@RightCoaster . He does. He’s lucky as there are so many with same qualifications that may not have gotten one yet. He loved Bowdoin best when visiting. Bates gave a better financial package though. Fortunate to have choices!
@momsquared33 Bowdoin is a great choice. Let me know if you have any questions regarding any of the Nescac schools, as I have visited many of them through the years and they all have their pros/cons and vibes.
@firstwavemom My wife and I are both Penn alum. Our S17 applied RD…wasn’t ready to pull the trigger ED which, of course is the only decisions that consider legacy. Our alumni groups are filled with parents (we are of a certain age you know!) whose children did not get into Penn even with legacy. When they are looking at that many applications to fill a limited number of spots it’s just brutal!
Wow this thread has been active today! Been out a while and so many posts.
@homerdog , my head is spinning over the 19 ACT student going to Brown. I’m sure he’s just stirring the pot; if a 19 ACT can successfully get a degree at brown then, I don’t know.
@SwimmingDad ,our neighbor has sent 2 out of their 3 kids to Penn (the youngest one is still there). The parents are immigrants, so no legacy, unhooked, and wealthy but I don’t think wealthy enough to donate a building. Penn does relatively well at our high school (better than Williams, haha) but I don’t know in general if the admits are legacy or of they just like our school. My kind of cousin-by-marriage graduated Penn about 15 years ago (she’s from a small town in MA) and said she wouldn’t get in now.
Thanks @RightCoaster I will!
Looked on Naviance for our stats for the past 3 years:
Harvard 1/80,
Stanford 5/100,
Princeton 1/60,
Columbia 3/100,
Yale 1/35,
MIT 2/22,
UPenn 9/70,
Brown 3/30,
Dartmouth 6/25
Cornell 10/75
Chicago 3/60
Grinnell 2/4
Why so few applicants? We are NOT a small high school. Our SENIOR class numbers around 1100 most years.
DD did not apply to Ivys. She has the stats, but we don’t have the $$ (or lack of) to afford it. DD also knew she’d be miserable in the cold NE, so she reasonably drew a weather line at North Carolina!
I think this is the reason for the lack of interest in going north for college here. Most don’t want to brave the NE weather!!
So here are some stats from our South Texas area high school.
State schools:
Rice 30/200
UT 800/1000
Texas A&M 800/1000
Baylor 300/500
SMU 80/180
A bunch end up at LSU, Tulane, Ol’ Miss, Clemson, Alabama.
I cannot tell whether there is a limit on the number of students that any competitive colleges will accept from my kid’s HS, because very few students apply to the most competitive schools. So, for almost every Ivy+ school, the number of kids accepted are what one would expect, based on the acceptance rates of these schools. So, with an acceptance rate of <5%, and 20 kids applying to Harvard, only one acceptance would be expected anyway.
It does seem that kids in the HS aim low when they apply. Based on the APs taken and the scores, the distribution of SAT scores, and the GPAs, and the income distribution, there should be a much larger number applying to the more selective schools. Based on Naviance, only a fraction of kids with application profiles that are competitive for Ivies+ apply there. Kids from the HS really don’t like applying to selective schools that are not really close to home, which is why the only very selective collges that receive a lot of applications are UChicago, NW, and Michigan (not Notre Dame, though - not a popular choice at all).
Even fewer apply to selective LACs, but that is likely because most kids have never heard of almost any LAC outside of the Midwest. The most common response that my kid gets when she says where she’s going is “where’s that? never heard of it”.
@MWolf right. I’m already trying to think of my three sentence spiel to explain wherever S19 ends up. Chances are I’m going to get a lot of blank stares.
Interesting article from today’s Wall Street Journal
https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-elite-college-worth-it-maybe-not-11553084146
It is behind a paywall. So, the bottom line is.
The evidence shows that a college degree delivers a large and sustained income premium over a high school diploma, but a selective college doesn’t make the premium bigger. There are exceptions, but most people who prosper after graduating from such a college would likely have prospered if they had attended a less prestigious institution as well.
@MWolf @homerdog Right, I either get a Wow, or get it confused with a big state school with a similar name, and when I try to explain they seem confused.
@wisteria100 your D might get that for the rest of her life…but it’s worth it to go to such a great school!
And S19 in at Hamilton! Davidson in one hour…
Congrats on Hamilton!! @homerdog Great place
@homerdog Congratulations - another acceptance!! He’s on a roll again!
congratulations @homerdog !!
@homerdog congrats !
Copying from above because now it’s easy, lol, and i have some time
we typically have around 200-250 seniors in a year; this is also 3 year totals. The bigger schools are definitely more popular.
Harvard 3/60,(all 3 enrolled. I know we already have 1 in this year too)
Stanford 11/108, (all enrolled, again at least 1 in this year too)
Princeton 4/36, (only 1 went)
Columbia 3/41, (none went)
Yale 4/48, (curiously all 4 in one year and none in the other 2. 3 went)
MIT 8/42, (6 went, there is at least one offer this year )
UPenn 9/56, (6 went)
Brown 6/60 (2 went),
Dartmouth 5/28 (3 went)
Cornell 10/55 (only 3 went)
Chicago 4/38 (2 went, at least one offer this year, same guy as the MIT offer)
LACs not so popular at our HS, at least the further ones.
Grinnell errrr just the 1 applicant in 2016, didn’t get in.
I think I mentioned before: Williams 1/9, didn’t go
Bowdoin 3/9 (just 1 went)
But we also have popular instate publics, the two top ones:
UCB: 87/295 (51 went)
UCLA: 63/304 (23 went)
Similar application figures for other popular UCs (higher admit rates of course) to Davis, Irvine, SB, a bit fewer for SD. Just about no-one ticks the boxes for Merced (35) and Riverside (60)
CalPoly SLO 113/291 (39 went)
and congrats @homerdog ! you may have posted another update as i write this
Haha @SJ2727 here it is - Davidson a yes as well. 
@homerdog awesome!
Did I miss anything else earlier? There were close to 50 new posts and I skimmed them fast…
So the child has decided: She’ll be attending Mississippi State.
She loathes the dry cold of Alaska, so here’s hoping the polar (ha! I pun!) opposite is her thing…
DD got waitlisted at Davidson. Great GPA, scores, recs and ECs. I think it was the essays. Writing them while trying to recover from a concussion did not truly show her strength. Ah well, it is what it is.