My daughter is getting ready to apply to college. General stats: 3.9 GPA, 33 ACT so she is a good student. She has a lot of optimism and ambition about college admissions. My concern is that she over-reach. Do any of you who were accepted to reach schools now regret it due to competition? Or do you find the admitted students’ stats overrated and you do just fine academically?
Do you mean competition between students? no, none.
Do you mean ability to be successful at the academic work? only some recruited athletes who had to transfer out- but tbh, they would never have made the cut if they hadn’t been actively recruited.
Not so much competition with students, that’s fine. I mean going from an A student to a C student.
A lot of students - esp ones who got through HS w/ top marks relatively easily- find it hard to not get all As (for some, it’s a completely new experience!), or to find that it takes a lot more work and/or learning new ways of studying to still get As. This is especially true at schools with a reputation for grade deflation.
For all the slapping around of AdComms here on CC, though, I find that they are actually pretty good at picking kids who are going to be well able for the work- and most kids make the leap just fine. Know, though, that esp at the beginning confidence can take a knock, with kids being sure that everybody else is better than they are (and if at a tippy top school, feeling a bit of ‘imposter’ syndrome).
Based on the schools on your other list, I can’t imagine that she wouldn’t be well able for the level of work required to be a high achiever at any of those schools.
btw, I am really enjoying your Bad College Names thread 
Thank you for the advice. One child syndrome so I appreciate the accumulated wisdom here.
As long as she has attended a competitive high school where you are sure the preparation is at a normal to high level and the grading is fair, i.e. they don’t just promote students to be moving them on, she should be fine anywhere. There are lots of potential pitfalls if the high school was too easy: poor study habits, doesn’t know how to research and write a paper, that kind of thing. The other factor where I saw students fail had nothing to do with academic preparation but instead maturity. Some students go wild with their first taste of independence and fail. But most students that got high grades from a strong high school curriculum and did well on the standardized tests should be able to cut it wherever they get accepted.
The only thing I would say is that if she wants to go pre-med it is better not to overreach…med schools care about GPA and MCAT and not much about what college you go to…so no a 3.3 from Harvard is not better than a 3.9 from State U. for medical school.
Also talk to her about various schools…that you dont’ “win” by getting into the most competitive school…you win by finding a school that you feel comfortable at academically. My youngest didn’t want reach schools…she didn’t want to be the dumbest nor the smartest at a school…she wanted to be challenged but not overwhelmed.
It depends on the college. Reach college and grade deflation don’t always go together, but sometimes they do. And it may depend on her major – for example, the competition for good grades is fierce in premed classes at many schools, and stronger students means more competition.
Re: #7 and grade competition in pre-med courses
Similar types of competition and grade-grubbing can also exist if she attends a school where getting into her desired major involves another competitive admission process after earning grades in the major’s prerequisite courses.