Things you wish you knew…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish we had pushed harder on grades from day 1. Not in a crazy “you can’t have a life” kind of way. But, I was judging grades as they were regarded in my day. And I also thought people still cared about an upward trend. Nothing matters but gpa anymore.

Opposite here. Don’t push b/c you can push and still not end up where you wanted. Whats the point?

[Anonymous]

Not to listen to the hysteria.
Go with our own instincts/research- which we did for course selection and schools to apply to.

My senior has done fantastic this cycle.

We wouldn’t have applied to as many schools (17) if we had listened to ourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to listen to the hysteria.
Go with our own instincts/research- which we did for course selection and schools to apply to.

My senior has done fantastic this cycle.

We wouldn’t have applied to as many schools (17) if we had listened to ourselves.

We didn’t craft a narrative or any of that nonsense. He just did what he loved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish we had pushed harder on grades from day 1. Not in a crazy “you can’t have a life” kind of way. But, I was judging grades as they were regarded in my day. And I also thought people still cared about an upward trend. Nothing matters but gpa anymore.

Sorry but what year did colleges especially select ones ever care about an upward trend? Like, where was that ever listed in admissions web sites as a consideration? It sounds more like DCUM fable repeated to make moms of underperforming kids feel better about chances.

I’m not sure exactly. I went to an Ivy a very long time ago. I didn’t have the “trend” I referenced, but I just remember that being part of the conversation “schools like to see a trajectory”. I’m not making it up but I certainly can’t pinpoint a source for you. I’ve heard it from friends also, so I don’t think it’s novel.

Highly selective colleges get so many apps with all high and even higher trends in grades, an upward trend in 11th grade does not really matter any more.
The sad truth is 1) either you choose to not care about whether your DC has to land into a T20 college OR 2) you push from Day 1 about grades.

Also, the comment about the narrative starting earlier is true for most kids who are not naturally excellent at something they discover in 9th grade. even 10th grade might be too late. Again these are all thoughts only if you want your DC to absolutely end up in a T20. If not, you can chill. Or be lucky to have a highly motivated self driven high schooler.

[Anonymous]

Test scores!!! They matter—even AP exams which u can submit to further support your case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to listen to the hysteria.
Go with our own instincts/research- which we did for course selection and schools to apply to.

My senior has done fantastic this cycle.

We wouldn’t have applied to as many schools (17) if we had listened to ourselves.

We didn’t craft a narrative or any of that nonsense. He just did what he loved.

^ which was pretty routine. It’s how you write about it that matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only one thing would have been nice to know. — so that DS (class of 22) could have been spared the time he took to write essays/prepare apps for state schools that he would never get into: you need a blockbuster, AP-enhanced, probably grade-inflated HS GPA to gain admission OOS to the better UCs, Georgia, Florida, Texas and maybe a few others.

[Kid had a 3.87 UW from big3 (1570 submitted) and that wasn’t enough. The above named schools can’t / won’t differentiate and the 3.87 looks like the candidate isn’t even trying when compared to 4.7s with 25 APs from a public. ]

Michigan knows his HS, so accepts strong kids with high-for-that-HS gpas.

Agree with this but worth adding that VA publics (we are in MD), and most east coast privates very familiar with our academically rigorous private’s grading.

[Anonymous]

Visit as many colleges as possible, even if it’s just for a short walk-around or even a drive-by. These brief visits aren’t great for picking a college, but they are helpful in eliminating them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids grow a lot between mid-high school years and going off to college age. My kid would have thrived at a UK school, but there was no sure way of knowing that at 14-15.

But in retrospect, had we known that, we would have skipped the resume building and enjoyed HS more. Sure, quit soccer. Sure, try out for the play Junior Year. Sure, chemistry isn’t your thing and a B is fine. UK would be fine w all that and my tuition bill would be 200k cheaper all in.

I thought for the UK schools you needed the equivalent of A levels - so some combination of SAT score and AP scores? I briefly considered this for my kid but their private school limits APs and a provisional acceptance contingent on senior year AP scores was a non-starter. Also, I thought you had to be pretty locked in on what you wanted to study for many overseas universities.

[Anonymous]

My son got into a reach, and it has completely thrown his plans into turmoil as he tries to decide where to go. I have no idea what they saw in him because it was not GPA (he was TO). Having said that, he didn't get into his 3 target schools. So he gets to decide between a reach and his safeties (which ai guess should have been targets). Such a strange outcome.

[Anonymous]

The parents school are the biggest indicator of who gets in where. For the most part kids are following in their parents footsteps, if you went to an Ivy your kid will end up at the equivalent school or slightly lower. In our community, I haven’t see a senior end up at a school ranked higher than their parent’s alma mater .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The parents school are the biggest indicator of who gets in where. For the most part kids are following in their parents footsteps, if you went to an Ivy your kid will end up at the equivalent school or slightly lower. In our community, I haven’t see a senior end up at a school ranked higher than their parent’s alma mater .

This is fascinating….

[Anonymous]

The parents school are the biggest indicator of who gets in where. For the most part kids are following in their parents footsteps, if you went to an Ivy your kid will end up at the equivalent school or slightly lower. In our community, I haven’t see a senior end up at a school ranked higher than their parent’s alma mater.

We have not seen this and it goes against the current institutional priorities for 1st Gen and veterans. Top % of the class, school leadership, and full pay (which was used to ED) have been the biggest indicators at our private.

[Anonymous]

High stats that used to guarantee in state flagship acceptance at the big 3 of UVA, VT & WM are now likely rejections or waitlists. Don't snub the southern and midwest flagships that did not go test optional. They have generous merit and beautiful facilities.
Hope for a return to merit and test required to fix the flood of applications everywhere that is destroying the application process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The parents school are the biggest indicator of who gets in where. For the most part kids are following in their parents footsteps, if you went to an Ivy your kid will end up at the equivalent school or slightly lower. In our community, I haven’t see a senior end up at a school ranked higher than their parent’s alma mater .

Your post is just showing the privileged community you live in and is not true of the majority of college kids. You are in a community of highly successful people, right? At a school where almost all parents have a college degree, advanced degree? By contrast, I grew up in a community where most of my classmates' parents didn't go to college at all. And most kids I grew up with did indeed do better than their parents did. My parents went to college but they were both the first in their families to go to college and went to the public university in my hometown which I'm 99% sure most on this board have never heard of whereas my siblings and I all went to top 25 colleges.