From the top schools, those matriculation results that look less impressive will often have a story behind them that wouldn’t be understand unless you know the story: full scholarship, special program, sports decision, proximity to family, etc.
The kids who end up at top colleges are there because of their personal drive and motivation, not because of the school they attended. Top boarding schools tend to select those kids, hence the matriculation results. They have no magic wand to turn a moderately motivated above average kid into an Ivy League admittee (is that even a word?)
Of course, it’s about the student first and foremost. And it’s not meaningful to guess the school’s impact wherever you are. It is what it is. My point is it’s not difficult for BS students to land a “good” college.
I have not the slightest worry about my children’s chances of going to a good college. But they are very ambitious, and they will be applying to some very selective schools. So many kids seem (at least as much as one can tell from this skewed sample on CC) to be not only packaged and prepped but very willing to believe their own marketing materials, as it were, to say how great their essays and recommendations are, how talented they are, etc., etc. There are a lot of people like this in life. They are often rewarded for saying how great they are. (Our current President, anyone?) I’m holding out hope that the college application process has room to also reward the kids who tend to minimize their accomplishments and talents.
I refuse to hire the kids who believe their own marketing materials and think I should be grateful that an Ivy grad wants to join my team. I’ve made that mistake in the past. I’ll take a fast learner with drive and “hunger” over someone with academic pedigree. I doubt I’m the only one.
@CaliMex , I recently heard Frank Bruni give a talk based on his college admissions book. He told an anecdote of a department manager (I think at the NYTimes) who said that you would need to make a very good case to convince him to hire an Ivy grad based on the same logic you stated above.
Though I do think there are many many many more instances where being an Ivy grad will at least get you in the door for an interview.
I have a hunch that this kind of “philosophical theories” based on anecdotes are not what OP is looking for? 
But then this is an open discussion forum. The discussion as expected can go any direction anyone fancies. :))
@panpacific, I don’t know what I’m looking for. If you find it, let me know.
FWIW, I’m an Ivy grad myself. But if you’ve been out of college for more than 2 years, i really don’t care where you went to school. Tell me how you kicked butt in your last job!
I admit to being stumped about how the CC has made up the list of “realistic” schools to which DS should apply. My octogenarian father, a BS grad himself, thinks that simply because one is a BS grad, one should be applying to, and be admitted to, the likes of Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth. My expectations are not that high (I am fully aware of DS’ weaknesses)… but I struggle with agreeing with the 70% admit schools CC has steered him towards, while not encouraging him to apply to any “reach” (40% admit) schools. I am meeting with CC on Friday and will ask him to help me reconcile that. DS has some things going for him that I think might help balance the mediocre grades. Maybe?
“I admit to being stumped about how the CC has made up the list of “realistic” schools to which DS should apply”
Definitely ask.
Does your kid’s school provide access to Naviance? I found it very helpful if you focus on the clumps not the outliers.
I found my kids’ counselors very spot on in their categorizing of far reaches/reaches/matches/safeties. They see so much more data and admissions stories - good and bad - than we will ever be privy to.
@twinsmama In that case, you are at the right place! Enjoy
@doschicos - yes, we have Naviance. I spent a good amount of time tonight looking at scattergrams.
I have been pleased with the counseling he has been given thus far, and agree that they know better than I. I guess I’m just riding the ACT score wave right now… (he did much better than we expected and, with some recent leadership position appointments, has infused new hope into an otherwise mediocre outlook. lol )
While the college counselors were very nice, and helped with a number of issues (senior course selection, essay review, etc.), we found them significantly less helpful in actually putting together the list of reaches/matches/safeties. One kid was adamant about wanting a school with a sailing team (not a club), engineering and a no loan or capped loan financial aid policy. Another kid wanted a location within 2 hours driving distance from home, more than 2k students and pre-med.
So, we developed our own list. We found Naviance very helpful, both in generating a list of possibilities and in evaluating the likelihood of admission. The Dept. of Ed. website was also helpful - https://collegescorecard.ed.gov
Good luck!
I have to tell you my husband and I felt the same way. And our son had about perfect ACTs and really solid grades and tough classes and a solid essay - and he was rejected from a lot of schools. I know dozens of parents who will describe the same thing. There’s an essay in grownandflown.com “What this college counselor wants all parents to know” and I was embarrassed to recognize myself in it - the parent who was insulted because the counselor said not to bother to apply to Cornell or Dartmouth. Well, in retrospect I really wish we’d focused a lot more on the non-reach schools. He ended up with a great college, but it was dicey.
So are Ivy+ colleges worth pursuing or not? Don’t count on CCs hard selling them to you. If you have made up your mind that you will exclude those 8, 10 or 15 colleges from your list, your CC will thank you.
@hellomaisy, it’s good you’re having the conversation with the CC. I would ask about the overall strategy as well as where these schools fit into that.
From our experience - different school, different kid, so YMMV - the CC did not discourage DS from applying to reachy (but not ridiculous) schools. She was very determined, though, to make sure he had some really solid options that would make him happy. Several of these were EA schools that offered generous merit aid. Psychologically, it was a great strategy because by mid January, he had a couple of acceptances at places that clearly really wanted him where he’d be happy to go.
I think that every year, they see kids who end up heartbroken because they only got enthused about schools that didn’t accept them. It may be that your CC is making sure you have great (safe) alternatives regardless. If you want to take some risks after addressing the fail safe plan, that’s probably fine. I know our school felt it was important that the kids were accepted to one of their top choices, and it always took some skill to make sure that short list included achievable goals. Clearly, if HYP are the top choices, even for a spectacular kid, disappointment may be unavoidable.
Our CC also was able to tell us (very accurately, it turns out!), which schools would not be troubled by a “mismatch” of scores and grades and where it might be a problem. Definitely ask all your questions! Our CC ended up keeping all of us - student and parents - on an even keel with her candor and experience (and kindness ), and we were definitely stressing about the process.
For me, it’s not a yes/no question. It’s how much pursuing would be optimal, and the answer is very personal.
Don’t just look for colleges that your kids want to attend, look for schools that want students like your kids.