Ivy league schools with 3.7 GPA

NiceUnparticularMan
Tue, 25 Jul 2023 13:08:42 +0000

I think you are also getting into why school counselors who have a lot of experience in placement often actively discourage students from applying to certain schools that they consider practically out of reach.

At first that idea can seem harsh, but these counselors understand that both they and the teachers at that school will be writing recommendations for their applicants. And only so many applicants can get the sorts of recommendations they will need for the most selective schools without trashing their credibility.

As in, your school can’t write 20 recommendations each year to the same college claiming each of those applicants is one of the top few students your school has ever seen and expect that to help all of them, or really any of them. For any of them to have a really good chance, they need to get the full, credible support of their high school, and that is not an unlimited resource.

But these counselors also understand it isn’t actually a zero-sum game. There are going to be great colleges out there which are both achievable and a great fit for a given student.

So if all their students apply to the same few “dream” schools and only a tiny fraction get in, that is not so good. But if every student comes up with a really well-considered “dream” list of their own, a list of achievable schools that in a variety of ways would be great fits for them, then basically everyone can end up excited about where they go.

And so sometimes they have to tell kids bluntly that to get a great result, they need to be looking at different schools.

And their parents. Maybe even more so their parents.