Thanks, will keep this in mind!
How do you get to the scattergram? I can not for the life of me find it. Maybe our school has it turned off or something?
I was wondering about it strictly to research colleges, kind of like Big Future. Our district doesn’t have any kind of software like this, and I don’t think they’d have any way to track it anyway. The school doesn’t know who applied where or where they got in. Unless it’s not data the school supplies? Is it supplied by the software?
For that I think it’s no better than something like collegewize… there is info about each school but it’s what’s found everywhere else.
I go to the upper right corner and select the heart icon
Then, I select “Colleges I’m Thinking About”
Then, it populates the colleges you’ve designated as Colleges I’m Thinking About or hearted. From that list, select the school you’re interested in and it will bring you to this page. Select the hyperlink under the Acceptance Rate.
Hope this helps!
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My 2 cents on a couple topics that have come up recently. I haven’t been on CC for a while, and it’s late, so apologies for doing it this way:
Cornell also used to explicitly state that legacies get a bump in ED, and no bump in RD. From the chatter on CC 4-5 years ago (the last time I was paying close attention to Cornell) it seemed accurate. Although plenty of legacies were still getting denied ED. I don’t know if it is like that everywhere, but I think it’s pretty common. And at top schools, those kids aren’t really getting in with lower grades/scores/activities. But they are getting in ahead of some of the other “average excellent” kids without that connection.
Not sure about REA, my kids never looked hard at those schools. ED can give advantages at most schools, but there is a bit of luck involved. If your kiddo is just relying on being “average excellent”, then less so. Because at the top schools, they can fill a class with kids like that easily. But if your student fills some institutional want/need, that’s different. D25 got into Amherst ED. She was probably mostly in the “average excellent” category, but she had some agriculture activities that she was heavily involved with and had leadership in (which is not the typical applicant there), and we are in a state that is pretty poorly represented there, and the top LAC’s like to brag about having students from 46 states, or 49 states, or wherever they are at the moment. So she was a student who academically wasn’t outstanding but was probably “average” by Amherst standards. But she provided some cultural diversity in the sense that her experiences and background were unusual in that group, and she assured them of keeping one of the harder to fill state boxes shaded for the next 4 years. So in her case I think it probably helped. RD they may or may not get her, but ED they know they have that box checked and can move on. So at least in her case I think it helped.
I agree that ED numbers are misleading, because most athletes are required to apply ED as part of the quid pro quo for getting to go in through a different door than everyone else goes through. Their admission process really is separate from that of regular students (I have kids who have gotten into elite schools both ways). Generally they are smart enough, but probably the bottom 25%ile numbers are overrepresented by athletes at most schools, which also can make those numbers misleading.
But they aren’t taking ED spots from other ED applicants. Either you are in that group, or you are not. The applications are not looked at together. Their admission process started much earlier, and for many (maybe most) the actual admission is a formality. They have been told they are good to go months earlier. Also it works the other way too. Many (probably most) are screened out by the coaches as not being academically qualified early in the process, and more are screened out by the admissions committee during prereads. So while most who apply are admitted, the vast majority have already been screened out before they send in an application.
The only way it may hurt a student is if an athlete goes to a particular college from your HS, it may lessen the chances your student is admitted, especially during ED. For the same reason I mentioned above, they bring less uniqueness to the table if there is already a student in the class from their HS. Obviously this matters more for small colleges with big national draws.
Some high schools hide the scattergrams completely. Others don’t explicitly do that, but only show them if a certain number they determine apply. Otherwise it’s too easy to identify individual kids. Our school does this, so I spent a lot of time looking at scattergrams without really learning all that much, other than not many kids from our HS apply to the schools my kids were interested in.
There are definitely schools who yield protect. I know a student who was accepted to Dartmouth and Smith last year, but denied at MHC, Macalester and a couple other schools in that tier. No chance she would not have been a very strong student at MHC or Macalester. But they also could tell (correctly) that she would likely have very good options and was not likely to end up at their schools.
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[quote=“dadof4kids, post:1611, topic:3544712”]
There are definitely schools who yield protect
[/quote] You make many good points that those on this journey for the first time should pay attention to.
My D23 was wait listed at Amherst, accepted to two 11-12% selective liberal arts schools, got a full tuition scholarship to Pitt that had a 2-3% award rate but wait listed at Syracuse (who definitely want to see demonstrated interest.) My kiddo didn’t demonstrate interest anywhere. She didn’t want to visit anything until acceptances came in. A strategy that may not have been best.
Her school had multiple kids accepted into every Ivy and the best LAC’s. Almost all Ivy acceptances were athletes. Her BS is a huge athletic powerhouse. 7 boys from her class are at Williams. They all ED’d she RD’d and was rejected. (Had better stats than most). She may have had a decent chance otherwise although most play a sport she is a dancer.
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You can also click on Colleges, then scroll down to Scattergrams and a list of every college students have ever applied to at your school shows up.
Summer Common App Question -
My D’s plan is to do as much as possible over the summer for her applications. Fall is a super busy time at school between the fall school musical and IB research deadlines, so she is hoping to have most everything done before school starts.
If the common app doesn’t officially open for the 2025 class until August 1st, what can she do before that time other than her common app personal essay? Can she fill out all the common app info and will it all move over to the next year? I assume that the school-specific supplements won’t show up until Aug 1?
Any advice from others who have been through this?
I’m almost positive this is the case. Our kids did this and I’m pretty sure we would’ve heard about it had they had to redo anything 
yes she can fill in all of her activities and grades etc. My D25 started filling hers out last year and it all carried over. The only thing that won’t carry over are essays.
D25 is planning on doing the same thing, getting as much done as possible over the summer. She will also be applying to a couple of schools that don’t even have the common app and they open their applications early summer I believe so that’s nice.
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My eldest public school kid with similar stats (plus a few national academic awards) applied to waaaaaay too many schools for this reason. She was afraid she’d be yield-protect rejected. In the end, 2 schools waitlisted (schools we didn’t visit) and everywhere else accepted (for CS/engineering.) She turned down the waitlist because at that point she was admitted to her #1, so we won’t know what would’ve happened if she reaffirmed interest. TL;DR: I think if you demonstrate interest, you can avoid the yield-protect issue.
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My kid took the SAT on Saturday too but hadn’t taken the August one, so can’t compare.
Her feelings were the reading part was harder than November’s SAT, and a few grammar ones ‘didn’t follow the rules’ so she guessed. One math problem she didn’t know, which seems to be typical compared to past tests.
Did the boarding school offer the PSAT on a Saturday instead of during the school day? That’s what our local privates did. I admit, I was a bit jealous those kids didn’t have to stay up late doing homework the night before, nor go straight to class after testing.
My son is at a public school. They do the PSAT on Saturday.
My son has done no practice on his own either. I made him do a free peer tutoring prep course through College Board. And he was invited by college board to take a digital PSAT in August (which crashed his computer when he finished but before he submitted so he got no score and they didn’t pay him the promised payment).
Wait, what? College Board promised to pay him to take the digital PSAT in August?
Was the peer tutoring through SchoolHouse.world? My kid received several emails inviting her to be a tutor AND emails inviting her to attend as a student. We ignored them all;) When I say she refuses to prep, she REFUSES to prep.
They said they would, but then they didn’t because his test didn’t submit. It wasn’t a real test it was before they rolled it out. Other people on here did it as well and got paid with a $50 gift card. I am still mad that he spent 2 hours of a Saturday doing it and a survey, and they didn’t pay him like promised. Then I have been emailing with customer service since and they said in October they would pay him in 3/5 days and nothing.
My son is taking the ACT right now. We were at a concert last night and got home after 1am. Not expecting his best score . Bad planning.
Mine too. All three refused to study for it, they didn’t care at all. I fought with C1 about it and then just gave up with the other two,
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maybe it’ll be his best score yet!
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Sorry for over-posting. Proud mama moment. My son was accepted to the JROTC Flight Academy. An 8 week all expenses paid summer program where he will earn his private pilots license!
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