Idk our underfunded city high school has enough kids for multi variable calculus this year. Neighboring schools with 100+ kids at a 4.0 also do. In some areas, there are large concentrations of really gifted kids that attend public schools due to the area (Silicon Valley, Research Triangle Park/UNC/Duke/NC State area).
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Our AP Lit teacher does college app essay work.
Not only are the teachers trained to craft strong letters at some schools, at one of my kidsâ schools, the teachers and guidance/college office donât fill out the checkboxes in the recommendations in order to force the colleges to read those well-crafted letters. I can imagine that this practice only works if the school has faith that all of the teachers are good writers and know what they are doing. Otherwise, it might hurt more students than it helps.
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You are fortunate! My D24 had to rely on her woefully ill-equipped parents for app essay feedback.
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my point was the title of a class isnât indicative of the content/level always, which you are confirming:)
Yep. One very selective test-optional school told our college advising office to tell students not to submit any ACT below a 33. It kinda took the âdo I or donât I submitâ stress away. Of course, that college might have been more flexible for a sub-33 score relative to a different academic setting or context, but there you go.
We got a a few clues like that, too.
InterestingâŠwe were also told incorrect info. Nc state told us donât submit ACT below 30 for humanities and 34 for STEM. We know plenty with scores below that who submitted and got in.
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It wasnât incorrect info. The AO assigned to our region met with our schoolâs college advising office and literally told them not to send an ACT below 33.
Were unhooked kids at other schools admitted with lower scores? Yes. Were hooked students from our high school admitted with lower scores? Maybe? But this supports two points in this thread:
1.) Admissions offices are using demographic analytics to determine accomplishments relative to the studentâs environment; and
2.) Independent schools with deep college advising resources have relationships with admissions offices that provide unusual access and insights.
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Some large urban school districts like Houston push everyone into AP classes, when almost everyone is guaranteed to fail, in the name of equity. I donât know why they do this, but they do, which is why I think taking the exams should be mandatory-otherwise AOs really know nothing about the course or the kids.
Like many urban school districts, Houston has a severely needy public school population, so academics are unlikely to be a priority at them except for the selective entrance/ magnet schools, some of which are excellent. Too much social work is needed at the other schools to make room for academics.
Affluent school districts with low AP pass rates are a red flag to me, and indicate they certainly arenât teaching " beyond or deeper " than the AP level regardless of what they claim.
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At some high schools the counselors are flown all over the country, and even abroad, to meet with universities to discuss the best way to write letters and school reports for them. I think people donât often realize quite how unequal these letters can be.
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Sorry - worded that strangely. I meant that some are told correct info, but also incorrect info about scores can be given out, which is frustrating!
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And, of course, at many prep/independent schools the college counselors used to be AOs at top schools, so they truly knows ins and outs and even potentially people working in the offices where kids are applying.
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Apparently, lots of students in Houston do well enough in AP classes to earn A grades, but still score 1 on the AP exams. That suggests either poor quality classes or extreme levels of grade inflation more than anything else.
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Of course. When I last checked about 5 years ago the superintendent said the biggest problem at Houston ISD was the number of second ( not first) pregnancies among students aged 15 and younger. Apparently Detroit leads in first pregnancies. As I said, a severely challenged school district. Note that UT is still required to accept the top 6% of that district, regardless. So UT spends millions on remedial education then.
Yes, I have a hard time squaring the claims that every application is read front to back (âevery wordâ), when there are 10,000s of applications that must be resolved over the course of about 2.5 months (assuming RD round). Iâve heard estimates from AOs on podcasts that the average review takes between 6 and 15 minutes apiece. How many links and other extraneous info can a reader seek out in 6 to 15 minutes?
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Some schools hire as many seasonal readers to supplement their full time staff as they need. From the article linked below (two cycles old), UC Irvine hired 80 readers plus staff of 50 to read 142000 appsâŠ.thatâs about 1,100 apps per person (2,200 if reading each app twice) from about Nov 1 (maybe they start reading earlier than the deadline too) to sometime in March when decisions are released.
At the University of California, Irvine, 180 people were hired as part-time readers last year. They shared the work of reading 142,000 applications (actually twice that number since admissions officials say every application will be read at least twice) with a staff of 50 full-time admissions staffers.
At certain UCs that release early admits, I believe that they read them all before the early admit date, rather than spreading it out until March. (There may be a similar process at other UCs that do not have early admits, too.) Thatâs how they are able to admit some students early, and start the process of giving Regents to some. But donât quote me on that. 
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After the two initial readings, the applicants who got two 1 (best) scores need no additional work to determine admission, and are presumably the group from which the Regents scholarship candidates are gotten from.
But applicants who got other initial reading scores may require additional work to determine admission or not.
In the process you describe, all applications receive readings before the early admit date. Thatâs what I mean.
We donât know how much additional work remains to be done before the regular decision date, for the applications that werenât admitted early. I have heard various things about that.