Best advice you got from a private college admissions counselor?
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Anonymous
At my DD's high school, the academic requirement is only 3.0 UW. If it were 3.7 UW, that would be a much better standard. |
Anonymous
Thank you! We need more teachers like you!!!!!!!! |
Honestly, it's the best part of teaching - finding the kids who really needed you as a mentor.
Anonymous
I would love to hear more about this as well. My DC works to pay for many of their own extracurricular and enrichment activities, including language immersion travel. This really helps our family and gives DC a lot of satisfaction. Shouldn't this count? |
Anonymous
Every adcom in the world loves a kid who gets top grades while holding down a job and activities too. And they should. |
Anonymous
Your kid will be a first-gen college student. First-gen students face problems typical students don't have to face. Most colleges and universities want to diversify with these students. |
Anonymous
| NHS can mean something if you're an officer and actually do something. Like organize a swim a thon for charity or whatever. By itself it's fairly meaningless but you can make it something. |
Anonymous
NP, here is the link to Wake's common data set: https://prod.wp.cdn.aws.wfu.edu/sites/202/2019/04/CDS_2018-2019.pdf Question C7 details the relative importance of different types of academic and non-academic categories in admissions decisions: "work experience" is "not considered." Among similarly ranked national universities, the answers are: Very Imp Carnegie Mellon: https://www.cmu.edu/ira/CDS/pdf/cds_2018-19/c-first-time-first-year-admission.pdf Important Tufts: https://provost.tufts.edu/institutionalresearch/files/CDS_2018-2019-Final-Revised-7.22.19.pdf UNC: https://oira.unc.edu/files/2019/02/CDS_2018-2019_20190213.pdf GA Tech: https://irp.gatech.edu/gt-info/common-data-set Considered Michigan: https://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/cds/cds_2018-2019_umaa.pdf UVA: https://ias.virginia.edu/cds-2018-19 NYU: https://www.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu/institutionalResearch/documents/CDS_2018-2019.pdf Now the REAL question is does each college have a different definition of "work experience." Pulling from the experiences of DD's classmates, does working non-paid for the summer in the academic lab of a family friend count the same as working 10-15 hours a week a Ulta throughout junior year and more in the summer. |
Anonymous
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Your child will be the first gen college kid, that’s a boost worth a gazillion other achievements.
Don’t blow it! Hire an advisor! |
Anonymous
I add my thanks and, especially, my 15 year-old self adds her thanks. I come from an extremely impoverished area of the country and was raised by parents who married at 18 and never went to college. When I was a sophomore in high school, my biology teacher took an interest in me. She encouraged me to pursue an academic career and pointed me in the direction of college and the scholarships needed to attend, all in spite of the very vocal opposition of my parents. Without her, I would not be where I am today (multiple degrees, high HHI, ability to give back to make sure another 15 year old similarly situated girl can go to college). Really, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. |
Anonymous
Well I guess the Wake Forest alum has an answer and should push back hard against it. It's actually ridiculous. |
Anonymous
| First question to be asked of parents: What can you realistically afford for five or six years. Do NOT look at any institution that the family cannot afford. Do not dangle schools in front of your children that the family cannot afford. Run those EFC calculators and figure it out in advance. Don't waste time on schools that are $80K a year ++. Count on more than four years. There are 4000 institutions in America, there is a place for your child. Consider highly in-state if finances or other family issues (illness, taking care of seniors, parents, SN kids) are at play. Consider community college guaranteed admissions programs. |
Anonymous
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I am a huge fan of community colleges. Know several people who went for a couple of years and then graduated from a better known (and more $) school. Same degree, less $.
Our college counselor best lesson was introducing me to the concept of 'lottery schools'. That there are 10 kids for every spot that all have almost perfect stats, so 9 kids don't get in. It is all so more more competitive than it was for me in the late seventies. |
Anonymous
I think with lottery schools its not that there are 10 kids with the right qualifications for fighting for every spot. Its that among kids with the qualifications, each applies to 10 schools but can only attend 1. There has been research done (notably by Kevin Carey at New American Foundation) that the number of ppl who perform at the top of standardized testing is relatively equal to the number of freshman spots available at elite schools combined. Sure a kid might have a top 10 US news school as its first choice but only get admitted to a top 20 school. Both are "lottery" in that they reject a huge number of the ppl who apply. Once admitted a student's outcomes are much more about the individual's performance at school and in life (including things like soft skills and work ethic) than some transformative magic imbued upon them by attending a specific school. |
Anonymous
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"Having kid do clerical at Dad's office is essentially a "make work" job."
This is not always the case. We have a small family biz (just me and DH) DS who is 15 has already helped us by working for me at the front desk during summers and vacations when I have to travel with another child (like to visit colleges!) He has learned a lot--about work, dealing with people, etc. I will certainly encourage him to put this experience on his future college applications--along with the fact that he has been "working for himself" since about age 11, shoveling snow, walking dogs, and other odd jobs around the neighborhood. That "odd jobs" and "entrepreneurial" experience was looked on quite favorably when he applied to boarding school last year (I know because the admissions people told me so) |
Anonymous
What does she actually enjoy doing, besides schoolwork? (Fashion design? Being with Animals? Yoga? Origami? Kayaking?) Is there a cause she ACTUALLY cares about. (Global warming? Ending child marriage? Livable wage?) These would be clues to extracurricular activities she could work on. But don't engage in FAKE interests for the sake of the process. |