The parents in our Chicago area upper middle-class high school are generally graduates of state flagships with a number of Northwestern and Notre Dame grads mixed in. There are very few Ivy grads in our area to supply legacy candidates, but we do have a sizable population of first and second generation Asians. Most of the top kids are happy to attend a Big 10 flagship, with Northwestern, Chicago, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt and Wash U being the most popular top 20 privates.
There are always outliers, but kids from our high school who end up going to the Ivyâs generally fit into two groups:
1 - High Academic Achieving Asians
2 - White Athletes
The Asian kids are probably more driven to apply to the name schools on either coast, while the athletes manage a good combination of athletics and academics that makes them attractive to the Ivyâs.
Data point of 1 here, but someone I know who got admitted to HYPMS had near perfect SAT scores, but thought being an athlete tipped him over the edge in the admissions decision. He wasnât a national star by any means, but did end up playing on the schoolâs team.
@ams5796 What I had in mind initially was: Describe your student in five words without mentioning stats and ECs. That would be hard. What posters have shared so far, e.g., #43, #48 and #49, are the things only parents see clearly and we usually donât see in other threads. Great info. I donât expect you to say that your youngest son is better than his older siblings but I canât picture him in my head as I do the others.
@eiholi The reason my youngest son went to Harvard is that he applied there. My oldest two children werenât interested. As wonderful as they thought the Harvard name is, they were not sure they would have the full college experience there. Frankly, Harvard is not known to be fun. My oldest (daughter) applied ED to Dartmouth and my other son really wanted MIT. When he didnât get into MIT he fell in love with Brown at an alumni interview. All three schools were the right fit for each of my children. The oldest two are out in the working world doing very well (Google and Spotify) and are very happy. I hope my youngest son ends up in his chosen field. He wants to go to LA to be a comedy writer drawing on his connections made as President of the Harvard Lampoon. And, BTW, heâs had more âfunâ in college than the other two had when they were in college. Harvard can be lots of fun if you get involved in an activity that youâre passionate about with like minded friends. I might say that my youngest is better at seeing the big picture. He has always been very mature. He wanted to go to Harvard even when he thought it might not be fun. Fun has been a nice bonus.
âI donât expect you to say that your youngest son is better than his older siblingsâ
In my family, there are two siblings who drank up information with little to no effort, and two who had to put in more work. The siblings for whom skills came easily had a much tougher road over the years, though mine did wind through Harvard. The ones who always had to work harder ended up at Yale Law School and as a medical professor at UCSF.
For what itâs worth, all 6 of us in the family would agree that I had way more fun at Harvard than any of the other siblings did in college. (Maybe more fun than any of the siblings has ever had doing anything.)
I think all three of my kids put fun above academics in college. I was always wishing that they would take it a bit more seriously, but it all worked out in the end. I think our culture puts too much emphasis on the âfun college experience.â Or, maybe fun in college is part of the learning experience.
I went to Harvard and always hated this âHYPâ concept. The universities are very different. Frankly Harvard has more in common with Columbia than with Princeton in more ways than one.
Iâve worked with admissions for years and the only pattern I can discern is that admitted students stand out in some way OTHER than test scores. Indeed, at a meeting we had this year with the regional admissions officer, she said that students should aim to have their applications be âmemorableâ in some way.
Five words for DD1: kind, quick to grasp connections, voracious reader, passionate about politics, comfortable socially, academically strong. FIve words for DD2: kind, empathetic, devoted, diligent, rule-bound, academically strong. Which one applied/is applying to single initial schools? Pretty hard to tell, huh? I think the students I know who get into the single initial schools are generally parented mindfully, comfortable with delayed gratification, in control of their perfectionism, good at budgeting their time based on their goals for maximum results, aware of their strengths, passionate about learning, and are willing to take chances. I see no difference between those that went to the single initials, and those that picked other schools.
One of the most comment thing parents say is, âmy child almost didnât applyâ. Seriously. I was the same. Back in the day I almost through out my application and hesitated at the post office. Thought I didnât have a chance. You never can tell.
@eiholi I think the differentiating factor of the HYPS student population (Stanford should def included here in my opinion) vs that of the other top schools, is that the top cohort (say top 10%) of the HYPS classes is comprised of more truly exceptional and talented students vs the top 10% of the classes in other elite schools. I do not think the average HYPS student is much if at all different than the average student at the next 5-6 top schools, but HYPS attracts a much bigger portion of the very few truly exceptionally talented students (i.e. math, science, music, literary prodigies etc) than the other top schools.
@penn95 "I think the differentiating factor of the HYPS student population (Stanford should def included here in my opinion) vs that of the other top schools, is that the top cohort (say top 10%) of the HYPS classes is comprised of more truly exceptional and talented students vs the top 10% of the classes in other elite schools. "
This is an important point. HYPSM do get a higher percentage of these students.
If you look at the next group with Penn, Columbia, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, and Cal Tech, they definitely get decent share of these students too, but not as many as the top group. It also seems that these students tend a bit more toward Universities than LACs, in my experience.
I loved my major and worked hard in my courses - but I didnât work that hard.