Was your competitive kid get shut out from all top 40 schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

There is nowhere near the demand for the number of graduates with soft majors that are churned out every years. Unless the school is HYPSM, all a large english/dance/history department does is ensure employment for history professors and applicants for law schools (because the one thing we need is more lawyers). Meanwhile applicants are clearly telling schools that there is more demand for business, engineering, computer science because students know that they will need to earn a living especially if they graduate with massive debt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, next year will bring a new level of uncertainty with the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action . Low income will likely become the new hook for maintaining diversity and who knows how that will affect upper middle class kids, but probably not for the best.

The best source for how bad this year was at your school is your own student (if they know seniors) or your college counselors.

Two-income GS-15 families in DMV are low income relative to rich Manhattan families who send their kids to private prep schools in Manhattan.

Perhaps in your kind, but low income to colleges is usually synonymous with pell eligible, which means income below $60,000.

I often wonder when folks write this if they grew up in more august circumstances than their current way over the median income for the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

There is nowhere near the demand for the number of graduates with soft majors that are churned out every years. Unless the school is HYPSM, all a large english/dance/history department does is ensure employment for history professors and applicants for law schools (because the one thing we need is more lawyers). Meanwhile applicants are clearly telling schools that there is more demand for business, engineering, computer science because students know that they will need to earn a living especially if they graduate with massive debt

You have a deep misunderstanding about the relationship between major and jobs. The vast majority of people do not get jobs connected to their major--and often switch jobs many times in their lives. The college education develops broad skills, you become marketable in many fields by figuring out ways to apply those broad skills and deepen your expertise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

There is nowhere near the demand for the number of graduates with soft majors that are churned out every years. Unless the school is HYPSM, all a large english/dance/history department does is ensure employment for history professors and applicants for law schools (because the one thing we need is more lawyers). Meanwhile applicants are clearly telling schools that there is more demand for business, engineering, computer science because students know that they will need to earn a living especially if they graduate with massive debt

And yet good schools have good job placement for a wide variety of majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Locked out of T40 here. If I had to guess, due to the following:
- CS major
- majority student
- magnet school
- truthful ECs that were all STEM-related and did not stand out
- Common varsity sport
- wrote own essay that highlighted their personality but was not a sob story

You're revealing a lot of bias here. The real issue that there are far, far more qualified CS aspirants than there are CS slots at T40 schools. Someone didn't magically get in over your kid because they lied or told a sob story. They also likely had similar qualities but maybe had 10 higher points on a test, a slightly more inventive or well-written essay, one more award in their EC etc. It's not going to be a big difference. Just like there's not a big difference in quality of schools between the one rated 40 and the one rated 50.

UVA is known for admitting sob stories that ED. Not sure about other schools.

I don't know that. How do you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

There is nowhere near the demand for the number of graduates with soft majors that are churned out every years. Unless the school is HYPSM, all a large english/dance/history department does is ensure employment for history professors and applicants for law schools (because the one thing we need is more lawyers). Meanwhile applicants are clearly telling schools that there is more demand for business, engineering, computer science because students know that they will need to earn a living especially if they graduate with massive debt

yeah, and universities are saying to those applicants that they don't want to be trade schools. I suppose if tech bros ran the world we'd bulldoze Carnegie Hall and the Met and mine bitcoins in their ruins but others have decided, for now, that a society in which humanistic concerns are not subjected entirely to the career aspirations of 18 year old children is the one they want to live in.

the fact of the matter is that universities serve a social function by NOT transforming themselves into trade schools in response to whatever "applicants" say they want. I fully expect them to be destroyed in the next few decades in favor of a philistine's vision of what's useful but in the meantime enroll your kids in dance or fencing because they're not getting in otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

There is nowhere near the demand for the number of graduates with soft majors that are churned out every years. Unless the school is HYPSM, all a large english/dance/history department does is ensure employment for history professors and applicants for law schools (because the one thing we need is more lawyers). Meanwhile applicants are clearly telling schools that there is more demand for business, engineering, computer science because students know that they will need to earn a living especially if they graduate with massive debt

You have a deep misunderstanding about the relationship between major and jobs. The vast majority of people do not get jobs connected to their major--and often switch jobs many times in their lives. The college education develops broad skills, you become marketable in many fields by figuring out ways to apply those broad skills and deepen your expertise.

+1 My company's creative director, who oversees the design of our website and apps, has an English degree. At my previous company, the person who led the large events business had been a dance major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious, based on another post that brought up the point that the posts on this board seemed to make a complete shift from "my high stats kid is getting shut out" to
"Should my kid attend Penn or Vanderbilt?" (or Tulane or Case? or...).

With all admits in, did your strong stats kid get shut out of all top 40 or top 50 colleges and universities?
I'm wondering what actually happened in the end.
I'm the parent of a junior.

One important question to ask about s choice of major.

CS is so competitive, for example, that, for most students, simply applying as a CS major or a premed is a sign of idiocy. The kid might have an an SAT score of 1580 but lacks the commonsense God gave a penguin.

The students who are born to be CS majors may have no choice; they are what they are.

But parents pushing the kids who don’t do this for fun to apply to top U.S. schools as CS majors might as well be hanging “I’m a dutiful drone” signs on the kids’ necks.

The path to success lies through figuring how to apply as a history or English major and figure out how to acquire the skills and student jobs needed to get a job with a humanities major, or how to sneak around course enrollment limits and pair the history major with a surprise second major in CS or actuarial math.

I'm assuming you are addressing students who don't like CS but you think are forced to major in it, because serious CS majors don't like humanities, just like many humanities majors don't like math.

My math/CS major kid would rather go to trade school than major in English or History, and DC is an IB diploma grad. DC AP'd their way out of most of the humanities gened courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

There is nowhere near the demand for the number of graduates with soft majors that are churned out every years. Unless the school is HYPSM, all a large english/dance/history department does is ensure employment for history professors and applicants for law schools (because the one thing we need is more lawyers). Meanwhile applicants are clearly telling schools that there is more demand for business, engineering, computer science because students know that they will need to earn a living especially if they graduate with massive debt

You have a deep misunderstanding about the relationship between major and jobs. The vast majority of people do not get jobs connected to their major--and often switch jobs many times in their lives. The college education develops broad skills, you become marketable in many fields by figuring out ways to apply those broad skills and deepen your expertise.

+1 My company's creative director, who oversees the design of our website and apps, has an English degree. At my previous company, the person who led the large events business had been a dance major.

Dp.. that's awesome, but english majors are one of the most likely to regret their major.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/12/the-top-10-most-regretted-college-majors.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

There is nowhere near the demand for the number of graduates with soft majors that are churned out every years. Unless the school is HYPSM, all a large english/dance/history department does is ensure employment for history professors and applicants for law schools (because the one thing we need is more lawyers). Meanwhile applicants are clearly telling schools that there is more demand for business, engineering, computer science because students know that they will need to earn a living especially if they graduate with massive debt

You have a deep misunderstanding about the relationship between major and jobs. The vast majority of people do not get jobs connected to their major--and often switch jobs many times in their lives. The college education develops broad skills, you become marketable in many fields by figuring out ways to apply those broad skills and deepen your expertise.

+1 My company's creative director, who oversees the design of our website and apps, has an English degree. At my previous company, the person who led the large events business had been a dance major.

How many unconnected english majors are you hiring?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

There is nowhere near the demand for the number of graduates with soft majors that are churned out every years. Unless the school is HYPSM, all a large english/dance/history department does is ensure employment for history professors and applicants for law schools (because the one thing we need is more lawyers). Meanwhile applicants are clearly telling schools that there is more demand for business, engineering, computer science because students know that they will need to earn a living especially if they graduate with massive debt

You have a deep misunderstanding about the relationship between major and jobs. The vast majority of people do not get jobs connected to their major--and often switch jobs many times in their lives. The college education develops broad skills, you become marketable in many fields by figuring out ways to apply those broad skills and deepen your expertise.

+1 My company's creative director, who oversees the design of our website and apps, has an English degree. At my previous company, the person who led the large events business had been a dance major.

I’m a music major and work for a tech start up. There is room for many types of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

There is nowhere near the demand for the number of graduates with soft majors that are churned out every years. Unless the school is HYPSM, all a large english/dance/history department does is ensure employment for history professors and applicants for law schools (because the one thing we need is more lawyers). Meanwhile applicants are clearly telling schools that there is more demand for business, engineering, computer science because students know that they will need to earn a living especially if they graduate with massive debt

You have a deep misunderstanding about the relationship between major and jobs. The vast majority of people do not get jobs connected to their major--and often switch jobs many times in their lives. The college education develops broad skills, you become marketable in many fields by figuring out ways to apply those broad skills and deepen your expertise.

+1 My company's creative director, who oversees the design of our website and apps, has an English degree. At my previous company, the person who led the large events business had been a dance major.

I’m a music major and work for a tech start up. There is room for many types of people.

My kid's graduating this year as a poli sci major and just got lined up with a great job not connected to his major. He went to a good school, did well, and interviews well. The data analysis, reading, writing he did in school were enough for his employers. It's not STEM/CS or bust.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

There is nowhere near the demand for the number of graduates with soft majors that are churned out every years. Unless the school is HYPSM, all a large english/dance/history department does is ensure employment for history professors and applicants for law schools (because the one thing we need is more lawyers). Meanwhile applicants are clearly telling schools that there is more demand for business, engineering, computer science because students know that they will need to earn a living especially if they graduate with massive debt

You have a deep misunderstanding about the relationship between major and jobs. The vast majority of people do not get jobs connected to their major--and often switch jobs many times in their lives. The college education develops broad skills, you become marketable in many fields by figuring out ways to apply those broad skills and deepen your expertise.

+1 My company's creative director, who oversees the design of our website and apps, has an English degree. At my previous company, the person who led the large events business had been a dance major.

Dp.. that's awesome, but english majors are one of the most likely to regret their major.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/12/the-top-10-most-regretted-college-majors.html

But regretted less than those that pursued pre-med or biology or marketing management. Doesn't quite fit the narrative you're spinning.

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Anonymous wrote:My DS applied for computer science. He did not get in to any top 50 in early action round, and I got the impression from these type of forums that regular decision was even more competitive. However, one top 40 deferral turned into an acceptance, and he was also accepted regular decision at a top 50. I would not say that I was worried at the time of the early action round, because it may not have been top 50, but he was accepted for an honors program and a respectable computer science department where he could have been happy too.

CS is a much harder major to get into than basically any other major. When people talk about admissions to a given school, the acceptance rates for different majors can be night and day.

This. Threads like this one are so misleading, even pointless. People: do some arithmetic. The demand for spots in CS across the country, in state flagships and in top privates, is insane relative to the number of spots available. What is more, top 20 schools do not want a campus full of career-oriented programmers. They want dancers, comparative literature majors, physicists, yes even gender studies majors. My son's close friend has mediocre grades, a 1550 and no ECs. Applied as a music major -- he is not that good, to be honest -- and was admitted to a number of schools (like Vanderbilt) to which he would not have had a chance in hell to be admitted in a more competitive major. Universities want to be universities, not CS coding camps.

Try to understand how a university/college works, and understand the game you are playing. Act accordingly. And no, your high stats kid does not deserve to be at Cornell or Rice. They applied in an ultracompetitive field and lost the spot to someone with a better application.

Yep because the country needs more dancers with $300k in loans

The world actually does pay some dancers and needs them. It’s mean to them, but it doesn’t need them.

It doesn’t need a lot of bright but soul dead CS drones who have no interest in CS but major in it, anyway, because that’s the only way Mummy and Daddy would pay for college. Those kids are in trouble.

There is nowhere near the demand for the number of graduates with soft majors that are churned out every years. Unless the school is HYPSM, all a large english/dance/history department does is ensure employment for history professors and applicants for law schools (because the one thing we need is more lawyers). Meanwhile applicants are clearly telling schools that there is more demand for business, engineering, computer science because students know that they will need to earn a living especially if they graduate with massive debt

You have a deep misunderstanding about the relationship between major and jobs. The vast majority of people do not get jobs connected to their major--and often switch jobs many times in their lives. The college education develops broad skills, you become marketable in many fields by figuring out ways to apply those broad skills and deepen your expertise.

+1 My company's creative director, who oversees the design of our website and apps, has an English degree. At my previous company, the person who led the large events business had been a dance major.

I’m a music major and work for a tech start up. There is room for many types of people.

My kid's graduating this year as a poli sci major and just got lined up with a great job not connected to his major. He went to a good school, did well, and interviews well. The data analysis, reading, writing he did in school were enough for his employers. It's not STEM/CS or bust.

At elite schools in particular -- presumably the kinds of schools our high-stats CS applicants are "shut out of" -- majors do not dictate post-grad employment. Do you really think Yale engineering majors want to be bench engineers at some massive corporation, building highway overpasses? Do we really think everyone in finance did an econ degree? Let's be serious. Indeed, there are lots of engineering grads working in finance, and many non-STEM majors working in tech on the management side.

The trade school model simply doesn't work for elite universities. Go to Purdue for CS -- already quite competitive -- if that's what you want. If you want to be at a school in which people are groomed to run corporations and institutions, make lots of bank in consulting, or become staff writers for cultural magazines, go to a top 15. Just know the game you are playing and stop whining because you don't.