What regrets to you have to the 2023 college cycle?

[Anonymous]

DC 1, pre-pandemic, no regrets

DC 2, 2021, high stats kid, but first year of TO, regret not making them get applications in for top choices in Aug (don't believe the schools getting 50,000 or 70,000 or 90,000 applications read them all - just defer the ones they don't get to). Is happy where they are, but it is not a top school, is at their safety

DC 3, this year - 2023, applied ED to top choice school the first week in August (one that receives too many applications as mentioned above), and was accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I should never have given in and let my child apply to a school that was beyond our financial means. Four of the school they applied to were within reach and one is close to $20K more a year. I honestly didn't think they'd get into the expensive one based on Naviance, and so I gave in. Well, they got in to all five and of course it's the crazy expensive one that my child has become totally fixated on. They are willing to borrow a fortune to go and nothing I say about not starting life in so much debt is sinking in. But I think that if I had put my foot down during the application process they would have looked elsewhere.

How will your kid be borrowing a fortune? Kids are only able to borrow around 5k a year. After that, it’s the parents borrowing.

+1. The FAFSA limit is $5500. Kids can’t take out loans because they have no collateral. It’s parents who must take out loans, refinance etc for undergrad

Wait- for real?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m advising my next kid to fight for every half grade in every class. Not a lot of room for error with grades.

Teachers will hate your child.

Not a smart thing to teach them for college either.

Agree! The professors cannot stand the grade grubbers.

Fine but all you read about here is how kids with B’s end up at Bumble*** State

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I should never have given in and let my child apply to a school that was beyond our financial means. Four of the school they applied to were within reach and one is close to $20K more a year. I honestly didn't think they'd get into the expensive one based on Naviance, and so I gave in. Well, they got in to all five and of course it's the crazy expensive one that my child has become totally fixated on. They are willing to borrow a fortune to go and nothing I say about not starting life in so much debt is sinking in. But I think that if I had put my foot down during the application process they would have looked elsewhere.

How will your kid be borrowing a fortune? Kids are only able to borrow around 5k a year. After that, it’s the parents borrowing.

+1. The FAFSA limit is $5500. Kids can’t take out loans because they have no collateral. It’s parents who must take out loans, refinance etc for undergrad

Wait- for real?

Yep. I didn’t know that until my kid was well into HS.

[Anonymous]

Test prep was a waste because their score stayed the same.

[Anonymous]

I think overall we're happy with how it went for DD. She applied to a range of LACs that were mostly highly-likelies with great programs for her major and would give merit aid. And that aid came in as expected. Only applied to W&M as a reach and, while still waiting for an answer there, I don't expect her to get in and she'd decided she doesn't want to go anyway because too many friends from HS are going there.

Regrets are more "what ifs" than really regrets. One thing is that very late in the process she started to focus on the importance of continuing a particular EC that hadn't been so important early on and we might have added other schools to the list because of that. In the end, among her top 3 that hit most of what she wanted, only one had that EC. Fortunately, it's also where she felt most at home on visits and is happy with that choice.

I do wonder if it will feel too small (1300 students) but that may just be my own experience of going to a large state U. I tossed out ideas of mid-sized and larger schools along the way but she dismissed those as too big. So, we'll see. She does plan to do junior year study abroad so she'll get a totally different experience in that way. My older kid is at a huge public university and has had his own challenges that come with that experience.

I think the big takeaways were to get as clear as possible early on, through visiting a range of schools, about what is most important to the student. Be clear on your budget and understand what's possible at different schools. Never use the word "safety" -- a lot of schools you think are, are not, and even if they are it tends to sound derogatory. Really dig into what those "highly likelies" offer so that the student can see what great things they can do there. Make sure you have several on the list so you have choices in the end that you are happy with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m advising my next kid to fight for every half grade in every class. Not a lot of room for error with grades.

Teachers will hate your child.

Not a smart thing to teach them for college either.

Agree! The professors cannot stand the grade grubbers.

Fine but all you read about here is how kids with B’s end up at Bumble*** State

Your problem is thinking any college that accepts students with less than a 4.0 is a "Bumble*** State"

[Anonymous]

Feel lucky, no regrets. We were given the advice to go tour/visit safeties first, which was excellent advice. (It helped that this kid was the type to go along with the plan--I know not all would). He got excited about getting into the safeties and that took the pressure off.

My kid had a good but not stellar GPA with a couple C's, mid 1400 SATs, and good EC's and got into some LACS we weren't expecting (he got in everywhere he applied, so maybe we undershot). We are surprised. I think being a boy has to help more than we thought it would.

[Anonymous]

No regrets. Overall we think it worked well so far. Cast a wide net. Got in to safeties and targets and couple reaches via EA. Waiting for hard reaches now. None of hard reaches may work out but we shot our shot. Kid has good options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I should never have given in and let my child apply to a school that was beyond our financial means. Four of the school they applied to were within reach and one is close to $20K more a year. I honestly didn't think they'd get into the expensive one based on Naviance, and so I gave in. Well, they got in to all five and of course it's the crazy expensive one that my child has become totally fixated on. They are willing to borrow a fortune to go and nothing I say about not starting life in so much debt is sinking in. But I think that if I had put my foot down during the application process they would have looked elsewhere.

How will your kid be borrowing a fortune? Kids are only able to borrow around 5k a year. After that, it’s the parents borrowing.

+1. The FAFSA limit is $5500. Kids can’t take out loans because they have no collateral. It’s parents who must take out loans, refinance etc for undergrad

Wait- for real?

Federal student loan maximum = 5500 in year 1, 6500 year 2, 7500 year 3 and beyond. Maximum allowed = $31k
https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized

There are private student loans that may be in the student's name but they need to be co-signed by a parent so it's still really the parent's loan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Feel lucky, no regrets. We were given the advice to go tour/visit safeties first, which was excellent advice. (It helped that this kid was the type to go along with the plan--I know not all would). He got excited about getting into the safeties and that took the pressure off.

My kid had a good but not stellar GPA with a couple C's, mid 1400 SATs, and good EC's and got into some LACS we weren't expecting (he got in everywhere he applied, so maybe we undershot). We are surprised. I think being a boy has to help more than we thought it would.

Could you be specific about which LACs he was able to get into (or USNWR ranking level)?

My DS is same: 1400s with imperfect but not horrible transcript

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not hiring an independent counselor. The schools ones always put the interests of the school above the interests of your own child. You cannot trust them.

For my kid, not having enough high reaches. My kid did not put any high reaches down because (see above) the counselor made DC feel admissions was extremely unlikely. But my kid got into every single school applied for, including all reaches. I thought that the counselor was too negative and argued with DC about this, and DC now says I was right, in the end.

That having said, we are quite happy with the outcome. DC is going to a SLAC that is a great fit, with a huge amount of merit aid.

We had the opposite problem. Very high stat kid from magnet was told they could reach mid-high to high. Didn't get into any of them. Should've applied to more targets. Got into good state, but it was a safety, though not sure now it's a safety anymore given what a crapshoot college admissions seems to be these days.

Was advice from an independent counselor or school?

school

[Anonymous]

Focus on extra curriculars and not necessarily grades. What I'm seeing is that perfect grades/scores won't cut it, but less than perfect scores with great e.c. will get you in.

It's ridiculous that this is what colleges, academic institutions, look for, but you have to play the stupid game if college is what you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Feel lucky, no regrets. We were given the advice to go tour/visit safeties first, which was excellent advice. (It helped that this kid was the type to go along with the plan--I know not all would). He got excited about getting into the safeties and that took the pressure off.

My kid had a good but not stellar GPA with a couple C's, mid 1400 SATs, and good EC's and got into some LACS we weren't expecting (he got in everywhere he applied, so maybe we undershot). We are surprised. I think being a boy has to help more than we thought it would.

I wonder this a bit with my DD too. She had a really rough junior year due to some health problems and ended up with half As, half Bs. But strong rigor and very high test scores. Now getting all As in mostly AP classes senior year. Her confidence really took a beating that year and by last summer she didn't want to apply to reachy schools and wanted to get away from the intense/competitive environment of her HS. She'll be going to a mid-range LAC that I think has a lot of great things for her but is definitely a different environment and it will be an adjustment. Through talking with other potential students there it's been eye opening to her how different other kids' HS experiences have been. From our interactions with the school I think she will get a plenty rigorous academic experience but with a more chill student body and I think that will be good for her but she's feeling a little apprehensive at this point. But, I'm sure she'd feel apprehensive about any choice right now, since that's her typical MO!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feel lucky, no regrets. We were given the advice to go tour/visit safeties first, which was excellent advice. (It helped that this kid was the type to go along with the plan--I know not all would). He got excited about getting into the safeties and that took the pressure off.

My kid had a good but not stellar GPA with a couple C's, mid 1400 SATs, and good EC's and got into some LACS we weren't expecting (he got in everywhere he applied, so maybe we undershot). We are surprised. I think being a boy has to help more than we thought it would.

I wonder this a bit with my DD too. She had a really rough junior year due to some health problems and ended up with half As, half Bs. But strong rigor and very high test scores. Now getting all As in mostly AP classes senior year. Her confidence really took a beating that year and by last summer she didn't want to apply to reachy schools and wanted to get away from the intense/competitive environment of her HS. She'll be going to a mid-range LAC that I think has a lot of great things for her but is definitely a different environment and it will be an adjustment. Through talking with other potential students there it's been eye opening to her how different other kids' HS experiences have been. From our interactions with the school I think she will get a plenty rigorous academic experience but with a more chill student body and I think that will be good for her but she's feeling a little apprehensive at this point. But, I'm sure she'd feel apprehensive about any choice right now, since that's her typical MO!

What is mid range? In terms of US News ranking