Disappointment

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Lehigh is a hidden gem, particularly if you could get financial aid from Lehigh.

Hidden? Not.

Hidden to the uninformed. Asian parents often only recognize top 20 schools.

Curious why Asian parents are so hung up on USNWR top 20? So ignorant.

The parents came here for graduate schools in the 80s to 90s, dreaming of ivy league but often ended up in PhD at U of Mississippi. They are familiar with state universities because that's where they studied, they are familiar with T20 because the doors were close for them once. Small schools like LACs do not have PhD programs so they knew very little about them.

LACs are not globally famous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lehigh is a hidden gem, particularly if you could get financial aid from Lehigh.

Hidden? Not.

Hidden to the uninformed. Asian parents often only recognize top 20 schools.

Curious why Asian parents are so hung up on USNWR top 20? So ignorant.

The parents came here for graduate schools in the 80s to 90s, dreaming of ivy league but often ended up in PhD at U of Mississippi. They are familiar with state universities because that's where they studied, they are familiar with T20 because the doors were close for them once. Small schools like LACs do not have PhD programs so they knew very little about them.

oh they know LACs... they don't want their kids getting a deadend major

They know OF lacs, they don't know lacs.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lehigh is a hidden gem, particularly if you could get financial aid from Lehigh.

Hidden? Not.

Hidden to the uninformed. Asian parents often only recognize top 20 schools.

Curious why Asian parents are so hung up on USNWR top 20? So ignorant.

The parents came here for graduate schools in the 80s to 90s, dreaming of ivy league but often ended up in PhD at U of Mississippi. They are familiar with state universities because that's where they studied, they are familiar with T20 because the doors were close for them once. Small schools like LACs do not have PhD programs so they knew very little about them.

oh they know LACs... they don't want their kids getting a deadend major

They know OF lacs, they don't know lacs.

Actually, they don't want to know so they don't even know of them.

[Anonymous]

no one wants to know them. you’d have to be dumb to go to an LAC over a stem focused university

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:no one wants to know them. you’d have to be dumb to go to an LAC over a stem focused university

+100

OP's PP should be very happy at VT, which in many people's mind is way better than Brown or Princeton for engineering.

[Anonymous]

If DC is not a minority JHU was never in play. Should have applied EA to UVA, as for the rest DC was just another dime a dozen candidate and you didn’t hit the lottery.

If you still want UVA take the wise option. Otherwise accept the fact you misplayed your hand and pick from the choices you have.

Lesson learned, DC is just not that special in today’s admission process.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Class ‘24 parent her. This thread has generated so many comments because it taps into a lot of our anxieties, stress, confusion and frustration over a process that unfortunately, is too intertwined with our personal/collective insecurities and aspirations. Many of us can relate to this thread because we all know someone or know of someone who “had high stats and did all the right things” and was still rejected at a lot of top schools. The problem isn’t going to get fixed with Supreme Court decisions, SAT tutors or high priced college counselors. It has to start at the parent level. We parents created the market for this craziness by paying for Kumon, elite sports camps, private college counselors, pay-to-play programs. Kids are jumping through all these hoops because we as parents have certain hopes and aspirations for them. I’m glad I was warned early on that my high stats kid was likely to be rejected by T-25 schools. It’s not the easiest pill to swallow for many of us who were easily accepted into these same top schools with B’s, limited extracurricular involvement, and few AP’s (and no non-profits or research back then!). However, being warned before hand was a blessing because it forced me to recalibrate expectations early on and focus more on fit and admissibility over prestige for my kid. Another great thing was seeing the examples set by top students from our local area who showed little or no interest in T-25 or WASP schools. They opted for our state flagship, service academies, less selective schools with prestigious niche programs, etc. There’s a big world of opportunity out there, and maybe if we parents start placing less importance on prestige schools and stop feeding the market for them, for this madness might abate.

These posts always get me to chuckle. You are just trying to get other parents to give up in order to give your kid an edge

The colleges created this problem by having opaque admissions with moving targets. They can fix it by laying out exact criteria for students to meet in order to gain acceptance.

Any school that laid out exact criteria would wind up accepting more than 25% of applicants, and that would make the school seem undesirable to the status-obsessed parents, thus reducing the number of “elite” schools they’re all so desperate to get their kids into and making the problem even worse.

the acceptance rate is distorted because kids apply to 10-20 schools. If colleges were more transparent and honest about what they were looking for , kids wouldn't need to apply to more than 3-5 schools.

But why would colleges all go along with your plan? Rich people and people with college savings are not clamoring for clarity. They might be grumbling about a lack of clarity, but what they’re clamoring for is exclusivity. The market is giving them what they want.

We have saved for our kids’ college all their lives. We’d like some clarity, pls. The system is dysfunctional.

Clarity is easy to find. Just stop chasing the same 30 Universities and 10 SLACS and you'll be fine.

Your talking nonsense. Unless you know where our child applied. Do you?

No, you don’t.

Now you are really just sounding whack. I don't know or need to know where your children applied. If you want better admissions clarity do not apply to the same 30 or so colleges and 10 or so SLACs which are discussed and argued over ad nauseum here on DCUM. If you get outside of the bubble of those schools clarity is significantly easier to find. If you really want clarity drop down another 10 on the USNWR list for National Universities and below the T20 SLACs. beyond those lines admissions typically becomes significantly clearer.

If you want to apply to the first groups of schools just give it up because you aren't going to get close to what you want given the sub 20% admissions rates for all of them and sub 10% admissions rates for many of them.

You are confused. You do not know where my student applied. Right?

You started out by writing: “We have saved for our kids’ college all their lives. We’d like some clarity, pls. The system is dysfunctional.”

Doesn’t sound like you applied to VCU.

So you don’t know where my kid applied? Right?

What are you trying to prove? You asked DCUM for clarity about college admissions. DCUM responded that admissions is only unclear for about 40 schools. Now you’re angry, protesting that we can’t possibly know your kid applied to one of those schools. Well ok then, but if your kid isn’t applying to one of those schools why are you asking for clarity about how to get accepted to one of those schools?

+1
Outside Top 30-40 schools, it's easy. Once you realize that your life is easier

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I smell a 🧌

Do you think her profile is too "basic"? She says she regrets not picking more creative ECs, although I think her ECs were perfectly suited for her major + demonstrated her passion.

Yeah, I agree there is nothing that stands out in her ECs.

ECs:
not impressive: - A few regional awards (STEM)
Actually good: - 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
everyone has one: - Founder of non-profit
this year AOs don't like research for some reason: - Research w/ prof at T30
everyone has one: - Competitive summer program for BME
everyone has this: - Lots of community service

This year I heard Stanford retracted an acceptance because the applicant lied about volunteer hours.
Are those 200 volunteer hours @ local hospital registered with the school?

Yes, she made sure that everything was registered. I'm assuming the more "basic" ECs were the factor harming her application?

No, it's just a bizarre system that makes kids do these things. In other countries kids don't have to do these admissions acrobatics.

No, other countries instead track kids around age 11/12 (or earlier). You are tracked at this age, based on a one day test. Do well, you can be on tract for pre-med/stem/engineering. Do okay, and you can focus on humanities and social sciences (non stem), do worse, and you won't be tracked for much college at all. And without $$$$$$ it is damn near impossible to get off those tracks.
So yeah, I 1000% prefer what we have, where a kid can grow academically after 5th/6th grade and still decide to be an engineer or a doctor after age 12.

Nah. You can pretty much tell where a kid should be by the end of 6th grade. Pretending that kids can “grow” after that is a waste of everyone’s time and of public resources.

This is so un-American!
I am an immigrant from Asia. What attracts us so much about America is precisely that, as long as you work hard, you always have another opportunity.
Tiger parents often pushed kids hard in their childhood, then the kids lost motivation once they left home.

America doesn’t do everything right. The education system is a perfect example of this! It is a huge waste of time, money, and effort to try and get every kid to go to college. Many kids should be put on a vocational track in high school, as many countries do.

Could not agree more. Open enrollment in Honors and AP classes at our public HS has been an unmitigated disaster for the kids who actually deserve to be there. Tons of kids are literally flunking. It should not even be possible to flunk an AP class. It means someone screwed up somewhere.

Yes, I agree open enrollment into AP courses should not be allowed. Kids should be required to at minimum get a B or better in the honors/honor equivalent course the prior year or an B+ or better in a regular course. But many do allow open enrollment because it means less work for the overworked staff and teachers, it means they don't have to deal with nasty pushy parents who want "my kid belongs in AP X or Honors X, I don't care that they got a C in regular X this year" This way with open enrollment, any failures are totally on the parents/student.

DP. I completely disagree. How does someone else's kid potentially doing badly in an AP affect you or your kid? EVERY student should have the opportunity to excel, and most do. And if they do badly or fail, then it is indeed on them/their parents - no one else is affected.

Because teachers have to teach to the class, and if a group is struggling, they often focus on helping those kids, and that means a different class structure. My kids take AP courses/Honors courses to avoid "the general population"

And with that last sentence, you have shown your true colors, and those of your kids.

My avg kid who hates academics took regular "civics" (1200/3.5UW/no AP kid)---They never studied and had a 99% in the course. Some of the kids in the class were clueless, disruptive and struggled to get a C. They didn't care. So yes, I want my kid in classes where the kids care. And nope, the civics course is so basic and easy, most kids heading to any college can easily get an A. I don't care the level of your kid, but I do expect them to not disrupt class with shenanigans daily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: High stats, great ECs + essays, LORs
- A few regional awards (STEM)
- 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
- Founder of non-profit
- Research w/ prof at T30
- Competitive summer program for BME
- Lots of community service

Grumpy professor here, late the to thread. Maybe she is great. But my spider sense is tingling.

"Great essays?" Is this merely your opinion? Did you pay a college coach or just use ChatGPT?

"Founder of non-profit" Will this non-profit even exist next year?

"Research w/ prof at T30" Did a Ph.D. professor seek your high school daughter to solve it? Or was it a paid program, or family connections?

It seems unlikely that a high school student would know they wanted to major is something specific like biomedical engineering. What a coincidence that are volunteering at a hospital and applying to a top pre-med university like JHU!

I suspect insincerity and a manufactured application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Grumpy professor here, late the to thread. Maybe she is great. But my spider sense is tingling.

It seems unlikely that a high school student would know they wanted to major is something specific like biomedical engineering. What a coincidence that are volunteering at a hospital and applying to a top pre-med university like JHU! I suspect insincerity and a manufactured application.

Hey Sherlock, welcome to the world of selective college admissions. It is no longer how it was in your late Victorian, early Edwardian world.

[Anonymous]

I suspect insincerity and a manufactured application.

All applications are insincere and manufactured. But some do a better job than others of faking sincerity and authenticity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: High stats, great ECs + essays, LORs
- A few regional awards (STEM)
- 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
- Founder of non-profit
- Research w/ prof at T30
- Competitive summer program for BME
- Lots of community service

Grumpy professor here, late the to thread. Maybe she is great. But my spider sense is tingling.

"Great essays?" Is this merely your opinion? Did you pay a college coach or just use ChatGPT?

"Founder of non-profit" Will this non-profit even exist next year?

"Research w/ prof at T30" Did a Ph.D. professor seek your high school daughter to solve it? Or was it a paid program, or family connections?

It seems unlikely that a high school student would know they wanted to major is something specific like biomedical engineering. What a coincidence that are volunteering at a hospital and applying to a top pre-med university like JHU!

I suspect insincerity and a manufactured application.

I am surprised that you don’t have a problem with that summer program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I suspect insincerity and a manufactured application.

All applications are insincere and manufactured. But some do a better job than others of faking sincerity and authenticity.

The best kind of fake sincerity and authenticity is the kind that passes for sincere and authentic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: High stats, great ECs + essays, LORs
- A few regional awards (STEM)
- 200+ volunteer hours @ local hospital
- Founder of non-profit
- Research w/ prof at T30
- Competitive summer program for BME
- Lots of community service

Grumpy professor here, late the to thread. Maybe she is great. But my spider sense is tingling.

"Great essays?" Is this merely your opinion? Did you pay a college coach or just use ChatGPT?

"Founder of non-profit" Will this non-profit even exist next year?

"Research w/ prof at T30" Did a Ph.D. professor seek your high school daughter to solve it? Or was it a paid program, or family connections?

It seems unlikely that a high school student would know they wanted to major is something specific like biomedical engineering. What a coincidence that are volunteering at a hospital and applying to a top pre-med university like JHU!

I suspect insincerity and a manufactured application.

It's not a coincidence at all - of course a student interested in medicine would apply for BME to a place like JHU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:welcome to the world of selective college admissions. It is no longer how it was in your late Victorian, early Edwardian world.

My Victorian parents didn't attend college or high school, nor find me programs, internships, and awards.

The "regional awards" and "competitive summer program" sound like awards for receiving awards. They don't provide incremental information. It reminds me of National Honor Society, which just measures grade point average.

Anonymous wrote:of course a student interested in medicine would apply for BME to a place like JHU

Maybe. But in that case, she has no sincere interest in science or engineering. Is she Florence Nightingale, or Jonas Salk? A true scientist-at-heart would stay in the lab tinkering with experiments. A true healer would skip the lab to help more patients. This girl's resume seems to strategically check boxes. If so, then she might be better off at a small place like William and Mary, free to find her calling.

Interestingly, Johns Hopkins has had a lot of racial variation in admissions.

https://www.unz.com/isteve/johns-hopkins-follows-mit-on-race-quotas/