I have been going through the results threads, amazed at the accomplishments of other high schoolers who are going to top schools. The accepted applicants generally all have great scores, ECs, and recommendations. That being said, how much do the results threads depict the rest of the applicants at a top-tier university? CC users are self-selected, and not every high schooler going to an Ivy has top scores, right? Going off the information on https://www.ivycoach.com/2020-ivy-league-admissions-statistics/ , it seems that around 23,000 applicants to an Ivy League school were accepted in the Class of 2020. This also does not account for students who were accepted to other selective schools, like MIT, Stanford, UCB, and UChicago.
Let’s say some of these acceptances were multiple schools accepting the same applicant. Even then, I just can’t see this many students having the superstar stats shows in the results threads. Would this mean that the results threads are not accurate depictions of who the school looks for?
Some of the posts on CC are “self-reported.” Or “self-created.”
“The accepted applicants generally all have great scores, ECs, and recommendations.” Yes, but they had more than that and showed it; that’s what go them in. If you’re applying to tippy tops, you should know what this is. Kids on results threads generally just give the starter info and their own ideas that their essays and LoRs were “great.”
I might get a bit of flack, but I think you would be surprised at just how much some students really are able to achieve. And the most desriable students do often get multiple acceptances to the most desirable colleges. If you exclude the athletes, the “best” URMs, the children of famous people or mega rich donors, the geographically desirable students, the first gen, the low SES cream of the crop kids, the creme de la creme of internationals, and assorted others, there really are not that many truly outstanding students who have the grades, test scores, amazing EC’s, and the “it” factor too. Those truly exceptional kids, IME, are probably less than 1% of all applicants, and everyone wants them. And yes, some of them are here on CC, but not all of them.
So yes, I do think that many of these top students you see on Cc who have been admitted to top colleges are fairly representative of the types of kids the top colleges want. And there are exceptions. A kid from our school shocked everyone when it gradually came out that he was going to an Ivy college. He was a good student, was involved in things, but doesn’t appear to be exceptional in anyway, unlike the vast majority of kids in our school who got into tippy top colleges. No one can figure it out, but he must have been the kind of person they wanted. I have heard the dean of admissions at Harvard say that the well rounded student is still Harvards bread and butter. The really exceptional kids are rare. For everyone else, it’s going to be that holistic admissions either works for you, or doesn’t.
I’ve been thinking the same thing. Sure, schools like UF, UofM, UT, etc. are tough to get into, but all the kids on this website have amazing stats, etc. which makes people think who don’t have their stats that they will NOT get in. I believe this website makes average students worry and adds unnecessary stress thinking they will not get in because they do not compare to these kids when all these kids do not show the actual pool, they are just the upper half of applicants.
Yes, many kids will give you great faith in the next generation. But it’s far more than stats and what they say their highlights are, on some results thread. Many great ones are off CC, doing what they do, every day, in quality ways. That includes URM, legacy, low SES, kids at low performing high schools.
CC has odd notions about wealth, privilege, galactic stats and more. Too many settling for letting a limited pool of other hopefuls assess them on a limited number of factors they hang on.
Most of them do. Although it’s strange that you would mention test scores, since that’s probably the least impressive thing about someone accepted to an Ivy League school.
At virtually all colleges there will be many “Hail Mary” applicants. Somewhere buried in the CC archives is a link to a USC admissions website from a few years ago. Like most schools they listed the mid 50% of ACT/SAT scores for admitted and enrolled students. They also listed the mid 50% of test scores for all applicants. If I remember it was something like 1500-1900 on the old SAT whila for enrolled freshman it was maybe 1950-2200. Clearly a lot of Hail Mary applicants.
Ten thousand applicants can be Edora’s mixes and nothing says either that their chances are special or that they get what else matters and will actually show that. The whole app will be read, down to that funky answer to some question. The responses on results threads leave little room for the rest of what matters. Kids and families often misinterpret, think, say, that high stats, debate, and robotics grease some wheels.
Sometimes I use the debate example- you could be the greatest in your hs, also be head of SG, spend some time in robotics, be well liked. But when you get on that stage at State or National, what you say/how you say it is what matters and advances you. Or not. You’d better know the criteria beyond what you came with and what you want.
Bottom line: users on College Confidential are not representative of college-bound HS students (not even those targeting top schools).
Additionally, like Parchment, many users here start out, but few follow through once decisions come, especially if they are rejections.
Top it all off, even active users who stay to the end don’t wish to participate in the results threads. Have you checked out my entries on the HS Class of 2015 results threads? Don’t bother; they are not there.
The results threads can be a fum parlor game, but don’t try to read anything else into them, and certainly don’t use them as a predictor of your own results.
@Lindagaf : " If you exclude the athletes, the “best” URMs, the children of famous people or mega rich donors, the geographically desirable students, the first gen, the low SES cream of the crop kids, the creme de la creme of internationals, and assorted others, there really are not that many truly outstanding students who have the grades, test scores, amazing EC’s, and the “it” factor too."
Who does that leave? How would one term that pool of candidates, besides ‘eligible’?
“Worth serious consideration.”
Good question, because usualy CC hangs on the comments that 80% of candidates are “qualified.” That’s really about where they start, before the entire app is read and the rest of the institutional needs are considered.
@Waiting2exhale that leaves the “bread and butter of Harvard” or, yes, eligible candidates. The unhooked kid with nothing to recommend him/her but top notch everything, and who is possible on Cc regularly.
@Lindagaf: So I’ll tell you what I’m “reading,” and you can tell me if that is what you’re saying, and why you prefaced your statement with a ‘fall-out’ expectation.
The kids who are not in the categories you enumerated - those kids who are left after the groups you named - are the kids who truly meet the standards of the Ivies, of Harvard. Take these kids, this 1% out, and you have all the kids who were allowed in by special exception?
Please help me out here.
Only that someone might disagree with me. You are reading too much into it. OP asked how much do results threads reflect the kids who actually get into top colleges? I think they are fairly accurate. Others on CC might disagree. That’s it, just my opinion.
I disagree because results threads only show the tip of the iceberg, stats, ECs, and some guessing what worked.
Takes us back to causation vs correlation. And you’re missing the big elements that can shoo even a top performer into the meh pile, so to say. So those threads are interesting, but no big clue. Not at all.
It’s not easy to meet the standards. Kids who think it’s as simple as learning from a results thread are somewhat off in their thinking. That’s a problem. Think of this practically- can they answer a Why Us in an intelligent way, do they even know why this college, in the first place? The results threads teach us zip abut the qualitative aspects that matter so much.
There are some incredible kids out there. The competition for the top slots is crazy intense. You need to be better than perfect to get accepted. Some kids are and do.
I often wonder if CC is skewed geographically too. I sometimes feel like this placed is filled with NE prep school kids and the competition for those kids might be greater than say the smart kid from the public HS in Arkansas. However, I have no idea if either of those assumptions are actually true.
@JPGator98 the average student is not going to get into UF. I think the results threads are pretty accurate. There are some really really good students who do not get in top schools.
Not just the NE. Add California, Texas, NY, the DC area, Parts of IL.