One of the best (D3) in the country!
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Perhaps not directly, but the moment there is a slight opening in any form (OP says s/he is stressed / says some merit money might be nice even if not a must-have / asks for additional school suggestions / etc) they will immediately be directed to (big southern football school).
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Itâs not that the advice is wrong. I was countering the âluxury of a matchâ position. For some kids, âMITâ is the match (and Princeton and Stanford and whichever else) - but those schools are still a reach because of supply and demand. That kid is not likely to be âjust as happyâ at WPI, but could just as well end up there.
Now, throw in T&F in the mix, and the list that checks all (are at least most) the boxes gets REALLY small. (Ask me how I know)
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Just a very small sample size. The kids who get into Ivies from our school usually have stellar activities and fit into one of these 2 categories:
All state sports athlete (recruited or not).
Won math, science, music or art awards.
They arent the the very top students or have the highest SAT. They just have to be in the ârangeâ.
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But that is, unfortunately, the reality. I donât think said kid should have to go to the state flagship, but they do need safety/likely schools. My own kiddo has sky high stats, outstanding recommendations, solid ECs etc, but he could be shut out of all but a couple of schools if things donât go his way. All you need to do is look at past years on CC, where there are phenomenal students who are shut out at all but their safeties, to realize that is a possibility for even incredibly strong students.
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Very true! Admissions are highly unpredictable at these schools.
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Eh? Iâm agreeing with you!
I was agreeing with you too! Love your post. 
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Yes, itâs a reality. And it sucks! Why canât we just say that?
The sad truth is that itâs a lot easier to find a match or safety for an ok, or even good, student than for a stellar one. Some schools that happen to have really low acceptance rates are actually just right for some kids. Usually for reasons not easily found at other places.
The swing between that particular perfect fit iand the safety is huge (especially in this world of no targets). The swing between, say, a Boston College reach and the state flagship, maybe not so much.
I just want to acknowledge that.
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This is so very, very true.
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Who is waiting for decisions today? We have NC State and UMD this afternoon/evening. Those are the final ones, other than UGA (he was deferred from EA to RD back in December).
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The sad truth is that every single student, no matter how amazing or how âok to goodâ they are, will most likely have to accept compromises with their college admission process.
It isnât worse for the amazing student to make compromises. Nor are the compromises the ok student makes necessarily easier or more acceptable.
This is starting to have the vibe of âIt is so much easier to be a poor student applicant than a donut hole applicantâ. No. No itâs not.
Life is about trade offs. Everyone has to make them at some point. And really, I donât even see that as a sad truth, just facts.
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UNC Chapel Hill may announce today. Lots of activity in that conversation. Apparently, UNC-CH promises by 1/31, but historically has announced in the afternoon of the last Friday of the month.
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I also wonder if thereâs less college application stress for top students who live in Texas, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, California, etc where the state schools may not be safeties, but your chances of getting in are so much higher than kids from OOS.
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I agree that it sucks. But I canât go down that rabbit hole because there is nothing I can do about it.
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My son who was accepted REA to Stanford received a personal email this week (followed by a mailer with the exact same message) from his Admission Officer telling him what he liked about his application. S24 loved getting this and really appreciated how personal it was.
Do you know if many other schools do this? My S22 did not get any sort of personal acknowledgement of his application to his smaller school where he EDâd. (We didnât really care â just so happy he was admitted â but this one felt so nice.)
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My son should hear from GA Tech today. I guess it will be rejection. When he put it on his list as a school that ticked all his boxes he didnât realize it had such a low acceptance rate for OOS students, or that it is ranked #1 in his major (on some lists).
He should also hear about RPI tomorrow. Then Northeastern in the next 2.5 weeks. After that nothing until RDs.
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Virginia mom of an unhooked high-stats kid here. Grateful that our state has many great public college options to choose from. There is still plenty of college application stress. My kiddo is applying to CS major, which is capped at many schools. He gets a lot of âAre you going to an Ivy League school?â comments from peers. No, we canât afford those. We are chasing merit, so we have focused on a mix of reach/target/likely schools that may provide that, with a particular focus on schools with an Honors College and no snow.
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Anecdotally, yep. I canât exactly speak to âtop studentsâ (my own NC student only cracks the top half of their HS class), but I can say that it seems like many of their classmates have a fairly easygoing college process. We have several good in-state options, and the vast majority of their classmates seem to end up at one or the other of them.
By choosing to leave NC, C24 has definitely set themself a more difficult road. Luckily, theyâre now in at two âsafetyâ schools that they genuinely like and that we can afford. They donât seem stressed at all waiting for the rest of their decisions to come in.
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My son got a similar email from a small local private college. Then he received a call from their president about a scholarship. That was a phenomenal experience, unfortunately, the school is too close and not a great fit academically. It was such a nice touch, though.
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