Anyone else thinks the whole college admission process is a total farse?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lmao at all of this. I work for the company that so many of these schools use to buy your kids' names for mailers, build their promotion campaigns, and run financial aid optimization programs that calculate the lowest aid they can offer your kid and still get you suckers to pay the rest.
That's where these universities are spending their money. Certainly not on admissions staff to read all these dumb essays from rich kids with helicopter parents.

oh yea, DC ignored all the slick HYP mailers. DC has very high stats, but we know that not only are DC's chances slim to none being an Asian kid and CS major, but that as a doughnut family, we can't afford full pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lmao at all of this. I work for the company that so many of these schools use to buy your kids' names for mailers, build their promotion campaigns, and run financial aid optimization programs that calculate the lowest aid they can offer your kid and still get you suckers to pay the rest.
That's where these universities are spending their money. Certainly not on admissions staff to read all these dumb essays from rich kids with helicopter parents.

Bingo!!!

I wonder if/when the parties to the affirmative action lawsuits will realize they have been suckered? Admissions rates will go up, financial aid will go down, and the people that end up attending will be from the legacy families that can actually afford the tuition.

[Anonymous]

Just wait 20 years. 50/50 chance the residential college is basically dead at that point. To be clear, I don't think that's a good thing... but there's no universe where the current system stays in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep. 100%

The amount of lying and marketing oneself and trying to show you have some trauma or special adversity or belong to some outlier group so you can curry favor to Admin officers. It's gross.

And the fake non-profits and the no standards at times with overinflated gpas and no test results.

It's really gotten so out of hand given the sheer volume of applicants universities now face.

I swear it should be changed to this:

Everyone that meets certain requirements all get put in the hat and then they pull out admits like a lottery. At some point it's just too much.

All of these actions are based on heresy, mostly from parents who are just as clueless as the next person. I've never heard an AO say they want trauma or non-profits. Stop believing random strangers for something this important.

Not true. The heart-string stories. A friend was an AO at a top state university and the discussions were often said of very qualified kids from MC/UMC/!% that they never had to experience adversity. They were essentially penalized for coming from functional, normal backgrounds and being neurotypical 'normal' , but exceptional kids.

Yeah WTF a major goal of mind as a parent is to ensure my kids DO NOT experience adversity and now I’m hearing I shouldn’t have done that.

So you would trade places with my kid who has experienced adversity, right? You would totally want your kid to have dyslexia and ADHD, have invested $25,000 and countless hours (and tears) over the years to be sure they can learn to read and do math. You'd take the therapy for anxiety, because being a smart kid who still fails is really hard. But my kid is totally lucky because he's getting extra time on his SAT! He can write an essay about overcoming adversity!

You know you don't want your kid to have my kid's circumstances. And the reason you didn't let your kid grow up poor or traumatized is because you love them and want them to be well and happy, not because you thought being well was going to get them into college. Be sad that your kid can't get into the tippy top schools if you want to, but don't gaslight those of us with kids who has suffered by saying we have it lucky.

Mom of ADHD kid here. Kids like ours are discouraged from discussing any mental health or learning disabilities in college applications. The fact that you have $25K to throw at helping your kid is another strike against them. When colleges say they want to hear stories of adversity, they want to hear that you were a drug addict, your kid grew up in a trailer without running water or electricity, and the kid worked at a Dollar General to put food on the table for their six siblings. THAT’S a great college application.

+1
that is not the kind of adversity that they want to hear about

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not really. If a kid wants to go to college they will be able to go. It may not be their first choice but that is life.

We have much bigger issues in this country than whether Larlo gets into the state flagship her parents think she deserves bc she had x EC and x stats.

This is mostly a UMC class anxiety issue.

Agreed. In other countries, if your kid does not have top test scores or is not in the top of the class, they don’t go to college. Period. Americans are so lucky they live in a country where even an average student can go to college.

BS. They just don't go to the top college. They do get to go to *a* college.

PP, why do you post a response that is clearly not supported by facts? You can easily google and see that you are wrong. For example, google Germany.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not really. If a kid wants to go to college they will be able to go. It may not be their first choice but that is life.

We have much bigger issues in this country than whether Larlo gets into the state flagship her parents think she deserves bc she had x EC and x stats.

This is mostly a UMC class anxiety issue.

Agreed. In other countries, if your kid does not have top test scores or is not in the top of the class, they don’t go to college. Period. Americans are so lucky they live in a country where even an average student can go to college.

BS. They just don't go to the top college. They do get to go to *a* college.

Not BS at all. The European educational model is that kids are put on tracks during their middle school years based on ONE exam. Those tracks either lead to a university seat, a licensure program, a trade, etc, etc. No second chances. No re-do of the exam if your child is sick or having mental health challenges or if they are a bit lost at the age of 13 only to mature later. One shot is all you get over there. But, hey, the good part is that most tuition costs peanuts so there is that.

You can pay for private schools there just like here. Rigid tracking is only for those without means

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lmao at all of this. I work for the company that so many of these schools use to buy your kids' names for mailers, build their promotion campaigns, and run financial aid optimization programs that calculate the lowest aid they can offer your kid and still get you suckers to pay the rest.
That's where these universities are spending their money. Certainly not on admissions staff to read all these dumb essays from rich kids with helicopter parents.

oh yea, DC ignored all the slick HYP mailers. DC has very high stats, but we know that not only are DC's chances slim to none being an Asian kid and CS major, but that as a doughnut family, we can't afford full pay.

So where will your kid go? Uva.?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not really. If a kid wants to go to college they will be able to go. It may not be their first choice but that is life.

We have much bigger issues in this country than whether Larlo gets into the state flagship her parents think she deserves bc she had x EC and x stats.

This is mostly a UMC class anxiety issue.

Agreed. In other countries, if your kid does not have top test scores or is not in the top of the class, they don’t go to college. Period. Americans are so lucky they live in a country where even an average student can go to college.

BS. They just don't go to the top college. They do get to go to *a* college.

Not BS at all. The European educational model is that kids are put on tracks during their middle school years based on ONE exam. Those tracks either lead to a university seat, a licensure program, a trade, etc, etc. No second chances. No re-do of the exam if your child is sick or having mental health challenges or if they are a bit lost at the age of 13 only to mature later. One shot is all you get over there. But, hey, the good part is that most tuition costs peanuts so there is that.

You can pay for private schools there just like here. Rigid tracking is only for those without means

And those without means to pay-- I guess, oh well!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wait 20 years. 50/50 chance the residential college is basically dead at that point. To be clear, I don't think that's a good thing... but there's no universe where the current system stays in place.

Do you think people will be commuting to local schools? Or do you think online will dominate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^Beginning to think when my kid goes through this I'll be getting to the mailbox first every day and trashing all the p.r. materials.

Why? Perhaps it is a good lesson to teach kids that marketing is marketing, rather than snowplowing to the max.

Just don't select that option on the SAT/ACT/PSAT.

THIS - we didn't select. We only get mailers from schools that my student visited in person or attended an online session.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep. 100%

The amount of lying and marketing oneself and trying to show you have some trauma or special adversity or belong to some outlier group so you can curry favor to Admin officers. It's gross.

And the fake non-profits and the no standards at times with overinflated gpas and no test results.

It's really gotten so out of hand given the sheer volume of applicants universities now face.

I swear it should be changed to this:

Everyone that meets certain requirements all get put in the hat and then they pull out admits like a lottery. At some point it's just too much.

All of these actions are based on heresy, mostly from parents who are just as clueless as the next person. I've never heard an AO say they want trauma or non-profits. Stop believing random strangers for something this important.

Not true. The heart-string stories. A friend was an AO at a top state university and the discussions were often said of very qualified kids from MC/UMC/!% that they never had to experience adversity. They were essentially penalized for coming from functional, normal backgrounds and being neurotypical 'normal' , but exceptional kids.

Yeah WTF a major goal of mind as a parent is to ensure my kids DO NOT experience adversity and now I’m hearing I shouldn’t have done that.

This is true and so disappointing. I was first in my family to go to college, but now that fact is held against my kid in college apps. I also did the best to send them to the best possible schools, and now that works against them.

In the long run it isn't against them. If they got a solid education, then they will do perfectly fine as adults and at whatever college they end up at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lmao at all of this. I work for the company that so many of these schools use to buy your kids' names for mailers, build their promotion campaigns, and run financial aid optimization programs that calculate the lowest aid they can offer your kid and still get you suckers to pay the rest.
That's where these universities are spending their money. Certainly not on admissions staff to read all these dumb essays from rich kids with helicopter parents.

Lovely people like you are why a lot of people in higher won’t work with EAB. You have some clients, but most colleges do not use such “services.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wait 20 years. 50/50 chance the residential college is basically dead at that point. To be clear, I don't think that's a good thing... but there's no universe where the current system stays in place.

Do you think people will be commuting to local schools? Or do you think online will dominate?

That is what most LMC kids do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lmao at all of this. I work for the company that so many of these schools use to buy your kids' names for mailers, build their promotion campaigns, and run financial aid optimization programs that calculate the lowest aid they can offer your kid and still get you suckers to pay the rest.
That's where these universities are spending their money. Certainly not on admissions staff to read all these dumb essays from rich kids with helicopter parents.

oh yea, DC ignored all the slick HYP mailers. DC has very high stats, but we know that not only are DC's chances slim to none being an Asian kid and CS major, but that as a doughnut family, we can't afford full pay.

So where will your kid go? Uva.?

we're in MD. DC got accepted to CS Honors. A friend who is an economist told me that the best gift we could give our kids now is for them to come out of college with zero debt. And we can do that at UMD. DC might also get merit scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I totally agree. Although it seems rough, I think countries that base it all on one exam have a system that makes more sense. Set a lower threshold for kids from below a certain income level to ensure parity.

That just favors good testers.

OP, as others have said, they do use data to screen out a fair amount, then they have many readers to go through (albeit quickly, as you note) the applications. This has been covered by writers. Check out "Who Gets in and Why."

I am sorry early rounds have been disappointing for your kid. Same happened to mine. She took the rejections as a prompt to revise apps, add schools, put lots of effort into supplements and add awards. She had excellent RD results. I hope yours will get better news in March!