I wanted to follow up from my daughter's experience. She went to a private academic, that sent a couple of kids to Harvard every year and other top schools. In her year, only a trans kid got in. This year, only a trans kids got in. Not the academically strongest, but that is the way it went.
But, in hindsight, like Cinderella's slipper, I would like to talk about what happened to my daughter. She ended up at USC, which was a good choice because she wanted biological oceanography. Because of her 12 APs she ended up starting as a sophomore. A month in, she got 2 research positions. One paying $16 an hour. The other one free labor. Until the second semester, now she gets $16 an hour for both. One offered her a summer position. And since the head of the team got an extra 2 million, decided she could head up her own research project. Yes, write her own paper. Now, many schools are offering this "spend an extra year and get a masters thing", you need 2 years of research, she will have 3. And letters of recommendation, which she will have and the credits: since she will working there for the summmer, taking 2 courses. So in 3 years, she will graduate with a double major: marine bio and oceanography and a masters. Yes, this is true. Also, her goal is PhD at MIT/Woods Hole. The team leader, who is giving her this opportunity has his PhD from MIT/Woods Hole. He is globally recognized, can help her network-- requirement to get someone to be your advisor for your PhD.
So in hindsight, USC turned out to be the golden ticket for her. If you want a general education, to go into law or medicine or business, then Harvard or Yale are great choices. But if you want something specific, I would suggest looking for unique opportunities. Did not expect this, but she is fast tracking in her field. She would never have gotten this at Harvard or Columbia. Maybe Stanford, but not sure. I participated in previous college discussions about what are best choices for colleges. My daughter feels lucky now that she did not get into Harvard. She is writing a paper in oceanography, her own research, technically while she is in her first year of undergrad. Who else gets this?
