If you had to do it all over again, what would you do different?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Opt out of the admissions rat race, enjoy your teen years, and go to an SEC school.

It’s a rat race to get into the SEC schools now.

Vandy is a rat race, UT-Austin is brutal from OOS, UF and UGA have gotten tough as well, and UTK/UofSC/Auburn are no guarantee anymore if you're not a top student. But the rest are still cakewalks. Ole Miss will accept you if you have a 3.0 HS GPA and 24 ACT. Grads are successful, too. Hotty Toddy!

This two word phrase is among the worst things about Ole Miss.

[Anonymous]

Look at your school's data carefully. Especially if a private high school.

Unlikely your kid gets in, if on the cusp, unless they have a high-profile national level (tier 1) accolade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Think carefully about passing up an opportunity to apply ED to a target school. Those targets ended up being reaches in RD

I think this is a good idea. I'm going to encourage my child to have her list sewn up by summer before senior year.

[Anonymous]

Realize that state flagships are essentially a lottery for top students, and the schools are businesses with their own agendas. You can drive yourself crazy trying to get perfect grades and do the right things, but it all comes down to whether you fit what the school is looking for - geography, major, sex, first Gen, financial need, etc. Cast a broad net and don’t “fall in love” with any particular school.

[Anonymous]

I would have advised child 1 against pursuing a dual degree at a top 3 OOS flagship. It was never going to work in 4 years, but he couldn’t be convinced and the exceptionally poor academic advising made it worse. He would have made a different choice up front if not pursuing both majors. Buyer beware.

I would have dissuaded child 2 from applying to the same ED school (top 10, so a reach for everyone) as many of his friends. Exceptionally popular school that year. It worked out in ED2 with a school that’s a better fit anyway, and just as well regarded.

For child 3, we will probably not be able to apply any lessons learned. There’s a big age gap and this child has completely different interests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Strongly Rec everyone apply to a rolling admissions school. DS had admission to Pitt engineering and good $$ by early October. He loved Pitt, felt wanted bc of the $$, and only applied to 2 other schools. (He too opted out of crazy high stress application process.) very nice senior year.

Agree with this! Pitt started as my kid's "safety" in biomedical engineering and she ended up falling in love with it and choosing it over all of the others. Took so much pressure off to have the Pitt decision early!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Realize that state flagships are essentially a lottery for top students, and the schools are businesses with their own agendas. You can drive yourself crazy trying to get perfect grades and do the right things, but it all comes down to whether you fit what the school is looking for - geography, major, sex, first Gen, financial need, etc. Cast a broad net and don’t “fall in love” with any particular school.

+1 also, get very clear on what you are looking for in a college. It's easier to narrow down if you are clear on parameters like size, location, features of the major you are most interested in (or how they support undecided students), important ECs. And, get really clear on budget and likely cost early on. My kids didn't waste time applying to a lot of reach schools because it was very clear we couldn't afford them. Only reaches for them were UVA/W&M.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Help DC do a lot of research earlier (for those Why essays for T25).
Review ALL drafts of essays or hire a meticulous essay editor who sees a lot of successful essays and knows what works and what doesn't.

+1 on essay review. Look at the first lines of some of these essays - I now want to read them!
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1k3uufe/whats_the_first_line_of_ur_favorite_essay_and/

[Anonymous]

Probably an outlier on DCUM, but we will ask our current h.s. junior to apply to more schools. It all worked out really well in the end but our first only applied to four schools. Rejected at one, waitlisted at another which left the choice between two schools and there was really only choice.

[Anonymous]

The problem with so many of you is you overcomplicate the matter and you are so obsessed with prestige and the absurd idea that there is just one perfect college instead of a good solid fit at many that you just allow the whole process to consume you.

We went through the process with four kids of varying academic achievement and qualifications. All four ended up where they needed to be, and it worked out fine for all four, and we didn’t get all worked up over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help DC do a lot of research earlier (for those Why essays for T25).
Review ALL drafts of essays or hire a meticulous essay editor who sees a lot of successful essays and knows what works and what doesn't.

+1 on essay review. Look at the first lines of some of these essays - I now want to read them!
https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/1k3uufe/whats_the_first_line_of_ur_favorite_essay_and/

I loved these ones:

"Time stood still when I witnessed a murder" (I then proceed to describe crows arguing over a donut) which got me accepted everywhere I applied, including Duke and UNC!


“I have found my peace, and it is in Acme’s cheapest napkins.”
Committed to Penn!

“At age seven, I became a prince.”
My common app essay. Will either be going to Duke, Penn, or Dartmouth. [Pretending to be a prince in my yard when I was a kid and how the pretend kingdoms I made as a child turned into shaping the world around me and using creativity as I did a lot of public policy work in education as a high schooler.]

“At the ripe age of 12, I was set to change the world.
… [skip some sentences] …
Years later, I would be greatly humbled by the discovery that I was behind my time.”
Yale ‘29.

[Anonymous]

I would be more cautious of parents who seem obsessed with other kids stats and choices.

[Anonymous]

The more applications I read (admityogi; appIQ etc) the more you see why some kids are admitted and others aren't.

The essays, story, and overall academic narrative/application hook matter WAY more than people think.

The applicant's goal should be to help the AO condense their review into a short, compelling tagline in defense of the application (as the regional AO will absolutely need to "defend" your kid's application in committee, so give them the tools to do that).

If the app is too scattered, random, boring, generic, or unorganized, they can't (or won't) do that work, and the application will be disregarded. It's pretty simple - now in retrospect.

[Anonymous]

If kid is a legacy at a WASP school and that school is a clear first choice, then apply ED. My legacy kid was waitlisted in RD but fortunately it was not a top choice for them. Just Hindsight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The more applications I read (admityogi; appIQ etc) the more you see why some kids are admitted and others aren't.

The essays, story, and overall academic narrative/application hook matter WAY more than people think.

The applicant's goal should be to help the AO condense their review into a short, compelling tagline in defense of the application (as the regional AO will absolutely need to "defend" your kid's application in committee, so give them the tools to do that).

If the app is too scattered, random, boring, generic, or unorganized, they can't (or won't) do that work, and the application will be disregarded. It's pretty simple - now in retrospect.

How can parents help kids with this?