@SilverGrass I didn’t mean to say there’s anything wrong with visiting any school but it’s very hard for kids to really understand a sub-10% acceptance rate. S19 just had too many friends who had reach-heavy lists (kids who were NMF, 1550+ SAT, lots of rigor, high grades, athletes, musicians, tons of volunteering.etc) and didn’t have a good list of matches and safeties they liked. What 17 year old wants to go to their state safety after visiting Duke, Cornell, and Yale? It’s just really hard to keep the kids’ feet on the ground and I think showing them mostly tippy top schools is setting them up for disappointment.
Kids do get lucky of course. I must have told S19 a dozen times in the six months after seeing Bowdoin that only seven out of 100 kids will get in. I thought he had his expectations in check but, after he was accepted, I fully understood how invested he was in the idea of going there. He just hadn’t shared it with us because he knew it was a long shot but it was his clear favorite. As is preached so much on CC, I just want families to make sure to visit schools that are realistic for the student and find things to love about them.