College application lessons learned

[Anonymous]

Thought this might be helpful for parents of Juniors or younger kids:

1. Getting mail/email from schools means nothing. They are just buying names and trying to get applications.

2. When building a balanced college list, make sure to check acceptance rates for your kid's major, not just the overall rate.

3. Schools with both Early Action and Early Decision will defer many qualified candidates on Early action - be prepared for this

4. Coming from a magnet school can be a disadvantage due to high GPA bands on the school profile and competition with other magnet students

5. Get as much as possible done over the summer before senior year. This includes the main Common App essay and the activities and honors list

6. Use the Common Data set for schools to figure out which ones on your kid's list value demonstrated interest and make sure to visit those if possible

7. A 4.0 and perfect SAT/ACT scores won't be enough to get into the most highly selective schools or even the next set down in some cases. It's close to a lottery unless your kid has done something super spectacular (think student member of the board) or is a recruited athlete. There are just way too many kids for too few spots in schools that everyone wants to go to.

8. Make sure your kid reads their email regularly once they submit their applications.

9. The more selective the school, the more essays there are. My kid ended up having to write about 20 essays. Unless your kid is a writer, this will take a lot of time.

10. Find a school with a high acceptance rate and an early decision notification date to get one acceptance under your kid's belt. This takes a bit of the pressure off.

[Anonymous]

Don’t pay $85 for the UNC-CH app unless you’re a recruited athlete, a legacy with a consistent family donation pattern, or a very high stats student from certain “top” publics or elite privates.

Apply to Pitt as soon as the app opens in early Aug. it’s a big confidence boost to have that first acceptance in your back pocket.

Get supplemental recommendations because they add another dimension to your application.

Do the tours, follow on Instagram, Zoom etc for the schools that track demonstrated interest (see CDS data to confirm)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t pay $85 for the UNC-CH app unless you’re a recruited athlete, a legacy with a consistent family donation pattern, or a very high stats student from certain “top” publics or elite privates.

Apply to Pitt as soon as the app opens in early Aug. it’s a big confidence boost to have that first acceptance in your back pocket.

Get supplemental recommendations because they add another dimension to your application.

Do the tours, follow on Instagram, Zoom etc for the schools that track demonstrated interest (see CDS data to confirm)

Counselor here. No on the supplemental recs unless the university specifically requests an additional rec.

[Anonymous]

ED1 and ED2

[Anonymous]

My kid has a rough time in Covid but a silver lining has been this: if you let go of the idea of going to a "top" or competitive school, the process is actually easy and fairly stress-free (and you'll get a lot of merit money too). There are a ton of schools with high acceptance rates that are eager to have your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a rough time in Covid but a silver lining has been this: if you let go of the idea of going to a "top" or competitive school, the process is actually easy and fairly stress-free (and you'll get a lot of merit money too). There are a ton of schools with high acceptance rates that are eager to have your kid.

This. The school doesn’t matter as much as what you do once you’re there.

[Anonymous]

Let your child know that they should not check the box on the PSAT/SAT/AP exams unless they want all the emails/mail. Also, most of the info on the form to take these tests (like all of your classes) is completely optional. The college board just sells your data.

[Anonymous]

Thank you OP for starting this thread! This is great information!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a rough time in Covid but a silver lining has been this: if you let go of the idea of going to a "top" or competitive school, the process is actually easy and fairly stress-free (and you'll get a lot of merit money too). There are a ton of schools with high acceptance rates that are eager to have your kid.

+1000

[Anonymous]

How do you access the admission rates data for a major? TIA

[Anonymous]

Do schools track whether you opened their emails BEFORE you submit an app, or only after?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thought this might be helpful for parents of Juniors or younger kids:

1. Getting mail/email from schools means nothing. They are just buying names and trying to get applications.

2. When building a balanced college list, make sure to check acceptance rates for your kid's major, not just the overall rate.

3. Schools with both Early Action and Early Decision will defer many qualified candidates on Early action - be prepared for this

4. Coming from a magnet school can be a disadvantage due to high GPA bands on the school profile and competition with other magnet students

5. Get as much as possible done over the summer before senior year. This includes the main Common App essay and the activities and honors list

6. Use the Common Data set for schools to figure out which ones on your kid's list value demonstrated interest and make sure to visit those if possible

7. A 4.0 and perfect SAT/ACT scores won't be enough to get into the most highly selective schools or even the next set down in some cases. It's close to a lottery unless your kid has done something super spectacular (think student member of the board) or is a recruited athlete. There are just way too many kids for too few spots in schools that everyone wants to go to.

8. Make sure your kid reads their email regularly once they submit their applications.

9. The more selective the school, the more essays there are. My kid ended up having to write about 20 essays. Unless your kid is a writer, this will take a lot of time.

10. Find a school with a high acceptance rate and an early decision notification date to get one acceptance under your kid's belt. This takes a bit of the pressure off.

I think you meant "early action" for #10, not "early Decision". Early Decision is binding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a rough time in Covid but a silver lining has been this: if you let go of the idea of going to a "top" or competitive school, the process is actually easy and fairly stress-free (and you'll get a lot of merit money too). There are a ton of schools with high acceptance rates that are eager to have your kid.

+1000

Focus on helping your kid build strengths for handling college, seizing opportunities, figuring out what they want to do with their life, and developing optimism and self-efficacy for their future rather than trying to optimize their admission into selective colleges. Every time they seem to be sucked into the college competition game, return them into thinking about what they want to do and why they want to do it.
Let the chips fall where they may with college admissions, but don't let your kid leave home into a massive financial and energy investment of college without feeling like they have some sense of control, purpose and excitement over their future and some visions for what that might be. Not just pride or disappointment because they got/didn't get some brass ring of college admission. It's very easy to just be good at school and think you need to just continue being good at school--it's harder to make that transition to building a life/career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t pay $85 for the UNC-CH app unless you’re a recruited athlete, a legacy with a consistent family donation pattern, or a very high stats student from certain “top” publics or elite privates.

Apply to Pitt as soon as the app opens in early Aug. it’s a big confidence boost to have that first acceptance in your back pocket.

Get supplemental recommendations because they add another dimension to your application.

Do the tours, follow on Instagram, Zoom etc for the schools that track demonstrated interest (see CDS data to confirm)

True about UNC. I let my kid waste the money anyway.

What schools do they draw from? They have never accepted a student from our school. The school is mostly AA so I wonder about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a rough time in Covid but a silver lining has been this: if you let go of the idea of going to a "top" or competitive school, the process is actually easy and fairly stress-free (and you'll get a lot of merit money too). There are a ton of schools with high acceptance rates that are eager to have your kid.

+1000

Focus on helping your kid build strengths for handling college, seizing opportunities, figuring out what they want to do with their life, and developing optimism and self-efficacy for their future rather than trying to optimize their admission into selective colleges. Every time they seem to be sucked into the college competition game, return them into thinking about what they want to do and why they want to do it.
Let the chips fall where they may with college admissions, but don't let your kid leave home into a massive financial and energy investment of college without feeling like they have some sense of control, purpose and excitement over their future and some visions for what that might be. Not just pride or disappointment because they got/didn't get some brass ring of college admission. It's very easy to just be good at school and think you need to just continue being good at school--it's harder to make that transition to building a life/career.

It's not either/or. Most kids at selective colleges know what they want and are ready for careers.

It's just jealousy to pretend otherwise.