Lessons learned so far: 2024-2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Visit cold weather schools in winter. One thing to think you like cold weather, another to be standing outside with n Ann Arbor waiting for bus to take you from engineering campus to the athletic center.
Similarly, visit Rice in September.

+100 as someone who lives in Houston in September

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kind of an edge case—but when looking at undergrad business programs, it's very important to consider whether students are accepted into and matriculate as freshmen directly into the business school.

In my experience, many students and parents don’t understand this, and our private school counselors also failed to mention it as a major consideration. My concern was: what if DC gets sick, has a bad freshman semester, etc., but chose the school based on the business major—then ends up getting rejected from the B-school and is forced to choose another major? UGA Terry was one of those schools. Great B-school, but only a 40% acceptance rate. DC just wasn’t really willing to roll the dice with other great options where they matriculated as an incoming freshman. Now a happy freshman already taking core classes in a great undergrad business school!

This applies to all majors. There are plenty of great schools, where 99% of the majors are open TO ANYONE. None of this direct admit or you will never get in to engineering/CS/business/STEm majors. Choose wisely. Given that many kids do switch majors, much easier to be at a school where they can easily do this.
Given that many who switch out of Engineering (Because it's too hard/not their thing) go to Business majors, but that needs to be a viable option at their school.

The Your College Bound Kid podcast recently had an episode on how different schools deal with majors: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-college-bound-kid-admission-tips-admission-trends/id1349060136?i=1000682820473

So, I just listened to this. Is it my imagination or did he not finish the quote from the VT AO? Starting around 37:08. "So here's the quote: 'Here at Virginia Tech, you're going to hear me talk a lot about major specifically. The reason I say that is because major specifically is very important here at Virginia Tech.' Now don't miss this line. This is probably one of the key points I want you to take away after today. Now don't miss the final line. And if you take anything away, it should be this. So hopefully you found this helpful...etc."

I thought he was winding up to tell us the final line. It felt awkward after that. Was the final line edited out? Or was the final line simply that major is very important at VT?

Yes, that was a weird build-up but I think the big takeaway is to pay attention to major when you're applying to VT.

PP. I have a sophomore girl OOS who might apply to VT. Obviously this may change, but currently is very enthusiastic about CS, and we are very aware that this tends to be more competitive than most other majors, thus my keen interest in the quote above. I looked in Common App and at the VT website, which say that a student applies as a general engineering major and then later applies to CS. An engineering student would need 12 hours at VT, certain courses completed, and a 3.0, for guaranteed admit to the major. A non-engineering student would have guaranteed admit to the major with a 3.5. (I'm aware the latter is risky.) What I'd like to find out is what the effect on admission is for a student applying to general engineering who then indicates CS for major of interest and why not indicate some other area of engineering, if major indeed is super important for admission to VT. I may need to go back through and listen to the whole podcast again, as I was distracted in the middle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kind of an edge case—but when looking at undergrad business programs, it's very important to consider whether students are accepted into and matriculate as freshmen directly into the business school.

In my experience, many students and parents don’t understand this, and our private school counselors also failed to mention it as a major consideration. My concern was: what if DC gets sick, has a bad freshman semester, etc., but chose the school based on the business major—then ends up getting rejected from the B-school and is forced to choose another major? UGA Terry was one of those schools. Great B-school, but only a 40% acceptance rate. DC just wasn’t really willing to roll the dice with other great options where they matriculated as an incoming freshman. Now a happy freshman already taking core classes in a great undergrad business school!

This applies to all majors. There are plenty of great schools, where 99% of the majors are open TO ANYONE. None of this direct admit or you will never get in to engineering/CS/business/STEm majors. Choose wisely. Given that many kids do switch majors, much easier to be at a school where they can easily do this.
Given that many who switch out of Engineering (Because it's too hard/not their thing) go to Business majors, but that needs to be a viable option at their school.

The Your College Bound Kid podcast recently had an episode on how different schools deal with majors: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-college-bound-kid-admission-tips-admission-trends/id1349060136?i=1000682820473

So, I just listened to this. Is it my imagination or did he not finish the quote from the VT AO? Starting around 37:08. "So here's the quote: 'Here at Virginia Tech, you're going to hear me talk a lot about major specifically. The reason I say that is because major specifically is very important here at Virginia Tech.' Now don't miss this line. This is probably one of the key points I want you to take away after today. Now don't miss the final line. And if you take anything away, it should be this. So hopefully you found this helpful...etc."

I thought he was winding up to tell us the final line. It felt awkward after that. Was the final line edited out? Or was the final line simply that major is very important at VT?

Yes, that was a weird build-up but I think the big takeaway is to pay attention to major when you're applying to VT.

PP. I have a sophomore girl OOS who might apply to VT. Obviously this may change, but currently is very enthusiastic about CS, and we are very aware that this tends to be more competitive than most other majors, thus my keen interest in the quote above. I looked in Common App and at the VT website, which say that a student applies as a general engineering major and then later applies to CS. An engineering student would need 12 hours at VT, certain courses completed, and a 3.0, for guaranteed admit to the major. A non-engineering student would have guaranteed admit to the major with a 3.5. (I'm aware the latter is risky.) What I'd like to find out is what the effect on admission is for a student applying to general engineering who then indicates CS for major of interest and why not indicate some other area of engineering, if major indeed is super important for admission to VT. I may need to go back through and listen to the whole podcast again, as I was distracted in the middle.

Indicating another less popular engineering interest might be helpful although I don't think it's clear how much they factor that in vs just engineering as one big pool. Another, easier way if they really want VT is to apply to the major Computational Modeling and Data Analytics. It's in the College of Science, not Engineering, but is half CS/half applied math & stats. Common for students to also double major or minor in CS. Last year admit rate was pretty high. I think mainly because people don't know about the major. My son graduates in it this year and it's been a great program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kind of an edge case—but when looking at undergrad business programs, it's very important to consider whether students are accepted into and matriculate as freshmen directly into the business school.

In my experience, many students and parents don’t understand this, and our private school counselors also failed to mention it as a major consideration. My concern was: what if DC gets sick, has a bad freshman semester, etc., but chose the school based on the business major—then ends up getting rejected from the B-school and is forced to choose another major? UGA Terry was one of those schools. Great B-school, but only a 40% acceptance rate. DC just wasn’t really willing to roll the dice with other great options where they matriculated as an incoming freshman. Now a happy freshman already taking core classes in a great undergrad business school!

This applies to all majors. There are plenty of great schools, where 99% of the majors are open TO ANYONE. None of this direct admit or you will never get in to engineering/CS/business/STEm majors. Choose wisely. Given that many kids do switch majors, much easier to be at a school where they can easily do this.
Given that many who switch out of Engineering (Because it's too hard/not their thing) go to Business majors, but that needs to be a viable option at their school.

The Your College Bound Kid podcast recently had an episode on how different schools deal with majors: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-college-bound-kid-admission-tips-admission-trends/id1349060136?i=1000682820473

So, I just listened to this. Is it my imagination or did he not finish the quote from the VT AO? Starting around 37:08. "So here's the quote: 'Here at Virginia Tech, you're going to hear me talk a lot about major specifically. The reason I say that is because major specifically is very important here at Virginia Tech.' Now don't miss this line. This is probably one of the key points I want you to take away after today. Now don't miss the final line. And if you take anything away, it should be this. So hopefully you found this helpful...etc."

I thought he was winding up to tell us the final line. It felt awkward after that. Was the final line edited out? Or was the final line simply that major is very important at VT?

Yes, that was a weird build-up but I think the big takeaway is to pay attention to major when you're applying to VT.

PP. I have a sophomore girl OOS who might apply to VT. Obviously this may change, but currently is very enthusiastic about CS, and we are very aware that this tends to be more competitive than most other majors, thus my keen interest in the quote above. I looked in Common App and at the VT website, which say that a student applies as a general engineering major and then later applies to CS. An engineering student would need 12 hours at VT, certain courses completed, and a 3.0, for guaranteed admit to the major. A non-engineering student would have guaranteed admit to the major with a 3.5. (I'm aware the latter is risky.) What I'd like to find out is what the effect on admission is for a student applying to general engineering who then indicates CS for major of interest and why not indicate some other area of engineering, if major indeed is super important for admission to VT. I may need to go back through and listen to the whole podcast again, as I was distracted in the middle.

She might want to apply to the girls' engineering summer program at VT
https://eng.vt.edu/ceed/ceed-pre-college-programs/c-tech2.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kind of an edge case—but when looking at undergrad business programs, it's very important to consider whether students are accepted into and matriculate as freshmen directly into the business school.

In my experience, many students and parents don’t understand this, and our private school counselors also failed to mention it as a major consideration. My concern was: what if DC gets sick, has a bad freshman semester, etc., but chose the school based on the business major—then ends up getting rejected from the B-school and is forced to choose another major? UGA Terry was one of those schools. Great B-school, but only a 40% acceptance rate. DC just wasn’t really willing to roll the dice with other great options where they matriculated as an incoming freshman. Now a happy freshman already taking core classes in a great undergrad business school!

This applies to all majors. There are plenty of great schools, where 99% of the majors are open TO ANYONE. None of this direct admit or you will never get in to engineering/CS/business/STEm majors. Choose wisely. Given that many kids do switch majors, much easier to be at a school where they can easily do this.
Given that many who switch out of Engineering (Because it's too hard/not their thing) go to Business majors, but that needs to be a viable option at their school.

The Your College Bound Kid podcast recently had an episode on how different schools deal with majors: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-college-bound-kid-admission-tips-admission-trends/id1349060136?i=1000682820473

So, I just listened to this. Is it my imagination or did he not finish the quote from the VT AO? Starting around 37:08. "So here's the quote: 'Here at Virginia Tech, you're going to hear me talk a lot about major specifically. The reason I say that is because major specifically is very important here at Virginia Tech.' Now don't miss this line. This is probably one of the key points I want you to take away after today. Now don't miss the final line. And if you take anything away, it should be this. So hopefully you found this helpful...etc."

I thought he was winding up to tell us the final line. It felt awkward after that. Was the final line edited out? Or was the final line simply that major is very important at VT?

Yes, that was a weird build-up but I think the big takeaway is to pay attention to major when you're applying to VT.

PP. I have a sophomore girl OOS who might apply to VT. Obviously this may change, but currently is very enthusiastic about CS, and we are very aware that this tends to be more competitive than most other majors, thus my keen interest in the quote above. I looked in Common App and at the VT website, which say that a student applies as a general engineering major and then later applies to CS. An engineering student would need 12 hours at VT, certain courses completed, and a 3.0, for guaranteed admit to the major. A non-engineering student would have guaranteed admit to the major with a 3.5. (I'm aware the latter is risky.) What I'd like to find out is what the effect on admission is for a student applying to general engineering who then indicates CS for major of interest and why not indicate some other area of engineering, if major indeed is super important for admission to VT. I may need to go back through and listen to the whole podcast again, as I was distracted in the middle.

Indicating another less popular engineering interest might be helpful although I don't think it's clear how much they factor that in vs just engineering as one big pool. Another, easier way if they really want VT is to apply to the major Computational Modeling and Data Analytics. It's in the College of Science, not Engineering, but is half CS/half applied math & stats. Common for students to also double major or minor in CS. Last year admit rate was pretty high. I think mainly because people don't know about the major. My son graduates in it this year and it's been a great program.

Thank you! That is super helpful to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kind of an edge case—but when looking at undergrad business programs, it's very important to consider whether students are accepted into and matriculate as freshmen directly into the business school.

In my experience, many students and parents don’t understand this, and our private school counselors also failed to mention it as a major consideration. My concern was: what if DC gets sick, has a bad freshman semester, etc., but chose the school based on the business major—then ends up getting rejected from the B-school and is forced to choose another major? UGA Terry was one of those schools. Great B-school, but only a 40% acceptance rate. DC just wasn’t really willing to roll the dice with other great options where they matriculated as an incoming freshman. Now a happy freshman already taking core classes in a great undergrad business school!

This applies to all majors. There are plenty of great schools, where 99% of the majors are open TO ANYONE. None of this direct admit or you will never get in to engineering/CS/business/STEm majors. Choose wisely. Given that many kids do switch majors, much easier to be at a school where they can easily do this.
Given that many who switch out of Engineering (Because it's too hard/not their thing) go to Business majors, but that needs to be a viable option at their school.

The Your College Bound Kid podcast recently had an episode on how different schools deal with majors: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-college-bound-kid-admission-tips-admission-trends/id1349060136?i=1000682820473

So, I just listened to this. Is it my imagination or did he not finish the quote from the VT AO? Starting around 37:08. "So here's the quote: 'Here at Virginia Tech, you're going to hear me talk a lot about major specifically. The reason I say that is because major specifically is very important here at Virginia Tech.' Now don't miss this line. This is probably one of the key points I want you to take away after today. Now don't miss the final line. And if you take anything away, it should be this. So hopefully you found this helpful...etc."

I thought he was winding up to tell us the final line. It felt awkward after that. Was the final line edited out? Or was the final line simply that major is very important at VT?

Yes, that was a weird build-up but I think the big takeaway is to pay attention to major when you're applying to VT.

PP. I have a sophomore girl OOS who might apply to VT. Obviously this may change, but currently is very enthusiastic about CS, and we are very aware that this tends to be more competitive than most other majors, thus my keen interest in the quote above. I looked in Common App and at the VT website, which say that a student applies as a general engineering major and then later applies to CS. An engineering student would need 12 hours at VT, certain courses completed, and a 3.0, for guaranteed admit to the major. A non-engineering student would have guaranteed admit to the major with a 3.5. (I'm aware the latter is risky.) What I'd like to find out is what the effect on admission is for a student applying to general engineering who then indicates CS for major of interest and why not indicate some other area of engineering, if major indeed is super important for admission to VT. I may need to go back through and listen to the whole podcast again, as I was distracted in the middle.

She might want to apply to the girls' engineering summer program at VT
https://eng.vt.edu/ceed/ceed-pre-college-programs/c-tech2.html

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People stress too much about this stuff. Why not just apply to your state flagship and a few directionals? Maybe Duke if your smart. That's what we did back in the 90s. Everyone turned out fine.

Thanks Dad.

The 90s called and they want their fanny packs back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:- your school’s data or history is probably more important than you think.

THIS. Going through the process first time with older dc. Applied to school which Naviance showed had high rejection rate, but applied anyway bc we considered it a target and had program DC wanted. DC has high GPA and SAT scores. Got rejected. Many of dc's classmates also got rejected. FWIW Applying from Catholic hs to Catholic college. DC said for younger DC we might want to avoid schools like that which reject many of their school's applicants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:- your school’s data or history is probably more important than you think.

THIS. Going through the process first time with older dc. Applied to school which Naviance showed had high rejection rate, but applied anyway bc we considered it a target and had program DC wanted. DC has high GPA and SAT scores. Got rejected. Many of dc's classmates also got rejected. FWIW Applying from Catholic hs to Catholic college. DC said for younger DC we might want to avoid schools like that which reject many of their school's applicants.

💯
If the college hasn’t admitted your HS kids in the past, they are not admitting yours unless HOOKED

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:- your school’s data or history is probably more important than you think.

THIS. Going through the process first time with older dc. Applied to school which Naviance showed had high rejection rate, but applied anyway bc we considered it a target and had program DC wanted. DC has high GPA and SAT scores. Got rejected. Many of dc's classmates also got rejected. FWIW Applying from Catholic hs to Catholic college. DC said for younger DC we might want to avoid schools like that which reject many of their school's applicants.

💯
If the college hasn’t admitted your HS kids in the past, they are not admitting yours unless HOOKED

So so so true. For some reason our school has zero relationship Vanderbilt, Middlebury and U Miami. Every year there are people who insist on doing ED to these schools and they literally never get in. Never. Naviance is helpful for some things and this is one of them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:- your school’s data or history is probably more important than you think.

THIS. Going through the process first time with older dc. Applied to school which Naviance showed had high rejection rate, but applied anyway bc we considered it a target and had program DC wanted. DC has high GPA and SAT scores. Got rejected. Many of dc's classmates also got rejected. FWIW Applying from Catholic hs to Catholic college. DC said for younger DC we might want to avoid schools like that which reject many of their school's applicants.

💯
If the college hasn’t admitted your HS kids in the past, they are not admitting yours unless HOOKED

So so so true. For some reason our school has zero relationship Vanderbilt, Middlebury and U Miami. Every year there are people who insist on doing ED to these schools and they literally never get in. Never. Naviance is helpful for some things and this is one of them!

DC's Big3 does not have any relationship with NU, Vandy, USC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:- your school’s data or history is probably more important than you think.

THIS. Going through the process first time with older dc. Applied to school which Naviance showed had high rejection rate, but applied anyway bc we considered it a target and had program DC wanted. DC has high GPA and SAT scores. Got rejected. Many of dc's classmates also got rejected. FWIW Applying from Catholic hs to Catholic college. DC said for younger DC we might want to avoid schools like that which reject many of their school's applicants.

💯
If the college hasn’t admitted your HS kids in the past, they are not admitting yours unless HOOKED

So so so true. For some reason our school has zero relationship Vanderbilt, Middlebury and U Miami. Every year there are people who insist on doing ED to these schools and they literally never get in. Never. Naviance is helpful for some things and this is one of them!

Study the data.

For junior parents, when looking for other target plus or reach minus schools, look for schools that don’t get the influx of apps from your private HS, but still generally have a 50% admit rate for your school and where you kid falls in the stats range.

For ours, those are generally selective SLACS. Kids will do well there even in RD.

Then, pick 3-4 RD T20 privates to throw in. The app numbers there will be higher though so beware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Visit cold weather schools in winter. One thing to think you like cold weather, another to be standing outside with n Ann Arbor waiting for bus to take you from engineering campus to the athletic center.
Similarly, visit Rice in September.

Depends. If your kid understands what cold and hot weather is (they live in DCUM---they likely get hot and humid and know the few cold weeks we have), you don't have to visit each time. Anyone capable of gaining admission to either of those schools should also understand the weather (it's not like DCUM is FL lack of cold or Alaska lack of heat and humidity---we see both of those, just not quite as extreme)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kind of an edge case—but when looking at undergrad business programs, it's very important to consider whether students are accepted into and matriculate as freshmen directly into the business school.

In my experience, many students and parents don’t understand this, and our private school counselors also failed to mention it as a major consideration. My concern was: what if DC gets sick, has a bad freshman semester, etc., but chose the school based on the business major—then ends up getting rejected from the B-school and is forced to choose another major? UGA Terry was one of those schools. Great B-school, but only a 40% acceptance rate. DC just wasn’t really willing to roll the dice with other great options where they matriculated as an incoming freshman. Now a happy freshman already taking core classes in a great undergrad business school!

This applies to all majors. There are plenty of great schools, where 99% of the majors are open TO ANYONE. None of this direct admit or you will never get in to engineering/CS/business/STEm majors. Choose wisely. Given that many kids do switch majors, much easier to be at a school where they can easily do this.
Given that many who switch out of Engineering (Because it's too hard/not their thing) go to Business majors, but that needs to be a viable option at their school.

The Your College Bound Kid podcast recently had an episode on how different schools deal with majors: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-college-bound-kid-admission-tips-admission-trends/id1349060136?i=1000682820473

Both of my kids actively chose 5-8K undergrad schools that also allowed them to switch majors if needed. First kid, half of their engineering friends became some type of business major. Same for my kid who switched from Health sciences (lots of kids went to business). cannot imagine being at a school where that is damn near impossible. Given that 60-70-% of kids do switch majors, it's prudent to be somewhere that it's easy to do so. Cannot imagine being told "you cannot major in what you want, now pay the massive tuition and R&B fees" Only requirements at both kids schools (and all that they applied to) is having a C or C+ in the first 3 major courses before being allowed to switch (or something like that) and that is fair---if you cannot get a C in most of the first 2-3 courses of a major, you probably won't fair well in that major overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some admissions staff drop a very specific hints about what to include in essays if you pay enough attention. If you reach out to them directly they might provide more.

UMD CMNS college (the one with CS) dropped a hint at any admissions event about mentioning something in the application. I followed up using an anonymous email account and asked for more details and they gave us pretty much word for word what to say in the Additional Information section to indicate a real interest in CS.

VA Tech emphasized over and over again how important they view service to be and dropped hints to emphasize it in the essay.

My kid applied to two Jesuit universities---was at the 50% for stats (GPA and SAT). Yet got above average in merit from both. Largely because of their service during HS---real, genuine involvement which matters to many schools, especially Jesuit universities. It's important to know what a school looks for and write about it essays /emphasise it whenever possible