@burghdad I think it’s also about being what the school needs especially for mid to small sized schools. They need a soccer goalie this year? Or a tuba player? They try to balance geographically too. One of the 2020 kids on CC is going to a T20 school and her college counselor mentioned to her that one particular university was interested in getting more Jewish kids for this year. She’s Jewish and ED’d and got in (with stellar grades of course).
On top of that, they just want interesting kids who believe fiercely in something and make a difference in people’s lives. So the typical high-stat athlete or musician who does some volunteering and gets super high grades and scores just doesn’t stand out for schools that can only choose 5% of the kids who apply. We all know a lot of student athletes who just have zero time for anything else if they give all to their sport year-round and have a ton of rigor in the academic schedule. There is no extra time at all to develop some other interest that pulls them in a different direction. School until 3:00, practice until 6:00, shower, eat dinner, homework until midnight and repeat. Practice or games on weekends and more homework.
Now, some kids at our school have figured out how to do more but it’s been very deliberate. We know one superstar swimmer who stopped swimming after eighth grade and decided to do water polo instead. It’s not as big of a time commitment. So water polo for her and she can now do Model UN and Forensics and is student body president and on the board of a local humane society. Straight As in all honors. 35 ACT in one sitting. No way she could have done anything but swimming and school if she kept swimming.
Oh and she’s was lead scorer and captain of the waterpolo team as a sophomore and our high school. Model UN and Forensics generally win state or come in second. Her path was highly planned out by quitting swimming and doing other things she likes. She’s highly impressive in person. But will she STILL be the average excellent kind of student who doesn’t make the cut at the schools she’s hoping for? Who knows.
My belief is that there is only a small slice who are admitted primarily for their extraordinary academic ability, perhaps 5-10% at the most elite schools, perhaps a slight bit higher. Just like gifted athletes or special admits (for their position in the social/political structure), these academic kids are part of the “halo” for the school’s brand. To think that these kids face less than 5% odds or similar is a delusion. (Some members of this group will also enjoy traditional hooks like legacy, URM, low income, child of faculty, etc., but I bet not many.)
The problem, however, is that what constitutes extraordinary ability at the T20 level is far above the “average excellent” we all talk about. Think about kids who take 10-15 AP classes in their high school career, and a significant number beyond AP level, never seem to work very hard, and score 1570+ SAT/36 ACT first time before 11th grade. The kids who do original research in math or science, or who are gifted in humanities or social studies, and win contests or have works published in various journals. I won’t even talk about doing well in typical high school classes - these are not a challenge at any high school for this group.
I think that is (roughly) where this academic slice begins for the most elite postsecondary institutions. Most high schools in the US will not even have one of these kids in any given class, so accolades like valedictorian/salutatorian really do not signify much, absent the context of the school. In my experience, it is not too hard to spot these kids, and I have usually seen them get multiple acceptances at T20 or equivalent LACs without any traditional hooks. It has to be one of the primary channels for unhooked kids to gain admission to the most elite schools in my opinion.
@OneMoreToGo2021 i completely agree with that. We’ve got a math whiz (who also has pilot’s license) at our high school who just committed to Cal Tech. He’s a brainiac. High school at the highest level for every class was easy peasy so he was taking classes elsewhere starting soph year.
Those types of kids are identified very young. We have kids moved up four grades in math sometimes starting in fifth grade. Those kids (only a handful) take algebra 1 over a summer and then geometry honors as sixth graders. They are done with MV Calc by soph year and that’s as far as our high school goes with math.
Proud Mama Brag!!! Band Leadership Team for 2020-21 was just announced and S21 made Section Lieutenant for Low Brass (he plays tuba/susaphone)!!!
Please, please, please let us have a normal marching season this fall…’Rona…I’m looking at you…don’t you dare mess up my baby’s senior year!! (and everyone stay healthy of course!).
We’re in Texas lol…Marching Band and football season is HUGE…it’s a big, big EC and total family commitment. Section Leaders are the chain of command and responsible for their instrument sections…before a band kid even thinks about going to a band director with an issue they go to their section leader. These students are the cream of the crop. They model the behaviors that are expected of all band participants. They learn so much of leadership, time management, responsibility…it’s about a 20 hour commitment a week outside of school work, even more during summer band camp and Fall Marching Season.
(By ‘Rona I was referring to the Corona Virus lol)
[quote=". I actually think she might like Miami OH but I have a lot of reasons to not love it and she sees it as a place where kids go who don’t even take honors classes.
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Miami just announced 10 Fulbrights this year - all women. Also, the career center is excellent. There is something to be said for an environment where you can be happy and excel academically. Miami repeatedly wins awards for the undergraduate teaching environment, which is an enormous asset to driven students.
There is a Section Captain (the main section leader that oversees the entire brass section) and then 2 lieutenants…My son will be responsible for tuba/euphoniums.
Brass is one of our larger sections. We have a total of about 300 kids in marching and and 36 on the leadership team (including the 4 drum majors).
Congratulations @Momof3B! My daughter would be thrilled to be chosen to be section leader for clarinets for next year’s marching band.
It’s a giant elephant in the room right now that no one in my family will talk about because unless modifications are made, Illinois won’t allow gatherings of more than 50 people until there is a vaccine or a “widely available and highly effective treatment” (whatever that means).
Considering there are over 50 kids in marching band, let alone the football teams - I don’t see how it’s going to happen this fall
I wonder if the band director will choose section leaders anyway, just in case or as an honorarium of sorts for three past years of hard work. If he did, it won’t be until early June.
He won’t study music but depending on where we ends up going I think he’ll still do marching band in college…unless it’s Texas A&M where the band is military style and is a part of the Corp of Cadets lol. He’s not down for that…but TAMU does have a concert band I think he’d like to participate in so we’ll see!
@homerdog I’m pretty confident that they will make an exception for regular school. They didn’t cancel school when they reduced gatherings to 250 on the front end. I remember people on our local Facebook groups pointing out the discrepancy (with irritation) in early March. Just my opinion, but the bulk of those same people will likely be thrilled for a similar exception come August.
@3kids2dogs Good point. Early March seems like 100 years ago and I forgot about all of the tumult on the front end. We were in school, then out for two days, then back for one day and then out for good. Class really has to happen in person during the school year. I hear one of D21’s teachers talking to the class yesterday saying he cannot imagine going “back” in the fall and taking attendance for a class where he doesn’t know the kids. Said this worked out ok because he already had a relationship with each of his students but doing this again in the fall would be a disaster.
It is my understanding that ACT has punted to individual locations to determine if they will hold the test. Is that accurate? If so, have any of you been told that your child’s location has cancelled? I have heard nothing here. The ACT website presents as though all is normal. Ugh.
@OriginalSmother -wish there was an “ugh” or dislike button. So frustrating for all the kids that are in a holding pattern. As of last week, ACT sent out email reminders to register for the June test and I felt like it came across more as a money grab since there is still no clue if the test will happen.
