@DiotimaDM My undergrad major was anthropology with a minor in religion. Your professional trajectory is a whole lot more interesting than mine! But I like to believe that I’m a thoughtful person at peace with my role in the world. That’s more than good enough.
I love anthropology! And religion, and brain stuff, and… and… and. People’s passions are their passions.
As per Solomon Admissions Consulting on you tube, grades, school rank, classes taken (25%) and SAT/ACT tests (25%) are just 50% of the admission ranking process for ivys and stanford. Many, if not all, have almost perfect stats. The rest of the 50% is on ECs and essays. They are not looking for well-rounded students with so many ECs. They are looking for students who have focus and love for learning. This means the ECs are not 10 different things/activities aiming for college admission but 10 things/activities towards a passion.
A student who is a competitive swimmer, teaches swimming to children as his volunteer work, started a swimming club in school, and also promoting water safety at the beach is likely to get accepted.
Truce all. @mathyone No one is intentionally attacking. I don’t think you were either. (I think it is more folks thinking you are presuming OP or her D did not “do the math”, where we can see that she did.)
You are right that so many ppl don’t even bother to check the CDS for info, or the school websites and blogs for trends! And those of us who do hear all the time how our kids will surely get into whatever school they want! Sounds like a good ongoing blog post-you should start it!!
My S had a 34/95%. He applied to only one “Ivy”…and was WL. We know exactly why. That program only takes 100 kids. 7% acceptance rate with avg scores at 33. That meant extremely low chances for him, even though his score was higher than the “average”.
Now where I wish the math was more transparent is ED: how many athletes? Legacies? URMs? Bc those numbers inflate what the average Joe can expect. And that is where I think the fight for showing the math would do a lot of good. And save some broken hearts!!
@Lindagaf Just this morning I found out my sons are “literally” the best kids ever! Lol! I dropped my sons at school and a teacher leaned in the car window and said “Mom! Best Kids Ever!” With a thumbs up!! That kind of stuff makes me prouder than any score. 2000 kids are in and out of that high school each year…and she took the time to tell me that! (@mathyone, I know statistically this is not true, but indulge me here! 
@HRSMom that’s wonderful to hear. I just sent my mom a Mother’s Day card espousing the great job she did raising her son and has a button she can wear all day that says “My Son is #1”. I’m glad to know that it’ll make her feel great 
@Lindagaf
I love this post and your original post. So helpful and I agree with all of it. We just finished this process and I must say I am so glad it over. Someone on CC likened the college admissions process esp at the elite schools to buying a lottery ticket. It seems very random and if you don’t win then your not that upset because the odds were ridiculous. I look at where my DD got in and where she did not get in and still have no idea why or how. And never will due to holistic admissions which allows colleges to build their classes with whatever “type” they deem valuable on any given day, or year. My DD’s main EC was dance, where she was Captain. But she wants to study engineering. I think this combination made her interesting to some of the schools but less so to others because she wasn’t spending her time doing robotics or programming ie showing her passion for her major (although I would argue that she spent 3 hours a day testing Newton’s 3 laws of motion.) And we played the merit money lotto, knowing that some of the schools would have to ante up to make them a comparable choice to our State flagship since she will have to go to grad school or beyond. Congrats to your daughter. I think this post will help a lot of people set realistic expectations.
…and just to show unpredictable holistic admissions are, my D has just been offered a place off the waitlist at the one match school that didn’t accept her. And they offered merit aid. Too crazy!
@Lindagaf—did the school offering the WL call her home, cell and text her at same time? I have heard that AdComs like to move through the WL quickly, but have never been on the receiving end so just wondered about the logistics.
Is your D tempted by the offer?
Nope, they emailed her, me and hubby. No text or call. And they have given her two days to let them know, though they said they could extend that if needed. I assume that would be if a student wants to come visit. She isn’t tempted. She is annoyed though.
Is she tempted @Lindagaf?
@Lindagaf – this has been such an interesting thread… the nail-biter being that your daughter gets called off the waitlist at a safety at the last minute. This is crazy stuff. Can’t wait to hear your daughter’s final, final decision.
@PragmaticMom , I thought Kenyon was her final decision.
I doubt she will get off WL at her two reaches. It was a match school that called today, btw. @LucieTheLakie , she isn’t tempted…yet.
The students at my son’s HS maintain a College Decision page where they post their decisions. A couple of years ago, one girl posted three schools, after cleaning two separate wait lists. Her parents lost a couple of deposits but she was very happy at her third school.
@Lindagaf, my D and I visited Kenyon last month. It exceeded both of our expectations. Good luck to your D!!
I have known several kids who went to Kenyon and all loved it. None were science/math types – more humanities I think, but one was writing video game software the last time I saw his parents.
The one comment. I know one unhooked white girl who got into an Ivy but she had several summer jobs in HS in geology and applied saying she wanted to major in geology. She was a strong but not brilliant student in HS. I’m guessing the number of female students who specifically want to study geology (on the east coast) is somewhere close to zero. She got in and was very happy there. She’s now in a PhD program in geology. So, perhaps an unexpected niche major might do it even without a hook. Great kid incidentally.
I don’t think alumni interviews at Ivies make any difference at all, @mackinaw. I used to do them for my alma mater and I don’t think a stellar write-up from me ever got a kid admitted. My son had an alumni interview for Harvard with someone who had been some kind of Dean at another Ivy and now was a consultant to universities. She told my son at the end of the interview, “I’m going to tell them that they would be crazy not to admit you,” which I took as a pretty positive response. [In addition, he was probably 3rd in his class at one of the better public HSs in the state and was 99 percentile on SAT/ACT scores and had limited but off-the-beaten track but quite interesting ECs.] He was wait-listed.
Very interesting @shawbridge re the geology major. I think you are right, and also the student clearly demonstrated her “passion”, which is a big buzzword these days.
Also interesting about your son and his interview. I have seen too many senior CC members say too many times that unless an interview is really bad, it has little effect on decisions. I am inclined to agree with you.
FWIW, my D had SAT scores in the 99th percentile, but as another poster pointed out, there are very roughly 30,000 applicants with scores like that if you include the ACT, and only so many spots. And we need to include URMs, athletes, legacies, development cases, homeschooled kids, internationals, etc… Thinking about the actual number of bodies behind test scores helps keep things in perspective, but we didn’t really digest all the info about all those other bodies until later in the process. At some point, it’s not about scores and grades, and this makes for a nice way to circle back to my original point. If you haven’t got something special, it is extremely difficult to get into tippy top colleges:-). Interestingly, my D is happier than ever with how it has turned out. She laughs at herself for applying to those two dream schools and now thinks she could never see herself there.
Does anyone know how many freshmen are expected to matriculate this fall? 3.3 million seniors are expected to graduate high school. I think when one considers the sheer numbers of students it’s easy to understand that even tippy top students face impossible odds. And that’s not even counting full pay internationals.
There are over 16,000 slots for freshmen at Ivies plus MIT and Stanford. That’s one half of one percent of h.s. graduates.
Not counting military academies, there are another more than 13,000 freshman slots at the top 25 USNWR LACs. Have not calculated freshman enrollment at the top state universities or at top-ranked, non-Ivy research universities like U. of Chicago.
Thanks, I just saw 16,662 on another forum. It would be interesting to see what percent are hooked. I’d estimate at least 15 %. So that’s about 2500 fewer slots right off the top.