Lessons learned so far: 2024-2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid has big dreams, you must apply widely. Start early. Be smart and strategic.

Applied to 22 schools:
5 safeties (admitted to 4; waiting on 1)
6 targets (admitted to 1; waiting on 5)
11 reaches (deferred ED1; waiting on all)

Fee waivers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid has big dreams, you must apply widely. Start early. Be smart and strategic.

Applied to 22 schools:
5 safeties (admitted to 4; waiting on 1)
6 targets (admitted to 1; waiting on 5)
11 reaches (deferred ED1; waiting on all)

Fee waivers?

no. full pay.

[Anonymous]

We wasted money submitting scores to a couple of RD- only schools that DD ultimately decided not to apply to. She went ahead and paid to send scores to her EA and RD schools all at once, thinking she’d save herself a little time and mental energy.

But by the time the RD applications were due in January, she’d refined her interests a bit more, and really dug into what kind of program she was looking for. She decided that even if those RD schools did eventually come in on-budget with merit aid, they still didn’t have the same opportunities she’d found in a couple of EA schools she’d already been accepted to (and received top scholarships for).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents told me I can go to any college I want and money is no object as they are not paying. True to work they not only did not pay they charged me rent and made me pay my share of bills to house once I turned 18.

Today as the parent the world has changed. Perhaps parents should get out of the college application and paying for college business.

That said I paid 100 percent first two kids and about to do it again for kid 3.

You could reorient your worldview. My family has had parent-paid college going back into the 1800s. But the expectation is that you get a job decent enough to pay it forward for your own kids. It's worked so far. And each generation has been reasonable about earning scholarships and attending reasonably-priced schools. We are UMC but not rich rich.

[Anonymous]

People stress too much about this stuff. Why not just apply to your state flagship and a few directionals? Maybe Duke if your smart. That's what we did back in the 90s. Everyone turned out fine.

[Anonymous]

Make sure you double and triple check which schools need standardized tests sent from the testing agencies. It can change from year to year.

[Anonymous]

ED golden era is Dec 20-Jan 20th.

Starting mid February and beyond, a lot of kids sour on that Wash U (etc) ED decision.

This thread is within the golden era .. just read it as such. Lots of kids get into T20 schools during RD. Feelings shifts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People stress too much about this stuff. Why not just apply to your state flagship and a few directionals? Maybe Duke if your smart. That's what we did back in the 90s. Everyone turned out fine.

Sure. Anonymous poster did it 30 years ago...why not? Did you mail or fax your applications?

[Anonymous]

A Harvard degree is worthless garbage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ED golden era is Dec 20-Jan 20th.

Starting mid February and beyond, a lot of kids sour on that Wash U (etc) ED decision.

This thread is within the golden era .. just read it as such. Lots of kids get into T20 schools during RD. Feelings shifts.

Are you saying that kids regret their ED decisions? Because I can see it going a different way (i.e., finding out that students are shut out of schools that take 50% or more of their kids in the early round).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid has big dreams, you must apply widely. Start early. Be smart and strategic.

Applied to 22 schools:
5 safeties (admitted to 4; waiting on 1)
6 targets (admitted to 1; waiting on 5)
11 reaches (deferred ED1; waiting on all)

This is my kid:

Applied to 25 schools:
3 safeties (admitted to 3 with merit)
4 targets (admitted to 1 with merit; waiting on 3)
18 reaches (deferred ED1; waiting on all)

If not for the ED1 deferral (legacy), DC would have stopped with 7 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid has big dreams, you must apply widely. Start early. Be smart and strategic.

Applied to 22 schools:
5 safeties (admitted to 4; waiting on 1)
6 targets (admitted to 1; waiting on 5)
11 reaches (deferred ED1; waiting on all)

This is my kid:

Applied to 25 schools:
3 safeties (admitted to 3 with merit)
4 targets (admitted to 1 with merit; waiting on 3)
18 reaches (deferred ED1; waiting on all)

If not for the ED1 deferral (legacy), DC would have stopped with 7 schools.

Can you name schools? Major?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have learned that things are not nearly as dire as the people on here seem to think (or want everyone else to think?).

Agree!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ED golden era is Dec 20-Jan 20th.

Starting mid February and beyond, a lot of kids sour on that Wash U (etc) ED decision.

This thread is within the golden era .. just read it as such. Lots of kids get into T20 schools during RD. Feelings shifts.

Are you saying that kids regret their ED decisions? Because I can see it going a different way (i.e., finding out that students are shut out of schools that take 50% or more of their kids in the early round).

It can go both ways - you'll see that here.

For high stats kids, I see more of them regretting their decisions. A step below high stats, relief about their ED

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Coming from a top private:

-Admission to top schools is MUCH easier for boys than girls. It pretty much SUCKS to be a female applicant in 2025. Boys this year from our school are getting in with stats way below the girls. (I have 2 boys in upcoming admissions years so I don't say this from a point of sour grapes as an only girls mom or anything)

-Being a legacy with parents who are also VIPs or big donors is huge. I mean duh. But wow, it just is.

-ED is such a crap shoot and I'm not sure how to play it best. My kid went for a top10 and lost (deferred) and now I have no idea how far down she'll fall. She's hoping for RD decisions to schools where classmates with GPAs much lower than hers got in ED (like 3.9 RD vs 3.4 ED). What is the right/best way to play ED? I don't know. TBD in our case.

did your school's data show you anything in retrospect? was it truly a longshot? too much in-school competition?
Our private's CCO would have advised an ED1 to a school like Vanderbilt, Rice, WashU, Emory (with ED2 to another) for someone that they KNEW would be a longshot to T10.

Agree. I don’t believe ED is a “crapshoot” if you know what you’re doing.

Applying ED to schools that only accept 1-2k students of course will be a long shot (even if your stats are phenomenal). But if you apply to a school that accepts 5-6k students AND your kid has above the 75% for stats, then your kid has a great chance of acceptance.