So I’m assuming your D26 emailed and heard back that her application WAS converted properly to ED, yes?
I don’t know why RIT does it like this! Crazy-making for sure. I don’t know if they’ve always released ED like this? I think last year was their first year for EA, and I read here that it was a bit of a mess. I think they roll out EA decisions the same way – slowly by major. We will be insane in our house come late January, believe me.
Strength and solidarity to all of y’all waiting for imminent decisions!
I’m gonna be real, I’m dealing with issues with my aging parents, and it’s complicated – so I’m preoccupied with calling around to assisted livings and skilled nursing facilities and trying to put solutions in place. That’s taking most of my focus, so I don’t have a lot of capacity to worry about the college stuff!
Kiddo just got her second acceptance - University of New Hampshire with a $20,000 annual Trustee’s Scholarship! This is her likely school, but she would be happy going there (kind of the point of a likely school, right?!).
Nice to have these two in her pocket as we wait for her ED decision!
Can I get some “success stories” or advice to share with my kid if you have older kids as my kid is freaking out about a test they took (AP class math/science) and did really bad on a test and now thinks that all their hopes of getting into a T20 school are dashed because they will end up with a B. I said one B will not matter but they said “everyone I know who has gotten into these schools never got a B”. I keep assuring that is not the case but they are not listening. Why is there so much pressure to be perfect .
It does seem that a fair number of people apply ED because of the bump rather than because it is where they want to go. My D26 had 3 schools tied for first choice on her list. One is a very likely admit, one a target and one a reach. The target would become a likely if she did ED. The reach has way better odds in ED. But, she decided she not to ED and run the risk of not getting into either of the target or reach. She said she’d rather see how things play out and make an informed decision than play the numbers game. She feels she will not be devastated if she doesn’t get into the reach or target, and she didn’t want to have regrets about making a premature choice. I’m proud of her for that, regardless how it turns out.
I encouraged D26 to apply ED to her once upon a time dream school, but she has nerves of steel like her father and wants all the cards in hand. I was so impressed with her very mature decision. She isn’t impulsive like me at all. This wait is killing me every single day and she is totally fine.
My D22 goes to UCLA and she had 3 Bs on her transcript (all 3 in math – both semesters freshman year, one semester sophomore year). For UCLA’s purposes, only the one B sophomore year “counted” in their GPA calculations. She also got into U Michigan, which I believe was ranked 20 at the time. She did not get into Yale, UPenn, Columbia, Middlebury, UC Berkeley, USC (maybe not T20 but close).
I personally know at least 3 people who got into T20s with multiple Bs on their transcripts. And they weren’t hooked in any way.
I really think we hear way too much about all the 4.0, a million AP, 1000 award kids and not enough about all the other great kids that colleges (including T20s) want on their campuses for many, many reasons. It’s rough.
I agree with this. And I should add to my post that I am certain the reason my D22 didn’t get into some T20s had nothing to do with getting 3 Bs in math over 4 years. (Will never know the reason, but it also doesn’t matter. She is super happy at UCLA)
One would think this is a question I’d know the answer to by now, but when people say “T20” is that literally just the top 20 Universities in the US news rankings? And if so, does that mean they are not referring to any of the liberal arts colleges like Amherst or Williams or Swarthmore? I often feign like I know what it means, but actually don’t (though some of the schools meant to be included are obvious).
People mean lots of things by this… and there are plenty of logical problems with terms like T10 and T20, in addition to the one you pointed out!
Even if you are strictly looking at the US News National Universities ranking (the main one that most people refer to), there are currently 23 universities in the top 20…
For many people, I think T20 is just some kind of shorthand for “elite schools” and includes colleges like Amherst and Williams.
I am not sure that rejectiveness is the key thing here. For example Northeastern (#46 on US News list) has a listed admit rate of 5% but I don’t think anyone would consider it to be “a T20.” UMich, UCB, and CMU have admit rates >10% and they are on the current US News T20 list.
It’s great to see the acceptances rolling in, S26 is focused on the UCs and is now questioning applying anywhere else even RD since if he doesn’t get in the first round he will go to the CC to UC route.
In other frustrating news he’s doing great in all of his AP classes, I keep asking him where was this effort last year when he ended up with multiple Bs and he says new year new me and goes back to the computer. On one hand can’t wait for this process to be over, on the other I will miss him so much when he moves out.
I think of Ivy, Ivy Plus (Stanford, MIT, Duke, etc) and Little Ivy (Amherst, Williams, etc). Although I’ve seen various versions of those two latter categories.
That’s obviously more than 20 schools, lol. And then you have a bunch of “public ivies” that are also well-regarded, although in my head maybe not quite T20?
In any event, it sounds like my confusion is because there is not actually one thing people mean when they say T20. I just looked at the US News top 20 linked in your post and some of those schools were not what I expected to see.
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