All true. But still b.s. regarding legacy/early decision status.
I went to Penn. My dad went to Penn and Penn Med. Our kid was fully qualified in all respects. Way more qualified than when I got in, honestly.
Is our kid less of a legacy because he opted to see what other options might be before deciding for sure that he wanted us to commit $$ to Penn? My view is if you are going to use legacy as any type of consideration, it should apply during the entire admissions cycle, not just for the early phase.
In the end, heās gonna be fine, and frankly, our pocketbook will probably appreciate the fact that we wonāt spend a premium on an undergrad education. But it definitely sucks to have to say āYeah, you should have gotten in.ā And I know a lot of parents are having that talk with their kids today.
Waitlisted, Major: CS BSE at School of Engineering and Applied Science
UW 4.0 / 12+ APs /3 Dual Credits/mostly 5s and 4s
SAT 1550/ACT 35
Varsity Sport Captain
Solid leadership/very good ECs+CS related ECs/Volunteering etc
4.2 gpa
33 ACT
7 AP
Class president 7-12
Student council president Sr
FBLA district president, state VP awards state level
Beta Nationals finalists
EAST numerous Fay Jones Architecture AWARDS
SKETCHUP AWARDS
USSYP state semi finalist
Boys State
Governors School
Presidential Scholar candidate
Numerous community projects,
Accepted to U of Arkansas, Auburn, Ole Miss, USC/Trustee scholarship, Harvard, and Columbia.
I am sorry the results were not positive for you. For those reading this thread later, it serves as a warning that if one wishes to play the legacy card, one must follow whatever rules the school has set, however unreasonable they may be. Penn is quite clear that legacy applicants must apply ED to gain an advantage, so be forewarned.
We opened all of our Dās Ivy decisions as a family, with her pulling her portals up at the same time. Dartmouth messed that up by posting early, lol, but it was still enjoyable. Rejected everywhere but Dartmouth, where she was waitlisted. Sheās heading to UNC, and couldnāt be happier. Possible we make a last second trip to WashU again, but really leaning towards UNC (and tomorrow night will probably solidify that lol).
She really liked Penn, and obviously would have liked to have been admitted. But her classmates are a bit down on Penn today, primarily because for the first time they did not accept anyone from our school. In the past, thereād be anywhere from 2-5 kids- including lots of legacy.
This is obviously a very small sampling, but it looks like they aggressively denied legacy. Our salutatorian is a three generation legacy, 1570, all sorts of involvement, etc. Deferred ED, denied RD. Obviously donāt know everything, but to me thatās someone purposefully making a choice to make a statement.
Iām completely on board with eliminating the revolving door of legacy for applicants who are not qualified (or even mediorce candidates) but other than optics I have no idea why a school would want to move away from generational involvement if the student is clearly within the top 25% of applicants. A correction was warranted, but an overcorrection is annoying.
Think she was responding to my comment about Penn overcorrecting to lean against legacy in this cycle. That a correction amongst most selective schools was warranted- schools shouldnāt be revolving admissions for unqualified students- but that in this cycle Penn has (in some very specific cases) looked like they are actively trying to prove they arenāt a legacy school any longer.
the most unique was definitely being an assistant coach for my high schoolās football team (iām a girl) and then i had strong academic ECās as well
The U of Illinoisās CS department is outstanding. To boot, That School Down South (I am a Badgerā¦) is strong in a great many areas, so if she changes her academic and vocational aim ā as so many kids do ā there is a high likelihood that sheāll be switching to another program of quality.
If she gives it a fair chance, my guess is that sheāll be bleeding orange and blue in no time.
Yes, this is true. We did indeed have long discussions about this and certainly knew the odds would be less favorable by not applying ED. I will say that not doing this allowed us to get good scholarship offers from 2 excellent āstateā business schools (Maryland and IU Kelley), and also an acceptance at Emory. So itās not as though the options will be bad no matter what happens. Weāre going to focus on the positive and move on!
At my daughterās school only one or two students (out of 400) got into an Ivy yesterday and there were many highly qualified very high stats kids who applied, but dozens committed to Ivys and other top tier schools earlier this year because they were recruited through sports. The students are much lower ranking academically but in this new world of test optional the schools have so much more flexibility. They might be avoiding legacies because the floodgates are open for the recruits.
Funny. About 1 in 57 HS athletes go on to play D1 sports (Penn is D1), hardly suggesting there are open floodgates. The competition for a spot on an athletic team at Penn is fierce, and happens in earnest for an athlete typically their junior year of HS. Penn coaches have many student athletes contacting them daily, hence a large pool to choose from.
Once the coaches identify the athletes they want from the large pool of athletes, the athleteās GPA/transcript/test score go on to a pre-read with the admissions office which further winnows the pool. Then the coach selects (from those approved by admissions) who they will support thru the admissions process in Fall of senior year.
Itās a long drawn out process where students are fully vetted before they submit their application (typically ED/early action), which is why the recruits who are fully coach supported and pre-read approved have high success in admissionsā¦but in reality the athlete acceptance rate is also in the single digits when you consider the pool the coach started with.
More broadly I would ultimately expect some changes in admissions policies and practices at Penn as they have a new Dean of admissions, whose first cycle was this yearās.
We had a baseball player in our school recruited three years ago by several Ivies (including Penn). Heās now playing at a different school, more suited to him academically. When our college counseling office was working with the recruiting coaches to provide academic info, they heard very specific information from the Ivies- heāll get in. They have an allottment for their sport, and as long as the student is not a complete brickhead and as long as the overall academic index reaches a certain point for the recruiting classā¦they get in. Weāve sent students to the Ivies pretty regularly. A football player from a few years back actually failed his junior year math class and needed to re-take it during the summer. He just graduated from a top 10 school in the nation.
I donāt think TO or any of the changes have impacted athletics in any meaningful way. Itās probably improved overall reporting numbers, as many coaches likely tell their athletes not to submit test scoresā¦but I am fairly confident overall acceptance rates havenāt been impacted by any change in athlete recruitment/acceptance. Floodgates have always been open for recruits at the Ivies.
