If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.

[Anonymous]

1. Start with safeties for the major, and show them love. Visit those first if possible and make sure that the kid would be FINE going as a last resort. Too many apply sight unseen to their safety and that is sometimes what students are stuck with.

2. What you decide on as a family may be tested by peers or school college counselors, ie. kids might want to chase prestige when the apps go in as their peers are doing when they had no interest doing so before. No harm, but stick to whatever your parameters are.

3. We used an essay coach and she took kids’ essays and almost rewrote them, and so she was quickly sacked. My kid asked his English teacher to read them instead and that worked well. My kid was never going to bowl AO’s over with his writing anyway.

4. We knew my kid was a dime a dozen on paper. Mid 1400’s SAT, top 20% of selective private, sport captain, summer jobs, a few clubs, volunteered a bit every year, 7 AP’s…we were fully expecting loads of EA deferrals at privates (and that happened). If a school offers ED, consider your EA chances small.

[Anonymous]

Would have added two more reach schools since multiple early acceptances were already in-hand.

Truly feel as though we shortchanged our child regarding options even though ended up at a top 10 university with the top ranked major. Final choice might have been the same, but wish that we had allowed student to apply to two more reach schools--one of which the student really wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would have added two more reach schools since multiple early acceptances were already in-hand.

Truly feel as though we shortchanged our child regarding options even though ended up at a top 10 university with the top ranked major. Final choice might have been the same, but wish that we had allowed student to apply to two more reach schools--one of which the student really wanted.

FWIW Those two schools would have been Harvard & Stanford--both of which admit multiple students each year from the small graduating class at this private boarding school. Had a great relationship with folks at one and would have been desirable to the other for particular reasons including intended major.

[Anonymous]

Why ?

Simply because the opportunities for those with Stanford or Harvard degrees are exceptional.

Among the top 10 universities, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, MIT, & U Penn-Wharton offer outstanding opportunities at a level above those at the remainder of the top 10, top 12, top 15, or however you group the top schools.

Of course, if one is in a highly specialized technical field, then there are better schools (Naval Architecture for example), but overall those universities with the largest endowments provide the most & best opportunities during and after one's undergraduate years.

[Anonymous]

Oldest - apply to less safeties/targets
Youngest - no ED

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From private counselor and CCO, I’ve heard (generally) you can tell how a T20 application is being received by a few things:

- merit from more competitive schools (Case)
- early acceptances (acceptances from competitive/selective OOS flagships or USC indicate a very competitive or well-received app)
- the early trickle of RD decisions in March (if your kid applied to mid-tier LACs or even more competitive ones and they come back with a yes in RD, then DC should absolutely have Private T20 (and likely T10) admits in RD.
- once the applications start to turn to regular rejections, deferrals and WL - it’s a sign of a tougher RD decision looming.

Again all for T20.

Wonder if this will hold true here.
Yes for 1 and 2.
Applied to a lot of private t20 reaches in RD after deferred.

Ditto for DC on 1 and 2. Curious to see if your private counselor and CCO’s insights hold true for some RD T5/WASP acceptances then.

[Anonymous]

I would have had DS apply REA/SCEA for T20, he only applied RD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why ?

Simply because the opportunities for those with Stanford or Harvard degrees are exceptional.

Among the top 10 universities, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, MIT, & U Penn-Wharton offer outstanding opportunities at a level above those at the remainder of the top 10, top 12, top 15, or however you group the top schools.

Of course, if one is in a highly specialized technical field, then there are better schools (Naval Architecture for example), but overall those universities with the largest endowments provide the most & best opportunities during and after one's undergraduate years.

Meh, they will work alongside people from all kinds of colleges.

[Anonymous]

Not take stock in the hyperbole on here that all kids have 1500+ SAT scores + 4.4 weighted GPAs. That suggestion influenced my thinking more than it should have. I feel like I steered my kid to undershoot thinking their profile wasn’t good enough for T20. Knowing what I know now, it definitely was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not take stock in the hyperbole on here that all kids have 1500+ SAT scores + 4.4 weighted GPAs. That suggestion influenced my thinking more than it should have. I feel like I steered my kid to undershoot thinking their profile wasn’t good enough for T20. Knowing what I know now, it definitely was.

Same!! DS is close to those stats and has been crushing EA. Only applied RD to T20. Wish one of the 7 applications had been SCEA/REA