What I learned from the returning freshman this week

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They were all here.....
it wasn't that hard. I thought I'd share bc I thought it was interesting. Maybe its bc I know these kids?

Good thing I didn't post the rest!!!
I'll see about deleting this if you all really think its irrelevant.

Please post the rest!!! This is suuuuper interesting and relevant to this forum. Thank you!

is this a joke?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They were all here.....
it wasn't that hard. I thought I'd share bc I thought it was interesting. Maybe its bc I know these kids?

Good thing I didn't post the rest!!!
I'll see about deleting this if you all really think its irrelevant.

You know that many kids and all at those top level universities???

Kids who go to top schools tend to flock together. My DC has 5 friends at Harvard, 4 at Yale, many at his college Stanford, a few at Princeton, Williams, etc.

this is true everywhere.
like hangs with like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I talk to my kid once a week and hung out with him over Thanksgiving, but I cannot begin to summarize even his own experience like this, let alone his friends.

I wonder if this is chatgpt generated?

OP - oh lord. Its definitely not AI - all me.

I hung out with my kid (and friends) many times all week.....it was great. The girls and guys were very open about the good and bad. Think many (most?) of them miss their high school bubble.

Clearly, I missed the mark here with this summar. I thought it was fascinating. Guess, I was wrong.

The people giving you grief are mostly being pissy because all the schools you mentioned are schools most of their kids have no shot at.
If you had started with JMU and Radford and sprinkled a little bit of Tulane and Yale in the mix, you would have gotten a much friendlier response. Welcome to DCUM.

Even single data points can be useful. So here's one:

Penn: The non-wharton kids all seem pretty chill and are enjoying their college experience (a lot of kids seem to have community service backgrounds) but a lot of the wharton kids seem to be standing around waiting for people to notice they are going to wharton and not penn.

You are just so so wrong. I haven’t even paid any attention to what the specific schools are. I just think the whole exercise is plain weird and I think anyone who goes along with this is equally weird and pathetic. So yeah, that includes you. What the hell is wrong with you people?

Maybe something is wrong with you?
It's not weird if you are looking for data points on fit. It's helpful. Like unigo? Ever used that?

I personally think parents should focus more on social fit - academics and "name" should come secondary.

Second hand reports from some anonymous weirdo snooping mom are no more useful “data points” than “they’re eating cats and dogs in Springfield.” I literally cringed with embarrassment for OP when I read her post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The information is useful but some of the summaries have an undertone of entitlement. I’m a graduate of two of those schools and my kid is attending one of them. No one is begrudging those kids their accomplishments. Kudos to the kids whose hard work landed them at those schools. The point is, they worked so hard to get there and it’s sad if they feel if their experience is just “meh”. They don’t know how lucky they are.

It can be difficult to remember the privilege when you expect it. Some elite students need to get out of their colleges and take a look at the average state institution and realize the amount of resources given to them. Had this moment with my own DS complaining about the dining hall food-which serves them steaks, shrimp, pho, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They were all here.....
it wasn't that hard. I thought I'd share bc I thought it was interesting. Maybe its bc I know these kids?

Good thing I didn't post the rest!!!
I'll see about deleting this if you all really think its irrelevant.

You know that many kids and all at those top level universities???

Kids who go to top schools tend to flock together. My DC has 5 friends at Harvard, 4 at Yale, many at his college Stanford, a few at Princeton, Williams, etc.

yeah, ok.
My kid attends a 2000+ student high school and would not be able to tell me where that many friends/acquaintances have applied, let alone where they're going to go. But ok. I guess a small elite private high school is entirely different on that front.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They were all here.....
it wasn't that hard. I thought I'd share bc I thought it was interesting. Maybe its bc I know these kids?

Good thing I didn't post the rest!!!
I'll see about deleting this if you all really think its irrelevant.

Please post the rest!!! This is suuuuper interesting and relevant to this forum. Thank you!

is this a joke?

No! This is one of the better posts, in my opinion. If you don’t like it, don’t engage!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The information is useful but some of the summaries have an undertone of entitlement. I’m a graduate of two of those schools and my kid is attending one of them. No one is begrudging those kids their accomplishments. Kudos to the kids whose hard work landed them at those schools. The point is, they worked so hard to get there and it’s sad if they feel if their experience is just “meh”. They don’t know how lucky they are.

It can be difficult to remember the privilege when you expect it. Some elite students need to get out of their colleges and take a look at the average state institution and realize the amount of resources given to them. Had this moment with my own DS complaining about the dining hall food-which serves them steaks, shrimp, pho, etc.

Such a valid point, and something to remember and point out for December break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They were all here.....
it wasn't that hard. I thought I'd share bc I thought it was interesting. Maybe its bc I know these kids?

Good thing I didn't post the rest!!!
I'll see about deleting this if you all really think its irrelevant.

You know that many kids and all at those top level universities???

Kids who go to top schools tend to flock together. My DC has 5 friends at Harvard, 4 at Yale, many at his college Stanford, a few at Princeton, Williams, etc.

yeah, ok.
My kid attends a 2000+ student high school and would not be able to tell me where that many friends/acquaintances have applied, let alone where they're going to go. But ok. I guess a small elite private high school is entirely different on that front.

Mine went to public, a very successful public but a public. When they graduated, he started hanging out with peers across the district who went to similar schools. It is a part of the network.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you hosted a kegger at your house over Thanksgiving break and was able to interview over TWENTY different kids? And you managed to keep track of specific details for each school. 😂🥰

Troll on, sister! Effort: A+

A kegger? How old are you? Lol. Get out of your house sometime, maybe? What a weirdo.

I didn't interview anyone. Seriously people like you suck.

Im not responding to this anymore and will ask Jeff to remove this post.

I don’t think you should ask for it to be removed! I don’t get the hate at all. This was interesting and tracks with what I’ve heard or read, which is reassuring. My high school kids have friends over who sit around and talk and I can totally see them catching up and chatting like this next year when they return for their first Thanksgiving. And I can see myself asking questions and overhearing this info. I’ve known these kids forever and care about them! Of course I’d like to know how they’re doing and I feel like they’d share

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They were all here.....
it wasn't that hard. I thought I'd share bc I thought it was interesting. Maybe its bc I know these kids?

Good thing I didn't post the rest!!!
I'll see about deleting this if you all really think its irrelevant.

Please post the rest!!! This is suuuuper interesting and relevant to this forum. Thank you!

is this a joke?

No! This is one of the better posts, in my opinion. If you don’t like it, don’t engage!

If you think this is one of the better posts, you don’t get out much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who is actually choosing to engage with OP is equally weird and needs to get a life. This is one of the weirdest things I’ve read on the college form on this website, and that is saying a lot. I honestly feel sorry for you people.

You're new here, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The information is useful but some of the summaries have an undertone of entitlement. I’m a graduate of two of those schools and my kid is attending one of them. No one is begrudging those kids their accomplishments. Kudos to the kids whose hard work landed them at those schools. The point is, they worked so hard to get there and it’s sad if they feel if their experience is just “meh”. They don’t know how lucky they are.

It can be difficult to remember the privilege when you expect it. Some elite students need to get out of their colleges and take a look at the average state institution and realize the amount of resources given to them. Had this moment with my own DS complaining about the dining hall food-which serves them steaks, shrimp, pho, etc.

Such a valid point, and something to remember and point out for December break.

+ 1 I had to have a conversation with my kid about avoiding the negative elements at their highly selective private U and being grateful for all the resources there. And making use of those resources! Not only that but many (not all, but many) kids whose parents are on this forum are able to have parental help for move-in, have parents visit for Parents weekend, spend money on meals out and social outings, enjoy their college lives with without having to compromise with family obligations, travel freely, come home for breaks, be pampered when they are home, not have to work to earn money during break, etc. That’s not the reality for most students. To hear privileged private school students describe incredible colleges as “meh” or “boring” or “filled with douche bags” did not make me sympathetic.

[Anonymous]

While OP’s post wouldn’t influence me to mention the feedback to DC (as many have said, this is a cast study of one kid per the schools mentioned) nor would it change the trajectory of where DC is applying, I thought it was an interesting read (and yea, to the PP who mentioned their privilege is showing - sure - so many top schools, and a number of “meh’s” but maybe some of that is our collective faults for putting these T20 schools on a built up pedestal during application time so how could the experience live up to all the crazy hype… but I digress).

OP there’s nothing inherently wrong with your post and when kids are back from break I always ask them all how they’re doing, how it’s going etc. and it’s interesting to hear others experiences.

I also see the crabby “why do non DC people post here?” are out, as if our kids’ going through the college application experience is different outside of your bubble… I hate to tell you but you all complain about the same sh*t we do as parents in this process. I could be posting this from the moon right now and it would be the same. Get over yourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I talk to my kid once a week and hung out with him over Thanksgiving, but I cannot begin to summarize even his own experience like this, let alone his friends.

I wonder if this is chatgpt generated?

OP - oh lord. Its definitely not AI - all me.

I hung out with my kid (and friends) many times all week.....it was great. The girls and guys were very open about the good and bad. Think many (most?) of them miss their high school bubble.

Clearly, I missed the mark here with this summar. I thought it was fascinating. Guess, I was wrong.

The people giving you grief are mostly being pissy because all the schools you mentioned are schools most of their kids have no shot at.
If you had started with JMU and Radford and sprinkled a little bit of Tulane and Yale in the mix, you would have gotten a much friendlier response. Welcome to DCUM.

Even single data points can be useful. So here's one:

Penn: The non-wharton kids all seem pretty chill and are enjoying their college experience (a lot of kids seem to have community service backgrounds) but a lot of the wharton kids seem to be standing around waiting for people to notice they are going to wharton and not penn.

My anecdote: two Penn kids. One Wharton and one arts and sciences. Both say it’s easier than high school (for now). Both say Wharton is competitive. Arts and science kid is applying to transfer into Wharton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While OP’s post wouldn’t influence me to mention the feedback to DC (as many have said, this is a cast study of one kid per the schools mentioned) nor would it change the trajectory of where DC is applying, I thought it was an interesting read (and yea, to the PP who mentioned their privilege is showing - sure - so many top schools, and a number of “meh’s” but maybe some of that is our collective faults for putting these T20 schools on a built up pedestal during application time so how could the experience live up to all the crazy hype… but I digress).

OP there’s nothing inherently wrong with your post and when kids are back from break I always ask them all how they’re doing, how it’s going etc. and it’s interesting to hear others experiences.

I also see the crabby “why do non DC people post here?” are out, as if our kids’ going through the college application experience is different outside of your bubble… I hate to tell you but you all complain about the same sh*t we do as parents in this process. I could be posting this from the moon right now and it would be the same. Get over yourselves.

People in the DMV are too smart and level headed to pay any attention to this weird garbage and can’t imagine (1) posting this ridiculousness or (2) taking any of this into account in navigating the college selection process.

It. Is. Just. Plain. Weird.

So maybe that’s why some of us are so touchy that non-DMV people who really do appear to be coming from another planet in terms of thinking are posting here