We took D26 out on Friday to celebrate her 5’s on APUSH and BC Calc. that APUSH score was a shock as her teacher was not great (but Heimler came in clutch). We had the best night laughing, getting a Lego set and shopping. Cherishing these moments for sure.
But also re: above thread with reporting scores, I’m not sure why you wouldn’t report a 4. Our counselors encouraged my S24 to report. It shows they understand the material and compliments the A. With rampant grade inflation I think having those scores helps. He got into nearly every school he applied to with a sub-1500 but high rigor, upwardly trending grades and strong AP/IB scores. I don’t think reporting a 4 necessarily knocks you out of the running. Although it may be different in highly competitive regions.
I know something about that, LOL. My D22 did a month-long program on a college campus before her senior year, and she packed SO much stuff. And then, she got put in a double room that they had turned into a triple --yikes, I was afraid to leave her there, my extreme introvert who had never shared space before, and she was super stressed about finding place to put all her stuff. (Turned out both roommates were great, and she had the best summer of her life, thank goodness.)
When she moved to college, she had TEN of the blue IKEA bags, plus a few odds and ends. But she lucked out with a big dorm room.
My D26 has barely been on the highway – she’s totally fine on surface streets but has never driven anywhere far. But then, my D22 also barely drove on highways until she went to college, and now she’s done 13 hours in one shot (from Atlanta to Houston and vice versa) twice. Plus lots of smaller road trips. It’s amazing to witness their becoming full-on humans, LOL.
I just looked on CollegeVine and at least for my D26, it looks like they are counting schools as “reaches” if they are 26% chance or lower according to CV’s chancing. Schools are showing up as “targets” if CV thinks they are 27% chance to 79%. Schools are showing up as “safety” at 80% and higher.
That said, CV thinks there are only 7 “reaches” for D26 in the entire US, and these are the chances it gives for her. All others it counts as target or safety. Pretty funny…
MIT 20%
Brown 23%
Yale 23%
Columbia 24%
U Chicago 25%
Harvard 26%
Rice 26%
(But also a bit sad, if there are people out there who are actually using this for chancing and building college lists.)
I mean, you never know what they’re looking for, I guess…but Rice had an 8% admit rate the year D22 got in, and it’s gone down since then. (She was waitlisted at a lot of schools and rejected from Brown, so by no means a kid who got in everywhere.)
(Not allowed to post the website name) the-college-list-decoded-safeties-targets-and-reaches
But yes, if I look at the actual percentages, there is a 17% school listed as a reach and a 27% one listed as a target. The highest target is 66%, and almost all the safeties are over 90% (other than CPP at 82% which I discount as it’s a definite admit for one non-impacted option and a definite non-admit for another, impacted, one based on their MFA /CPP index table.)
With those chances, if you apply to 4 Ivies, you’re bound to get in at one of them! (At least according to the logic we often see on people’s chance me posts…)
I do wonder if people actually put a lot of stock into CV chancing to hone down their college lists. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if it’s a scheme to boost up applications to further suppress acceptance rates.
It is fun to see their confidence grow!! My S28 absolutely does not want to get his License, D26 was totally confident in her drive today. She got Lucky she ended up in a room that is triple but there is just two of them. 14 hours is a long drive!
My D26 got back Friday night from her game design camp – had a really good week, learned some stuff, made a couple friends – and now, two days later, we’re hosting the marching band cabinet retreat at our house. So the other five cabinet members, plus band instructor and another chaperone, showed up at our house at 8:30 this morning. My kid was still asleep, and I was in pajamas and frantically vacuuming up dog hair, LOL.
The kids have taken over our basement and have been having leadership meetings, reflection sessions, logistics planning sessions, etc. They have also spent hours in the pool, played foosball, eaten big meals (I volunteered to cook and feed them), and tonight was supposed to be a movie night but right now they’re all in the hot tub, lol.
Everyone is leaving tomorrow at 5 p.m. We’ve worked out sleeping arrangements. But breakfast is supposed to start at 7 a.m., and I’ve planned a couple casseroles that take 50 minutes to bake. Oy. I am so tired.
My kiddo typically isn’t very social, yet she is in her element with her band peeps. And there’s a comfort level because it’s our house, of course. I love to see it!
Tues and Wed this week – full leadership retreat (not just the cabinet). Thurs and Fri – all-day pre-camp. And then she leaves Sunday for a week of band camp. Wish time would slow down for a second!
For most schools on my kid’s list, I feel that CollegeVine would be more accurate if I subtracted about 15-20% from its estimate. (And I mean a flat 15-20%, not 15-20% of the percentage shown.)
It provides some good insight and information but should only be used as a soft guide IMO.
Perhaps it is just the terminology that I would use vs what they define it as. All her schools show up as safeties. But I only consider something as a safety if shows a high % chance of acceptance along with the school having a 90+% percent overall acceptance rate (for the individual program) And College Vine only shows the % acceptance based on the Universities as a whole- it does not break down into departments.
D26s College Vine feedback:
~Limerick is not on there.
~Colorado School of Mines: Safety
Acceptance rate 57%
D26 Chances: 90%
~CU Boulder: Safety
Acceptance rate 77%
D26 Chances: 97%
But this is only for the University as a whole. Not Engineering
~RIT: Safety
(she was considering this one before she left for Summer- not sure if it’s on her final list)
Acceptance rate 71%
D26 Chances: 89%
Though I believe her profile makes it very likely to be accepted at the above universities- I would never look at any of these as ‘safe’ and ‘for sure’ acceptances!
(Turned out both roommates were great, and she had the best summer of her life, thank goodness.)
