How the hell is anyone supposed to get into college now?

[Anonymous]

Like so many straight A students who were chief school newspaper editor, captain of a varsity sports team, volunteering, and more who can't even get to VA Tech. I don't know what people who get into schools like Michigan or the Ivy Leagues are doing in high school.

[Anonymous]

There are schools that are a lot less challenging to get into than VT.

[Anonymous]

Do well (as in achieve a strong gpa with strong coursework) and be a good community member with clear passion, and you can likely get into a "top" college, just not often the most top.

[Anonymous]

Full pay helps

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Full pay helps

Sigh. It’s this.

[Anonymous]

Maybe VT is easier OOS because all the DC kids I know that applied were accepted…decent students but not top of the class

[Anonymous]

Getting into the second tier schools like Mich really isn’t that hard. You just need the stats and scores. And you need to be strategic, know which regions and which schools the college likes the pull kids from. There are schools that have 3-4 kids accepted into Mich every year. This may not be where your HS sends kids. So figure out if they send kids to NYU or another school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full pay helps

Sigh. It’s this.

Colleges are half non-full payers now. We don't have to sacrifice every meritocratic part of the admissions process, so we can do social philanthropy on the less fortunate. The best applicants tend to be wealthy. Welcome to life.

[Anonymous]

Jmu and Towson

[Anonymous]

For my son and his friend:

1. A dozen AP courses.
2. wGPA of 4.7 or similar.
3. And in the case of son's friend, very good extra curriculars. My son got offers from slightly less selective unis, because his ECs were nothing special.
4. Full pay both.

They both love their school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like so many straight A students who were chief school newspaper editor, captain of a varsity sports team, volunteering, and more who can't even get to VA Tech. I don't know what people who get into schools like Michigan or the Ivy Leagues are doing in high school.

My daughter's friend who got into Yale was an Asian male with a very high wGPA who won Science Olympiad competitions and is an advanced string player.

Straight A doesn't mean anything, OP, you should know this. There is a world's difference between an A in a regular classs and an A in an AP class. Kids who get into the top colleges have 10+ APs, have a national level EC, etc. Your newpaper editing and team captainship worked a generation ago, but not today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like so many straight A students who were chief school newspaper editor, captain of a varsity sports team, volunteering, and more who can't even get to VA Tech. I don't know what people who get into schools like Michigan or the Ivy Leagues are doing in high school.

My daughter's friend who got into Yale was an Asian male with a very high wGPA who won Science Olympiad competitions and is an advanced string player.

Straight A doesn't mean anything, OP, you should know this. There is a world's difference between an A in a regular classs and an A in an AP class. Kids who get into the top colleges have 10+ APs, have a national level EC, etc. Your newpaper editing and team captainship worked a generation ago, but not today.

This is sounds exhausting. Kids have no time to be kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Full pay helps

Do you indicate full pay on the application? How does full pay help?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like so many straight A students who were chief school newspaper editor, captain of a varsity sports team, volunteering, and more who can't even get to VA Tech. I don't know what people who get into schools like Michigan or the Ivy Leagues are doing in high school.

My daughter's friend who got into Yale was an Asian male with a very high wGPA who won Science Olympiad competitions and is an advanced string player.

Straight A doesn't mean anything, OP, you should know this. There is a world's difference between an A in a regular classs and an A in an AP class. Kids who get into the top colleges have 10+ APs, have a national level EC, etc. Your newpaper editing and team captainship worked a generation ago, but not today.

This is sounds exhausting. Kids have no time to be kids.

They have a ton of time. It's really not that unachievable. We have a ton of college options. If you don't want to be competitive for the top ones, tap out and go to a decent one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full pay helps

Do you indicate full pay on the application? How does full pay help?

You don’t complete a FAFSA or other financial aid forms.