We don’t have valedictorian or ranking at dd’s school which makes dd happy. If the school ranked she woild be 1st and having to give a speech would not make her happy. Her school chooses speakers based on a writing contest type thing. She has no intention of entering. 
News from S18 is that so far he hasn’t heard of a single acceptance from his school to Stanford! Not sure what happened this year as they had a ton of kids apply and usually have one acceptance.
D told me this evening that someone in her MV Calc class was accepted to Stanford. Super smart kid and both parents are doctors at Stanford. That’s the only acceptance she’s heard of to date.
As for Val and Sal, I have no idea if D’s school has them and, if they do, how they determine it. It’s never been on my radar. Just way too many “really smart” kids. And my D is “smart”, but not “really smart”. :))
Congrats to everyone so far with their acceptances and scholarships.
D–large public high school, 2700 kids, graduate with a val & sal based on weighted gpa. Then the top 10% graduate first in ranking order then the rest alphabetical.
Our high school (350 kids per grade) has some byzantine formula for class rank that takes into account GPA, weighted classes, bumps for dual enrollment classes, etc. There have been years the top 10 is not known until the very end because of the dual enrollment bumps. After this year they are changing the system to make it a little clearer, supposedly. Neither of my daughters is in that hunt, so I don’t pay much attention.
Congratulations and good luck to everyone!
We are starting to hear from financial aid offices, which is almost as nerve-wracking, lol. One more big university/nursing decision looms, towards the beginning of February. She is also working on scholarship apps, which are proving to be more cumbersome than college apps. 8-}
Congratulations on the big scholarship news.
I think at D’s school (750+ senior class), Val Sal is directly by the GPA. We only have 1 Val and 1 Sal.
Ok so this is turning out to be a very stressful week in our house.
D’s school doesn’t rank but she knows who #1 and #2 are. #1 was rejected ED from Stanford and last night #2 was rejected from Cornell. Two kids who are lower down the ranks, a good bit lower, got accepted to Dartmouth. The top two aren’t one trick ponies. They are active and accomplished. The randomness of it all has hit D and thrown her into a funk.
To make it worse one of the ones accepted at Cornell wasn’t even sure it was his first choice but applied ED because ‘that’s the only way to get into an ivy’. I spent my time talking D off the edge. Now can anyone talk me off it? She still has a chance at the tippy tops even though she didn’t apply ED. Right?
Oops. No one got accepted to Dartmouth (guess it’s obvious what’s on my mind). They got accepted to Cornell, over the higher achieving student
@swtaffy904 I have no clue. We have the same thing at our school, no ranking but everyone knows who #1 & #2 are. #2 was deferred by Stanford, #1 will find out tomorrow about MIT. Apparently, the school’s GC director called Stanford for their reasoning and was told they are looking for more diversity. Diversity of what, I have no clue cause the 2 kids outright rejected (my S being one of them) are Cuban and Indian.
Congratulations to everyone who has gotten acceptances and scholarship news this week!
This might be long and not so to the point but am struggling with this whole process right now and would love some advice. If you remember any of my early posts - d18 is my first kid and this is our first college rodeo. She was a reluctant participant in the process until this year and we didn’t do very many college visits. Her stats are good (GPA 3.97, 31 ACT, presidents of Gay-Straight Alliance, Photo Club and Activism Club) but she is not academically focused - doesn’t want to go anywhere with what she considers a “competitive vibe”. She has a 504 plan for ADHD and slow processing. I would describe her as an independent creative free spirit. We live in the south and she wants to leave the south. Financially we are able to afford to send her wherever. She has vacillated between wanting a big school with the typical college experience to realizing that she would be better off somewhere not so big. So far she has applied to the following schools: Univ of Arizona (admitted - really just applied so she would hear from somewhere early) thinks it’s too big, too Greek, too hot. University of Boulder (this was an early favorite and last year it was the one. Now she has decided it doesn’t have enough diversity and isn’t the place for her), University of Denver (same lack of diversity issue), Lewis and Clark (at my urging - says its way too small), Ithaca (at my urging because strong photography program - can’t get her engaged in really looking at it because it’s not geographically interesting to her), Wesleyan ( I encouraged her to apply because of suggestions on CC. This is a reach for her as she doesn’t have the stats of most of their students. Has not visited. Not sure it would be right place anyway because academically more competitive than she seems to want. University of San Francisco (this is her current favorite. She visited about a month ago and loved it. Loved the social justice aspect and the diversity. She is worried (and I share some of this) that it is a very local California school (only 23 percent out of state) and that the majority of kids who are there end up there because they didn’t get into their chosen UC school and won’t be as excited about being there. I worry that it is so far away.
So that brings us to today. Deadlines are fast approaching and I worry that she doesn’t have enough or the right choices. I looked at college rankings and I don’t love that University of San Francisco is 110 in the US News reports. I know that fit is more important than any ranking but there is part of me that recognizes that she could get in somewhere “better” ratings wise and worry that she is selling herself short. Logically I know I need to get over that and not pass my anxiety on this to her.
I guess I wanted to know if anyone had any last minute suggestions on schools that might be a good fit. Her interests include social justice, diversity, photography. Major will be undeclared. Won’t consider anywhere with fewer than 5,000 undergrad or anywhere rural, or anywhere in the south. That said - it snowed here this weekend and she was lamenting that it hasn’t melted yet - not sure anywhere with a harsh winter will Make the cut either. If you have read this far and are currently thinking - this kid is way too particular and needs to realize that there is no perfect school - I am with you. I just don’t want her to regret not having enough choices.
Ugh. I’m an S19 parents who follows all of your stories. I want to chime in and say that all of these rejections for high stats kids happened last year at our high school too. Our high school has a history of kids getting into the Ivies, etc, and the very best students last year had experiences where they were shut out of almost their entire list and now attend the state school they never thought they would attend. Only one got off the waitlist at Princeton right before graduation.
This year, I know kids are very weary. And they applied to way more matches. It was a lot more work for them and their parents to find the right schools. And some of them still have the attitude that they worked so hard and deserve a spot at the highest ranked schools. It will be interesting to see how shakes out but it looks like things will be the same as last year. If and when S19 applies to a giant reach, he will know plenty of stories about kids rejected and I hope we can keep him from getting his hopes up.
You all seem so great at making balanced lists and I’m sure all of your kids will find a great spot for next year!
Happy Hanukkah to any that will celebrate tonight. May the next couple of weeks bring you and your children peace, joy and miracles of the season.
@Clementine7624 Although some of these may be more of a safety category this came to mind…
James Madison
Ohio University - small but good fine arts/journalism that is very good for photography, very active LGBTIQ community and definitely has a “granola vibe” for activism.
Hampshire College
Oberlin College
Puget Sound
Do not fret over a schools rank, if it is a good fit, often times the difference between a school ranked #80 and one ranked #110 is negligible. I know it is hard to not think about the possibility of selling short, but if she is not happy at school #45 because it doesn’t accomodate her ADHD learning style, isn’t diverse enough etc., it doesn’t matter if it is #45 or #110. Have you looked at the book & website "Colleges that Change Lives " https://ctcl.org?
@Clementine7624 I was going to suggest she look at schools in New England but not if she doesn’t like snow.
@homerdog that is too bad. Makes you really wonder what the heck they are looking for at the top schools.
I wish there was a way to estimate a percentage chance a given kid will be accepted at a reach. I’m a math-oriented person and I’m getting really concerned that D is subconsciously telling herself that she will be accepted ED Friday (based on stats) and I’m worried that she will not (based on the amount of high-stat kids who are rejected from selective schools all the time and based on D having no hooks).
I’m definitely not looking for encouragement by posting this, more commiseration on how this process puts families’ stomachs in knots. :-SS Ugh!
@kayak24 - I agree that watching the stats can make the kids feel overly confident. I think it makes for even more disappointment in the event he/she is rejected because “I had the stats to get in”. So do sooooo many other kids. Definitely commiserating over here with you. My husband said I am overly pessimistic. I hope he is right!
@homerdog Thanks for your encouragement.
I don’t think we made a balanced list (nearly all safeties).
Last week I met with a teacher who thinks D will need more of a challenge than she’ll find at the colleges she’s applied to. On the one hand it was nice because he he has many years experience and he had such nice things to say about D, but it kind of triggered another round of the insecurity I’ve been dealing with about selling D short in the merit hunt.
I, too, am aghast and disheartened by the rejections for so many of the kids, especially those trying for the reach “lottery” schools, who are high stat kids. I have been following the Questbridge thred and compiled with the stories I hear from y’all, it is astounding and hard to understand what these schools are looking for in a student because frankly you just don’t know (which partly explains why my DD applied to 17 schools). It seems this year is so much harder even than it was in 2016. The playing level and competition seems to ratchet up every year. I sincerely hope there is an adjustment to our whole college admissions system soon, because it really is insane.
DS18 got good news last night - accepted ED to Cornell College of Engineering. Good stats, legacy, and DD15 is doing well there… But it is always a lottery, so didn’t seem certain. Admit in a bit of a shock - no more college essays! On to scholarship ones… Thanks for all the support in this thread, and continued good luck to your students as the decisions come in.