<p>FromMD – I think it’s <em>possible</em> to have holistic admissions be transparent, but very much agains institutional interest. They don’t want to air all their dirty Development Office laundry.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>twogirls, how do you look up stats just on the honors programs?</p>
<p>W that’s a great story!! It’s always nice to earn a living doing something that you truly love. They say if you love what you do then you will never have to work a day in your life. </p>
<p>This is the second consecutive day that my D15 is in a very good mood. She actually went out this evening for 90 minutes to see a short movie at her school. Reports cards came and we were very happy, although we already knew her grades so the actual piece of paper was just a formality. </p>
<p>My D just commented that when these tests are over she will have a lot of free time on her hands. Yeah right… She will then become hyper focused on APs. When one thing disappears another thing takes it’s place. </p>
<p>Next semester she is taking a writing class where there are opportunities to get your work published outside of school. Looking forward to seeing what that’s about. </p>
<p>I wanted to remind all of you musicians of something- last year my daughters therapists kid was applying to schools. She played the violin ( just a regular violin player, according to her mom). One school offered her $10,000 if she would play in college. You never know…too bad the kid hated the violin ( mom was not happy LOL).</p>
<p>Shoboe I am trying to figure that one out myself!! Some schools will give you a range ie 3.9-4.2 , 32-34, etc. Some schools clearly state that most kids accepted to honors will get some merit money awarded them.</p>
<p>2girls, what, 4th grade? You don’t usually start on oboe… That’s too young. It’s a hard instrument with all the fussing with reeds and embouchure.</p>
<p>Our schools used to have that requirement about being in orchestra. And the orchestra was much better then. But parents of the good musicians lobbied against it relentlessly and they finally lifted it several years ago. Typically those kids were also academically strong and parents felt they could spend their school time more productively in a 2nd science class. Once the requirement was removed, the whole thing spiraled down. The worse it got, the fewer good musicians were inclined to sign up for fun.</p>
<p>Violinists, switch to viola now for even more chances to get money at the college of your dreams. Serious shortage there.</p>
<p>Ah, Wolverine, love your story.</p>
<p>Celeste yes in 4th grade the kids were asked to choose an instrument and my kid chose the oboe. I had no idea that 4th grade was too young- perhaps that is why she hated it!! </p>
<p>Shoboe I just looked up the University of a Vermont honors program and they do not have a range. It simply states that students are typically in the top 5-7% of their class and have a 2100 SAT or a 31 ACT. You can use that as a baseline and judge where your kid may fall. Other schools ( ie UDel) have a range.</p>
<p>“embouchure”.</p>
<p>Thanks celeste! My S uses that word all the time and I kind of figured out what it meant but didn’t have a clue how to spell it! I’m a percussionist myself, never heard of “embouchure” until S came along. lol</p>
<p>First there was “equanimity”…now there’s “embouchure”.</p>
<p>I’ve got to find some of that “word of the day” toilet paper again. My vocabulary is seriously lacking. I’d be much more loquacious if it wasn’t. :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Response: </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Unfortunately where Celeste and I live there are many special snowflakes who need EVERY advantage to achieve their full potential. (I don’t have kids in music so I didn’t actually know about this…ugh.)</p>
<p>Nice try Wolverine! You slipped “hypoxia” in there quite nimbly. I love your story and it’s a great reminder to our kids that opportunities come up at all different times.</p>
<p>I’m not a strings person so I don’t really understand the violin/viola distinction. My D can play both. I thought that was a big deal but she sort of shrugged that it’s easy for any violinist to play viola–it just has different strings and uses a different clef. She has played viola when needed but prefers violin. I’m told the viola is less technically challenging than the violin in that it doesn’t usually require shifting positions and tends to be the supporting part in orchestra and chamber music pieces. I’m sure there is more to this and I just don’t get it. I personally love the richness of the viola’s sound.</p>
<p>Actually I guessed how to spell it and spellcheck didn’t underline, so I figured I got it right.</p>
<p>Ummm, I think loquacious is right at the top of all the 500 SAT word lists.</p>
<p>“Re: Naviance, does anyone get differentiation between early and regular decisions? That would be very helpful but ours isn’t broken down that way. I looked at Cornell just to see how it compared at D’s school to what some of you reported here and we too show the applicant with lowest scores/grades and the applicant with the highest scores/grades (no perfect scores applied) accepted with lots in the middle both denied and accepted. I looked at Columbia and discovered there that only one applicant with very high scores and grades was admitted. Most of the admissions were concentrated in a surprisingly lower range of grades/scores.”</p>
<p>On our Naviance there’s differentiation between ED and RD, but not on the graphs. On the College Profile page for each school there’s a link to “Statistics”; I’ve cut and pasted the info for applicants from my D’s school to U of Delaware. On the original page it’s not hard to read butI can’t get the columns to line up so it’s hard to make sense of it. At least it gives you an idea of the info included:</p>
<p>Outcomes (2011 - 2013)
Regular Early Total
Submitted Applications 130 93% 10 7% 140<br>
Accepted 70 54% 3 30% 73 52%
Conditional Accept - - - - - -
January Admit - - - - - -
Summer Admit - - - - - -
Guaranteed Transfer - - - - - -
Denied 30 23% 2 20% 32 23%
Withdrawn 2 2% - - 2 1%
Waitlisted 9 7% 1 10% 10 7%
Waitlisted and Accepted - - - - - -
Deferred - - - - - -
Deferred and Accepted - - - - - -
Attending 18 14% 2 20% 20 14%</p>
<p>GPA and Test Scores (2011 - 2013)
Average Applied Lowest Accepted Average Accepted
Regular Early Regular Early Regular Early
GPA 94.17 90.06 85.91 90.11 95.97 92.51
SAT 1600 1178 1075 770 940 1246 1077
SAT 2400 1770 1636 1190 1490 1869 1623
ACT 25 25 18 23 27 26</p>
<p>I’ll second Celesteroberts comments about the viola. My S who is an athlete and viola player with average ssat scores, was accepted to some competitive boarding schools. Even though he was on the schools radar as an athletic recruit, I know for a fact that the schools really liked that he played the viola. I don’t think it’s a hook for college but it helps an applicant stand out from the pile.</p>
<p>I looked at Cornell on our Naviance- the scatter grams are very crowded because a lot of our kids apply there. Here are a few data points:</p>
<p>Average GPA accepted- 4.25 ( however this year I know a girl who was wait listed/accepted with a 4.4)
SAT- 2140/1420
ACT 32</p>
<p>Some of the green squares ( acceptances) were 4.3/1600, 4.4/1480, 4.5/36. Most of the acceptances were kids who had reasonably high GPAs and test scores. </p>
<p>Some unusual cases: 3.8/1150 ED ( we have a key that shows ED etc), 4.3 800 ( 800 was total cr/math), 3.7/24- this kid was wait listed/accepted, </p>
<p>There is no way to determine what year the unusual cases were accepted, and there is no way to determine what " hooks" they may have had.</p>
<p>I did not notice these kids on the scatter grams for Princeton, etc. You know you have been on the CC SAT/ACT threads too long when a 32 does not seem high to you ( ugh- obviously a 32 is excellent).</p>
<p>Crepes we have that statistics page as well. It breaks it down into a nice little chart that is very easy to read.</p>
<p>shoboe, I wanted to thank you for the Cappex information. This is helpful to me, as D’s school does not have Naviance.</p>
<p>BHG’s school just began using Naviance, so no use to us with limited data along with BHG not applying to any of the schools listed (mostly top 10/20) thus far. The school is small, average graduating class equals 28 students. BHG’s class is the largest with 34 students. </p>
<p>I have to cobble statistics together using Profiles from other similar schools in our area that provide GPA ranges and information from friends with students at these other schools that put the GPA ranges and acceptances into context for me. </p>
<p>I also use College Data and each school’s CDS to figure out where BHG stands amongst the crowd of applicants and accepted students at schools of interest.</p>
<p>@Wolverine–Loved your story about your career path! I had a job I absolutely hated before children. The money was nice, but the work, not so much. I progressed up the career latter quickly, but was so happy when I took an extended leave after my eldest was born. I went back in a shared management position and quit after BHG was born. </p>
<p>I did contract work for that employer off & on over the years, and went back as a .60 time analyst 5 years ago. I L-O-V-E my job! I love my self-created schedule, work from home 90% of the time, and love my big, fat bonus check each December. </p>
<p>Everyone asks if I’ll work full-time after BHG goes to college–H3ll no! I saw & broke the glass ceiling, and have no desire to be head anything in charge ever a gain. Just give me something to figure out or fix and I am your go to person. I don’t care that I make HALF of what I made 16 years ago. I love my job as is, and that is important to me more than the money or big office, etc. Plus, I can work in my PJs if I want–just got to remember to put on a nice top, do my hair and makeup for SCYPE meetings–don’t ask, lol.</p>
<p>@Shoboe- I also want to thank you for the Cappex info as well. I forgot all about it, went t o add the site to my favorites and it’s already there. Gotta go data mine now!</p>
<p>RE: Cappex,</p>
<p>Just wanted to add that BHG’s reaches are considered matches on Cappex, and most of her matches I have entered are all blue filled at the right side and now all safeties. I have to research this program a bit more since it is driven by information entered by students and or parents. I don’t want any false hope regarding chances of acceptance.</p>