My daughter has similar stats. However, we realized early on that it would have been a crap shoot for her dream school and other elite schools. So, we decided to go ED to her dream school (hoping it would give her better odds). Her safety is automatic admission to UT. She got in on ED.
Everyone has to realize that the top 20 today is vastly different then they were a generation ago. In 1976 Yale admitted 26%. Here are some other statistics from an old thread:
In my day NYU was a safety school. Now its admit rate is around 27% - the same as Yale a generation ago. Basically, the top 50 is the new top 20. “Average excellent” kids with high stats and normal ECs can still get into top 50 schools (affordability is a different matter).
More importantly, you can go far, far down the rankings and find wonderful colleges that offer substantial academic rigor and resources and our kids can actually get in. NYU wasn’t a poor school when it admitted over 70%. It didn’t suddenly become a great school because it admits far fewer students.
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No, because many families know they don’t qualify (generally families earning more than $250K annually) and the school may think the student won’t enroll if they don’t get it and that hurts their yield numbers which they guard fiercely for prestige. That’s why on the Common App they ask “Are you applying for financial aid?” The College Board/SAT company publishes statistics for all schools including financial aid …See the section under" Paying" - “Financial Aid by the Numbers” then “Percent Applied for Need-Based Aid” Here are this year’s stats from a few schools: Georgia Tech-61%, MIT-66%, Carnegie Mellon-47%, University of Michigan 53%, Harvard-58%, Cornell 51%, Stanford-54%. So, they may say they are Need-Blind, but a quick glance at your zip code and a click on a real estate website can show whether you live in $150,000 home or a $5.2 million dollar mega-mansion. Colleges have become a business much like health-care today, and they need lots of full paying kids to help subsidize the kids that need financial aid. It’s clearly becoming more polarized, and the recent college scandal stories are bringing light to what’s really going on in admissions offices. So sorry you didn’t get the results you had hoped for, but he does have some outstanding choices and you should be very proud. Best of Luck…
Another viewpoint is they did you a huge favor. We judge good or bad in the moment and it often changes as we look back in time.
-The horrible break up that was gut wrenching. Bad right ? Well, I wouldn’t have met my wife if it hadnt happened. My best friend. So it’s good then?
-Rejected from the job. I really wanted. Bad right? Until I landed the job that ended up being a pathway to things I never conceived. So it’s good then?
I would turn the table and look at it completely differently. It’s not good or bad. You didn’t do anything right or wrong. You put forth an effort and received tremendous results. Any other view is simply unproductive.
I think these school admissions people make pretty good judgements for having to move so fast.
-I didn’t get into Michigan. Bad right?
-I went to Georgia Tech, got a Rhodes scholarship and discover electricity or whatever. So its good then?
Yeah it’s good! It’s great!
Hug your kid and give him a high five. “Can you believe you got into Georgia tech. Holy …”
Enjoy. And smile. Dissecting a gift not sent instead of opening the package with the bow on it sitting on the table is a waste of time.
Congrats to your son. And to you too!
Isaiah Thomas seems to have whatever outlier combination it takes.
there are too many factors to go into. I am a bit surprised about Michigan but not about the rest. I know a girl who got into cornell engineering, has like 18 APs (all 5’s), perfect test scores on every test. still didn’t get into MIT but is at UCB EECS program. Has all those activities. To pick apart your son’s application: being the president of clubs is not that impressive in my mind. what engineering camps did he get into: the ones you pay and write an essay or two and you can go, or are those the free ones bc those are the true competitive ones. At the end, it’s a bit of luck. For instance, if the school’s track record with those schools aren’t great, that’s another point. I know many ISEF semi’s and regeneron winner who didn’t get into MIT. Did you son compete in these prestigious national/intl competition and win?
I promise you that if your son were to choose GT it is an excellent school. My daughter just graduated and she has her dream job which she couldn’t have imagined a few years ago doing something she never planned. When she started she nor I could have seen this ine coming.
I also believe the acceptance rate was under 10% this year for out of state at GT. I can also tell you as in state student my youngest who got deffered and later accepted had a 35 superscored, perfect subject sat’s in physics and math 2, 5’s on 7 AP’s and is past BC calc in HS through dual enrollment credits being a varsity athlete, holding a job and what not. Its extremely competitive.
@BuffDad2022 wrote “During the process, I vented to many that first or second in class should have his/her choice of school. But, there are 10,000 high schools in this country. 10,000 first or seconds in class. 10,000 Presidents of Class. Hundreds of thousands of captains of varsity sports. And, with the advent of the common application resulting in candidates applying to all top 20-30 schools, matters are made exponentially worse.”
More like 37,000 high schools in the US. If only the top four in each school apply to only four T20 schools, that would be 29,000 applications for each of the T20 schools, and it’s not like guidance counselors are going around saying: “Wait a minute, you’re number 5 in your class, you can’t apply to…”
How was his essay? Did he personalize each essay for each school?
As a fellow NMS, D17 was deferred by UM EA first, then admitted. She was rejected by Harvard, Stanford. Waitlisted by Wash U and deferred by USC. College admission is random. I told D at the beginnng of senior year, “hope for the best and prepare for the worst”. I hope you encourage your son to go past this and move forward.
Best of luck!
You don’t have to personalize the Common App essay for each school at all. (Obviously you do for supplemental apps). A great common app essay will give you at least a small boost anyplace. One that misses the mark can hurt you a bit everyplace.
One of my earlier threads (about my recently GTech graduated D)
@ucbalumnus @PurpleTitan
PurpleTitan wrote:
No amount of hard work will make up being even average male population height (5’9") in basketball unless you’re already gifted with some insane outlier amount of fast-twitch muscles.
Isaiah Thomas seems to have whatever outlier combination it takes.
There’s also Spud Webb! Getting a basketball scholarship is a long shot, but not as hard as making the NBA. Someone is going to get the scholarships. Most don’t have an “insane outlier amount of fast-twitch muscles”, but they do put in the work.
Maybe a different thread about short guys in the NBA is in order.
MODERATOR"S NOTE: This appears to be a good time to close the thread.