
We track our own performance through putting together an academic index for each of the students (test scores + grades + difficulty of coursework + etc.) and comparing it against the 25-75% range (of stats such as testing/GPA) for each school's accepted class. This is in an effort to articulate “outside of #s” performance on the application (and a more accurate picture of where Lucent can have an impact on the application process).
Our goal is to have a significant impact as compared to these numbers. We aim to have students gain admission to at least one school in which their academic index falls below the 50% mark at a given school. (Oversimplified example: a student with 1400 on SAT would gain acceptance to a school in which the 25-75% range is 1375-1500). From 2014-2019, all but one student received acceptance into at least one of these schools on their list.^
We stay away from statistics stating that x% of students get into their top 3; we believe that each student’s strategic approach to school selections needs to be tailored to their specific circumstances. For example, students interested in Ivy League admissions might apply to nearly all of the Ivies knowing that admissions is competitive. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, we have had several students each year that apply to just 3-4 schools outside of their backup (e.g. knowing that they did not want to leave a certain region).
List of the schools students were accepted: Boston College + Boston University * Brown University *+ Bryn Mawr Bucknell University + Caltech + Carnegie Mellon *+ Columbia + Cornell University *+ Dartmouth College *+ Duke University *+ Emory University * Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) + Fordham University George Washington University Harvard University + Ithaca College Johns Hopkins University + McGill University MIT *+ New York University * Northeastern University * Northwestern University Oberlin College + Princeton University + Rice University RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) Rochester University | San Jose State University Skidmore College Stanford University * SUNY Binghamton * SUNY Stony Brook * Trinity College Tufts University * UC Berkeley *+ UC Davis *+ UC Irvine * UC Santa Barbara *+ UC Santa Cruz * UC San Diego *+ UC Los Angeles *+ University of Chicago *+ University of Michigan *+ University of Notre Dame + University of Pennsylvania + University of Pittsburgh University of San Francisco University of Southern California *+ University of Texas - Austin University of Washington *+ Vassar College + Wake Forest University Wesleyan University + Williams College Yale University + *more than 1 student was accepted over this period +where students decided to attend |
- Between 2014-2019, we have taken a maximum of 15 graduating seniors each year; therefore, the range of schools is dependent on what schools are the best fit for each individual student (e.g. an interest in the “baby ivies”)
- This list does not include the schools in which students were waitlisted
- Students vary in when they started with us and to what capacity they worked with us; for example, some students may have started with us as early as 9th grade, others only opting to work on essays with us
- The University of California application system is 1 application for all schools; this contributed to a higher # of students that were accepted into the UCs
- Most of our students are within the top 10% of their class in grades; but vary in range for SAT/ACT scores and depth/types of activities (extracurricular)
^ Many high school counselors working with competitive high school populations benchmark student scores against the 75% of a school’s given a range as opposed to 50%. Nearly all students that work with us are from these types of schools; including major city magnet schools, competitive boarding schools, high schools in the SFBay, and technical high schools in NYC.