US college admissions ended as of yesterday. Anyone else just go through this process? I'm really feeling down about the whole thing at the moment. My daughter worked her ass off for years: she's valedictorian of her class, 1590 SAT, varsity athlete, president of student council, editor-in-chief of her student newspaper. So, so much effort put in on the application process itself; she spent hours writing and re-writing essays. Plus the money spent on the applications as well as visiting some of the schools... Result of all of this, wait-listed at two ivies, rejected from three more, rejected from a number of other similar tier schools. She was accepted at a couple of B-tier places including my alma mater, but that's really cold comfort. My own stats coming out of high school were so bad comparatively. I had mixed grades with plenty of B's and even a few C's, no sport, no club leadership, 1400 SAT. I know everything will be fine in the long term but I just wanted to rant a bit. I feel like this is so unfair and I'm not sure at this point what all of her work was for. Thanks for reading, if you did.
US college admissions are so random and unpredictable. It’s not merit based for the most part.
Ethnicity? HYPSM prefers students with extra hardships and minorities for better or worse Like, something about you really stands out, such as taking college courses in high school, extra AP/honors/ winning spelling bees, hackathons and such It also helps that you were admitted into such colleges but you already know this
White, upper middle class. She took something like a dozen AP classes. I thought that would be enough, her resume seems insanely strong to me. But no story of hardship to be sure. Oh well.
Sorry wrong skin color
I think college is more competitive these days. For the Ivys, this seems to show that it’s true across the board. https://admissionsight.com/the-change-of-college-acceptance-rates-over-time/ So it’s not that your daughter is doing anything wrong, it’s just harder than ever to get in.
She'll be able to go to a much more affordable school than an ivy, still get as good an education as she works for, and things will be alright. People way over value college brand names.
at least your daughter was conscientious enough to care about college. she’ll be just fine. if she decides to go to graduate school she can try to get into another college at that time
She seems a strong candidate. Did she applied early action in the preferred colleges? chances are much higher than regular…. She can Harvard online for a year and apply next year, depending on what she wants to study.
I’m sorry. I feel you. I hope the point of the effort was that she liked being an athlete and council etc.
College admission is not the reward. Your daughter (and you) should be proud of all the accomplishments you already listed out. Those are the real short term rewards for her efforts. She has learnt to work hard and that will help her to accomplish even more in life ahead. That’s the real long term reward. She will be fine and you know that already. Just instill in her the values to remain a good human being.
Sorry to say but there are tens of thousands with the same stats like your daughter that tried so hard but go so far. All of those ECs just sound so boring/plain and honestly if you think her stats are good enough for T-10 schools then just go to CC for a year and apply again.
it’s very difficult to transfer to T-10 schools from CC
Agree, there are lots of similar kids out there. What sorts of ECs do you think would have stood out? I have another kid still in middle school so perhaps I'll get to do this all over again in 6 years.
Don't be so fixated at going to Ivy. It's about what you do in these colleges and afterwards not which colleges you go to.
I hear you. Thanks.
Going to a top-tier school makes a world of difference in career options and networking opportunities