelchos What we heard is that middle school stuff did not matter to many schools … no matter how glorious.
@LvMyKids2 - I guess I made a new CC abbreviation. CV is Curriculum Vitae, its the educational version of a resume’. Every kids ‘stats’ are actually their CV at this point.
@mclmom Exactly. That’s why he didn’t mention it on his UC apps. For his common app he wrote about his experience and how it helped shape him into the person he is today, but didn’t list it otherwise.
@LvMyKids2, I’m not sure I know any super high achieving kids who do nothing but academics. As I believe the other posters were doing, I was trying to preserve some anonymity in just giving stats for my daughter, who has extremely strong and interesting ECs, including one “passion” that she’s pursued for years. The point of this thread was simply showing how competitive the universe has become, even more so this year than in the past. Many elite colleges reported record numbers of applications.
In UCLA’s case, last year it had the highest number of applications of any university ever, and then the number jumped by 11,000 this year to more than 113,000 freshman applications for about 6,000 slots. UCSD had the second highest number of applications of any college in the country this year. So the competition is brutal (note, though, that what are still the most important for each UC according to the CDS are GPA, test scores, academic rigor, and essays–the four personal insight questions–not ECs.) In previous years, at least according to Naviance, my daughter would have been accepted and not wait-listed, and there were some other real surprises among some of the top kids at her school. None, however, were treating it as a safety. I’m thrilled to say my daughter has had some wonderful acceptances, including to her top choice that I won’t report here, again in an effort to keep some level of privacy.
@green26knight, so well expressed.
r @ttdd16 thank you for responses. I am well aware of the competition and rise in apps. It is sad. I know many kids who have high gpa test scores and do little ECs thinking those stats get them in. Not so…
@LvMyKids2, I guess where we differ is that the kids I know are hyper aware that it’s not just academics that get them into top colleges. They all try to do so much, and so many are exhausted and stressed from juggling it all. And it just gets crazier and crazier each year.
@TTdd16 - In my case, one son was hyper aware, the other was rather relaxed about it. As parents, we can only encourage. I am a little sad that it seems your child has to “save a village” if they are not a 1st gen to college or URM. There are plenty of opportunities still.
@usma87, agreed, (though I think the depression/anxiety/stress of overdoing often hits girls harder than boys.) My daughter’s college choice is an unconventional one that many of her peers don’t understand, but it happens to be the perfect fit for her. I think as parents we can help give some needed perspective on the rat race and about what matters most when choosing a college–finding a good fit that’s affordable–and then what really matters is what happens when the student is there–doing well academically and taking advantage of internship and other opportunities. But I think a lot of parents don’t truly understand that themselves and are so invested in their children going to a top-ranked school that the craziness just reigns supreme.