If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually wouldn’t do anything differently. What worked for us was:

- Looking at the Freshman profile of desired schools early on to get a realistic sense of the SAT/ACT scores and number of AP/IB/DE classes needed to be competitive.

- Having candid conversations about budget and finances halfway through sophomore year of high school.

- Running the Net Price Calculator for any school the kids liked. (We saved a lot of time and energy by ruling out schools we couldn’t afford.)

- Applying to a balanced list of 10 schools Early Action that included at least two academic/financial “safety” schools where they felt they could be happy. (These schools also tend to give decisions earlier, which takes the pressure off.)

- Waiting to do out-of-state visits until they had been accepted.

Both kids ended up being accepted to their top choices and are currently attending T30 schools.

Can you please share these schools?

[Anonymous]

Some kids will drastically change over the course of senior year, they mature a lot, and as it becomes more real their preferences come into sharper focus. Have some variety and apply broadly.

[Anonymous]

Honestly? Hired a consultant at the start of junior year or even sophomore year. Shaping a clear "narrative" probably would have given DC a real shot at an Ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not retake the SAT if already at 1500+

I was going to say the opposite. My daughter took it once and got 1510 and thought that was enough. Now everyone around her is telling her she needed at least 1550 and she’s kicking herself for not trying again.

I read an interview with the MIT Dean of Admissions who said it was a waste to keep taking the SAT if you score over 1550-- that 1550 was a good minimum. My DD got 1570, so I advised her not to take it again. Now I wish I'd suggested one more shot at a perfect score. Everyone says it doesn't matter but who knows?

[Anonymous]

It all worked out well for my DC, but looking back we should have toured a couple of safeties more thoroughly - especially some that provide early results.

DC had a handful of safeties on their list and got into one very early in the process, direct admit to their competitive program of choice, and decided they would go there over all other safeties and didn’t apply to the rest. It made me so nervous that all the safety eggs were in one basket!

They had visited but only briefly (didn’t do a proper tour but spent an hour or so walking around campus when we were in town, and I had toured thoroughly and properly myself with an older child who also applied years ago).

DC got into their ED choice and it turned out to be a nonissue. While I was anxious for those 8 weeks while waiting on the ED school, DC was happy because they got to cut a half dozen iterations of supplemental essays from their list and could focus on other EA and RD apps (plus classes, activities, etc). They may have felt very differently if the ED hadn’t come through and they got rattled. The EA deadlines on the other safeties on the original list had passed by then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly? Hired a consultant at the start of junior year or even sophomore year. Shaping a clear "narrative" probably would have given DC a real shot at an Ivy.

You can create that narrative on your own - I did for my kids. You need to look at their activities - find the common threads. Frankly feed the activities list into DeepSeek, Claude, Gemini or Chatgpt (only the paid versions) and ask it to analyze it for:

1. Evidence of major and which one (then choose the one that's the least popular for purposes of admissions)*
2. Give it an example of a narrative (you can get from the book soundbite, or from various national firms who do admissions webinars) and ask it to put a narrative together for you
3. ask for areas of weakness and what types of things kid can do over next summer or year to strengthen position
4. ask for suggested research topics for a capstone project that ties into narrative or standalone research
5. ask for ideal ECs at college that appear to correspond to these interests.

done and done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly? Hired a consultant at the start of junior year or even sophomore year. Shaping a clear "narrative" probably would have given DC a real shot at an Ivy.

You can create that narrative on your own - I did for my kids. You need to look at their activities - find the common threads. Frankly feed the activities list into DeepSeek, Claude, Gemini or Chatgpt (only the paid versions) and ask it to analyze it for:

1. Evidence of major and which one (then choose the one that's the least popular for purposes of admissions)*
2. Give it an example of a narrative (you can get from the book soundbite, or from various national firms who do admissions webinars) and ask it to put a narrative together for you
3. ask for areas of weakness and what types of things kid can do over next summer or year to strengthen position
4. ask for suggested research topics for a capstone project that ties into narrative or standalone research
5. ask for ideal ECs at college that appear to correspond to these interests.

done and done.

But then you need a 16 or 17 who will follow mom's suggestions verbatim about how they spend their free time. There is no way in the world mine would or did. . I did a ton of research, suggested a lot of things (all sorts of fed internships, DC volunteer work, etc) and my kid said "no mom, this is not your life."
He was not going to go volunteer on the campaign trail or do bench research at NIH because I suggested it. At 16 he 100% had his own agency about what he was interested in and what he was not interested in. Sure, I could shame him, bribe him or punish him into it but I chose not to turn this into a war. I'm happy to share that he has very top grades, scores, recs and a random list of extracurriculars of his own choosing and he did get into a top20 school ED this past December.

I think shopping this "strategy planning" out to a consultant works a bit better because then activities (AKA the life plan) are suggested by a neutral third party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For us, not waste time thinking too far outside the box. U of Edinburgh? Some dual degree program? Some underrated gem? So many hours researching things I should have known were not really who my kid is.

We should have looked at where the class of '24 matriculated (from our HS), easily cut the half that weren't of interest, used Naviance to cull from there, and ended up with a long list of 20 schools in January of junior year.

I would have let my kid initiate and take the lead on the search/application process. Just think it would have been more beneficial. Fortunately kid is happy with end result. Think I did a decent job guiding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly? Hired a consultant at the start of junior year or even sophomore year. Shaping a clear "narrative" probably would have given DC a real shot at an Ivy.

You can create that narrative on your own - I did for my kids. You need to look at their activities - find the common threads. Frankly feed the activities list into DeepSeek, Claude, Gemini or Chatgpt (only the paid versions) and ask it to analyze it for:

1. Evidence of major and which one (then choose the one that's the least popular for purposes of admissions)*
2. Give it an example of a narrative (you can get from the book soundbite, or from various national firms who do admissions webinars) and ask it to put a narrative together for you
3. ask for areas of weakness and what types of things kid can do over next summer or year to strengthen position
4. ask for suggested research topics for a capstone project that ties into narrative or standalone research
5. ask for ideal ECs at college that appear to correspond to these interests.

done and done.

But then you need a 16 or 17 who will follow mom's suggestions verbatim about how they spend their free time. There is no way in the world mine would or did. . I did a ton of research, suggested a lot of things (all sorts of fed internships, DC volunteer work, etc) and my kid said "no mom, this is not your life."
He was not going to go volunteer on the campaign trail or do bench research at NIH because I suggested it. At 16 he 100% had his own agency about what he was interested in and what he was not interested in. Sure, I could shame him, bribe him or punish him into it but I chose not to turn this into a war. I'm happy to share that he has very top grades, scores, recs and a random list of extracurriculars of his own choosing and he did get into a top20 school ED this past December.

I think shopping this "strategy planning" out to a consultant works a bit better because then activities (AKA the life plan) are suggested by a neutral third party.

the narrative is most important for kids who don't have either top grades or scores. So if TO, you need a narrative or something to distinguish you. If strong all around already, narrative is less important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually wouldn’t do anything differently. What worked for us was:

- Looking at the Freshman profile of desired schools early on to get a realistic sense of the SAT/ACT scores and number of AP/IB/DE classes needed to be competitive.

- Having candid conversations about budget and finances halfway through sophomore year of high school.

- Running the Net Price Calculator for any school the kids liked. (We saved a lot of time and energy by ruling out schools we couldn’t afford.)

- Applying to a balanced list of 10 schools Early Action that included at least two academic/financial “safety” schools where they felt they could be happy. (These schools also tend to give decisions earlier, which takes the pressure off.)

- Waiting to do out-of-state visits until they had been accepted.

Both kids ended up being accepted to their top choices and are currently attending T30 schools.

Can you please share these schools?

That depends on your budget and your child’s GPA and SAT/ACT scores. In general, you will get good merit aid from schools where your child is above the school’s 75th percentile for grades and scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We scared by people saying how horrible the process had been, so we kept the reaches to a minimum. Maybe that was a mistake. We could have eliminated at least 2 safeties. There were too many.

I personally don’t regret a lot of safeties. It feels good to get an acceptance in the midst of rejections and deferrals and provides peace of mind for what in the long run isn’t a lot of money to pay in application fees.

+1. Hindsight is 20/20. Someone in this forum once likened it to insurance and that seems appropriate, a hedge against risk.

To add, for my kid's particular situation, high stats with a wrinkle, there is a great deal of uncertainty. His friends wonder why he is applying to so many reaches. He might do really well and get into several or might totally strike out. There is uncertainty of his low target where he doesn't have a ton of demonstrated interest. Has safeties, but like many high stats kids, has high hopes, a go-big-or-go-home scenario, so he is going for it. Whatever happens, I'm proud of him for trying, and will not regret the long list. If he has many options to wade through in April, that would be a good problem to have. Finished his last app last night and I'm almost sad it's over. He really got on a roll with the supplements.

Same for us! Kid got into all his safeties and so far all his EA targets. That gave him confidence to shoot for Ivies and T20 reaches. Since we intend to apply for FA, those were free apps for the most part and he repurposed supplemental essays, customizing as needed.

He now has tons of options, lots of merit scholarships and we’ll see what happens in late March.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We scared by people saying how horrible the process had been, so we kept the reaches to a minimum. Maybe that was a mistake. We could have eliminated at least 2 safeties. There were too many.

I personally don’t regret a lot of safeties. It feels good to get an acceptance in the midst of rejections and deferrals and provides peace of mind for what in the long run isn’t a lot of money to pay in application fees.

+1. Hindsight is 20/20. Someone in this forum once likened it to insurance and that seems appropriate, a hedge against risk.

To add, for my kid's particular situation, high stats with a wrinkle, there is a great deal of uncertainty. His friends wonder why he is applying to so many reaches. He might do really well and get into several or might totally strike out. There is uncertainty of his low target where he doesn't have a ton of demonstrated interest. Has safeties, but like many high stats kids, has high hopes, a go-big-or-go-home scenario, so he is going for it. Whatever happens, I'm proud of him for trying, and will not regret the long list. If he has many options to wade through in April, that would be a good problem to have. Finished his last app last night and I'm almost sad it's over. He really got on a roll with the supplements.

I would advise my DC not to discuss college applications with friends specifically to avoid this kind of commentary. Keeping your cards close to your chest and all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We scared by people saying how horrible the process had been, so we kept the reaches to a minimum. Maybe that was a mistake. We could have eliminated at least 2 safeties. There were too many.

What I liked about our kids having a lot of safeties is that, if it had come down to that, they would have been making choice among them and their very generous merit aid offers. It would feel like a second round where they really look closely at these schools that really want them, and focusing on which they like best among them. You really cannot do that with safeties in the beginning when your true hopes are set elsewhere (no matter how much you try to kid yourself). They all look the same early on, less so after all the cards are on the table.

In the end, our kid who did a lot of reaches just wasted time and money. The real pay off was in the merit options among the safeties. In the end, both ended up at high match schools with some merit, but they genuinely felt a pull toward the safeties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not retake the SAT if already at 1500+

I was going to say the opposite. My daughter took it once and got 1510 and thought that was enough. Now everyone around her is telling her she needed at least 1550 and she’s kicking herself for not trying again.

I read an interview with the MIT Dean of Admissions who said it was a waste to keep taking the SAT if you score over 1550-- that 1550 was a good minimum. My DD got 1570, so I advised her not to take it again. Now I wish I'd suggested one more shot at a perfect score. Everyone says it doesn't matter but who knows?

It doesn't matter. Put it out of your head and rest easy.

[Anonymous]

I am honestly not sure. I have non-shiny good students. Best they've done so far is second best in state (deferred from other). I doubt they would have had a chance at any truly high ranked schools, and the less prestigious but still respected privates would not give enough money to compete with in state (dd got max at one and it's still a lot. So I guess we did the best we could for our very specific situation, aside from perhaps retaking SAT one more time but they both said no.