Colleges for the slow-to-mature kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of posters complain about how their kids are "bad at taking tests" and therefore have a low SAT/ACT score but decent GPA. Colleges are now allowing test optional applications to address this (thanks to Corona mostly). Great for those parents/kids!

What about kids who didn't do well in 9th and 10th grades academically but got their acts together in 11th/12th? Say they end up with a weighted GPA in the 3.7-4.0 range but end up with a 1550+ in the SATs in junior/senior year. Basically, a good trajectory. Assuming these are male, White or Asian kids that want to do Engineering/CS with no legacy/hooks/sports. Are they pretty much fuc*ed? Will any "top school" touch them?

Would like to hear about schools that really look into the application and select such kids as well as personal experiences. Not interested in "you can get a great education at any school" posts, please.

I totally agree, there are so many families that are MC/college educated parents but either do not follow the current cultural trend of helicoptering or there are issues in the family-like medical or mental illness, substance use, cheating and so on where the parents are not helicoptering and very smart kids who also do not follow the trend of competitiveness can totally slack off and go through school, with Cs and Bs and when they finally figure out at 16 they want to do well in school their time has passed...its really sad our kids are the generation of no second chances...zoning out in grade 9 or 10 , wrong text message sent can basically define your life for a long time.....

I see a lot of crap on this forum about how American education is "superior", "holistic" admissions is best, yada, yada and talking down on Chinese and Indian systems where all that matters (for the most part) is one entrance exam. This exam is taken by students in grade 12 and you have enough notice and time to prep, etc. Unlike in the US if you don't do well in ALL 4 years of High school you are screwed. Why is that not a better system? Why not have customized exams for each area of study and have the kids compete after 12th grade. Make sure all the money and time people spend on made-up ECs and nonsense participation trophies on travel sports goes towards funding prep for under-privileged kids? Wouldn't that level the playing field? No issues with "slow to mature" or "under priviliged" or "URM". All would have the same level of prep available to them. Of course, colleges can't hide behind the "holistic" veil and do what they want will not like this and the college prep industry that reads the tea leaves on behalf of parents will be out of business.

There is rampant cheating on the exams in India and China. This is well known but as it favors people already in power, is largely ignored.

There's cheating everywhere. Don't kid yourself that there isn't. However, there is close to zero cheating in the entrance exams. They are timed and it would be very difficult to cheat on them even if you were working on them from home.

What? No, there is rampant cheating in the entrance exams. Professional test takers with fake IDs, bribed administrators, etc. The list of mechanism is long. How can you know enough about the Chinese and Indian systems to advocate for them but also not know about the corruption?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see a lot of posters complain about how their kids are "bad at taking tests" and therefore have a low SAT/ACT score but decent GPA. Colleges are now allowing test optional applications to address this (thanks to Corona mostly). Great for those parents/kids!

What about kids who didn't do well in 9th and 10th grades academically but got their acts together in 11th/12th? Say they end up with a weighted GPA in the 3.7-4.0 range but end up with a 1550+ in the SATs in junior/senior year. Basically, a good trajectory. Assuming these are male, White or Asian kids that want to do Engineering/CS with no legacy/hooks/sports. Are they pretty much fuc*ed? Will any "top school" touch them?

Would like to hear about schools that really look into the application and select such kids as well as personal experiences. Not interested in "you can get a great education at any school" posts, please.

I totally agree, there are so many families that are MC/college educated parents but either do not follow the current cultural trend of helicoptering or there are issues in the family-like medical or mental illness, substance use, cheating and so on where the parents are not helicoptering and very smart kids who also do not follow the trend of competitiveness can totally slack off and go through school, with Cs and Bs and when they finally figure out at 16 they want to do well in school their time has passed...its really sad our kids are the generation of no second chances...zoning out in grade 9 or 10 , wrong text message sent can basically define your life for a long time.....

Except that's not really true. Not being able to attend a Top20 school is not 'defining your life'--the vast majority of people don't get to do that. The US has so many roads to a good college, and you can go to a mediocre school and get into a top graduate program. You can go to community college and transfer into world class institutions. Really it's one of the most flexible higher ed systems anywhere.

+100
As someone with family in other countries where whether you go to college or not can be decided by middle school, the US system is one of the most flexible and lenient. A kid with B's and C's can still go to college. Your kid will be fine. Also "wrong text message sent"? I guess teach your kids not to be racist??