<p>As a parent, I feel weird doing this, but here goes anyway. (Oh, before I do, I must say–I am having a hard time fathoming the deferrals and rejections reported here. Every single kid reporting in this thread sounds super-qualified to me, and I’m not just saying that. All have strong stats – some of the deferred / rejected kids have downright intimidating stats – as well as good grades and excellent ECs. I am genuinely mystified…but, in my experience, college admissions are truly wonky, and one can never tell what is going on in adcomm’s murky little minds. 
Anyway, I hope everyone here ends up at a fantastic college that’s the perfect fit for him or her…)</p>
<p>Now to the template:</p>
<p>DS was accepted in-state. (Whether he’ll attend depends entirely on $$.)</p>
<p>In state or out of state? In-State.
**Objective:[ /b]
SAT I (breakdown): 2100: 700 in math, 710 in writing, 690 in CR
ACT: N/A
SAT II: 800 in Latin, 790 in Math II, 700 in Physics
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): We home school and do not give conventional grades. Home-schooled kids in effect have a private tutor 'round the clock. If they don’t get something right away, their parent-tutor keeps drilling until they do get it. Which means these students effectively end up with all As – but that’s just because they’ve had the luxury of being tutored to death, LOL. Anyway, we explained all this to he colleges where DS applied. We also sent copies of DS’s yearly Stanford/California Achievement Test scores to support our claim that DS was performing at A level across the board.</p>
<p>Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): NA
APs – none
IB: N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Calculus / SAT II Prep; Physics / SAT II Prep; Latin IV; Greek III; World Cultures; World Literature / Readings in the Classics; Religion; Expository Writing (at local CC)
Major Awards: National Merit Semifinalist</p>
<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars: Life Teen Catholic youth group; Life Teen/Steubenville/Atlanta conferences; church choir; hiking; playing music (keyboard, guitar); Meals on Wheels volunteer (occasional); political junkie – does tons of political and demographic research for fun</p>
<p>Essays: Excellent…probably what got him in
Teacher Recommendation: so good I cried when I read it. (DS didn’t; I did.)
Counselor Rec: Well, we are the counselors, and we’re pretty biased, so yes, it was good. I think UNC took it from whence it came, however. :)</p>
<p>Other
State (if domestic applicant): NC
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: home school
Ethnicity: white
Gender: male
Income Bracket: $75K (but with savings, which means we won’t qualify for need-based aid)
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none…except for the home-schooling thing plus the fact that DS was home-schooled by his dad, who holds a PhD in History from Harvard</p>
<p>Reflection
Strengths: essays; rigor of curriculum; SAT II scores, especially Latin; teacher rec
Weaknesses: ECs; SAT I scores. (We wonder whether DS should have taken SAT I again…we concentrated instead on prepping him for SAT IIs, which probably was the right decision, as it showed that we’d actually taught him something during all those years of home schooling!</p>
<p>General Comments:</p>