Wow - that’s amazing! Almost 3/4 at a sub 20% school is wild!
My D26s school is very much NOT competitive. This year, there was just 1 student going to an Ivy and that’s the first one in about four years. When she heard the news, D26 said, “Maybe I’m not cooked!”, lol. Similar to yours, she’s not that interested in the super high reaches, although she does have a couple of her list “just to see”. The two colleges she’s most interested in and I suspect will most likely choose between and attend have admit rates in the 60% range.
That said, I also struggle with what to do with the data. There’s so much baked into holistic review and “school context” that I don’t have a clear idea of what it really means. I mean, I guess practically it’s throw in an app and see what happens!
I just looked it up and it is an option but it would likely take at least an extra semester, and admission is competitive and requires an essay - not like engineering where if you meet the min GPA you are definitely in.
Is anyone else planning out multiple hypothetical scenarios in their heads or it is just me
One of D26s favorite schools is also in the 60+% admissions rate, which helps with my stress and the uncertainty. I keep reminding myself that she will most likely get in there and we’d all be thrilled with that school for her.
Part of me has been stressed because she does not do a ton of activities or have impressive awards. She’s a good student, who just does regular teen things outside of class.
It is not just you. I am doing this all the damn time! I have to restrain myself from talking to D26 or my wife about my thoughts like every day to not stress out, wear out, and/or bore them with my game planning. This forum has been a helpful outlet for me.
Same. For D26, her sport and work take up so much time… along with homework and school itself. No meaningful awards besides honor roll and some AP scholar thingie dingie.
We have an in-home office with a 4Ft x 8Ft Whiteboard - It’s beginning to look a lot like an NCAA Tournament Bracket, complete with the 4 play-in games, and team conferences, records, strength of schedule and even mascots on it.
Ditto to what @co2mom said. I too, freaked out, but for another school. My son’s school reports a weighted GPA on a 4.0 scale. They don’t do unweighted. His weighted GPA is a 4.4 so that would put him on that “Percent who had a GPA of 4.0.” The CDS doesn’t seem to discern between unweighted GPA or weighted GPA? I don’t know. Just that it has to be on a 4.0 scale. That’s why it’s a bit skewed.
I asked this on the Pitt forum too, asking here again. Did she use Pitt app or common app? Common app shows school profile required to be submitted by school counselor whereas Pitt portal has no such requirement. School counseling department won’t do anything till October first week. So we are confused here.
Same problem with submitting UMN app. Earliest the teachers would send the LORs is Oct. Although all this discussion is moot for now, S26 still has to do Activities list on the common app!
UMN don’t require LORs. Will they look at them if you submit?
Also, maybe I got this wrong, but I thought high schools submit the school profile with the counselor letter of rec? Though I’m not sure what happens for those schools that don’t get these.
S24 ended up using the Pitt App and the University of Oregon app because he was confused that Common App was showing that they needed school report.
Neither need the school report, transcript, or LOR. He emailed and got confirmation from both school admission offices.
Pitt App - the profile info and essay. Check Honors (or not) with no essay.
She used the common app for both UMN and Pitt. My S23 did the same thing in his year, and it didn’t seem to delay anything. My recollection is that they didn’t wait for the counselor to submit things.
I asked this very question to my kid’s high school counselor and she said that the “school report” referenced in the Common App is actually the SRAR/STAR and that nothing is needed from the counseling office.
Mine used the Common App. Once you get the Pitt portal set up, it is clear that you only need the application, STARS, and official test scores. Three things, green checks next to each.
for the apps and 
for covid! Hope she’s feeling better soon (but glad the apps are coming!)
I almost thought we were going to have one or two fall off because of bad mascots!!