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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I disagree. Michigan routinely denies valedictorians

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I disagree. Michigan routinely denies valedictorians

Sure, but many others are getting in. If you're a valedictorian at a half decent school, you can get into UMich. DP.

[Anonymous]

Most colleges are very easy to get into.

[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.

I would argue making it onto a varsity sports teams or school newspaper, especially in NOVA, is just as hard as winning STEM competitions. Keep in mind less than 20% of high school kids even make it onto a JV team.

[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.

I am 44, and in my European country, high school was a stressful workathon culminating in one heck of a national exam week. I was so stressed out I couldn't eat on the first day of national exams. But that's nowhere near the worst. My cousins come from a country in Asia known for its teen suicide rate due to exam failure. Over there, when school ends for the day, the kids go to afternoon prep schools to cram. I know *elementary school kids* who had tutors to prepare for admission into the most prestigious afternoon prep schools!!! Separate from their regular school! HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!?

All to say: don't ever believe the US has it bad. I promise you, even for the kids who take grades seriously... it's still a layabout's paradise.

[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.

I would argue making it onto a varsity sports teams or school newspaper, especially in NOVA, is just as hard as winning STEM competitions. Keep in mind less than 20% of high school kids even make it onto a JV team.

Like it or not, universities are mostly about academics. The US is unreasonable about its love of youth sports, but even American admissions officers know that STEM matters more than athletics. Even as they reserve a number of spots, quite unfairly, for student athletes. I loof forward to the day when sports don't weigh anything at all in admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

So if you don't complete FAFSA/aid to submit with the application, that can be taken into consideration? Does FAFSA come later in the process?
Sorry, I have a 10th and we're not there yet

[Anonymous]

Why are people surprised that a country with 300 million people and top colleges that take like 2000 students per class has a competitive admissions system? The ivies and Co hardly educate anyone in this nation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

So if you don't complete FAFSA/aid to submit with the application, that can be taken into consideration? Does FAFSA come later in the process?
Sorry, I have a 10th and we're not there yet

Yes…many schools give preference to people that don’t need aid. The very top 15 schools are need-blind and don’t care if you need aid but they have massive endowments.

[Anonymous]

Go to a top private school. You can get into Yale or another top10 school without the nationally ranked extracurriculars. Just do extremely well in school (top 5-10%) and have ordinary extracurriculars (head of a few clubs, etc). It's extremely hard to be at or near the top of a class of very bright kids but it's a pretty reliable formula.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to a top private school. You can get into Yale or another top10 school without the nationally ranked extracurriculars. Just do extremely well in school (top 5-10%) and have ordinary extracurriculars (head of a few clubs, etc). It's extremely hard to be at or near the top of a class of very bright kids but it's a pretty reliable formula.

Except if you are unlucky to have several Yale legacies in your class (not unusual)…and then you are SOL. Pay attention to your legacies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most colleges are very easy to get into.

This. There are thousands of schools that most kids can get into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to a top private school. You can get into Yale or another top10 school without the nationally ranked extracurriculars. Just do extremely well in school (top 5-10%) and have ordinary extracurriculars (head of a few clubs, etc). It's extremely hard to be at or near the top of a class of very bright kids but it's a pretty reliable formula.

So easy. Just be top top top. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full pay helps

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

You apply Early Decision, and the admit rates are much more favorable if you do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most colleges are very easy to get into.

This. There are thousands of schools that most kids can get into.

Sure, but they’re schools at risk of closing. No thanks