Senior parents - advice for the Junior parents with their oldest kids

[Anonymous]

Pay attention to common Ap vs Coalition Ap. UMCP only takes the Coalition Ap now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is very important that your student and you chose ALL the schools to apply to very carefully.

Safety, match and reach, everyone involved should be comfortable with them all.

This might mean visiting in the summer at this point.

Of course, each person might have a favorite but in the end it is your students choice so get comfortable or don't apply.

Understand that once you get out of the top 50-75 schools there is a LOT of merit aid out there.

Understand that safeties and even matches for students hanging around the 70th or 75th percentile of their class,
I know most don't rank but you know where your kid stands if you pay attention, will cost about half as much as the low reach your student managed to bag.

Talk about this early and often. There are schools out there that do things differently enough or have huge prestige that are worth 2X.

But there are lots more choices that end up being, the school DC had barely heard of before visiting that their friends don't know for half price
vs the school that all their friends know the name of but seems identical during our visits for full price.

Maybe I'm not paying attention, but how does one know this? We know what our child's GPA is, but not the distribution of where that is in the school. Where do you find that information?

Does your school have Naviance? If so, check the "scattergrams" for the schools under the "Admissions" tab of each school. It should chart accepted, denied, deferred by GPA/Test scores for the last three years. Bear in mind that GPA's tend to go up a little bit by the end of Senior year.

[Anonymous]

- Be prepared to pivot senior year. Lots can change about what they like after it hits home in the Fall that leaving for college is seriously upon them.
- Sports recruiting greatly complicates the college process. Proceed with extreme caution unless the athletic talent is greater than the academic talent and academically it doesn't really matter where the kid goes. Of all the hooks, the usefuness of sports is the most unreliable for the vast majority of kids (exception is football). The good news is that all college offers many venues to play a sport - walk on, club, IM.
- Select a college for what they will grow into, not where they are as HS seniors. Much growth occurs freshman year. It's ok to start out a little uncomfortable.
- Use the early card wisely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:- Be prepared to pivot senior year. Lots can change about what they like after it hits home in the Fall that leaving for college is seriously upon them.
- Sports recruiting greatly complicates the college process. Proceed with extreme caution unless the athletic talent is greater than the academic talent and academically it doesn't really matter where the kid goes. Of all the hooks, the usefuness of sports is the most unreliable for the vast majority of kids (exception is football). The good news is that all college offers many venues to play a sport - walk on, club, IM.
- Select a college for what they will grow into, not where they are as HS seniors. Much growth occurs freshman year. It's ok to start out a little uncomfortable.
- Use the early card wisely.

This is the best advice I've heard that nobody ever mentions. Everyone talks about fit, fit, fit but the person you're likely to be by your college senior year is very different than when you're 16 or 17.