Tips for the 2025-2026 season

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think colleges who used to rely on fly-in programs for URM will be looking for signs of diversity in applications. But URM with lower test scores will be dangerous for colleges. Trump admin is tracking this. So if this is your kid, TO is the way to go

What about private school full pay URM? It's a little unclear to us. Is TO still safe for this category?

Absolutely not, that’s the category of students they’re relying on having scores comparable to Asian and white students.

Disagree.
Context always matter.
URM at an unde-rresourced school, even with a lower score, will be valued in view of the context.
Rich private school URM, with a bit higher score but lower than their school average, will not be viewed the same as the former.

You think republicans will care that poor black kids are being helped? They think it’s racist if every Bay Area Asian kid with a HHI 400k+ isn’t accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous advice about inserting grammatical errors on purpose 😆

Tottily ubserd.

[Anonymous]

We are being counseled to subtly drop in hints of privilege into essay and supplementals. They are looking for full pay and increasing family/alum support as a strategic initiative since they are preparing for less funding federally:

1. mention expensive hobbies: global travel to practice language, ski trips etc.

2. cite expensive private school or private summer camps/programs

3. talk about volunteer work

[Anonymous]

DCUM moms are trying to sabotage the local competition in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are being counseled to subtly drop in hints of privilege into essay and supplementals. They are looking for full pay and increasing family/alum support as a strategic initiative since they are preparing for less funding federally:

1. mention expensive hobbies: global travel to practice language, ski trips etc.

2. cite expensive private school or private summer camps/programs

3. talk about volunteer work

This will backfire at ivy/elites which want to keep their current 55% or more receiving need-based aid. It is a bragging point mentioned on every tour we took of the Top10(8 of them).
Need based aid cutoffs are aroubd 250k HHI. Top schools will be bragging about having 60% receiving aid soon. There are far too many full pay kids applying for the 45% of slots that are for full pay, and with TO and affirmative action mostly gone it is much harder for colleges to find qualified need-based aid students to fill the 55-60% with need.
Full pay is only a benefit to need aware schools ie around T30 level and lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are being counseled to subtly drop in hints of privilege into essay and supplementals. They are looking for full pay and increasing family/alum support as a strategic initiative since they are preparing for less funding federally:

1. mention expensive hobbies: global travel to practice language, ski trips etc.

2. cite expensive private school or private summer camps/programs

3. talk about volunteer work

This will backfire at ivy/elites which want to keep their current 55% or more receiving need-based aid. It is a bragging point mentioned on every tour we took of the Top10(8 of them).
Need based aid cutoffs are aroubd 250k HHI. Top schools will be bragging about having 60% receiving aid soon. There are far too many full pay kids applying for the 45% of slots that are for full pay, and with TO and affirmative action mostly gone it is much harder for colleges to find qualified need-based aid students to fill the 55-60% with need.
Full pay is only a benefit to need aware schools ie around T30 level and lower.

You'd be surprised - the pressure is intense at a T10 where I work. Funding cuts abound. Mass layoffs this summer.
It might help a cusp candidate in the "class shaping" portion of the process, especially if not an oversubscribed major.
We won't know until next spring though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCUM moms are trying to sabotage the local competition in this thread.

These are not sabotages.

The top two sabotages are:
1. Apply to only three reaches or else your DC will have a mental break down.
2. Test score is not important.

These posters come in in waves. Non-stop sabotaging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM moms are trying to sabotage the local competition in this thread.

These are not sabotages.

The top two sabotages are:
1. Apply to only three reaches or else your DC will have a mental break down.
2. Test score is not important.

These posters come in in waves. Non-stop sabotaging.

cmon - people are out here today like, "write about your mission trip to Haiti!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are being counseled to subtly drop in hints of privilege into essay and supplementals. They are looking for full pay and increasing family/alum support as a strategic initiative since they are preparing for less funding federally:

1. mention expensive hobbies: global travel to practice language, ski trips etc.

2. cite expensive private school or private summer camps/programs

3. talk about volunteer work

This will backfire at ivy/elites which want to keep their current 55% or more receiving need-based aid. It is a bragging point mentioned on every tour we took of the Top10(8 of them).
Need based aid cutoffs are aroubd 250k HHI. Top schools will be bragging about having 60% receiving aid soon. There are far too many full pay kids applying for the 45% of slots that are for full pay, and with TO and affirmative action mostly gone it is much harder for colleges to find qualified need-based aid students to fill the 55-60% with need.
Full pay is only a benefit to need aware schools ie around T30 level and lower.

There are a handful of T20 that are supposedly need blind, but always have a large swath of very very wealthy students - only 1 Ivy but these ones love their full pay (private school) kids:
Dartmouth
Northwestern
Duke
Rice
Vanderbilt
WashU
Georgetown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM moms are trying to sabotage the local competition in this thread.

These are not sabotages.

The top two sabotages are:
1. Apply to only three reaches or else your DC will have a mental break down.
2. Test score is not important.

These posters come in in waves. Non-stop sabotaging.

Agree on #1 wholeheartedly.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM moms are trying to sabotage the local competition in this thread.

These are not sabotages.

The top two sabotages are:
1. Apply to only three reaches or else your DC will have a mental break down.
2. Test score is not important.

These posters come in in waves. Non-stop sabotaging.

cmon - people are out here today like, "write about your mission trip to Haiti!"

I can see it being done well if you are a French major...or pre-med or something. Maybe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think OP’s post is a psy-op to derail the competition ….

This. Someone is filling this board with junk today.

Huh?
I’m the OP. This is the only post I have started or responded to today…I responded earlier too.

It’s ok if you don’t agree with me. Talk to your school’s college counseling office or your own private college counselor and get your own advice. I wouldn’t ever rely on anything I read online without doing my own research and verification.

Seriously you guys are paranoid.

Where did you get the idea that intentional grammar mistakes should be in a student’s college essay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also saw the suggestion for less polished and perfect essays (which may strategically lack of Oxford commas and semicolon use common with grammarly) suggestion by some college essay editors on the r/collegeessays subreddit.

It’s definitely out there.

For the PP. I saw this too. Search around on that subreddit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM moms are trying to sabotage the local competition in this thread.

These are not sabotages.

The top two sabotages are:
1. Apply to only three reaches or else your DC will have a mental break down.
2. Test score is not important.

These posters come in in waves. Non-stop sabotaging.

3. We don't use consultant.

[Anonymous]

What are odds for very high stats, good ECs, full pay, Hispanic, 1500+?