I hear you - my son has very similar stats/APs and appealed in Nov. We didnt know to put his entire resume in the petition though, at the time, we were seeing it characterized as ‘routine and most are accepted’. Obviously not the case anymore.
He is in direct at a lot of other schools but we are going to visit IU in April - IU was his top choice, but standard admit is a big hesistation since we are OOS. He has straight As with 5 APs this year so I think he could do it, but it would put us all on edge for a year if he didnt have DA, so he may end up picking another DA school (we have several admitted student days lined up between now and May).
I just wanted to say I understand being confounded at the lack of a pattern to who is getting approved - all I can say it is a “black box” which is frustrating when you are on our side of the equation, but at least they do give a standard admit path where you are in control of the outcome and I feel like others on this forum have been helpful in setting expectations that these waivers are generaly unlikely to be granted this year.
Do you mean even for review petitions they are only looking at the printed GPA and not holistically considering the transcript? I thought that was for Auto DA, but for review request they’d try to look at things in context.
Didnt know about LOCI for Kelley review requests… how do we do that? Don’t think we have the stats to be ruled out due to yield protection? It’s extremely unfair and unfortunate of Kelley is doing that.
I get it, but the issue is the volume of review requests, and they are holistic admission. Meaning…none of us know what they are looking for as they continue to build the class. I do think females will have an advantage for remaining direct admit slots.
In terms of comparing to the rigor or whatever of other students accepted, you just can’t know what led to that acceptance. Perhaps they have great business experience that came thru in the essays (not saying your D’s didn’t.) The lack of transparency definitely ratchets up the stress.
I get it. My kids’ HS is also competitive, and some kids well into the 3rd quartile of the class qualify for direct admit.
No. If the transcript doesn’t directly say this, the school profile does. The IU Kelley admissions peeps definitely know whether they are working with weighted or unweighted GPA at each point in the process for every applicant.
We were also aware that review waivers roll be difficult this year, but with a 3.78 UW GPA with maximum rigor possible and 34 ACT we expected better, especially when seeing others with lower/no rigor and test optional getting accepted raised our hopes. Kid has gotten acceptance to some really selective schools like UGA, UIUC so I’d assume her essays and activities are solid, but will not argue about this.
Sorry for expressing disappointment on this thread. I don’t know why I did that. Still hopeful though.
Heavily encourage you to call up admissions or email them stating interest. They do keep track of things like demonstrated interest during the petition process.
It’s easier for applicants when it’s a clear rubric - you have these stats you get in. The pattern now is not a pattern, it’s priorities trying to build out their class who they want at a DA day. And even at a DA day there are special lunches with different applicants who they want more than you that isn’t always based on stats. It would be easier for all applicants to just have a clear score of if I do X then my score is Y and I get in or I don’t. And it would be a really homogenous class.
It’s not about being overwhelmed it’s about yield management. They couldn’t admit people today in any actual numbers if they wanted to - they have no idea what numbers they have until DA days. You could have the most perfect app and if you did not meet one of their early review priorities they would wait. And it doesn’t mean you won’t be number 1 on the accept list when they are ready in April. You’ve been admitted to great schools who tell you now. And many great schools would not tell you now until end of March/early April. That’s exactly what Kelley petition is.
I’ve never heard this to be true and everyone I know in admissions would say the opposite, but different people know different things. I’d want to know this for sure before I potentially damaged my petition.
Your point is totally normal. As hard as it is to know some hear now - it’s not they reviewed your app and are waiting.
This is 100000% accurate. If you knew, everyone would do it and copy it. Unusual experience, first gen, historically underrep-d, gender, flow of grades (something dramatically changed). Someone could be 25% or less Polynesian, Native American, etc… and qualify as historically underrepresented as a random example and you might never know it. You cannot compare what you don’t know.
Sometimes our emotions get the best of our better angels. Nobody is more aware of stats and impact on rankings than a college. Stats, APs, ECs aren’t the only measure of a candidate.
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I’m not sure why you’re telling me this.
I dropped the names of UIUC and UGA as examples to speak for potential application strengths of my kid, when someone suggested that may be DD’s essays/ECs aren’t strong enough for Kelley.
I didn’t mean to say that UGA is a direct admit.
Also, congratulations on wonderful acceptances for your kid. Good luck.
Here’s our full list:- UIUC, UGA, Santa Clara, Villanova, PSU Smeal, Fordham honors, Rutgers honors, SMU Cox BBA Scholar, UW Madison.
25K+ merit at most privates. 10-15K for most publics. 8k per year for IUB.
Which honors at Fordham? My daughter was invited to ignite and it’s pretty compelling. She got $47k/year there and we are visiting again. We weren’t expecting her to get DA to Kelley and had somewhat moved on. Now that’s back in the mix. Her top four right now are PSU, Fordham, UW and Kelley. Visiting all four (two for a second time). UGA and Villanova are also great choices for your daughter in addition to the others in her list. At this point we want our daughter to choose based on fit. Trying to keep my own opinions out of it at this point. Your daughter’s options are amazing and I hope Kelley works out. What a process. Did she apply to Hutton as well?
Fordham has been very generous with full tuition waiver, but it’s not among kid’s top choices. She’s waiting for NYU Stern.
Applied to Hutton (I think; will need to check with her), but is it really worth it?
Missed out on Kelley ACE due to not qualifying for Auto DA, and that I believe is a worthy program. DD could have had a good shot at it if she wasn’t defaulted out of it. I personally like schools which look at each application individually and then apply their own criteria, institutional priorities; simply defaulting students in/out based on a published GPA number (without context to the school, rigor etc) is unique to Kelley.
For example, DD wouldn’t have been accepted to UGA EA if they’d have looked at just the published GPA. They saw the academic strength by reviewing her grades in context, and offered her merit, as well as auto admit to honors.
But who am I to complain. They’re clearly doing something right to be ranked among the top schools.
Stern would be amazing. Lots of great choices. Mine is sending in an application for PSU sapphire leaders too. Weighing the options. It will all work out. I suppose Kelley is such a big program that they can afford to lose some really great kids and it doesn’t affect the program. I am not a fan of this process overall but I agree I guess it works for them.
Kelley earns its ranking because they prepare students for the workforce better than most regardless of if you are in Ace, Honors, workshops or Direct Admit. Kelley’s reputation carries a lot of weight with employers.
No one’s challenging Kelley’s ranking; why else would competitive applicants like our kids with amazing comparable/better offers even consider it?
However, I would not be kidding myself to say that just getting into Kelley is enough. The smartest lot would expect the best of resources Kelley has to offer, including ACE program. Sure, not everyone will get in–but getting a fair shot matters. Naturally, it’s not the end of road if one misses out on competitive programs, and students will end up with good/great careers regardless. All the best to you.
I know you are not challenging the ranking - I am simply saying that it should be a consideration when choosing across many great options. And also people get way too concerned about honors and workshops etc - many great paths with Kelley credentials.
To each their own. You can’t say others concerns as “too concerned”, much like I wouldn’t say your lack of concern as being “apathetic”.
There are people I know would argue that one can have a great career without college education, and that people are “way too concerned” about college prestige/rankings. I’m sure you wouldn’t argue with them either, even though it will make for an interesting philosophical discussion.
Let’s admit, we all want the best for our kids. At least I’m not being pretentious about it. Thank you, and good luck!
PS:- as per the rules of the forum—which I read yesterday after a post of mine was flagged as inappropriate, I won’t be replying further on this topic. Let’s agree to disagree and move on.
