Do you ever wonder where YOU would be admitted if YOU were applying to college?

Parent Cafe
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<p>LONG, LONG story, more than I want to rehash, but they had their “ways” There were some schools (Princeton being the most obvious) that didn’t admit ANY from my high school, in years that more than two dozen went Harvard. I was 7th of the 9 candidates applying to Williams. The six ahead of me all went to Harvard, Yale, and Columbia - none got in. The story of how I did, off the waiting list, is “interesting” (and my last name helped.) (The gentleman who admitted me, perhaps against his better judgment, died last week, and I remember him gratefully.)</p>

<p>Our guidance counselor used to threaten us with Middlebury.</p>

<p>(Those days are mostly gone, thank heavens - oh, and my high school is 70% Asian, mostly Chinese-Americans.)</p>

22

<p>Even ten years ago I think it was much easier. I basically got accepted to every non-HYP school I applied to (either as a transfer or first year) including Columbia, Brown, Duke, Dartmouth, etc. Now I don’t think I’d be nearly that successful! Maybe one of those schools, but not all of them. I sure wouldn’t have Northwestern as my only match and Michigan as my only safety. Those days are over.</p>

23

<p>I would have been recruited by the same PAC 10 schools I was back then.</p>

24

<p>DH went to Bronx Science – says he’d never get into his Ivy now. Had a 1500 old scale (pre-recentering, etc.), 800s on Math II, Physics and Chem, 3 APs (BC Calc, Physics and Chem, all 5s) but a 90 average – says he was VERY lazy. The teachers gave him grief for not applying to Westinghouse (now Intel ) – it was “expected” of certain people.</p>

<p>I had a 1300 (also old scale), 3.95 UW, self-studied two APs (our school offered none), tons of awards, lots of leadership, publications, Governor’s School, etc. Was from a small southern city. DH worked in admissions at his Ivy and told me after we met that I probably would have gotten in, as there weren’t many non-Atlanta applicants from Georgia. (I did get into Duke, so there is some reason to believe that I would have had a shot.) Would I have survived? Doubt it. I think the financial stuff would have nailed me to the wall, just like it did at the state flagship.</p>

25

<p>I doubt I’d get in where I attended. My senior year hs course load was: AP English, Honors Physics, Human Behavior, Band, Choir, Phys Ed. Also a lunch period and a first period study hall (which enabled me to come to school 45 minutes after the normal start time and sign in at the attendance office). I don’t think 3 academic classes as a Senior would get me very far these days. But I did have a fun Senior year!</p>

26

<p>Back in the dark ages (ok, 1975) when I applied to college, things were very different than they would be if I were going through this process now. I graduated 6 months early with only 2 years of science, 3 of math, and no AP’s (I did take the first half of AP English, but never took the exam.) SAT’s were 1300. Pretty much NO EC’s at all, to speak of. There was nothing much to distinguish me, and my HS didn’t use grades or rank. I went to Cornell. I cannot imagine that now, with those credentials, that I would stand a chance.</p>

27

<p>Good question, missypie. Assuming I were still in the same family situation I was back then (parents divorced, no one “helping” me with the college app thing, and a worthless GC who didn’t “believe” in CLEP tests)… I would probably still have ended up at that same state U in the cornfields that you and I both graduated from!!! I still appreciate the “metamorphasis” that I had there…not the “usual” choice of kids from my h.s., so I only knew the one friend who went with me there… </p>

<p>This past weekend, we visited with 3 old (and VERY successful) friends who I did not know in college, but who all graduated from that same U… we were all trying to convince my youngest D that we could “pull strings” and get her in there, LOL. She wasn’t particularly interested, except that one friend still lives nearby, and could fix her home-cooked meals every now and then!</p>

28

<p>Hmmm. I wonder if I would be admitted to my college now. I attended our State Flagship (U Mich). Never even visited it prior to orientation. I was told by my parents that I had to go to a state school, so that was that. I never seriously considered any other school, just applied to another state school because I heard somewhere that I should. I don’t recall that my parents were involved in any way in the application.</p>

<p>We did not have APs at my high school, and I took as little math and science as possible. Sr. year in HS I took 4 lit classes! It was 1971,…anything went. Few sports were open to females (the only varsity team for girls was swimming) because this was pre-Title IX. I wonder how my measly ECs would have stacked up against today’s standards. I graduated in December of my Senior year. My grades and test scores were within today’s ranges, but I think my college might pass me over today.</p>

<p>I’m sure that DS’s school would turn me down flat! He is a much more serious student than I ever was.</p>

29

<p>mafool,</p>

<p>I graduated from U Mich in 1975. Did you attend commencement in December or May? Our speaker in May was Kingman Brewster, as a substitute for Henry Kissinger. Also, our commencement was in Crisler.</p>

30

<p>I took three years of math, two years of Bio, four years of chorus. Lots and lots of social science and English courses. Our school was on double sessions due to overcrowding, so they got a state waiver so we only had to take five classes. I took 7-8 junior and senior year – the extras were self-study through the Independent Study Class (what passed for GT) and they were all essays. Between that and my junior/senior English teacher, I was prepared for a writing-intensive college program – and this from a HS where 30% went to college – and most of those to the local CC.</p>

31

<p>Can’t even imagine doing what my kids are regarding college. I applied to the only college I knew anything about, my Dad’s alma mater, a state engineering school. I wanted to be an engineer, saw no need to look elsewhere.</p>

<p>S is currently studying engr at a private u. Was barely able to get him to apply to my school as a safety. Times have changed…</p>

32

<p>I doubt I’d get in today (Northwestern). The grades were there, but my EC’s were all around academic activities, not leadership activities.
The schools I was interested in were Penn (Wharton), NU, Georgetown and Wash U as a “safety” (I was from St. Louis). I visited Princeton but didn’t apply because it was “too rural” (what an idiot!!). Of course, today, Wash U is no one’s safety! I didn’t even sweat getting in all 4, and I don’t remember any parental involvement other than providing the checks. The GC was useless, of course – told me to look at Wash U and St. Louis U, and seemed oblivious to the actual presence of colleges outside Missouri. It was just a lot less stressful than it was today – if you were a top student, and had enough EC’s to demonstrate that you could interact with others, you could pretty much be assured of going wherever you wanted to go. So different from today – I’d never make it in to those caliber of schools, LOL.</p>

<p>There just wasn’t the information that there is today. My college search was influenced by where I grew up (East Coast) and where I then lived in the Midwest. I never considered schools in Boston, I never considered schools on the West Coast, and in hindsight there was no reason not to (finances were not an issue). It’s so different today!</p>

<p>But one thing is the same – the smart kids in my kids’ hs are counseled towards NU and U of Chicago (fabulous schools, but not the only appropriate ones for smart kids) and the focus is still overwhelmingly on U of I and the various IL state schools.</p>

33

<p>I wish I knew than what I know now. Counseling was virtually non-existent for bright young women in an all-girls parochial school in the early 70s. The offered options, historically, were teaching, nursing, secretarial school, or joining a religious order.
I did have a science teacher who recommended I look at Clark or Clarkson, so I went to the ‘Guidance office’ (read: closet with bookshelves of college catalogs) and pulled the catalog. I looked at the tuition/room and board fees page and promptly put that book back on the shelf. We couldn’t afford it. I didn’t know about need based aid from private schools. I was the first of my generation to go to college and did the research on my own. In the end, I went to the closest state U, and was the only person on either side of my family to go away to school until my own children did.</p>

34

<p>I was so dumb! Parents had no clue how to help a bright student figure out where to go to college, and GC was used to helping average students figure out which SUNY to attend. I picked the viewbook I liked best out of the stacks that arrived daily and went and visited and then applied early decision. I think I could have gone anywhere I wanted to, I was one of those kids whose name gets called over and over at graduation for scholarships and I was a national merit scholar. One semester at school they cut me a check because I had more scholarships than bills.</p>

<p>I’ve done fine career-wise and I met my husband at college so I’m glad I went there, but I still kick myself regularly :)</p>

35

<p>Looking back, I realize now that I was privileged. Even though I grew up in a military family with three boys that moved frequently, I had a mother who believed in the value and power of education. I spent junior high in a strong public school system (Fairfax County,VA) and high school in a strong private school (on scholarship, of course). The high school GCs were excellent, I was accepted at all colleges to which I applied, and ended up at a so-called “lesser ivy” where I was very happy–so much so that I stayed on there for grad school. I turned down Stanford as an undergrad and grad and MIT for grad school, and never regretted it–the status of those schools was never a consideration for me.</p>

<p>Today the situation is clearly much more competitive than it was in the early 70’s, so I doubt that I’d have the same success. The non-URM middle class male engineering students like I was are today caught in the “squeeze” between “affirmative action” (based on race and gender) and legacy preferences. (Don’t start in on me, please–these are real). </p>

<p>Yes, I do wonder where I would be admitted today. But thankfully, that’s something I don’t need to worry about!</p>

36

<p>I looked at a couple of colleges, but think I applied to only one when I was a senior, a school which probably didn’t turn down anyone who could pay for it. It was a small women’s college, with a student population that was about the size of my large suburban HS’s graduating class. I’d be very surprised if the school has improved so much that a student with stats comparable to mind would be turned down today. I don’t recall being worried at all about whether I’d be admitted. I didn’t apply for the fall semester; I worked for a semester and started school in January.</p>

<p>I took 5.5 years of science in high school (dropped physics halfway through senior year), 4 years of math and English, at least 3.5 years of “social studies” (I remember taking Psychology as a semester-long class my senior year, but don’t remember whether I took another soc. studies class that year), and three years of a foreign language. I didn’t have any leadership roles, but was involved in things like science club, German club (though my HS language was French!), and the like. Had so-so grades and bad SAT scores (taken only once. Prep? What’s that?! :slight_smile: ). I didn’t take any AP courses (unless Advanced Bio counted; don’t remember), and only one AP test (in English).</p>

<p>I still see my Adv. Bio. teacher around, as he, now a very fit 80-something, is the pool manager at my community pool. Though I’m now over 50, tower over him, and definitely outweigh him, he’s still scary! :D</p>

<p>I transferred all over the place, so should I ever need to produce full college transcripts for anyone again (unlikely!), would have to ask four different schools for them. </p>

<p>I wish I had applied to more and different places as a high school senior, and even moreso, I wish I had known myself better, that I had realized then only what I saw in hindsight: a coed school with lots of different things going on and a large student population fit me better than a small women’s college. I thought college was supposed to be an intellectual experience and was <em>really</em> looking forward to that; I didn’t expect the bulk of the conversations to revolve around sex, drinking, clothes, and which frat at a neighboring college was having a party the coming weekend.</p>

<p>(For a small school, someplace like St. Johns in Annapolis might have worked for me.)</p>