Mistakes you made in the admissions process...

[Anonymous]

Not a mistake for us, but we were torn about whether to claim Hispanic status because DS is only 1/4 Hispanic, no Spanish spoken in home, etc. But everyone we spoke to said we should do it, and we did. DS has not had one rejection yet. He has awesome stats to go along with it, but still, it is surely helping with the top tier schools. If you have a legitimate hook like that and are not sure, go for it. You have nothing to lose. I know if we hadn't and got rejections, we would have kicked ourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a mistake for us, but we were torn about whether to claim Hispanic status because DS is only 1/4 Hispanic, no Spanish spoken in home, etc. But everyone we spoke to said we should do it, and we did. DS has not had one rejection yet. He has awesome stats to go along with it, but still, it is surely helping with the top tier schools. If you have a legitimate hook like that and are not sure, go for it. You have nothing to lose. I know if we hadn't and got rejections, we would have kicked ourselves.

Love seeing our affirmative action system work exactly as intended lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a mistake for us, but we were torn about whether to claim Hispanic status because DS is only 1/4 Hispanic, no Spanish spoken in home, etc. But everyone we spoke to said we should do it, and we did. DS has not had one rejection yet. He has awesome stats to go along with it, but still, it is surely helping with the top tier schools. If you have a legitimate hook like that and are not sure, go for it. You have nothing to lose. I know if we hadn't and got rejections, we would have kicked ourselves.

Ugh.

And “we” did nothing. Your son claimed a cultural identity he clearly doesn’t really have. If one agonizes about it, it isn’t legitimate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a mistake for us, but we were torn about whether to claim Hispanic status because DS is only 1/4 Hispanic, no Spanish spoken in home, etc. But everyone we spoke to said we should do it, and we did. DS has not had one rejection yet. He has awesome stats to go along with it, but still, it is surely helping with the top tier schools. If you have a legitimate hook like that and are not sure, go for it. You have nothing to lose. I know if we hadn't and got rejections, we would have kicked ourselves.

Love seeing our affirmative action system work exactly as intended lol

exactly, ridiculous. My son is jewish given that the first jews are known to be Ethiopian, can he claim he is part black? He had family WAYYYYYY back that lived in the area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a mistake for us, but we were torn about whether to claim Hispanic status because DS is only 1/4 Hispanic, no Spanish spoken in home, etc. But everyone we spoke to said we should do it, and we did. DS has not had one rejection yet. He has awesome stats to go along with it, but still, it is surely helping with the top tier schools. If you have a legitimate hook like that and are not sure, go for it. You have nothing to lose. I know if we hadn't and got rejections, we would have kicked ourselves.

Ugh.

And “we” did nothing. Your son claimed a cultural identity he clearly doesn’t really have. If one agonizes about it, it isn’t legitimate.

well it's not the pp's fault the colleges allow, and even encourage, people to do that. They must know many people checking "Hispanic" are white, solidly middle class and with a grandparent from Spain. Still they get to claim we have ___% minority!

[Anonymous]

I'm Canadian and so is my daughter. Since Canadian is a nickname for black people in the service industry, we applied with her as black and got a full ride! Thanks America!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm Canadian and so is my daughter. Since Canadian is a nickname for black people in the service industry, we applied with her as black and got a full ride! Thanks America!

What is this jibberish??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm Canadian and so is my daughter. Since Canadian is a nickname for black people in the service industry, we applied with her as black and got a full ride! Thanks America!

Canadian is a nickname for black peoples in the service industry? I’m black and I’ve never heard that?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, you've never heard "table full of Canadians"?

[Anonymous]

Starting search with ‘reaches’ not safeties. Safeties that kid will be happy with - and get a good education - are harder to find.

Do the NPC for every school early and often if you are cost sensitive. Even schools in the same peer group can vary significantly in cost for your family.

In retrospect we would have spent time touring the safeties and clear matches and only visit the most selectiveadmissions schools if/when accepted.

[Anonymous]

every time something good happened to someone else or my kid didn't get what they wanted, I reflexively blamed affirmative action, athletes or some other 'hook' rather than teach my kid to accept disappointment. It turned them into someone who does not take any personal responsibility for any of their own actions or failures. Kind of like me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm Canadian and so is my daughter. Since Canadian is a nickname for black people in the service industry, we applied with her as black and got a full ride! Thanks America!

What is this jibberish??

+1 - I don't beiieve a word of it. No need to get silly abut this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:every time something good happened to someone else or my kid didn't get what they wanted, I reflexively blamed affirmative action, athletes or some other 'hook' rather than teach my kid to accept disappointment. It turned them into someone who does not take any personal responsibility for any of their own actions or failures. Kind of like me.

more BS. I don't believe a word of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Biggest mistake we made with first kid was assuming high grades and test scores would lead to merit aid at upper tier schools. Got a bad case of sticker shock when that wasn’t the case. Kid ended up in a great state school honors program.

With second kid with similar stats, we targeted less competitive schools. Average merit has been $30K and cost will be less than state schools. This kid will do better at a smaller school.

Would you mind sharing these schools, PP?

Hi - they are not DCUM worthy schools but smaller mainly Catholic colleges in the northeast. All will be a great fit for this kid. Some have sent out invites to interview for their full tuition scholarships. Even if not awarded, we will be paying significantly less than in-state college tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm Canadian and so is my daughter. Since Canadian is a nickname for black people in the service industry, we applied with her as black and got a full ride! Thanks America!

What is this jibberish??

+1 - I don't beiieve a word of it. No need to get silly abut this.

Sigh. Yes, it's true. It's extremely racist, but true. I grew up in the mid-west and was a server in college in a southern IN town and some people would call people of color "Canadians." Along with the "code" word,I think the disparagement comes from Canadians not understanding or properly tipping servers the correct amount. It's racist and disgusting.

So this thread has taken a turn. Can we delete this crap now?