Mom's story of son applying to rejective schools

[essnce629]

This mom is a member of the Paying for College 101 FB group and shared her extremely high stats son's experience with applying to multiple highly rejective schools. His results are what I would expect as all schools with under a 30% acceptance rate are reaches for all just due to sheer numbers of applications and small freshman class sizes.
https://www.road2college.com/choosin...-henrys-story/

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[KpbS]

Excellent. Thanks for the share!

[Kindra178]

I guess I would have thought he would have gotten into one of those, especially as a male.


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[ett]

I guess I would have thought he would have gotten into one of those, especially as a male.


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There are thousands of other kids with those same scores, AP classes, etc ... applying too. You need more than just the top scores and grades to get into the top schools. Things like college essays, supplemental questions, teachers rec, other activities besides the sports. Schools will look at all those and not just the grades.

Not sure why being a male would be an advantage.

[KpbS]

It truly does seem like a lottery system.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn of admission counselors drawing names of extremely qualified applicants randomly for admission.

[bcafe]

His rejections were sad, really. What has happened to the higher education system when kids who are tops in their class are rejected from schools. Why must one have a "hook" to get into an ivy? Where is the diverse population (not race)? Why do we want all the students to be the same with regards to stats, etc.

[essnce629]

His rejections were sad, really. What has happened to the higher education system when kids who are tops in their class are rejected from schools. Why must one have a "hook" to get into an ivy? Where is the diverse population (not race)? Why do we want all the students to be the same with regards to stats, etc.

I don't think it's sad at all, it's just all about the numbers. If you have 50,000 kids applying for a school with a freshman class size of 1500 (that is not increasing) then the chance is slim to none just because there isn't enough room. Being amazing doesn't make the class size any bigger.

And remember, this is only an issue at about 3% of colleges in the nation. The other hundreds and thousands of schools accept the majority of applicants. The average college acceptance rate is 65%.

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[bcafe]

I don't think it's sad at all, it's just all about the numbers. If you have 50,000 kids applying for a school with a freshman class size of 1500 (that is not increasing) then the chance is slim to none just because there isn't enough room. Being amazing doesn't make the class size any bigger.

And remember, this is only an issue at about 3% of colleges in the nation. The other hundreds and thousands of schools accept the majority of applicants. The average college acceptance rate is 65%.

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And, I get that, however, yes it is sad that the many kids can't attain the dream. When our kids are deemed as numbers and stats, then it is no longer about education and more about "the game".

[gatorsmom]

I am actually not all that surprised that he didn't get in. It seems that to really catch the admissions folks' attention you have to do something eye-catching. It really has to be a hobby, life event or sport that stands out and is unusual. Also, I might be wrong, but I thought is read that there is a much higher chance of getting accepted if you apply early. If this kid applied Early Decision to any university then he'd have to wait to be denied by that university to be able to apply to others. Therefore, his chances go down considerably.

[essnce629]

I guess I would have thought he would have gotten into one of those, especially as a male.

Not sure why being a male would be an advantage.

Being a male definitely provides an admissions edge at some schools, but mostly at small liberal arts colleges that are Buyer schools. At these schools the ratio of male to female students tends to be 40:60. Schools are always trying to have a 50:50 gender split so at these schools they need to admit more males in order to try and get more to attend. DS1 is at a small liberal arts college with a 44:56 male to female ratio. His school is a Buyer school. Most seller schools have close to or exact 50:50 gender ratios since they have so many applicants to choose from, so being a male wouldn't improve admissions odds.

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