What has surprised you - as your kid comes to the end of this process

[Anonymous]

how many of my kid's friends went through the process with very little guidance: not much from parents. not much from our private school counselors.

they didn't "tell a story", they didn't "find a narrative", etc. and as a result, are off to BC where that same profile kid went to HYP in prior years.

this is my third kid graduating from our HS in 5 years so I know usual outcomes. this year was not great, and I really think it was just a group without the killer parents and who are up late reading blogs and/or private help. I wish the GCs had stepped up and said, we need to position you a little more thoughtfully , and you need to rewrite that essay to add a little more humility. m

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:how many of my kid's friends went through the process with very little guidance: not much from parents. not much from our private school counselors.

they didn't "tell a story", they didn't "find a narrative", etc. and as a result, are off to BC where that same profile kid went to HYP in prior years.

this is my third kid graduating from our HS in 5 years so I know usual outcomes. this year was not great, and I really think it was just a group without the killer parents and who are up late reading blogs and/or private help. I wish the GCs had stepped up and said, we need to position you a little more thoughtfully , and you need to rewrite that essay to add a little more humility. m

Interesting. I noticed this in our private too. I think what’s worked in past years doesn’t work anymore with so many overly polished curated applications. Not because people are paying for it but because there’s so much free advice and AI help. So any and everyone can figure it out. And the competition is stiffer.

I don’t think our CCO counselors stepped up at all in the way that they should have or could have to help - and I think maybe some kids used AI for the essays and it was noticeable. The essay & the vibe matter more than ever.

My Takeaway is to spend more time, focused on the essays and less on everything else.

[Anonymous]

What surprised me is that kids got in in the regular round to Top 20 and Ivies. So proud of these kids. We're at a public in a smaller town in an overrepresented state usually overshadowed by the private schools. Supportive town but not overly grinder or gaming the system type of town. This year's class is doing extremely well.

My takewaway for my younger kids is to let them be authentic and of course do their best with their academics, but I am going to relax a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What surprised me is that kids got in in the regular round to Top 20 and Ivies. So proud of these kids. We're at a public in a smaller town in an overrepresented state usually overshadowed by the private schools. Supportive town but not overly grinder or gaming the system type of town. This year's class is doing extremely well.

My takewaway for my younger kids is to let them be authentic and of course do their best with their academics, but I am going to relax a bit.

This year, due to Trump, was all about rural, poor and first gen (other than the typical rich legacy and athletes). UMC/donut hole fared poorly this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What surprised me is that kids got in in the regular round to Top 20 and Ivies. So proud of these kids. We're at a public in a smaller town in an overrepresented state usually overshadowed by the private schools. Supportive town but not overly grinder or gaming the system type of town. This year's class is doing extremely well.

My takewaway for my younger kids is to let them be authentic and of course do their best with their academics, but I am going to relax a bit.

This year, due to Trump, was all about rural, poor and first gen (other than the typical rich legacy and athletes). UMC/donut hole fared poorly this year.

Our school isn't rural .. we're in an overrepresented state right outside the second largest city in the US. We're full of UMC and donut hole families. School is doing excellent compared to the last three years.

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised how statistically hard it is to get into a top 30-40 college now. When my husband got into MIT in the 90s, admission rate was somewhere between 25-30%. Now, for our daughter to get into Tufts the admission rate is 10% - so it's much, much harder statistically than it was for her father to get into MIT (which has a 4-5% admission rate). And even getting into Skidmore now (23% admission rate) is about statistically the same difficulty as my husband getting into MIT when he did.

We're just floored. There are more applicants to each school and spots are not rising with demand. Everything is harder. We absolutely need to stop focusing on top10-20 as even top 40-50 is too hard now.

Maybe we should be focusing on the top 100 the way we used to focus on top 20, and top 50 the way we used to focus on top 10.

I hate it here.

[Anonymous]

We all hate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised how statistically hard it is to get into a top 30-40 college now. When my husband got into MIT in the 90s, admission rate was somewhere between 25-30%. Now, for our daughter to get into Tufts the admission rate is 10% - so it's much, much harder statistically than it was for her father to get into MIT (which has gone down to a 4-5% admission rate today). And even getting into Skidmore now (23% admission rate) is about statistically the same difficulty as my husband getting into MIT when he did.

We're just floored. There are more applicants to each school and spots are not rising with demand. Everything is harder. We absolutely need to stop focusing on top10-20 as even top 40-50 is too hard now.

Maybe we should be focusing on the top 100 the way we used to focus on top 20, and top 50 the way we used to focus on top 10.

I hate it here.

* adding bold to clarify my earlier comment.

My daughter's top choice is Tufts. She is a junior now and I would have thought it would be a target for her, as she's a high performer and done extremely well in school and on the SAT practice tests. But our school-based counselor is telling us it will be a reach, even with ED (where they take less than half the class).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised how statistically hard it is to get into a top 30-40 college now. When my husband got into MIT in the 90s, admission rate was somewhere between 25-30%. Now, for our daughter to get into Tufts the admission rate is 10% - so it's much, much harder statistically than it was for her father to get into MIT (which has a 4-5% admission rate). And even getting into Skidmore now (23% admission rate) is about statistically the same difficulty as my husband getting into MIT when he did.

We're just floored. There are more applicants to each school and spots are not rising with demand. Everything is harder. We absolutely need to stop focusing on top10-20 as even top 40-50 is too hard now.

Maybe we should be focusing on the top 100 the way we used to focus on top 20, and top 50 the way we used to focus on top 10.

I hate it here.

Amen. We hate it here too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised how statistically hard it is to get into a top 30-40 college now. When my husband got into MIT in the 90s, admission rate was somewhere between 25-30%. Now, for our daughter to get into Tufts the admission rate is 10% - so it's much, much harder statistically than it was for her father to get into MIT (which has a 4-5% admission rate). And even getting into Skidmore now (23% admission rate) is about statistically the same difficulty as my husband getting into MIT when he did.

We're just floored. There are more applicants to each school and spots are not rising with demand. Everything is harder. We absolutely need to stop focusing on top10-20 as even top 40-50 is too hard now.

Maybe we should be focusing on the top 100 the way we used to focus on top 20, and top 50 the way we used to focus on top 10.

I hate it here.

this is why I dont listen to people who bad mouth places like St Andrews. good school with good admissions rate? sign me up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised how statistically hard it is to get into a top 30-40 college now. When my husband got into MIT in the 90s, admission rate was somewhere between 25-30%. Now, for our daughter to get into Tufts the admission rate is 10% - so it's much, much harder statistically than it was for her father to get into MIT (which has gone down to a 4-5% admission rate today). And even getting into Skidmore now (23% admission rate) is about statistically the same difficulty as my husband getting into MIT when he did.

We're just floored. There are more applicants to each school and spots are not rising with demand. Everything is harder. We absolutely need to stop focusing on top10-20 as even top 40-50 is too hard now.

Maybe we should be focusing on the top 100 the way we used to focus on top 20, and top 50 the way we used to focus on top 10.

I hate it here.

* adding bold to clarify my earlier comment.

My daughter's top choice is Tufts. She is a junior now and I would have thought it would be a target for her, as she's a high performer and done extremely well in school and on the SAT practice tests. But our school-based counselor is telling us it will be a reach, even with ED (where they take less than half the class).

search here for Tufts.
Lots of good intel for those essays (create a Google doc and paste all of that intel there to parse through); demonstrated interest (even with ED) is super important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised how statistically hard it is to get into a top 30-40 college now. When my husband got into MIT in the 90s, admission rate was somewhere between 25-30%. Now, for our daughter to get into Tufts the admission rate is 10% - so it's much, much harder statistically than it was for her father to get into MIT (which has gone down to a 4-5% admission rate today). And even getting into Skidmore now (23% admission rate) is about statistically the same difficulty as my husband getting into MIT when he did.

We're just floored. There are more applicants to each school and spots are not rising with demand. Everything is harder. We absolutely need to stop focusing on top10-20 as even top 40-50 is too hard now.

Maybe we should be focusing on the top 100 the way we used to focus on top 20, and top 50 the way we used to focus on top 10.

I hate it here.

* adding bold to clarify my earlier comment.

My daughter's top choice is Tufts. She is a junior now and I would have thought it would be a target for her, as she's a high performer and done extremely well in school and on the SAT practice tests. But our school-based counselor is telling us it will be a reach, even with ED (where they take less than half the class).

Believe your counselor if you are at a private school. They know the stats of everyone else in the class & have seen results from your school. They know what it takes for a kid from your school to get into Tufts. Our CCO was correct on 95% of the results, down to where he would get WL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That I knew more about the process and how to brand my kid better than our private school college counselor and private paid counselors. I researched a lot and pulled advice from a myriad of places. I do appreciate the private school counselor's honesty and candidness (very surprising and helpful!) the letters of recommendation from him and the two teachers. I have to ask, can we give anyone gifts? Is that done? My kid is quirky and got into a T10, and the letters may have helped. Moms, research and help your kid, you know their story best and you'll be able to sleep at night knowing you did all you could! Now onto DC #2 (no break with a rising junior!)

Mom , you are working too hard. Take a vacation ! Life is short and you never know what’s ahead

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised how statistically hard it is to get into a top 30-40 college now. When my husband got into MIT in the 90s, admission rate was somewhere between 25-30%. Now, for our daughter to get into Tufts the admission rate is 10% - so it's much, much harder statistically than it was for her father to get into MIT (which has gone down to a 4-5% admission rate today). And even getting into Skidmore now (23% admission rate) is about statistically the same difficulty as my husband getting into MIT when he did.

We're just floored. There are more applicants to each school and spots are not rising with demand. Everything is harder. We absolutely need to stop focusing on top10-20 as even top 40-50 is too hard now.

Maybe we should be focusing on the top 100 the way we used to focus on top 20, and top 50 the way we used to focus on top 10.

I hate it here.

* adding bold to clarify my earlier comment.

My daughter's top choice is Tufts. She is a junior now and I would have thought it would be a target for her, as she's a high performer and done extremely well in school and on the SAT practice tests. But our school-based counselor is telling us it will be a reach, even with ED (where they take less than half the class).

search here for Tufts.
Lots of good intel for those essays (create a Google doc and paste all of that intel there to parse through); demonstrated interest (even with ED) is super important.

Thank you, that's very helpful to know, and I will do this!

[Anonymous]

What surprised me was how ill-prepared and under-educated students were and how clueless the parents were.

College and university process is smooth, if your kid has been working at school and at home from the time they are in ES.