Purposefully & strategically leaving blanks in the Common App

[Anonymous]

Slightly off-topic, but as in-staters in California we severely low-balled our high incomes to just above what is needed for financial aid on the UC app. We didn’t want any possible resentment or judgment from application readers. You pick income and job categories on the UC app. For our DS applying to privates, we did not fill out FAFSA. He still got $24k/yr merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I listened to that podcast bc it was recommended here. It was a waste of an hour. I laughed out loud when he said 2 spaces after a period will give away that a parent edited the essay.

Yes! Hilarious. As if admissions officers are parsing things down to that level of detail 😂

Huh? They do notice that. It’s pretty obvious.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/well/family/how-i-know-you-wrote-your-kids-college-essay.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

This is information warfare BS from an idiot who work in admissions and can't accept the fact that the students they are admitting are smarter than the "officers" working their $12/hr workfare jobs.

It’s true though.

However, all of these top essays on the UVA website are overly contrived and heavily edited by adults. You rarely see a top college essay published these days without significant over editing and an adult voice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I listened to that podcast bc it was recommended here. It was a waste of an hour. I laughed out loud when he said 2 spaces after a period will give away that a parent edited the essay.

Yes! Hilarious. As if admissions officers are parsing things down to that level of detail 😂

Huh? They do notice that. It’s pretty obvious.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/well/family/how-i-know-you-wrote-your-kids-college-essay.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

This is information warfare BS from an idiot who work in admissions and can't accept the fact that the students they are admitting are smarter than the "officers" working their $12/hr workfare jobs.

It’s true though.

However, all of these top essays on the UVA website are overly contrived and heavily edited by adults. You rarely see a top college essay published these days without significant over editing and an adult voice.

I can’t locate these essays. Do you have a link? Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I listened to that podcast bc it was recommended here. It was a waste of an hour. I laughed out loud when he said 2 spaces after a period will give away that a parent edited the essay.

Yes! Hilarious. As if admissions officers are parsing things down to that level of detail 😂

Huh? They do notice that. It’s pretty obvious.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/well/family/how-i-know-you-wrote-your-kids-college-essay.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

This is information warfare BS from an idiot who work in admissions and can't accept the fact that the students they are admitting are smarter than the "officers" working their $12/hr workfare jobs.

It’s true though.

However, all of these top essays on the UVA website are overly contrived and heavily edited by adults. You rarely see a top college essay published these days without significant over editing and an adult voice.

I can’t locate these essays. Do you have a link? Thanks

Which essays?
UVA? There are so many published each year?
https://uvamagazine.org/articles/class_of_2025_admission_essays
https://uvamagazine.org/articles/how_to_write_your_way_into_uva

[Anonymous]

sexuality, race,...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I listened to that podcast bc it was recommended here. It was a waste of an hour. I laughed out loud when he said 2 spaces after a period will give away that a parent edited the essay.

Yes! Hilarious. As if admissions officers are parsing things down to that level of detail 😂

Huh? They do notice that. It’s pretty obvious.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/well/family/how-i-know-you-wrote-your-kids-college-essay.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

This is information warfare BS from an idiot who work in admissions and can't accept the fact that the students they are admitting are smarter than the "officers" working their $12/hr workfare jobs.

It’s true though.

However, all of these top essays on the UVA website are overly contrived and heavily edited by adults. You rarely see a top college essay published these days without significant over editing and an adult voice.

I read some from the first link provided and I think they are very mediocre. They are mostly about unique activities, but not about changing. The unicycle one has changing in it but it is about weird combinations and a ton of wasted words. Certainly not great or even standout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Race
FA

Race box is irrelevant. It's no longer a data field viewable by admissions. It is included only for data collection of the enrolled class on the back end.

You want to leave that to chance? They ask for ot on both school apps and common app.

If it doesn’t matter, then why even check it?

My kids are in the “7% not reported” race at their school. They don’t need that data if it doesn’t matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I listened to that podcast bc it was recommended here. It was a waste of an hour. I laughed out loud when he said 2 spaces after a period will give away that a parent edited the essay.

Yes! Hilarious. As if admissions officers are parsing things down to that level of detail 😂

Huh? They do notice that. It’s pretty obvious.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/well/family/how-i-know-you-wrote-your-kids-college-essay.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

This is information warfare BS from an idiot who work in admissions and can't accept the fact that the students they are admitting are smarter than the "officers" working their $12/hr workfare jobs.

It’s true though.

However, all of these top essays on the UVA website are overly contrived and heavily edited by adults. You rarely see a top college essay published these days without significant over editing and an adult voice.

I read some from the first link provided and I think they are very mediocre. They are mostly about unique activities, but not about changing. The unicycle one has changing in it but it is about weird combinations and a ton of wasted words. Certainly not great or even standout.

Hmmm. I wonder if they reject kids with essays that are too perfect?

[Anonymous]

Do I need to include SSN if I plan to get unsubsidized loans?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do I need to include SSN if I plan to get unsubsidized loans?

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that in such case, you can leave SSN out, and then after acceptance, submit FAFSA and add SSN in the student's college portal. You won't get institutional grants, but should be able to access unsubsidized federal student loans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a bad take. Seeing your parents work in CS and exposing you to hackathons in 5th grade is totally great

It’s not so great to say you have an internship at Stars Hallow Realty when mom or dad works there. That’s true. But it’s totally fine to say you work there for pay. Especially if you can describe a for pay job that makes sense for your age.

We’re supposed to believe anonymous advice given by a person who can’t spell Hollow?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I listened to that podcast bc it was recommended here. It was a waste of an hour. I laughed out loud when he said 2 spaces after a period will give away that a parent edited the essay.

Yes! Hilarious. As if admissions officers are parsing things down to that level of detail 😂

Huh? They do notice that. It’s pretty obvious.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/well/family/how-i-know-you-wrote-your-kids-college-essay.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

This is information warfare BS from an idiot who work in admissions and can't accept the fact that the students they are admitting are smarter than the "officers" working their $12/hr workfare jobs.

It’s true though.

However, all of these top essays on the UVA website are overly contrived and heavily edited by adults. You rarely see a top college essay published these days without significant over editing and an adult voice.

I read some from the first link provided and I think they are very mediocre. They are mostly about unique activities, but not about changing. The unicycle one has changing in it but it is about weird combinations and a ton of wasted words. Certainly not great or even standout.

Hmmm. I wonder if they reject kids with essays that are too perfect?

💯 this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this SSN thing is a myth according to Yale FA department. they say it's used if two kids have same or easily mixed up names, which happens more than you'd think. and only in double checking stage.

Def not. Ask around after this last cycle. If you fill in the number, it shows up in Slate
As Xxx-Xx-Xxxx

If you don’t fill it in, it shows up in slate as blank/N/A

Even if the rest of your application clearly shows you are full pay (wealth indicators), it can look like you are hunting for merit or not a great yield target?
Esp places like WashU/Emory/Wake with those scholarships. I don’t know if you actually need to fill in the SSN to apply for those scholarships? But I would recommend not even applying for the scholarships if you are full pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or it means a kid has a SSN and they’re filling out their college application?

The CA prompt explicitly says to only include SSN if applying for financial aid. It’s crystal clear folks.

No, the prompt says "Social Security Number, required if applying for financial aid via FAFSA"

I believe CA made it mandatory to fill out FAFSA as many people were leaving money on the table

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this SSN thing is a myth according to Yale FA department. they say it's used if two kids have same or easily mixed up names, which happens more than you'd think. and only in double checking stage.

agree. apparently some high school kids think it's a signal you're not applying for FA, which isn't true.

If one omits SSN and then either some college admissions gets hacked or Common App gets hacked, it is a win to omit. And everything eventually will get hacked, sadly.

Credit freeze