Lessons learned so far: 2024-2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been working at colleges for the past 30 years, and recently put my own kids through college. I think the biggest mistake parents make is taking their kids’ preferences at face value.

Like suppose a mother in the Philadelphia suburbs asks her 16-year-old son about his college preferences. And the kid says he wants to study English at a small private college in the northeast that is near a large city. It’s going to be tempting for parents to start checking out which small private colleges near big cities in the northeast are noted for their English departments.

But I suggest the parents try to dig a little deeper, and try to identify WHY the kid has those preferences. If they do, they might find that the preference for a small college is based on an offhand remark the kid heard from a teacher in 8th grade, something about at bigger colleges “you are just a number.”

Further digging might reveal the preferences for the Northeast and being near a big city are based on a friend’s boring visit to relatives in a rural part of Ohio.

And the desire to major in English might be based on a few favorable comments from English teachers in high school.

My point is that few teens make decisions based on an exhaustive collecting of information, a thorough analysis of that information, and a logical decision based on that analysis.

Complicating matters further is that most high school students are unfamiliar with many of the variables involved in a college decision. Sure, they all want good food and they all know what kind of weather they prefer. But beyond those, they are usually just guessing about whether they want urban, suburban, or small town. They are often uninformed about different regions of the country. They might have zero awareness of some of the major subjects that are offered in college. And they might not be aware that even at big universities, many of the classes are small, especially in the less-popular subjects.

Once the original preferences are explored, it might turn out that the kid who originally wanted to study English at Tufts might be better suited to study philosophy at Indiana U. or journalism at the U of
Tennessee.

Yep to all this. Kids change AND they don’t event know what they’re talking about! 😊

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our second kid is graduating next month. Our experience with both kids has taught us that everything is a lot easier when the kids are relatively average (way below average for DCUM) and they target schools with a 70%-90% admission rate.

+1

My 1240/3.5UW/no AP kid only applied to schools ranked 70-120+. They got into every single school, many of them with excellent merit (privates). Why? Because they didn't really have any reaches. Heck most were not targets even...most had acceptance rates over 65% and my kid was at/above 50% for everything. The one ranked 130+ where my kid was at/above the 85% gave my kid 75% of tuition for all 4 years. My kid chose between two very similar schools ranked around 80 that gave them ~35-40% of tuition.
I helped manage the process myself. My kid wasn't stressed, my kid was happy. They didn't belong at a T50 school, they would have struggled and been miserable. Instead they are 3 years out, doing very well at the job they started with a great company 2 weeks after graduation. They graduated college with a 3.5+ gpa and had a job starting right after graduation. That's the goal. They are "flown" and living 2K from home.

If you have very low expectations, you will usually exceed them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. don't apply to more than 10 schools. good apps take a lot of time. copy and pasting big portions of essays from school to school isn't great when the questions are really different.

2. apply to colleges that know and like your HS. look at where kids have gone in recent years. that's your universe.

3. but zig where others zag. if everyone is applying to x school, apply to y school. schools get very hot, very quickly.

so find the 5 year emissions list from your HS and apply to 10 schools from that list, making sure that you pick a few that are not getting all the best applicants from your HS

Terrible advice.

It depends on the kid, but casting a wide net can be beneficial to many.

I applied to 10 schools back in the early 90s, *before* it turned into a lottery. Today, some kids may need to apply to even more.

[Anonymous]

I’d you’re applying for T20 reaches, of course choose for it, but you absolutely should apply to a lot and not limit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d you’re applying for T20 reaches, of course choose for it, but you absolutely should apply to a lot and not limit.

💯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been working at colleges for the past 30 years, and recently put my own kids through college. I think the biggest mistake parents make is taking their kids’ preferences at face value.

Like suppose a mother in the Philadelphia suburbs asks her 16-year-old son about his college preferences. And the kid says he wants to study English at a small private college in the northeast that is near a large city. It’s going to be tempting for parents to start checking out which small private colleges near big cities in the northeast are noted for their English departments.

But I suggest the parents try to dig a little deeper, and try to identify WHY the kid has those preferences. If they do, they might find that the preference for a small college is based on an offhand remark the kid heard from a teacher in 8th grade, something about at bigger colleges “you are just a number.”

Further digging might reveal the preferences for the Northeast and being near a big city are based on a friend’s boring visit to relatives in a rural part of Ohio.

And the desire to major in English might be based on a few favorable comments from English teachers in high school.

My point is that few teens make decisions based on an exhaustive collecting of information, a thorough analysis of that information, and a logical decision based on that analysis.

Complicating matters further is that most high school students are unfamiliar with many of the variables involved in a college decision. Sure, they all want good food and they all know what kind of weather they prefer. But beyond those, they are usually just guessing about whether they want urban, suburban, or small town. They are often uninformed about different regions of the country. They might have zero awareness of some of the major subjects that are offered in college. And they might not be aware that even at big universities, many of the classes are small, especially in the less-popular subjects.

Once the original preferences are explored, it might turn out that the kid who originally wanted to study English at Tufts might be better suited to study philosophy at Indiana U. or journalism at the U of
Tennessee.

+ 1
Most parents overestimate their kids' ability to think objectively. Would you let them go to a showroom and buy any car they want? Kids need guidance and perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been working at colleges for the past 30 years, and recently put my own kids through college. I think the biggest mistake parents make is taking their kids’ preferences at face value.

Like suppose a mother in the Philadelphia suburbs asks her 16-year-old son about his college preferences. And the kid says he wants to study English at a small private college in the northeast that is near a large city. It’s going to be tempting for parents to start checking out which small private colleges near big cities in the northeast are noted for their English departments.

But I suggest the parents try to dig a little deeper, and try to identify WHY the kid has those preferences. If they do, they might find that the preference for a small college is based on an offhand remark the kid heard from a teacher in 8th grade, something about at bigger colleges “you are just a number.”

Further digging might reveal the preferences for the Northeast and being near a big city are based on a friend’s boring visit to relatives in a rural part of Ohio.

And the desire to major in English might be based on a few favorable comments from English teachers in high school.

My point is that few teens make decisions based on an exhaustive collecting of information, a thorough analysis of that information, and a logical decision based on that analysis.

Complicating matters further is that most high school students are unfamiliar with many of the variables involved in a college decision. Sure, they all want good food and they all know what kind of weather they prefer. But beyond those, they are usually just guessing about whether they want urban, suburban, or small town. They are often uninformed about different regions of the country. They might have zero awareness of some of the major subjects that are offered in college. And they might not be aware that even at big universities, many of the classes are small, especially in the less-popular subjects.

Once the original preferences are explored, it might turn out that the kid who originally wanted to study English at Tufts might be better suited to study philosophy at Indiana U. or journalism at the U of
Tennessee.

+ 1
Most parents overestimate their kids' ability to think objectively. Would you let them go to a showroom and buy any car they want? Kids need guidance and perspective.

And that’s why you apply to 10-12 reaches and a mix of private T25; OOS flagships; T10 SLACs….
bc you have no idea where they’re going to get in, what the choices may be at the end of the day, and how the kid may have changed from May of Jr year to April of senior year!!

[Anonymous]

Focus on child/teen development and not college entry.

If your kid focuses more on their actual personal development in high school and as a teen and not their "college narrative" you've won! Let your college fit your kid, not the other way around.

[Anonymous]

That the T25 Waitlists REALLY move.....spend the money to write a kick-a** LOCI.

Maybe this year is an anomaly....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That the T25 Waitlists REALLY move.....spend the money to write a kick-a** LOCI.

Maybe this year is an anomaly....

It is an anomaly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That the T25 Waitlists REALLY move.....spend the money to write a kick-a** LOCI.

Maybe this year is an anomaly....

It is an anomaly.

Probably bc of the international piece. But this may be the case for the next few years - I'd plan for movement if you have a rising senior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That the T25 Waitlists REALLY move.....spend the money to write a kick-a** LOCI.

Maybe this year is an anomaly....

It is an anomaly.

Last year was different

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Focus on child/teen development and not college entry.

If your kid focuses more on their actual personal development in high school and as a teen and not their "college narrative" you've won! Let your college fit your kid, not the other way around.

1000%

[Anonymous]

Lessons learned (public VA HS student, top 10%, attending T20)

1) apply to max 2 safeties you would actually attend. My DC applied to too many safeties, some just because friends applied, that he had absolutely 0 interest in ever going. We indulged but in hindsight was a waste of money, albeit an ego boost.

2) Would have narrowed down some of the reach schools as well, DC applied to 13 which was too many and again, there were some just applied for funsies to see what would happen but were not actually a good fit if they even got in.

In the end, DC applied to 23 schools but could have made a more precise list of about 14 schools they truly would want to attend.

3) Get started on the different types of essays as early as possible- work over the summer. DC generally needed the main common app essay (had 3 versions, as they came up with better ideas), a community essay (a community you identify with and why), a why major and why school essay (that could be tailored to each school as needed, some schools do this as 2 essays others do it combined), most meaningful extracurricular and why....seemed to be pretty common and used multiple times, tailored for the school and question. The most important part of your essays is to think, after reading it, what does it teach the reader about you? What do they know about you from the essay? It should be positive traits and aspects of who you are, and should not keep repeating (hammering) the same themes over and over. You want each essay to teach the admissions reviewers something new and different about you so they get as full a picture of who you are from your application package as possible.

[Anonymous]

Don’t overestimate ED as a hook if your kid is “average excellent”. It helps some of the time but not most of the time.