schools that left a bad taste

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The in-state results coming out of the UCs were the most nonsensical I saw. It certainly left a bad taste.

Agree, they are nonsensical, but then DC got into Berkeley, which made us think they actually read his application.

But many deserving kids were rejected or waitlisted from our southern CA school. Rejected but accepted to Ivies, Hopkins, etc.

Yes, similar situation at my DC’s school. I was prepared for it because I had heard all the stories. But seeing it happen stinks. Lots of kids skipping on rigor got happy news. Meanwhile kids maxing rigor got rejected. Yes, I know they have more applicants than available spots. But so do other schools and they seem to manage this process better. I’ll also say, the way the UCs roll out decisions creates extreme anticipation and stress.

This is unique to CA publics for kids living in CA. The UC system treats honors and AP courses the same when they calculate GPA so kids can game the system. Optimizing for the UC system hurts them if they try to go to Elite schools OOS but if the plan is UC or CSU it can be effective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS HS 2023 3.98/4.5, 10 APs, 1560. CS major (engineering where applicable) We understand there are only so many spots and many deserving applicants.

NEU
EA, deferred, WL. Visited campus. Toured. Submitted paperwork (likely wouldnt have received) for need based FA. Think it was there 1st yr of 100k apps and their current "Chief Enrollment Manager". Whole process just seemed chaotic.

UVA
EA, deferred, WL. Just bitter

CWRU (kid's issue...not mine)
EA, deferred, Accepted w/$30k merit. Ego thing. Toured. Opened every email, etc. Student thought he should have been accepted EA

Pitt
Accepted in September. Toured. No merit. Again, ego thing

SAT scores are excellent; looks like great rigor. But about what rank would a 3.98 put a public high schooler around here? (I'm just asking because Ive seen it thrown around here that 1/2 the class has above a 4.0 & That UVA doesn't consider below a 4.4. I don't even know what "FCPS" stands for)

3.5-3.6UW could very easily be 4.0W. You can can get two Bs or a C each year and achieve that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The in-state results coming out of the UCs were the most nonsensical I saw. It certainly left a bad taste.

Agree, they are nonsensical, but then DC got into Berkeley, which made us think they actually read his application.

But many deserving kids were rejected or waitlisted from our southern CA school. Rejected but accepted to Ivies, Hopkins, etc.

Yes, similar situation at my DC’s school. I was prepared for it because I had heard all the stories. But seeing it happen stinks. Lots of kids skipping on rigor got happy news. Meanwhile kids maxing rigor got rejected. Yes, I know they have more applicants than available spots. But so do other schools and they seem to manage this process better. I’ll also say, the way the UCs roll out decisions creates extreme anticipation and stress.

The UC system used to be so enviable. Now it seems like a reason to not live in California.

No. That’s the wrong take away. Just save $$$$ for private colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First time mom in this process. A lot of wins and a few hard losses. All losses hard but some felt 'cleaner' than others. Some made sense/fair enough and others left a bad taste with seemingly non transparent admissions policies, agressive marketing, all the 'we care about the kids' bs, evident yeild managment, games etc. Anyone else have a bad taste for particular schools or the entire process in general? I have another dc about to apply and man I am not looking forward to it. This are big businesses, they do not 'care about the kids.'

Villanova. Beautiful school but it was very much a business. It's not worth the price tag or the reputation it has, imo. I'm not going to elaborate further.

[Anonymous]

UMD. Terrible admitted student tour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dont understand Ivy Day

I have had two kids get into college ED or SCEA so they were done early.

But both years I've seen so many kids have a good run and then end the process with a bunch of rejections. It puts kids in a mindset that "BC is great, but still have Ivy Day!" or duke or Stanford and then .. nothing.

There are plenty of schools with a bigger app pool and fewer resources who get things out two weeks earlier.

Year after year, it's a drag on these kids. my son said "they like to go last for the aura" but Yale doesn't need more aura.

I don't understand parents encouraging hope for Ivy Day, especially for kids with less selective denials and frankly even for kids with a couple of relatively selective admits. I do agree that it is a sad way to end the whole process though

[Anonymous]

Colorado College was really mixed. Kid wanted to sit in on a class during the visit. We're from the East and were flying out there, so wanted to make the most of it because kid was seriously interested in it for an ED. Admissions told him to reach out to profs individually. He tried over and over. They did not respond. He reached back out to admissions. No help. In the end, after trying 4-5 profs, he finally found one who said yes. It was a whole thing. Meanwhile, the school touts how responsive its profs are to students. One has to wonder. We otherwise really liked the school, but in the end, kid ED'ed elsewhere.

I will say I totally get that profs may not want to deal with high school school students. But in that case, admissions should just say we don't allow class visits. That's fine. But that's not what happened at this school. They literally told us to contact profs so there is an expectation of a response in that situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None. DS was rejected from his reaches and accepted at his safeties and targets. Can't complain.

Same. Rejected from three reaches but admitted to the other 11 schools applied to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. DS was rejected from his reaches and accepted at his safeties and targets. Can't complain.

Same. Rejected from three reaches but admitted to the other 11 schools applied to.

Similar results. Rejected from 3 reaches (but admitted to one!), and admitted to all targets and safeties.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who had to reschedule a grad school visit at Stanford and they were totally confused. What? Reschedule? Nobody had done that to them before, apparently. That was the attitude. My friend, who is brilliant, was completely turned off went elsewhere because they could not get their act together. Their loss.

[Anonymous]

UC admissions is rotten as well as a good number of other aspects of UC administration.

1. State audit finding that several schools, highest count Cal, admitted kids of staff, friends, donors who did not meet A-G and gpa requirements being admitted. Cal in particular had more beyond the someone high up put the kid on the list.
2. Public statements from AOs that we are not seeking the most qualified students or being the school’s valedictorian is scored lower than saying you translated mail for your non English speaking parents.
3. UC offering to road show to other institutions how they use test blind, recommendation blind, recruitment tagging and proxy measures to achieve racial targets while claiming to not use race.
4. Doing away with counselor recommendations or any verification of what is put into applications. A Chinese American girl was dancing around giddy at our school that she got into UCLA claiming she was half AA, applying to an AA studies major, wishing to bridge the gap between Chinese and AA students, made up a web site for her organization and plans to immediately switch to a business major. The other Chinese parents think this was brilliant. Everyone knows that UC doesn’t check so the kids brag and laugh about how badly they lied and cheated to get in.
5. The UCSD study that a good portion of students admitted to majors requiring math courses test in at the elementary or middle school level. This is not just UCSD! DC is at another UC and was surprised that his score on the placement test was more than double his dorm mates scores , he’s social science and they are STEM.
6. UC is so focused on pumping in more FGLI that it is now cheaper for low income students to go to a UC than Cal state. This is increasing costs and reducing resources for kids that meet the basic requirements and belong there.
7. UCs are abusing a loophole for visiting researchers, faculty and students to get around the state restriction on number of non instate students. Research labs are filled with Chinese nationals removing opportunities for regular UC grad students and for the few that get a spot difficult because everyone is speaking Chinese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA waitlist for NoVA student with high rigor/stats. Shouldn’t have to ED to get into your state school.

My NOVA student got in EA. I bet there is something else going on like no world language AP or no AP Lit or a test score that wasn’t 1500+. What were the test scores? Going ED doesn’t really increase your chances. It is literally a straight line of GPA and the highest test score on my DC’s scattergram, regardless of ED or EA. The cut off is the same.

Nope waitlisted with 36 ACT; AP lit, lang, calc BC, physics, us history, world language all 4 years (to AP level); 150+ hours of community service; solid ECs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA waitlist for NoVA student with high rigor/stats. Shouldn’t have to ED to get into your state school.

My NOVA student got in EA. I bet there is something else going on like no world language AP or no AP Lit or a test score that wasn’t 1500+. What were the test scores? Going ED doesn’t really increase your chances. It is literally a straight line of GPA and the highest test score on my DC’s scattergram, regardless of ED or EA. The cut off is the same.

Nope waitlisted with 36 ACT; AP lit, lang, calc BC, physics, us history, world language all 4 years (to AP level); 150+ hours of community service; solid ECs.

Wow that is brutal. Is kid at TJ?

[Anonymous]

Every school that rejected my children. How dare they continue to exist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UC admissions is rotten as well as a good number of other aspects of UC administration.

1. State audit finding that several schools, highest count Cal, admitted kids of staff, friends, donors who did not meet A-G and gpa requirements being admitted. Cal in particular had more beyond the someone high up put the kid on the list.
2. Public statements from AOs that we are not seeking the most qualified students or being the school’s valedictorian is scored lower than saying you translated mail for your non English speaking parents.
3. UC offering to road show to other institutions how they use test blind, recommendation blind, recruitment tagging and proxy measures to achieve racial targets while claiming to not use race.
4. Doing away with counselor recommendations or any verification of what is put into applications. A Chinese American girl was dancing around giddy at our school that she got into UCLA claiming she was half AA, applying to an AA studies major, wishing to bridge the gap between Chinese and AA students, made up a web site for her organization and plans to immediately switch to a business major. The other Chinese parents think this was brilliant. Everyone knows that UC doesn’t check so the kids brag and laugh about how badly they lied and cheated to get in.
5. The UCSD study that a good portion of students admitted to majors requiring math courses test in at the elementary or middle school level. This is not just UCSD! DC is at another UC and was surprised that his score on the placement test was more than double his dorm mates scores , he’s social science and they are STEM.
6. UC is so focused on pumping in more FGLI that it is now cheaper for low income students to go to a UC than Cal state. This is increasing costs and reducing resources for kids that meet the basic requirements and belong there.
7. UCs are abusing a loophole for visiting researchers, faculty and students to get around the state restriction on number of non instate students. Research labs are filled with Chinese nationals removing opportunities for regular UC grad students and for the few that get a spot difficult because everyone is speaking Chinese.

We're CA residents so while this (if verifiable and true) is disappointing, it just means UCs really aren't a "prize" for top students anymore. It's not the intellectual community worth entering.