<p>First son graduated in '07. 3.4ish GPA, 34 ACT, 2120 SAT, very good ECs. Admitted to Wisconsin, Beloit, Kalamazoo, Cornell College and American. Waitlisted at Lawrence. Attending Kalamazoo with a merit scholarship and couldn’t be happier.</p>
<p>Awesome responses! Hoping that as time goes on more parents will update us. Thank you all!</p>
<p>Son had 3.6 GPA (3.5something cum at end of jr year), 34 ACT, 2070 give or take on SAT. But I think there is a mitigating difference when a kid also has 6AP’s on his resume as well.</p>
<p>Admitted to
Hamilton
Trinity (CT)
Colgate
Middlebury
Tufts</p>
<p>Rejected
Dartmouth ED
Georgetown
Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>Waitlisted:
Amherst</p>
<p>Both my kids had grades in the 3.5 range- don’t remember what SATs were, one D’s were higher than the other ( she also had taken SAT in 7th gd).
One had attended private schools-no weighting, no AP’s offered.
Applied and was accepted to ( some with money)
Western Wa University
Central Wa University
University of Oregon
Evergreen State College
then took a year off and applied to
Reed College where she attended.</p>
<p>Other daughter attended inner-city public. No weighting. 5 AP classes.
Money was a factor, she applied and was accepted to
Humboldt State University
Western Wa University.
She took a year off, but because she was traveling didn’t apply to any other schools, she will attend WWU.</p>
<p>3.4 UW/3.9W 9 APs/IBs, 31 ACT - Received NROTC Scholarship to University of Michigan</p>
<p>Accepted</p>
<p>University of Michigan - will attend
University of Florida
Penn State
Virginia Tech</p>
<p>Waitlisted at UVA</p>
<p>Rejected at Vanderbilt</p>
<p>The definition of a match is that you’ll probably get in, but you might not, so I don’t know how anyone can say there is no such thing as a match from their admissions results. For tippy top students all their matches might be reaches because such a small percentage of students are admitted, but for most students there are matches out there.</p>
<p>Good points mathmom.
My daughters lists did not include any schools that were ultra competitive although the students attending Reed College did have higher scores and stats than my daughter.
( neither one was interested in East coast, which is where many of the admit rate >20% schools are)</p>
<p>While many of their friends who had similar classloads and EC’s * are/did* attend highly competitive schools, even top students should have choices that have higher admit rates ( that they would be willing to attend)</p>
<p>I’ve thought of “match” as a 50/50 estimate of chances, based on SAT/GPA being near the 67th percentile (due to how yields work) of the previously matriculating class, and a feeling for general “fit.” Basically, don’t be surprised either way.</p>
<p>^^ how does one find out about the so called yield - like you said 67%, I did not understand how to figure this out.</p>
<p>It’s not what a school’s yield number is (but it’s computed as number matriculating divided by number admitted), but rather how yields affect your chances.</p>
<p>Consider schools A, B and C with descending admission statistics, considered a measure of quality by many. The average student admitted to A and B will more often choose A; one admitted to B and C will more often choose B. College B knows that a random student with high stats for B but just barely good enough stats to be admitted to A will more often choose A. College B also knows that a random student with high stats for C but just barely good enough stats to be admitted to B will more often choose B. Thus, a higher percentage of students in College B’s low stat range will choose College B than those in its high stat range (who will more often choose College A). So when College B sends out its admission offers, it knows that more students at its low end than at its high end will accept the offers. Thus, that stats of students accepting offers are lower than the stats of all offers the school sent out. Thus, to be at the middle point of all extended offers, a student needs somewhat higher stats than the middle of the students accepting offers.</p>
<p>A study I saw about Williams suggested the 50th percentile of all offers corresponds to the 67th percentile of matriculators. I invalidly generalize. ;)</p>
<p>Ok I think I get it now…must go and have a look at a real life example to clearly understand this.</p>
<p>Son has good SAT’s but not so great GPA which makes things even more complicated.</p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time to explain.</p>
<p>A lot of parents must be dropping off and saying good byes to their kids. Next year we will be in this situation - Parents of HS 2010 brace yourselves!</p>
<p>Son is my eldest, this is all so new to me! I never even thought I had so many choices when I was 17! These kids are fortunate, they have so much support. Having 2 boys I do not know what having a girl is like, but I gather that they are much more organised and communicative!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Students with mixed stats (e.g. 2300/3.4/9APs) break the mold.</p>
<p>Since SATs and GPAs are usually correlated, GPA is probably deal-breaker at high-stat schools, making them reaches. Student’s SAT will tend to stand out at lower and mid-range schools so these tend to be high-prob.</p>
<p>Matches? Tough to find.</p>
<p>Okay Dad’o’2 I see what you are saying. My B+ kid is in somewhat that situation, though there are still some schools out there that look like matches to me. I look at the percentage of the class in the top 10% vs. SAT score. If my kid is over the SAT rate, but more than 25% are not in the top 10% or the acceptance rate is over 30% I consider the school a potential match. Sometimes you can give a little boost for a boy at an LAC or geographic issues. For some of these schools that look a little iffy - school naviance data looks more postive. Potential matches for my son therefore might be:</p>
<p>Kenyon
George Wash.
grinnell
Macalaster
Reed
Oberlin
Rochester</p>
<p>Here is an article by the Reed dean of admission on how admission works at selective LACs in general:
[Reed</a> College Admission Office](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html]Reed”>http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html)</p>
<p>This one is specifically about Reed, but I’d guess there are some similarities to other schools:
[Reed</a> Magazine: Many Apply. Few are Chosen. (1/5)](<a href=“http://web.reed.edu/reed_magazine/spring2008/features/many_apply/index.html]Reed”>http://web.reed.edu/reed_magazine/spring2008/features/many_apply/index.html)</p>
<p>mathmom–I think you are on the money with that list and with your rationale. I’m still pretty nervous with acceptance rates below 40 percent, though. I plead ignorance on the LACs, and would think that the smaller schools would be less predictable.</p>
<p>(Being the geek that I am, I sorted my spreadsheet by the value of a formula I concocted that combined normalized versions of the SAT 75th percentiles, top HS GPA decile percentages, and acceptance rates to give me a siingle overall “selecitivity” index. My family puts up with me despite my quirks…)</p>
<p>^ you could be my H. :)</p>
<p>He has spreadsheets too…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>From an Excel point of view, you might say I have “unresolved references.” </p>
<p>P.S. If he’s interested, the formula is:</p>
<p>(1-acceptance<em>rate) + top</em>decile<em>rate + (SAT</em>75th<em>v</em>m/400 -3) ;)</p>
<p>LOL, Dad’o’2, I just use the sort function, sort first by top 10% percentage, then by acceptance rate, then by SAT scores. Close enough.</p>
<p>S’07: Unweighted GPA 3.47, weighted 3.9. SAT 2150, 2 AP’s (senior year, so no score available when applying). Ranked top 10% of public hs when applying (moved up to top 5% by graduation). Main EC - Eagle Scout. Intended major: Economics.</p>
<p>Accepted: Lafayette, Providence
Accepted with merit money: Union, UVM, Stonehill
Waitlisted: Colby (withdrew)</p>