Overtime, peer groups tend to think similarly - for better or worse. Might this be happening with College Confidential and our thoughts on admission to some colleges?
I supported (do not get paid unfortunately) a student this cycle from a NE public with an unweighted GPA in the high 3.6’s - medium schedule. No Tests or ED, Liberal Arts Major, Good activities and applications.
Rules will not allow me to post all 15 colleges, but I think it is worth mentioning some that get kicked around here a lot?
U Maryland
Villanova
U Wisconsin
Ohio State
U Michigan
Please share whether you feel these types of schools were appropriate and whether you feel the applicant would be admitted, rejected, waitlisted, and anything else you feel is pertinent or interesting.
I think the list looks fine. I’d expect “yes” from Ohio state. Most likely a “no” from Michigan. Probably a no at UMD but only because psychology is an impacted major there. My views are based on my experience at a good public school in NE.
I’ll add that, in my experience, Wisconsin could also be a “yes”. Students with a high 3.6 UW have been accepted from our school at that gpa (and lower). Of course, the lower gpa acceptances have been in EA.
(Edited by moderator to reflect information in revised post)
If you worked with this student and say they had good applications with some knowledge of the HS and historical placements/scattergrams(assuming the only thing you didn’t see was LoRs), I expect they could have been admitted to all of these schools (assuming an EA app to all.)
Ohio State was probably close to a safety, the others target to reach (could be major dependent at a few.) Hope this student has many good choices.
“Guess my decisions” is barely tolerated when done by teenagers whose prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed. When adults do it, I just SMH.
If it’s to second-guess the application strategy of the past cycle, it’s pointless Monday morning quarterbacking. Focus on moving forward, not looking back.
If it’s to point out that the chance me subforum is often a parlor game, then you’ll get no argument from me.
I think the OP is trying to point out that much of the advice on CC is very conservative. A lot of folks might say that several of these schools would be a reach for this student.
I’ll play along since I’m curious to see how my guesses stack up realizing, of course, that a “medium schedule” can mean very different things to different people, that school quality in the northeast can vary significantly, and I’m assuming that the student is not hooked and is not in-state for MD. So to give additional context for my guesses, this is how I’m imagining the schedule and school.
Medium schedule: In CC terminology, I’m taking this to mean mostly honors classes and less than 4 AP classes. Guessing AP results of 2-4 for any APs already taken. Also acknowledging that in the majority of public U.S. high schools, this would be a strong schedule/student.
School in the northeast: I’m going to guess this is a school with an average SAT of about 1100-1200. Of course, if it’s a CC-type public high school, then those numbers are probably higher, but unless it’s a magnet school, the entire school is not likely to be a 1400+ cohort.
I realize I chance conservatively, but here are my guesses based on the available info:
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
Likely (60-79%)
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Ohio State (closer to likely)
U. of Maryland: EA (closer to lower probability)
U. of Wisconsin
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Villanova (full-pay or mostly full-pay)
Low Probability (less than 20%)
U. of Maryland: RD
U. of Michigan
Villanova (needs significant aid)
And although this thread might seem “pointless” to others, it’s an opportunity to get immediate feedback on guesses and in a context when it’s not about a kid or a family member who is super-emotionally invested and is dealing with whatever the decisions happened to be (as I don’t think @michaelcollege feels that way right now…correct?).
Would it be correct that the student and parents can afford the out-of-state list price of these out-of-state public schools? The appropriateness does depend on affordability – admission but too expensive = rejection.
On paper, you are right - but we see some what we’d deem crazy stories - a kid with a 3.2 getting into schools like U Miami, Syracuse, and other very great sports management schools.
Or kids that are TO, that seem fine but nothing extravagant getting into the Michigan, Wisconsins of the world.
I guess it goes back to balance. A kid should have balance. But it’s hard to make a statement and take it at 100% assuredy.
Is there group think? I like to think of it as learning - I think any prominent poster has learned from other posters and that their knowledge and repetoire of schools mentioned has expanded - and yes, often especially on initial searches, the same comes up.
That’s perhaps, based on a limitation of schools out there or a limitation based on schools that some kids would consider.
In other words, “everyone” - I embellish loves UVM as a safety but how many from the other parts of the country mention UNH or URI?
Everyone loves Illinois or Wisconsin but why not Kansas or Mizzou?
So in some senses, yes - there is group think - but not just by posters but also those who post seeking help.
But hopefully, all in all, the kids/parents that come on here walk away with something positive to help their kids - and if that’s happening, then I think it’s a good thing. Nothing is perfect.
I agree that it is and I personally think that’s OK. I would rather an acceptance be a wonderful surprise than a rejection be an unexpected soul-crushing disappointment.
(I have seen some of the student posters complain about this and recommend reddit specifically because people on reddit apparently tend to offer more hope on chances. Some prefer that, and that’s OK, too.)
Students can be admitted to reaches (and may in fact be admitted to all of their reaches), but that doesn’t prove that the schools were not reaches.
The purpose of categorizing a school as a “reach” is really just to make sure a student has schools on their list that are more likely than that. “Reach” doesn’t mean “you won’t be admitted.”
That’s the other thing - we’ve probably all seen students with a list of 20 reaches and not a single true safety. Or one safety that they hate and don’t want to attend because they’re banking on the reaches. And we’ve also seen the threads (“Rejected from 12/13 schools, what do I do now?”). So I also think a part of being conservative is to mitigate this specific scenario and to ensure that students realize what a reach is and why it is critical to have at least one true safety that will be OK with attending. If you sugarcoat chances too much, I think they may not take it as seriously because they believe their stats will save them at the end of day. And in some cases they just don’t.
I think that the forum can be quite opinionated in terms of making sure that a student has at least one (and I always vote for at least two) schools that are extremely likely to admit them (and into their major, if pertinent), that will be affordable, and that the student would be happy to enroll in and attend for 4 years, particularly if a student’s safety looks completely different from the rest of their list.
Outside of that, I don’t think that the forum tends to become forcefully opinionated in unity on other subjects, at least not very frequently (100% consensus is rare). And those few times when there is total consensus, it’s usually very much in the poster’s best interest (i.e. the student/parents wants to take out very significant loans beyond the federal limits or there’s no school with more than a 20% acceptance rate on the list, etc).
