Parents of High School Juniors - Hold On To Your Hats

[Anonymous]

You're in for a wild ride. As a parent the college admissions process is expensive, opaque, emotionally draining and physically exhausting. The discussion boards on the College Confidential website are very helpful and give you an idea of how competitive college admissions have become. Students like to read The College Prowler for student reviews and observations. Good luck to you all. The process starts NOW!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're in for a wild ride. As a parent the college admissions process is expensive, opaque, emotionally draining and physically exhausting. The discussion boards on the College Confidential website are very helpful and give you an idea of how competitive college admissions have become. Students like to read The College Prowler for student reviews and observations. Good luck to you all. The process starts NOW!

I could not agree more. DC has one more accepted students weekend to attend in a couple of weeks and then the decision will be made. It has been a wild ride!

[Anonymous]

Read Crazy U by Andrew Ferguson that just came out, quite accurate and interesting.
It has been quite nuts, but there are just so many great schools out there now, that as long as your child and more importantly parents don't get too focused on a specific school or schools, and don't judge colleges today on the standards of what they were like in the 70s and 80s (and how easy they were to get into, believe me, totally new world out there compared to what current parents dealt with in the 70s and 80s), everyone will be fine.

[Anonymous]

I actually enjoyed the college visits. We were realistic about schools that would be a good fit, and DC only did 6 applications rather then the 10-15 that some kids do, so it wasn't as stressful from that perspective (just getting 6 done was time consuming for DC, not sure how kids do more). Didn't get in to the first choice but in to the rest.

I think it's important to make sure college apps don't take over your or your child's life. That being said, the process started way before this point in junior year. It really kicked off the summer before junior year with SAT prep, some early college visits, etc.

[Anonymous]

Here are the initial class of 2015 acceptance rates for various schools:

5.5% -- Julliard
6.2 ---- Harvard
6.9 ---- Columbia
7.1 ---- Stanford
7.2 ---- Cooper Union
7.4 ---- Yale
8.4 ---- Princeton
8.7 ---- Brown
9.6 ---- MIT
9.7 ---- Dartmouth
12.0 --- Cal Tech
12.3 --- Univ. of Penn
12.6 --- Duke
12.8 --- Amherst
13.6 --- Pomona
13.8 --- Claremont McKenna
14.9 --- Swarthmore
15.4 --- WUSTL
15.5 --- Vanderbilt
15.6 --- Bowdoin
15.8 --- Univ. of Chicago
17.1 --- Williams
17.4 --- Washington & Lee
17.7 --- Middlebury
18.0 --- Cornell
18.0 --- Northwestern
18.0 --- Georgetown
18.3 --- Johns Hopkins
18.6 --- Rice
21.8 --- Tufts
22.3 --- Vassar
24.1 --- Notre Dame
24.9 --- Barnard
25.3 --- UCLA
25.5 --- Colorado College
25.9 --- Emory
26.8 --- Hamilton
26.9 --- Bates
27.2 --- Bucknell
27.9 --- Boston College
29.1 --- Colby
29.3 --- Oberlin
29.4 --- UNC Chapel Hill
29.6 --- Carleton
30.4 --- Carnegie Mellon
31.7 --- Macalester
32.3 --- Univ. of Virginia
32.9 --- Lehigh
33.2 --- Kenyon
34.3 --- Northeastern
40.2 --- SUNY Binghamton
40.3 --- Lafayette
41.8 --- Dickinson
41.8 --- Skidmore
42.4 --- Muhlenberg
42.6 --- Villanova
42.9 --- SMU
44.3 --- Grinnell
45.5 --- Smith
46.7 --- Penn State
47.9 --- Georgia Tech
48.2 --- Case Western
49.8 --- Wisconsin
64.5 --- Virginia Tech

[Anonymous]

^ This was from the New York Times blog The Choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually enjoyed the college visits. We were realistic about schools that would be a good fit, and DC only did 6 applications rather then the 10-15 that some kids do, so it wasn't as stressful from that perspective (just getting 6 done was time consuming for DC, not sure how kids do more). Didn't get in to the first choice but in to the rest.

I think it's important to make sure college apps don't take over your or your child's life. That being said, the process started way before this point in junior year. It really kicked off the summer before junior year with SAT prep, some early college visits, etc.

Guess you're smarter than I am or you've been through this before. I thought the process was just plain awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually enjoyed the college visits. We were realistic about schools that would be a good fit, and DC only did 6 applications rather then the 10-15 that some kids do, so it wasn't as stressful from that perspective (just getting 6 done was time consuming for DC, not sure how kids do more). Didn't get in to the first choice but in to the rest.

I think it's important to make sure college apps don't take over your or your child's life. That being said, the process started way before this point in junior year. It really kicked off the summer before junior year with SAT prep, some early college visits, etc.

I thought the visits were exhausting, but worthwhile. Maybe this is due to the fact we started early and visited schools before she even applied just to make sure DD only applied to schools she would feel comfortable attending. FWIW we found individual visits to be far more telling than the open house cattle call thing the colleges do. And DD found sitting in on classes so important.

I highly recommend getting a copy of Colleges that Change Lives by Loren Pope and the Fisk book of colleges (can't recall the exact title), both were great resources for coming up with a nice list of options.

[Anonymous]

Yaaaaawn.

[Anonymous]

My oldest graduates from college next year. We have a senior leaving for college in a few months. And a junior who has already been conditionally accepted by early admission.

I didn't find the process stressful at all probably because I didn't consider it my college search. I was available to offer insight and advise when asked. But I let my kids handle most it on their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually enjoyed the college visits. We were realistic about schools that would be a good fit, and DC only did 6 applications rather then the 10-15 that some kids do, so it wasn't as stressful from that perspective (just getting 6 done was time consuming for DC, not sure how kids do more). Didn't get in to the first choice but in to the rest.

I think it's important to make sure college apps don't take over your or your child's life. That being said, the process started way before this point in junior year. It really kicked off the summer before junior year with SAT prep, some early college visits, etc.

I thought the visits were exhausting, but worthwhile. Maybe this is due to the fact we started early and visited schools before she even applied just to make sure DD only applied to schools she would feel comfortable attending. FWIW we found individual visits to be far more telling than the open house cattle call thing the colleges do. And DD found sitting in on classes so important.

I highly recommend getting a copy of Colleges that Change Lives by Loren Pope and the Fisk book of colleges (can't recall the exact title), both were great resources for coming up with a nice list of options.

I'm the poster you are quoting. Agree with doing early visits - we did most visits junior year and that helped reduce senior year stress. DC did a fall sport that has a lot of Saturday commitments so it was difficult to fit visits in in the fall without missing school. I think actual visits were key. I know some people are dismissive of visits but that's what got the list down to 6 schools rather than 12. Also for a lot of the schools my child was applying to (SLACs) visits were an important part of the admissions process.

[Anonymous]

Analyze the Choice ED rates since there is variation between admits for ED1, ED2, regular. Do not be hesitant to have DC apply to schools not on the college guidance lists. ED1 used wisely can result in only 1 application.

At many schools on the list posted approximately 30% of the students are varsity athletes. Recruits with hooks use lots of slots at these highly rated schools with real profs and small class sizes.

Those recruits do have comparable SAT, GPA, EC's, recs to other applicants.

[Anonymous]

So glad we're using our slots at these colleges for athletes. That will really make us competitive in the world -- at least at the Olympics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest graduates from college next year. We have a senior leaving for college in a few months. And a junior who has already been conditionally accepted by early admission.

I didn't find the process stressful at all probably because I didn't consider it my college search. I was available to offer insight and advise when asked. But I let my kids handle most it on their own.

Just giving advice didn't cut it for us. Shelling out $225,000 over four years made us very careful indeed. There are a lot of mediocre schools out there asking for top dollar. We don't think putting a price tag on education is the thing to do, but we also don't think throwing money around is the thing to do. Starting college visits early (fall sports really put a crimp on getting away the fall of senior year), considering Early Decision since the acceptance rates are usually higher (have to be careful with this one though since it's financially binding unless you're applying Early Action as opposed to Early Decision) and really looking at your child realistically are all great pieces of advice IMHO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yaaaaawn.

Read another thread then or get back under your bridge.