Harvard Admits 4.6% of Applicants; Other Ivy League Schools Get Tougher, Too

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Harvard Admits 4.6% of Applicants; Other Ivy League Schools Get Tougher, Too

Acceptance rates for at least seven Ivy League schools fell again for class that will enter this fall

Brown: 7.2%; admitted 2,566 of 35,438
Columbia: 5.5%; admitted 2,214 of 40,203
Cornell: 10.3%; admitted 5,288 out of 51,328
Dartmouth: 8.7%; admitted 1,925 of 22,033
Harvard: 4.6%; admitted 1,962 of 42,749
Penn: 8.4%; admitted 3,731 of 44,491
Princeton: 5.5%; admitted 1,941 of 35,370
Yale: 6.3%; admitted 2,229 of 35,306
https://www.wsj.com/articles/harvar...ivy-league-schools-get-tougher-too-1522335654
 
Kids just need to use all that Kumon math they been taking and increase their odds by over 50% by applying to all 8 schools.

7.2% + 5.5% + 10.3% + 8.7% + 4.6% + 8.4% + 5.5% + 6.3% = 56.5% !!!

:p
 
rkp said:
Kids just need to use all that Kumon math they been taking and increase their odds by over 50% by applying to all 8 schools.

7.2% + 5.5% + 10.3% + 8.7% + 4.6% + 8.4% + 5.5% + 6.3% = 56.5% !!!

:p

Common Core says just apply to a UC or CalState. :)
 
4 Years passed by quickly and my daughter will be graduating from college this May. The quality of her education has been stellar and it is not an Ivy school. There are many choices out there for a quality education. I do think the quality of education is better at universities with smaller class size to encourage individual participation vs the test merit base large lecture halls.

She is offered an administrative position at a very well known hospital and her employer will subsidize her graduate school tuition.

She has a nearly perfect SAT score with 2 non "A" grades from high school. That was enough to be rejected from the Ivy schools. The competition is harder today than 4 years ago. We hear of numerous acceptances from Irvine schools because the same qualified applicants applied to all 8 Ivy schools.

Parents will continue to pay over inflated prices for Irvine properties because of schools. Unfortunately high achievers will not be competitive enough for the top colleges. Colleges near the OC proper are moving up in the ranking due to higher caliber applicants and the dramatic drop in acceptance rate. CSULB, CSUF and Chapman are among the many.
 
irvinehomeshopper said:
4 Years passed by quickly and my daughter will be graduating from college this May. The quality of her education has been stellar and it is not an Ivy school. There are many choices out there for a quality education. I do think the quality of education is better at universities with smaller class size to encourage individual participation vs the test merit base large lecture halls.

She is offered an administrative position at a very well known hospital and her employer will subsidize her graduate school tuition.

She has a nearly perfect SAT score with 2 non "A" grades from high school. That was enough to be rejected from the Ivy schools. The competition is harder today than 4 years ago. We hear of numerous acceptances from Irvine schools because the same qualified applicants applied to all 8 Ivy schools.

Parents will continue to pay over inflated prices for Irvine properties because of schools. Unfortunately high achievers will not be competitive enough for the top colleges. Colleges near the OC proper are moving up in the ranking due to higher caliber applicants and the dramatic drop in acceptance rate. CSULB, CSUF and Chapman are among the many.

What ever happened to her arch-rival, Holly from Yale?
 
irvinehomeshopper said:
4 Years passed by quickly and my daughter will be graduating from college this May. The quality of her education has been stellar and it is not an Ivy school. There are many choices out there for a quality education. I do think the quality of education is better at universities with smaller class size to encourage individual participation vs the test merit base large lecture halls.

She is offered an administrative position at a very well known hospital and her employer will subsidize her graduate school tuition.

She has a nearly perfect SAT score with 2 non "A" grades from high school. That was enough to be rejected from the Ivy schools. The competition is harder today than 4 years ago. We hear of numerous acceptances from Irvine schools because the same qualified applicants applied to all 8 Ivy schools.

Parents will continue to pay over inflated prices for Irvine properties because of schools. Unfortunately high achievers will not be competitive enough for the top colleges. Colleges near the OC proper are moving up in the ranking due to higher caliber applicants and the dramatic drop in acceptance rate. CSULB, CSUF and Chapman are among the many.

I interview for one the Ivy schools. I will tell you that several members of the alumni committee refer to Northwood High as a "factory" and talk about kids there as being robot-like, devoid of personality, character and balance. Is this what Irvine parents are overpaying for?

 
misme said:
irvinehomeshopper said:
4 Years passed by quickly and my daughter will be graduating from college this May. The quality of her education has been stellar and it is not an Ivy school. There are many choices out there for a quality education. I do think the quality of education is better at universities with smaller class size to encourage individual participation vs the test merit base large lecture halls.

She is offered an administrative position at a very well known hospital and her employer will subsidize her graduate school tuition.

She has a nearly perfect SAT score with 2 non "A" grades from high school. That was enough to be rejected from the Ivy schools. The competition is harder today than 4 years ago. We hear of numerous acceptances from Irvine schools because the same qualified applicants applied to all 8 Ivy schools.

Parents will continue to pay over inflated prices for Irvine properties because of schools. Unfortunately high achievers will not be competitive enough for the top colleges. Colleges near the OC proper are moving up in the ranking due to higher caliber applicants and the dramatic drop in acceptance rate. CSULB, CSUF and Chapman are among the many.

I interview for one the Ivy schools. I will tell you that several members of the alumni committee refer to Northwood High as a "factory" and talk about kids there as being robot-like, devoid of personality, character and balance. Is this what Irvine parents are overpaying for?

idk
 
misme said:
irvinehomeshopper said:
4 Years passed by quickly and my daughter will be graduating from college this May. The quality of her education has been stellar and it is not an Ivy school. There are many choices out there for a quality education. I do think the quality of education is better at universities with smaller class size to encourage individual participation vs the test merit base large lecture halls.

She is offered an administrative position at a very well known hospital and her employer will subsidize her graduate school tuition.

She has a nearly perfect SAT score with 2 non "A" grades from high school. That was enough to be rejected from the Ivy schools. The competition is harder today than 4 years ago. We hear of numerous acceptances from Irvine schools because the same qualified applicants applied to all 8 Ivy schools.

Parents will continue to pay over inflated prices for Irvine properties because of schools. Unfortunately high achievers will not be competitive enough for the top colleges. Colleges near the OC proper are moving up in the ranking due to higher caliber applicants and the dramatic drop in acceptance rate. CSULB, CSUF and Chapman are among the many.

I interview for one the Ivy schools. I will tell you that several members of the alumni committee refer to Northwood High as a "factory" and talk about kids there as being robot-like, devoid of personality, character and balance. Is this what Irvine parents are overpaying for?

Ditto. One out of 12 kids I interviewed this year got in. All 12 were asian.  Honestly, when I got home to do the reports, I got all of them confused.  They were all the same- more so than in previous years.
 
bones said:
misme said:
irvinehomeshopper said:
4 Years passed by quickly and my daughter will be graduating from college this May. The quality of her education has been stellar and it is not an Ivy school. There are many choices out there for a quality education. I do think the quality of education is better at universities with smaller class size to encourage individual participation vs the test merit base large lecture halls.

She is offered an administrative position at a very well known hospital and her employer will subsidize her graduate school tuition.

She has a nearly perfect SAT score with 2 non "A" grades from high school. That was enough to be rejected from the Ivy schools. The competition is harder today than 4 years ago. We hear of numerous acceptances from Irvine schools because the same qualified applicants applied to all 8 Ivy schools.

Parents will continue to pay over inflated prices for Irvine properties because of schools. Unfortunately high achievers will not be competitive enough for the top colleges. Colleges near the OC proper are moving up in the ranking due to higher caliber applicants and the dramatic drop in acceptance rate. CSULB, CSUF and Chapman are among the many.

I interview for one the Ivy schools. I will tell you that several members of the alumni committee refer to Northwood High as a "factory" and talk about kids there as being robot-like, devoid of personality, character and balance. Is this what Irvine parents are overpaying for?

Ditto. One out of 12 kids I interviewed this year got in. All 12 were asian.  Honestly, when I got home to do the reports, I got all of them confused.  They were all the same- more so than in previous years.

yah, same here.  I'm Asian, so it pains me to say it, but even I can't tell them apart, LOL.
 
bones & misme: can you give some specifics as to how the Asian applicants you've encountered are the same?
 
Happiness said:
bones & misme: can you give some specifics as to how the Asian applicants you've encountered are the same?

Almost all play a musical instrument - which is great on a college app if you are really passionate about it but for most, it?s one of those asian extracurriculars that they may or may not like - in which case, it can?t be a primary topic during your interview. One of the kids I interviewed a couple years ago was a serious classical musician, spoke very passionately about it, had the musical resume to back all of it up. Got accepted.

Half want to be doctors and major in a biology-related field. Very nice but don?t tell me it?s bc you want to save lives and tell me about your 6 month volunteer stint at a local hospital right before college app season.

Lots of math/science clubs/olympiads. Lots of volunteer work at church or language/cultural school. Very few in varsity team sports (or any sports period). Very few in student government/leadership. Very few with any entrepreneurial spirit. In my 10 years of doing this, I?ve had one kid with real work experience.

A lot of these kids are very smart. But to compete, you have to be smart AND something else. Almost all lack that something else. Most are unmemorable which I imagine translates into their app essay.  I?ve never had more than one admit each year.  For a few years, I was batting .000.
 
Bones,

How would you weigh students coming out of a new high school such as Portola High since it doesn't have a lot of history?  I think it won't graduate its first students until 2019.
 
Logik said:
Bones,

How would you weigh students coming out of a new high school such as Portola High since it doesn't have a lot of history?  I think it won't graduate its first students until 2019.

Academic stats are not part of my school?s interview process. Students are free to volunteer their test scores, GPA, class rank but most don?t (most will talk about their AP class load though). So the interview is really a blank slate and offers them a chance to tell me their story without me having any preconceived notions about who they are as a student.  This is where if the kid is engaging, passionate, enthusiastic, interesting, etc - they can really shine.
 
bones said:
Logik said:
Bones,

How would you weigh students coming out of a new high school such as Portola High since it doesn't have a lot of history?  I think it won't graduate its first students until 2019.

Academic stats are not part of my school?s interview process. Students are free to volunteer their test scores, GPA, class rank but most don?t (most will talk about their AP class load though). So the interview is really a blank slate and offers them a chance to tell me their story without me having any preconceived notions about who they are as a student.  This is where if the kid is engaging, passionate, enthusiastic, interesting, etc - they can really shine.

Yes, grades are not a part of the picture at all for interviews.  I have done some of these too and judging by who got accepted and who did not, even sports participation is no longer the plus it once was since so many of the (esp  non Asians) are using it as a springboard now with all these private leagues.  So unless you are NCAA caliber player being actively courted , becoming even harder to distinguish.  In general they need something unique , diverse (I don't mean here in race terms) - If you worked in Zambia with poor orphans, meh .  But if you actually created a unique water filtration system that fed a whole Zambian village and made it scalable, yes that will still get you in ...
 
bones said:
Logik said:
Bones,

How would you weigh students coming out of a new high school such as Portola High since it doesn't have a lot of history?  I think it won't graduate its first students until 2019.

Academic stats are not part of my school?s interview process. Students are free to volunteer their test scores, GPA, class rank but most don?t (most will talk about their AP class load though). So the interview is really a blank slate and offers them a chance to tell me their story without me having any preconceived notions about who they are as a student.  This is where if the kid is engaging, passionate, enthusiastic, interesting, etc - they can really shine.

Sorry logik. I just reread your question and realized I really didn?t answer it. I think the early graduates of portola
high will face some disadvantages in terms of not having some programming, classes, extracurriculars, etc just bc they are new. However, IMO, it does present those students a unique opportunity to help shape their school/clubs/government, take on leadership, spearhead initiatives, etc. 
 
fortune11 said:
bones said:
Logik said:
Bones,

How would you weigh students coming out of a new high school such as Portola High since it doesn't have a lot of history?  I think it won't graduate its first students until 2019.

Academic stats are not part of my school?s interview process. Students are free to volunteer their test scores, GPA, class rank but most don?t (most will talk about their AP class load though). So the interview is really a blank slate and offers them a chance to tell me their story without me having any preconceived notions about who they are as a student.  This is where if the kid is engaging, passionate, enthusiastic, interesting, etc - they can really shine.

Yes, grades are not a part of the picture at all for interviews.  I have done some of these too and judging by who got accepted and who did not, even sports participation is no longer the plus it once was since so many of the (esp  non Asians) are using it as a springboard now with all these private leagues.  So unless you are NCAA caliber player being actively courted , becoming even harder to distinguish.  In general they need something unique , diverse (I don't mean here in race terms) - If you worked in Zambia with poor orphans, meh .  But if you actually created a unique water filtration system that fed a whole Zambian village and made it scalable, yes that will still get you in ...

I think sports is still a plus. If you can maintain high scores/grades while committing time to play varsity level sports, it shows you have your shit together. Obviously sports in this equation can easily be replaced with something else at a high level.
 
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