<p>If you look at the beginning of this thread, top 20 schools is being used in the context of “there’s about 40 or 50 of them.” IOW, we’re just talking about really, really good schools. Not “only the top 20 and nothing below.”</p>
<p>Keilexandra, can you provide more detail on your friend who go into Columbia Engineering ED?</p>
<p>NONPARENT ALERT NONPARENT ALERT NONPARENT ALERT!</p>
<p>My parents aren’t registered for this website, so I thought that I might state my situation myself. I have a GPA of 3.3 with no APs, but people in my life have been pressuring me to apply to top LACs (including Swarthmore!). They believe that my unique life story will accure me admission to these places. </p>
<p>After thinking long and hard, I decided that I would apply to Smith and Grinnell, two excellent (and high-ranked) schools with holistic admissions practices. I will have to wait until April to see if people in my life are correct in their assumptions.</p>
<p>MissPickwickian, it’s good that you are not deterred from applying to great schools just because you don’t fit the mold of a top student. A 3.3 GPA with no APs is definitely not the profile of a typical student at a top LAC, but a unique life story, as you put it, is one of many things that can make a so-so student appealing to a great college. And as you can see from many recent posts in this thread, perfect grades are not a prerequisite for success. So go for it, and good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you, mantori.suzuki. It’s been an uphill battle for me, and I am doing everything possible to ensure that my “unique” story has a happy ending. Part of that is applying to colleges that I love, whether they are prestigious (like Smith) or obscure (like Maryville). </p>
<p>PS: I have already been accepted to one selective institution via a nonbinding early action plan. It emboldens me.</p>
<p>MP, I applaud your making a decision to apply after “thinking long and hard”, unlike many other folks. Your taking the time to evaluate is evident in your not including Swarthmore in the list inspite of being pressured to do so by other people in your life. You seem to have a good self awareness and sensitivity to others, which is what is required before one ventures forward. A 3.3 does not come close to defining you completely, so don’t let a 3.3 stop you from setting lofty goals and going after your dreams.</p>
<p>I’m a happy dad today. S1 was just named an Intel STS semifinalist!</p>
<p>^^^That’s great. That should surely be a feather in his cap for getting into one of those other reach schools now.</p>
<p>PCP</p>
<p>That is Great News!</p>
<p>You are making sure the schools where you still have pending applications are informed, right?</p>
<p>PCP - Great news! Congratulations to your son.</p>
<p>Congrats, PCP!</p>
<p>Thanks to all. Hopefully this does not raise our expections too much for this April. Just recently, I saw a post on a Siemens & Intel semifinalist rejected by a few Ivies. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Absolutely! I’ll make sure S1 updates all the in-progress schools :). Btw, I was impressed by the 13 semi’s from Thomas Jefferson High of Virginia! No wonder it is the top ranked high school in the country.</p>
<p>PCP - I have a feeling you guys will be wowed come April.</p>
<p>^^^
I don’t know about the Ivy schools, but for the tech schools I would think this would really help. But who knows, they are so hard to get into.</p>
<p>Good to keep expectations low, then be delightfully surprised!</p>
<p>Great news, PCP!!! Your son sounds like an impressive young man. I would be faxing that info to MIT tonight.</p>
<p>^I asked the question on the MIT forum and received similar advice.</p>
<p>On a different note. I just learned that UChicago announced it received a whopping 42% more applicantions than last year! It’s projected overall admit rate is going to be under 20%. I’m really glad S1 applied EA.</p>
<p>[Chicago</a> Sees 42% Applicant Jump](<a href=“Businessweek - Bloomberg”>Businessweek - Bloomberg)</p>
<p>^Me too. It was a pain getting all those essays written by the EA deadline, but so worth it!</p>
<p>Since our kids are still waiting for the RD results, recent admissions data may be relevant to our chances on “Top 20’s”.</p>
<p>I found the data from a post by An0maly in the [Applications</a> Growth - Class of 2014](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/849181-applications-growth-class-2014-a.html]Applications”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/849181-applications-growth-class-2014-a.html) thread.</p>
<p>Chicago +42%
Brown +20%
Princeton +19%
Virginia +18%
Duke +11%
Northwestern +7%
U of California System +6%
Harvard +5%
Stanford +4-5%
Dartmouth +4%
Illinois Urbana-Champaign +3%
Penn State +3%</p>
<p>My initial reaction to these numbers is “Oh no! Why???”. I don’t understand why apps went way up this year. Wasn’t last year the year with the largest class of seniors? Do you think our task is made harder because of this increase? </p>
<p>I’m asking this because I harbor a small hope that the increase in raw numbers does not necessarily translate to an increase in highly qualified aaplicants, e.g., the increase is mainly in low-to-borderline-stat applicants playing the finaid lottery. Or, perhaps most of the T20’s can’t hold on to their yields - assuming the increase is just due to the same group of applicants applying to more schools. </p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>I doubt he’s the norm, but our son applied to 18 schools including his ED denial at Rice. So I’m leaning towards students appying to more schools.</p>
<p>My real news is that he got accepted yesterday at Tulane, his first decision since Rice.
Stats are:
3.6 UW
3.8 W
1580/1600, 2290/2400 SAT1 (Third try’s a charm!)
SAT2:
800 Math2, 780 BioE, 740 BioM, 700 USHist
AP: Bio 5, WHist 5, Lang & Comp 4, Stat 4, USHist 4
AP Scholar w/Distinction
Mediocre EC’s</p>