Rookie mistakes?

[Anonymous]

What is something you or your student did that you would clearly do differently if you had to do things over (and thank goodness, we don't have to do it over!)?

Me: encouraging my kid to write all those Chicago essays for EA when I now know Chicago's EA program is fishy.

[Anonymous]

SAT instead of TO if in the mid-range

[Anonymous]

My kid would have EA-ed to Georgetown (where they are a legacy) rather than Yale (where they were deferred in SCEA this year.) Would have been awesome to go into RD with (maybe) a GU EA acceptance in the pocket.

[Anonymous]

Might have invested in a few more tours that required travel. We stayed within 4 hrs drive on NYC, and DC went with a friend to Chicago. Might have been good to think about Rice or Emory for ED1 but the deadline crept up fast and we couldn't ED sight unseen.

[Anonymous]

Kid 2 WILL write their essays in the summer before senior year. And will not apply to grandparents' Ivy, based on Kid 1's experience. Waste of everyone's time - just to "see".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid would have EA-ed to Georgetown (where they are a legacy) rather than Yale (where they were deferred in SCEA this year.) Would have been awesome to go into RD with (maybe) a GU EA acceptance in the pocket.

I wish I'd talked my kid into REA at GU.

[Anonymous]

If your DC is a visual or performing artist, colleges often impose numerous requirements in addition to submitting a portfolio--e.g., artist statements, art-specific resumes, etc. Some of the requirements appear on the school's website, some of them appear on the Common App, and some of them appear in SlideRoom (the app for uploading portfolios). So, for example, my DC discovered that one esteemed college effectively had an art-specific supplemental essay when he was uploading his portfolio on SlideRoom the evening before his application was due. He had researched that college's website previously and I think it mentioned an optional art resume but not the essay. Also, I recall that Stanford had numerous requirements for portfolio submissions, one of which was that they had to be submitted a few weeks before the normal deadline.

TLDR: If your DC is an artist and submitting a portfolio, figure out exactly what each college requires well ahead of time because the additional requirements can be demanding and surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SAT instead of TO if in the mid-range

this

[Anonymous]

Second the arts poster. There were hidden essays in slide room that you couldn’t know about until you had portal access and even in the school questions of the common app where the essay was hidden until you selected a major on the drop down menu. Very frustrating. Artists/dancers/etc already have to extra preparation of portfolio etc. Hiding essays and references etc is over the top. Have you kid email the dance department for a list of requirements. Ask about surprise essays!

[Anonymous]

While I fully appreciate that admissions at selective colleges are incredibly competitive and often unpredictable, I think I bought too much into the pessimism here and on CC. DC was admitted to several highly selective schools and maybe should have been more aggressive in applying to reach schools. DC is at a great school that's a great fit, so I can't complain too much. But it certainly raised the anxiety.

[Anonymous]

Get more visits in. Should have done a list of the potential applications and visits at least in junior year and then tweaked it senior year, as needed. Then there's the Common app and the "free app" trap, leading to wasting time rather than just do the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your DC is a visual or performing artist, colleges often impose numerous requirements in addition to submitting a portfolio--e.g., artist statements, art-specific resumes, etc. Some of the requirements appear on the school's website, some of them appear on the Common App, and some of them appear in SlideRoom (the app for uploading portfolios). So, for example, my DC discovered that one esteemed college effectively had an art-specific supplemental essay when he was uploading his portfolio on SlideRoom the evening before his application was due. He had researched that college's website previously and I think it mentioned an optional art resume but not the essay. Also, I recall that Stanford had numerous requirements for portfolio submissions, one of which was that they had to be submitted a few weeks before the normal deadline.

TLDR: If your DC is an artist and submitting a portfolio, figure out exactly what each college requires well ahead of time because the additional requirements can be demanding and surprising.

Heard this about architecture as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I fully appreciate that admissions at selective colleges are incredibly competitive and often unpredictable, I think I bought too much into the pessimism here and on CC. DC was admitted to several highly selective schools and maybe should have been more aggressive in applying to reach schools. DC is at a great school that's a great fit, so I can't complain too much. But it certainly raised the anxiety.

Same. DC chose to ED at a target. While it's a good fit and he's happy, I wonder if we got too caught up in fear. Would have preferred for DC to revisit schools with an acceptance in hand.

[Anonymous]

My unhooked non-legacy wouldn't have wasted EA at Georgetown where they were deferred.

They would have REA'd to Princeton instead. They had RD acceptances to Hopkins, Pomona, Brown, Georgetown and Dartmouth. WL Princeton.

[Anonymous]

Done ED for the reach.