Lessons learned so far: 2024-2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Lesson learned: the UMD App has as many essay questions as an Ivy League institution.

Seriously, good to know this, but not happy it’s true!

DP. PP was exaggerating a bit. To clarify, there are a bunch of short-answer (650 character) prompts. The questions are kind of irritating though. "Where would you like to travel to," fine, but "The most interesting fact I ever learned from research was..." is a bit odd, because "research" is quite vague here. They are all get-to-know-you short answer questions, plus a diversity prompt.

This is nothing like, say, Brown or HYPS essays.

I have a bit of a contrarian view:

If your kid treats every application - including safeties - as a HYPS application - they will get merit from those schools - or at least be in the running.
My kid has gotten merit from EVERY safety applied to. Shocking. But those essays could have been submitted to any T10. They were thorough and well-researched. Nothing was an afterthought.

So it's been a huge ego boost - after an ED deferral.

DC did this too and adjusted major as needed with each school, scoured the websites, etc. Spent a ton of time on each file and personalized all the essays. Despite all this and having high stats this didn't work on all safeties or matches and lots of EA deferrals. It's a great idea but not a magic bullet.

Which safeties did it not work for?

[Anonymous]

A school isn't a true safety if it considers demonstrated interest so much that the essays matter. Need 60-70% acceptance rate. Otherwise, it's a low target at best.

[Anonymous]

Be very, very careful putting Southern State schools on your safety and target list. They are getting harder and harder to get into every year.

[Anonymous]

Positive lesson learned last year. visit targets (demonstrate interest) that yield protect and offer merit (if possible and if finances/time aren’t an issue) . Not sure if visiting moved the needle on merit aid but it got my kid excited about their more realistic target schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be very, very careful putting Southern State schools on your safety and target list. They are getting harder and harder to get into every year.

This. And echoing the PP above who said to sit with your DC in front of the computer as they are about to submit to be SURE they do not forget anything, and to do the same when reviewing acceptance or deferral letters for critical info.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lesson learned: the UMD App has as many essay questions as an Ivy League institution.

Seriously, good to know this, but not happy it’s true!

DP. PP was exaggerating a bit. To clarify, there are a bunch of short-answer (650 character) prompts. The questions are kind of irritating though. "Where would you like to travel to," fine, but "The most interesting fact I ever learned from research was..." is a bit odd, because "research" is quite vague here. They are all get-to-know-you short answer questions, plus a diversity prompt.

This is nothing like, say, Brown or HYPS essays.

I have a bit of a contrarian view:

If your kid treats every application - including safeties - as a HYPS application - they will get merit from those schools - or at least be in the running.
My kid has gotten merit from EVERY safety applied to. Shocking. But those essays could have been submitted to any T10. They were thorough and well-researched. Nothing was an afterthought.

So it's been a huge ego boost - after an ED deferral.

That is great, but my kid spent minimal time on the applications and still got merit from every safety he applied to. It's also about choosing safeties that will want you.

[Anonymous]

I already posted a quality lesson learned, now please indulge me in a frivolous one. Shocked how many kids don’t know it’s ‘29 and not 29’. Kids at top schools too. It’s not life altering, but such a personal pet peeve!

[Anonymous]

Do everything you can prior to August to make sure your DC feels confident about their list and if applying ED, confident in that choice. We went into last Spring fairly sure about an ED choice, but then doubt started creeping in. So we visited (or revisited) four alternative schools that were similar and then went back to the ED option for two more visits, including observing a class. By application time, she was sure and had a lot more material to add to her "why us" essays.

[Anonymous]

From 2024. Set expectations lower from the beginning and make sure your kid understands how much of a lottery selective admissions is for “regular excellent” kids with regular activities. (and I’m not saying lower the bar for your kids- just make sure they understand they’re one of thousands who have the same profile as them) . It’s better that they start the process with an open mind to a broader range of schools than feel like they’re “settling” after a rough RD round spring of senior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those going through the application process w/DC this school year, what lessons have you learned?
What do you wish you’d done differently? What’s worked out well?

Don't wait until Oct 31st to submit your EA application. Access your individual school portals immediately and daily until everything is completely done - if you don't get the SRAR forms completed and returned to the schools who require them (after you submit the common app) in time, you get bumped to regular decision timeline.

Make your student login to their portals in front of you so you can see for yourself that they are working.

Do all schools have their own portals that require for the applicant to fill out more info after submitting the Common app?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:- your school’s data or history is probably more important than you think.

THIS. Going through the process first time with older dc. Applied to school which Naviance showed had high rejection rate, but applied anyway bc we considered it a target and had program DC wanted. DC has high GPA and SAT scores. Got rejected. Many of dc's classmates also got rejected. FWIW Applying from Catholic hs to Catholic college. DC said for younger DC we might want to avoid schools like that which reject many of their school's applicants.

💯
If the college hasn’t admitted your HS kids in the past, they are not admitting yours unless HOOKED

So so so true. For some reason our school has zero relationship Vanderbilt, Middlebury and U Miami. Every year there are people who insist on doing ED to these schools and they literally never get in. Never. Naviance is helpful for some things and this is one of them!

DC's Big3 does not have any relationship with NU, Vandy, USC.

NCS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A school isn't a true safety if it considers demonstrated interest so much that the essays matter. Need 60-70% acceptance rate. Otherwise, it's a low target at best.

Agree. People need to be careful about how the line between safety and low targets. A safety should not consider interest AND should have a very high acceptance rate AND student needs to be above 75th percentile in the important categories like GPA/scores. Otherwise, do not think of the school as a safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I already posted a quality lesson learned, now please indulge me in a frivolous one. Shocked how many kids don’t know it’s ‘29 and not 29’. Kids at top schools too. It’s not life altering, but such a personal pet peeve!

100%

[Anonymous]

This thread is very helpful!

My kid is a rising Senior with borderline stats (4.2 W GPA, 1510 SAT)

So Looks like ED is his best chance to get into decently competitive schools? We will be full pay - and I guess ED is a signal to the college that they could count on us to pay full price and hence make it easier to get admit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People stress too much about this stuff. Why not just apply to your state flagship and a few directionals? Maybe Duke if your smart. That's what we did back in the 90s. Everyone turned out fine.

Because it’s very hard to get into the state flagships - like really hard now. They are not safety schools by any stretch anymore. This is why we have to apply to so many school and stress out.