No more safeties since they now focus on yield protection?

[Anonymous]

If a kid is high stat with a rigorous course selection, they are usually also in various Honor societies and NMS. Add in some clubs and EC activities and some community work and they are in very good shape. Finally, the feather on the cap is the colleges like kids who are full pay.

I think most important thing is to show to colleges that you are interested in them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is good.
Students need to stop applying to 20+ schools. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and energy. Find a couple true safeties you actually would be happy at, visit them, and apply to them. Stop tossing out random apps to see who bites.

(Note, if the acceptance rate is less than 75%, it’s not a safety, no matter what your stats are)

How many colleges have a greater than 75% acceptance rate?

None you would want to attend with a 1400+ SAT.

Then you don't understand the concept. There are plenty of very good schools that are not selective. If you don't know that, you were biased going in and define a good school by rank alone. Broaden your thinking.

[Anonymous]

All I know is I’m going to send my kid somewhere where most of these posters are not. This anxiety and competition is toxic. Undergrad hardly matters when compared to grad school anyway — and fortunately by grad school you can’t game the system by playing lacrosse or having someone write your essay for you.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP. People on these boards are way to anxious. Outside the Top 50 national universities and the Top 10 LACs, admissions are pretty liberal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All I know is I’m going to send my kid somewhere where most of these posters are not. This anxiety and competition is toxic. Undergrad hardly matters when compared to grad school anyway — and fortunately by grad school you can’t game the system by playing lacrosse or having someone write your essay for you.

At least you aren’t bitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with PP. People on these boards are way to anxious. Outside the Top 50 national universities and the Top 10 LACs, admissions are pretty liberal.

Definitely still competitive past the top 10 liberal arts colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with PP. People on these boards are way to anxious. Outside the Top 50 national universities and the Top 10 LACs, admissions are pretty liberal.

Hmm, let’s see. Colby at number 15…ooh, 8% acceptance rate. So easy.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it is, given ED is creeping up to north of 40 percent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is, given ED is creeping up to north of 40 percent

A, that’s dramatically inflated by recruited athletes, who aren’t looking for safeties. And B, 40% is now a safety? Terrible take. Do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with PP. People on these boards are way to anxious. Outside the Top 50 national universities and the Top 10 LACs, admissions are pretty liberal.

Hmm, let’s see. Colby at number 15…ooh, 8% acceptance rate. So easy.

And Grinnell and Wesleyan with below 20% acceptance rates too. Hardly safeties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is, given ED is creeping up to north of 40 percent

A, that’s dramatically inflated by recruited athletes, who aren’t looking for safeties. And B, 40% is now a safety? Terrible take. Do better.

The take was not easybecause it was 8%. That number is not a real reflection of what it is like to get in to many of these very good schools. Multiple rounds of ED require a more nuanced approach to reach/match/safety calculations or perhaps just a recognition that such a breakdown is simply not relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They track who attends virtual events.

Another important piece of tracking interest is the email/website tracking. Always open the marketing emails from the schools you are applying to, click on the links in them, spend time on the website.

This is very important. My brother is responsible for the post-email marketing campaign statistical data organization at a university. The marketing campaign emails track when they get opened, which links get clicked on, how long you spend on the site, how many times you revisit the email and site, etc. That data then gets sent out to different people on the selection committee.

Insane. So much nonsense for these kids to pay attention to. Most of them don't even really use email. They text, snapchat, discord, etc. Anyway, it's become a two-year project to select and apply to colleges, never mind all the credential-building that comes before that. None of this serves our kids. It's all driven by "enrollment managers" and marketing pros with their eyes on rankings and budgets. And it's making our kids stressed out and sick.

I keep my child's college email account open on my home computer and check it every few days to do the obligatory clicks and follow the links. He has no interest in emails like most teens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They track who attends virtual events.

Another important piece of tracking interest is the email/website tracking. Always open the marketing emails from the schools you are applying to, click on the links in them, spend time on the website.

This is very important. My brother is responsible for the post-email marketing campaign statistical data organization at a university. The marketing campaign emails track when they get opened, which links get clicked on, how long you spend on the site, how many times you revisit the email and site, etc. That data then gets sent out to different people on the selection committee.

Insane. So much nonsense for these kids to pay attention to. Most of them don't even really use email. They text, snapchat, discord, etc. Anyway, it's become a two-year project to select and apply to colleges, never mind all the credential-building that comes before that. None of this serves our kids. It's all driven by "enrollment managers" and marketing pros with their eyes on rankings and budgets. And it's making our kids stressed out and sick.

I keep my child's college email account open on my home computer and check it every few days to do the obligatory clicks and follow the links. He has no interest in emails like most teens.

Yep! My kid was offered a free application and ultimately admitted to a LAC that was a reach for him largely because I opened every email from that school from his college email account. I highly recommend this.

[Anonymous]

Lol at DCUM. If a school rejects your kid it has to be that your kid was too good for the school and not the other way around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is, given ED is creeping up to north of 40 percent

A, that’s dramatically inflated by recruited athletes, who aren’t looking for safeties. And B, 40% is now a safety? Terrible take. Do better.

The take was not easybecause it was 8%. That number is not a real reflection of what it is like to get in to many of these very good schools. Multiple rounds of ED require a more nuanced approach to reach/match/safety calculations or perhaps just a recognition that such a breakdown is simply not relevant.

Yes, the overall 8% is actually higher than any “regular” kid could expect, because at small schools like Colby there is a significant percentage of recruited athletes and their acceptance rate is something very close to 100%. The poster could have made a good point by asserting that beyond a certain level of LAC admission is pretty easy. But is sure isn’t at number 11. Even in the sixties and seventies they are rejecting about half of applicants.