Lessons learned so far: 2024-2025

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Agree with/all this.
Similar app strategy here. Also ending up at private T20 (reach). Agree with/advice on essays too!

We were members of AN25 (saw the reference to “hammering”)! Were you guys? We found AN to be enormously helpful in si many ways, though think they undershoot in their 1-on-1 counseling a lot. My DC got into 2 “super-reach” schools (per their classification) and into/WL at several other “reach” schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Agree with/all this.
Similar app strategy here. Also ending up at private T20 (reach). Agree with/advice on essays too!

We were members of AN25 (saw the reference to “hammering”)! Were you guys? We found AN to be enormously helpful in si many ways, though think they undershoot in their 1-on-1 counseling a lot. My DC got into 2 “super-reach” schools (per their classification) and into/WL at several other “reach” schools.

Yes, we did AN25. We've done AN with our older kid so we also knew not to follow everything blindly. She can be very conservative IMO and so we used a blended approach. We do not pay for any of the extras.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Agree with/all this.
Similar app strategy here. Also ending up at private T20 (reach). Agree with/advice on essays too!

We were members of AN25 (saw the reference to “hammering”)! Were you guys? We found AN to be enormously helpful in si many ways, though think they undershoot in their 1-on-1 counseling a lot. My DC got into 2 “super-reach” schools (per their classification) and into/WL at several other “reach” schools.

Yes, we did AN25. We've done AN with our older kid so we also knew not to follow everything blindly. She can be very conservative IMO and so we used a blended approach. We do not pay for any of the extras.

Did you use an outside counselor at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Agree with/all this.
Similar app strategy here. Also ending up at private T20 (reach). Agree with/advice on essays too!

We were members of AN25 (saw the reference to “hammering”)! Were you guys? We found AN to be enormously helpful in si many ways, though think they undershoot in their 1-on-1 counseling a lot. My DC got into 2 “super-reach” schools (per their classification) and into/WL at several other “reach” schools.

Yes, we did AN25. We've done AN with our older kid so we also knew not to follow everything blindly. She can be very conservative IMO and so we used a blended approach. We do not pay for any of the extras.

Did you use an outside counselor at all?

We used an outside essay person who we didn't end up liking or using the main essay our DC wrote with them. Otherwise we managed it ourselves.

[Anonymous]

No new lessons for US students.

Bigly lessons for international students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Adding on to this (OP of quoted above):
-Had a shared google folder for all college application items between DC and both parents. We had a main checklist doc where we kept track of all the application items required for each school, due dates and decision dates and decisions as they came in, and portal login information. We had a doc where DC organized their activities list for common app. We had PDFs of the transcripts in there.

There was a folder for each school, and within each school's folder was a doc with the application questions for that school and drafts for each question that were working copies. We had a "FINAL EDIT" doc where DC would copy and paste over the final version of each essay once it was decided to be done. We had a folder for common app main essay with the different versions of those. After each app was done but before submitting, DC uploaded PDFs of the app so we could review for any typos or formatting issues before submitting in common app. I highly recommend having all of these items in one big shared location everyone can access and manage as deadlines come up, especially if your DC is applying to multiple schools. As the applications were submitted, we moved the school's folder of docs into a folder labeled "completed apps" so that it was out of the way but could still be easily accessed to use parts for future essays.

You as a parent can make a common app account now, just like your student. When you sign up there is an option for "I am a parent" or "I am a student". You pick the parent option. You can see everything your student sees, but you can't submit anything. This way you can see each school's questions. There is the main common app that is the same for each school and then a part for each school your student applies to with the specific information and/or essays that school wants. Your parent account can see all of these items.

There are a few schools who ask you to submit transcript information separately (SRAR) or essays after you've already submitted the app via a portal. Make sure you don't wait to submit at the last minute or this can trip you up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Agree with/all this.
Similar app strategy here. Also ending up at private T20 (reach). Agree with/advice on essays too!

We were members of AN25 (saw the reference to “hammering”)! Were you guys? We found AN to be enormously helpful in si many ways, though think they undershoot in their 1-on-1 counseling a lot. My DC got into 2 “super-reach” schools (per their classification) and into/WL at several other “reach” schools.

Yes, we did AN25. We've done AN with our older kid so we also knew not to follow everything blindly. She can be very conservative IMO and so we used a blended approach. We do not pay for any of the extras.

What is AN25?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Agree with/all this.
Similar app strategy here. Also ending up at private T20 (reach). Agree with/advice on essays too!

We were members of AN25 (saw the reference to “hammering”)! Were you guys? We found AN to be enormously helpful in si many ways, though think they undershoot in their 1-on-1 counseling a lot. My DC got into 2 “super-reach” schools (per their classification) and into/WL at several other “reach” schools.

Yes, we did AN25. We've done AN with our older kid so we also knew not to follow everything blindly. She can be very conservative IMO and so we used a blended approach. We do not pay for any of the extras.

What is AN25?

It's a private counseling service known as Application Nation. AN26 is probably happening now.

[Anonymous]

Note to self: avoid having kids during the largest birth cohort/applicant pool
In US history.