Lessons Learned - The College Application Process

[Anonymous]

If you've RECENTLY been through the college application process what do you wish you'd done differently. Here is my list as it pertains to highly selective colleges:

1) Start the process in freshman year. For highly selective colleges it's important that your child work in as many rigorous classes as possible and understand that some choices might limit his/her chances at certain schools.
2) Start visiting colleges informally starting 2nd semester freshman year. It's important for your child to start getting a feel for different campuses and to learn how to read between the lines during information meetings.
3) Apply early decision. Many SLACs, for example, admit more than half their incoming first-year classes during Early Decision. It is also somewhat easier to get into a selective college ED.
4) Maintain a healthy skepticism toward Naviance (doesn't give you info about recruited althetes and gender specific differences as they pertain to credentials) and learn to use the Common Date Set (just Google the name of the particular college and Common Data Set) and other helpful sources for parents such as College Confidential.

I'm not suggesting that this is the only approach; and for some students/colleges it might be overkill. Good luck everyone.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for sharing this interesting and helpful list. Did you hire an independent college advisor outside of your child's school? Curious whether, if you did, you are glad that you did. Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Limit your Ivies, no matter how qualified you know your child is. These schools are a reach for everyone. Since a lot of schools limit students' applications, that's a lot of probable rejections taking up spots on your list. If your child really likes an LAC, by all means encourage them to apply ED, as OP said. If finances are a concern, it is possible to break your contract with the school if the aid offered isn't enough.

Talk to your school's admissions counselors frankly about the school's record with colleges on your list. Some places just won't take kids from a lot of the local preps for whatever reason.

Don't put a lot of stock in wait lists. The Wall Street Journal recently published this: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303772904577333680574993686.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_Careers_CJEducation_5 UChicago isn't in the data table because they don't publish their Common Data Set, but 3000 kids accepted spots on their wait list this year and it looks like they've accepted 15--and they already sent out notifications that they won't be able to accept anyone else. DD got her rejection just a few days ago, and her response: "It's okay, I was already looking at it as a rejection anyway." These poor kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you've RECENTLY been through the college application process what do you wish you'd done differently. Here is my list as it pertains to highly selective colleges:

1) Start the process in freshman year. For highly selective colleges it's important that your child work in as many rigorous classes as possible and understand that some choices might limit his/her chances at certain schools.
2) Start visiting colleges informally starting 2nd semester freshman year. It's important for your child to start getting a feel for different campuses and to learn how to read between the lines during information meetings.
3) Apply early decision. Many SLACs, for example, admit more than half their incoming first-year classes during Early Decision. It is also somewhat easier to get into a selective college ED.
4) Maintain a healthy skepticism toward Naviance (doesn't give you info about recruited althetes and gender specific differences as they pertain to credentials) and learn to use the Common Date Set (just Google the name of the particular college and Common Data Set) and other helpful sources for parents such as College Confidential.

I'm not suggesting that this is the only approach; and for some students/colleges it might be overkill. Good luck everyone.

Can you elaborate on this bolded part? Does this mean taking EVERY honor that is offered (9th and 10th grade) and EVERY AP that is offered (one in 10th grade in FCPS & a ton in 11th and 12th grades)? I have heard conflicting advice about maxing out vs. focusing honors and AP in certain areas. For example, if math/science is your child's area of interest, it is ok not to take AP history in 10th and beyond, and load up on math and science APs. If a student has all As and an average number of APs (say 6), would highly selective schools admit them?

[Anonymous]

I think freshman year is too early to start visits. We started the summer after sophomore year and it was fine. Waiting til spring break of junior year is too late - better to be able to use the late junior year visits to really hone in a schools that make sense rather than seeing a wide range.

I think it's important to start thinking about class selection and activities from the beginning of HS. However it can't just be a slog and all driven towards college admissions. Kids should be able to enjoy high school.

Do test prep. do it before junior year if the student is on the edge of NMSF qualifying scores, otherwise wait till fall of junior year.

Be realistic about schools. Have a couple of stretches, a couple of likely admits and a couple of very likely admits. My DC only applied to 6, with 3 accepts, 2 WL, and 1 deny. So that was probably a good outcome. A friend aimed too high and had 1 admit, 1 WL and 8 denies. It's nice to at least have a choice.

A lot of kids like to have been accepted somewhere early on. Look at rolling admisisons or non binding early action. Seems like a lot of kids at our school apply to Michigan and Tulane for the rolling admissions.

[Anonymous]

We have gone through the process 3x, most recently with our high school senior. Here's my nitty-gritty advice:

1) Do consider college admissions issues when your child is choosing courses -- even in MS. This is especially important in math where the courses are sequential and build upon one another. Make sure your child is being placed in an appropriately challenging math class.

2) Don't worry about visiting colleges until spring of junior year. Kids change so much over the last couple of years; your child might love a school in 9th or 10th, but end up applying to schools that are complete opposites. Also, I think you run the risk of burnout for both yourself and your child if you start this stressful process too soon. When you start visiting, be sure to include a wide range of schools in terms of selectivity -- don't just visit reaches. Once you see a few safeties, you and your child will likely feel much more confident that there are terrific opportunities available to students at schools that are not in the US News top 10 (note: this is not an endorsement of US News, which I would strongly advise you ignore completely).

3) Re test prep: if your child is a pretty good test-taker and not stressed about the tests, wait until after you get PSAT results to do test prep. Tutoring can be more targeted than a group course, and, therefore, more time-effective and, perhaps, even cost-effective.

4) Re essays: encourage your child to brainstorm topics during the summer before senior year and take a stab at drafting one or two essays from the most promising topics. This will save some stress later. If you have a family member or friend who is a writer, suggest to your child that he/she ask this person to provide some feedback on drafts.

5) Early decision/early action gives a student a big boost; our sons were all admitted ED/EA to their dream schools, but there is a risk to this strategy. I've seen kids who were deferred or rejected go into an emotional tailspin that made it hard to get the applications done for ED2 or regular decision round schools. Even more troubling, some of those kids who went on to be accepted at great schools in ED2 or the regular round, could not seem to shake the feeling that those schools were fallbacks and irretrievably inferior to the ED school from which they were rejected or deferred.

6) I've never seen a situation where hiring a private counselor seemed to add much to the process unless a student was unmotivated or parents and student were really at loggerheads (moreso than typical for parents and teens ).

[Anonymous]

All good points. I own a college counseling business (out of the area) and think it is very beneficial to some families. For some parents we have to hold their hand throughout every step of the way. I disagree with the pp that says that counseling doesn't help at all. I know some students that are clueless on the college essay and working with a professional makes all the difference.

The only thing I can add (goes along with what people say about starting freshman yr). It is very important to find something to set your son or daughter apart. Community service is a standard requirement at most hs these days, doesn't set you apart. One example was an average (no AP or honors courses), 500 per section SAT, no clubs and minimal sports. He had started his own landscaping business and also became an EMT. He was accepted to every school he applied to (10) purely on those achievements (I say that bc his grades and SAT scores were below the recommended levels.

[Anonymous]

) I've never seen a situation where hiring a private counselor seemed to add much to the process unless a student was unmotivated or parents and student were really at loggerheads (moreso than typical for parents and teens ).

I must concur here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you've RECENTLY been through the college application process what do you wish you'd done differently. Here is my list as it pertains to highly selective colleges:

1) Start the process in freshman year. For highly selective colleges it's important that your child work in as many rigorous classes as possible and understand that some choices might limit his/her chances at certain schools.
2) Start visiting colleges informally starting 2nd semester freshman year. It's important for your child to start getting a feel for different campuses and to learn how to read between the lines during information meetings.
3) Apply early decision. Many SLACs, for example, admit more than half their incoming first-year classes during Early Decision. It is also somewhat easier to get into a selective college ED.
4) Maintain a healthy skepticism toward Naviance (doesn't give you info about recruited althetes and gender specific differences as they pertain to credentials) and learn to use the Common Date Set (just Google the name of the particular college and Common Data Set) and other helpful sources for parents such as College Confidential.

I'm not suggesting that this is the only approach; and for some students/colleges it might be overkill. Good luck everyone.

Can you elaborate on this bolded part? Does this mean taking EVERY honor that is offered (9th and 10th grade) and EVERY AP that is offered (one in 10th grade in FCPS & a ton in 11th and 12th grades)? I have heard conflicting advice about maxing out vs. focusing honors and AP in certain areas. For example, if math/science is your child's area of interest, it is ok not to take AP history in 10th and beyond, and load up on math and science APs. If a student has all As and an average number of APs (say 6), would highly selective schools admit them?

OP here. I think 11:34 put it just right in terms of course selection. Really start to get a feel for what schools in different categories are looking for and choose accordingly.

I'm also sticking with my thought that starting to look at colleges during freshman year is helpful Some of the first visits can be combined with family trips or visiting relatives. I'm not saying that I'd go on tours or to information sessions at this point, but starting to get a feel for different campuses is helpful. If you wait until junior year to begin your visits and your child is involved with sports it can get really tricky finding the time or you end up being forced to do all your visits during the summer when the feel of the campus is quite different.

We didn't use a counselor but I did spend a considerable amount of time doing research. Starting early was key for me. Maybe because it takes me a while to process things and maybe because having a lot of information helped to keep the stress down.

[Anonymous]

^^^ oops I meant to say 12:13

[Anonymous]

Wow. I don't know how you best develop a balance between preparing appropriately for college and losing perspective but I think some of y'all have slid over on the losing perspective side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I don't know how you best develop a balance between preparing appropriately for college and losing perspective but I think some of y'all have slid over on the losing perspective side.

To each his/her own. We will be paying a quarter of a million dollars for college. That's a huge investment. And the last really big parental obligation to the future of my child. It's worth the effort.

[Anonymous]

^^^my second to last sentence is goofy, but I think you get the drift...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I don't know how you best develop a balance between preparing appropriately for college and losing perspective but I think some of y'all have slid over on the losing perspective side.

To each his/her own. We will be paying a quarter of a million dollars for college. That's a huge investment. And the last really big parental obligation to the future of my child. It's worth the effort.

It used to be that at then end of high school, graduates were seen as young adults who set out to be more independent and to start to live their own life. Now we have parents as early as MS scripting their child's lives all the way through college. Soon it will be that parents script and financially support kids till the end of their twenties - there will be no end to adolescence! At some point you have to back off and start letting your children grow-up and make decisions and live their own lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

1) Do consider college admissions issues when your child is choosing courses -- even in MS. This is especially important in math where the courses are sequential and build upon one another. Make sure your child is being placed in an appropriately challenging math class.

I am not yet at the college admissions stage (reading this thread for professional reasons) but my kids are in elementary school. Could someone help me with the bolded part? How do you know what an appropriately challenging math class level is? My daughter has always been in the "second" highest math class at her MCPS elem school. This past year, she was put in the "highest" math level--two grade levels ahead. With support (i.e. a math tutor) she has done fine. Without the math tutor, I don't think things would have gone as well. My husband and I are tempted to ask the school next year to move her back down in math, even if she "tests into" the highest math class. I'm trying to think long-term here. I guess I'm asking for these experienced parents to give a big-picture answer: if your child needs a tutor to have a secure grasp on math, does that mean that the level is NOT appropriately (but rather TOO) challenging?

Sorry for the OT question but I would love to hear input from those who have BTDT. Thanks again for this thread--it is great.