Our Current Situation - Not thrilled

[Anonymous]

We are proud and express openly our pride about his current admissions but I feel like I am allowed to vent about the deferral and Boulder situation bc we thought he would have a better outcome at those 2 schools and it makes us leery of the ones to come (which are all statistically harder admits for CS). Just reading the tea leaves and upset that he worked so hard, honestly and truly loves and is gifted in CS and is realistically looking at more deferrals and denials. It sucks for ALL our hardworking kids; a lot of us are in this high stat, high demand major admission crap shoot.

Putting the Boulder situation in context your OP makes sense. It is interesting. I wonder if they give priority to instate kids for the program.

[Anonymous]

He sounds like he will be a perfect fit at Rice. Sending positive thoughts.
My bright student who was never super academic and scored well by hustling loves Rice. Surrounded by hardworking peers who are kind and collaborative, she is now joining study groups, seeking out help if she struggles on a hard problem set, taking harder courses on her own, and generally taking care of her wellbeing.

Anonymous wrote:The Facts:
Son UW GPA 4.0. NEVER made below an A (even middle school). WGA 4.5 (only classes that are weighted are AP level) Top 1% class (everyone with a 4.0 gets rank of 1 so % rank based on WGPA)
9 APs total after Senior year including good mix of science (AP Physics 1,2 and C), math (Calc BC), computer science, humanities (history, government)....
1550 SAT one sitting May of junior year (balanced math/verbal score)
Attends specialized engineering courses through CC and Magnet program
Eagle Scout with lots of leadership positions and projects through the scouting program
Lots of EC focused on computer science that he does because he loves them and does totally on his own (has website blog with details of all projects that is very well written)
Community service since 9th grade (even through covid) at same organization - has many hours
Awesome LOR from computer science teacher and AP physics teacher and community leader
Coherent, funny, on topic essays

Deferred Purdue CS
Offered Exploratory Studies CU Boulder
Admitted to Pitt CS and GMU CS with honors
Admitted to VCU CS

Waiting to hear from GT, UT Austin, Wisconsin Madison, U Washington, Rice and not expecting good results based on the deferral and exploratory studies garbage can offer.

If choices end up being Pitt, GMU or VCU so be it but that seems ridiculous. She has so much potential. Pitt seems to be the winner so far

[Anonymous]

Re Colorado -

What about School of Mines? It is a great school and not really talked about on the east coast.

https://cs.mines.edu/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You say son and then she later on.

Big difference if girl or boy in that major.

Eagle scout=boy.

Agree. DUH!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Facts:
Son UW GPA 4.0. NEVER made below an A (even middle school). WGA 4.5 (only classes that are weighted are AP level) Top 1% class (everyone with a 4.0 gets rank of 1 so % rank based on WGPA)
9 APs total after Senior year including good mix of science (AP Physics 1,2 and C), math (Calc BC), computer science, humanities (history, government)....
1550 SAT one sitting May of junior year (balanced math/verbal score)
Attends specialized engineering courses through CC and Magnet program
Eagle Scout with lots of leadership positions and projects through the scouting program
Lots of EC focused on computer science that he does because he loves them and does totally on his own (has website blog with details of all projects that is very well written)
Community service since 9th grade (even through covid) at same organization - has many hours
Awesome LOR from computer science teacher and AP physics teacher and community leader
Coherent, funny, on topic essays

Deferred Purdue CS
Offered Exploratory Studies CU Boulder
Admitted to Pitt CS and GMU CS with honors
Admitted to VCU CS

Waiting to hear from GT, UT Austin, Wisconsin Madison, U Washington, Rice and not expecting good results based on the deferral and exploratory studies garbage can offer.

If choices end up being Pitt, GMU or VCU so be it but that seems ridiculous. She has so much potential. Pitt seems to be the winner so far

1. Stop borrowing trouble.
2. He’ll do great at any of these schools.
3. You should realize there are LOTS of applications that look like his.

#3 x1000. There are 188 kids in my son's classs; at least 8 classmates have perfect unweighted 4.0s that are even higher when you add AP classes, and while I don't know their SAT scores I suspect they're all in the 1550ish range. Everything else is sort of "expected" and Eagle Scout is not the big deal that many parents think it is (there are more than 50,000 every year.)

He has a lot of wonderful choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we applied to many of the same schools with very similar results, with slightly lower stats. DS said no thanks to CU Boulder, as he is very pointy in CS.

You can still apply to WPI RD. Thats where DS ended up. Girls get decent merit, boys less so.

WPI===probably should have been on their list originally. This is exactly why my kid targeted "smaller schools" (not Purdue, CU, etc) and only schools where you can select your major after being accepted. Way to stressful to be forced to declare major while in HS and not be able to switch into something else if you so desire after freshman year.

With those stats, your son needs (needed) to show demonstrated interest everywhere! Schools need to think they are his first choice, not safety

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the issue? One deferral so far means what exactly? In at four...one should never apply to a school they would not be happy to attend so what is the issue with the acceptances as they are all good schools? No VA school was acceptable? Surmising here since applied only to VCU and GMU when those stats are solid for consideration at every VA school. Seem like the plan is working out fine so far for schools applied to with other decisions forthcoming.

Yeah, this is the weird part. Why no Virginia Tech or UVA? It's such a weird selection of schools.
Your kid could have thrown their hat in the ring for any school in the USA with those stats but they chose an odd selection.

35 years ago I wanted engineering and did not apply to VaTech or UVA---I wanted to get OOS and really at that point there were many many many engineering/CS schools that were way better. But mainly, I wanted to go somewhere other than in VA for college. So it's not really that strange to not apply in state

[Anonymous]

Deferred doesn't mean rejected. If the OP's kid REALLY wants to go to Purdue, then the full court press with admissions on interest should have taken place yesterday.

While an acceptance was the obvious desired outcome, there's still a chance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all OP, this is extremely rude. There are so many students who have worked so hard and every bit as capable as your child (boy or girl? Who knows?) who do not have these acceptances. Second of all, what kind of high school are we talking about? GPAs vary so much and the top ranked college programs know that a 4.0 at one school—especially one that calls more than the top 1% the top 1%, that makes no sense—is very different than a more rigorous school. Your kid has great choices. Stop making him or her feel bad.

Why are you and some of the rest such as--holes. OP is allowed to be disappointed. OP is allowed to vent. These kids kill themselves for 4 years in the hopes that they'll get into dream schools. Your kids do it too. All kids do it. When that doesn't happen, some roll with it. Some are upset. And there is nothing bad about that. (And yes, parent feelings are valid. We are the ones watching them kill themselves).

If you don't have something constructive to say. If you can't empathize nicely. Then just shut the EF up. I'm sick of the piling on, nasty, judgmental responses to valid feelings on here.

This is the problem. Kids should not be "killing themselves" for something that rarely works out.
Since this "killing" starts at age 13 in quite a few kids it is at least initially parent driven.
Parents should know better.
It's so warped.

Agree! My kids worked hard but they did not “kill themselves.” Sleep and balance were important to us.

Balance is key. We found that decisions should not be 100% made on "aiming for elite universities/any universities". Don't take AP Eng/AP FL/APUSH/APCalcBC/etc just to check a box---take courses that interest you and won't overwhelm you so you don't get any sleep. Maintain rigor, but that doesn't have to mean 6 AP per year.
My kid skipped APUSH/AP Eng and focused on STEM APs as a future engineer. Only reason they would have taken the APUSH/AP eng was to get out of it in college. Well, turns out their ultimate top 2 choices come April do NOT give AP credit for "core curriculum" classes---you gotta take them at the university. So my kid was extremely happy with the decision to focus on STEM AP (4 each year Jr/Sr) and skip the others and then have time for 20-25 hour/week for their outside school EC. My kid was happier, less stressed and got 5 hours of sleep each night (not 2-3 which would have happened if they added the other APs). Got into 2 T40 schools, got deferred/rejected at T10 and WL at T30. Maybe the extra APs would have gotten them in, but I doubt it---fact is acceptance rates are less than 10%. My kid had a more balanced HS experience because of this and is happy where they landed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd be irked by the exploration studies, but it isn't actually a roadblock for this student at CU Boulder. The student would simply need a high first year GPA to get into the major there.

Risky to do, and I'd disagree and say it is a roadblock---what if your kid struggles at college (for whatever reason), or there isn't enough space and they never get into the CS(or whatever) major. Silly to pay OOS tuition and risk not being able to major in what you want. Or needing 5 years to get the courses you want---which can easily happen at CU if you are not direct admit to a STEM major/CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all OP, this is extremely rude. There are so many students who have worked so hard and every bit as capable as your child (boy or girl? Who knows?) who do not have these acceptances. Second of all, what kind of high school are we talking about? GPAs vary so much and the top ranked college programs know that a 4.0 at one school—especially one that calls more than the top 1% the top 1%, that makes no sense—is very different than a more rigorous school. Your kid has great choices. Stop making him or her feel bad.

Why are you and some of the rest such as--holes. OP is allowed to be disappointed. OP is allowed to vent. These kids kill themselves for 4 years in the hopes that they'll get into dream schools. Your kids do it too. All kids do it. When that doesn't happen, some roll with it. Some are upset. And there is nothing bad about that. (And yes, parent feelings are valid. We are the ones watching them kill themselves).

If you don't have something constructive to say. If you can't empathize nicely. Then just shut the EF up. I'm sick of the piling on, nasty, judgmental responses to valid feelings on here.

Sorry but I disagree. If your kid goes into the process with one dream school, you are asking for trouble. Not saying that parents can control that, but OP sounds like he himself does not have things in perspective. We are supposed to be the role models, helping them navigate their first big decision.

My kid realized every school has strengths and weaknesses, so she chose her favorite among the choices before her. That is what this can look like.

+1

The kid wants a CS degree---he can literally get that anywhere and do extremely well in life. Our job as parents should be to set the expectations for the college process---that it's a crap shoot for anything in the T40-50. That you need to cast a wide net and have true safeties that you show extreme demonstrated interest, so they don't yield protect you. Realize that you might only get into 2-3 schools out of 10 if they all have acceptance rates below 20-25%. So help them pick ones that have better acceptance rates, that are NOT direct admit to the elite majors---there are excellent STEM/CS/Eng schools that are not direct admit with acceptance rates over 30-40%. Having the right list of colleges to apply to helps, and that's our job as parents to help them create. If you do that, you will have some great choices come April.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all OP, this is extremely rude. There are so many students who have worked so hard and every bit as capable as your child (boy or girl? Who knows?) who do not have these acceptances. Second of all, what kind of high school are we talking about? GPAs vary so much and the top ranked college programs know that a 4.0 at one school—especially one that calls more than the top 1% the top 1%, that makes no sense—is very different than a more rigorous school. Your kid has great choices. Stop making him or her feel bad.

Why are you and some of the rest such as--holes. OP is allowed to be disappointed. OP is allowed to vent. These kids kill themselves for 4 years in the hopes that they'll get into dream schools. Your kids do it too. All kids do it. When that doesn't happen, some roll with it. Some are upset. And there is nothing bad about that. (And yes, parent feelings are valid. We are the ones watching them kill themselves).

If you don't have something constructive to say. If you can't empathize nicely. Then just shut the EF up. I'm sick of the piling on, nasty, judgmental responses to valid feelings on here.

Sorry but I disagree. If your kid goes into the process with one dream school, you are asking for trouble. Not saying that parents can control that, but OP sounds like he himself does not have things in perspective. We are supposed to be the role models, helping them navigate their first big decision.

My kid realized every school has strengths and weaknesses, so she chose her favorite among the choices before her. That is what this can look like.

+1

The kid wants a CS degree---he can literally get that anywhere and do extremely well in life. Our job as parents should be to set the expectations for the college process---that it's a crap shoot for anything in the T40-50. That you need to cast a wide net and have true safeties that you show extreme demonstrated interest, so they don't yield protect you. Realize that you might only get into 2-3 schools out of 10 if they all have acceptance rates below 20-25%. So help them pick ones that have better acceptance rates, that are NOT direct admit to the elite majors---there are excellent STEM/CS/Eng schools that are not direct admit with acceptance rates over 30-40%. Having the right list of colleges to apply to helps, and that's our job as parents to help them create. If you do that, you will have some great choices come April.

Yes.

And in the end you can only go to ONE school, bruised ego aside on some of the deferrals and rejections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Facts:
Son UW GPA 4.0. NEVER made below an A (even middle school). WGA 4.5 (only classes that are weighted are AP level) Top 1% class (everyone with a 4.0 gets rank of 1 so % rank based on WGPA)
9 APs total after Senior year including good mix of science (AP Physics 1,2 and C), math (Calc BC), computer science, humanities (history, government)....
1550 SAT one sitting May of junior year (balanced math/verbal score)
Attends specialized engineering courses through CC and Magnet program
Eagle Scout with lots of leadership positions and projects through the scouting program
Lots of EC focused on computer science that he does because he loves them and does totally on his own (has website blog with details of all projects that is very well written)
Community service since 9th grade (even through covid) at same organization - has many hours
Awesome LOR from computer science teacher and AP physics teacher and community leader
Coherent, funny, on topic essays

Deferred Purdue CS
Offered Exploratory Studies CU Boulder
Admitted to Pitt CS and GMU CS with honors
Admitted to VCU CS

Waiting to hear from GT, UT Austin, Wisconsin Madison, U Washington, Rice and not expecting good results based on the deferral and exploratory studies garbage can offer.

If choices end up being Pitt, GMU or VCU so be it but that seems ridiculous. She has so much potential. Pitt seems to be the winner so far

1. Stop borrowing trouble.
2. He’ll do great at any of these schools.
3. You should realize there are LOTS of applications that look like his.

#3 x1000. There are 188 kids in my son's classs; at least 8 classmates have perfect unweighted 4.0s that are even higher when you add AP classes, and while I don't know their SAT scores I suspect they're all in the 1550ish range. Everything else is sort of "expected" and Eagle Scout is not the big deal that many parents think it is (there are more than 50,000 every year.)

He has a lot of wonderful choices.

You suspect do you? There you go, case closed. Looking at Naviance at my kids MCPS HS, I see about 4-5 kids (total) in the last few years with SAT scores that high. Lots of kids with 4.0s and a lot of APs though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Facts:
Son UW GPA 4.0. NEVER made below an A (even middle school). WGA 4.5 (only classes that are weighted are AP level) Top 1% class (everyone with a 4.0 gets rank of 1 so % rank based on WGPA)
9 APs total after Senior year including good mix of science (AP Physics 1,2 and C), math (Calc BC), computer science, humanities (history, government)....
1550 SAT one sitting May of junior year (balanced math/verbal score)
Attends specialized engineering courses through CC and Magnet program
Eagle Scout with lots of leadership positions and projects through the scouting program
Lots of EC focused on computer science that he does because he loves them and does totally on his own (has website blog with details of all projects that is very well written)
Community service since 9th grade (even through covid) at same organization - has many hours
Awesome LOR from computer science teacher and AP physics teacher and community leader
Coherent, funny, on topic essays

Deferred Purdue CS
Offered Exploratory Studies CU Boulder
Admitted to Pitt CS and GMU CS with honors
Admitted to VCU CS

Waiting to hear from GT, UT Austin, Wisconsin Madison, U Washington, Rice and not expecting good results based on the deferral and exploratory studies garbage can offer.

If choices end up being Pitt, GMU or VCU so be it but that seems ridiculous. She has so much potential. Pitt seems to be the winner so far

1. Stop borrowing trouble.
2. He’ll do great at any of these schools.
3. You should realize there are LOTS of applications that look like his.

#3 x1000. There are 188 kids in my son's classs; at least 8 classmates have perfect unweighted 4.0s that are even higher when you add AP classes, and while I don't know their SAT scores I suspect they're all in the 1550ish range. Everything else is sort of "expected" and Eagle Scout is not the big deal that many parents think it is (there are more than 50,000 every year.)

He has a lot of wonderful choices.

+1

I’m really not seeing the problem here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the issue? One deferral so far means what exactly? In at four...one should never apply to a school they would not be happy to attend so what is the issue with the acceptances as they are all good schools? No VA school was acceptable? Surmising here since applied only to VCU and GMU when those stats are solid for consideration at every VA school. Seem like the plan is working out fine so far for schools applied to with other decisions forthcoming.

Yeah, this is the weird part. Why no Virginia Tech or UVA? It's such a weird selection of schools.
Your kid could have thrown their hat in the ring for any school in the USA with those stats but they chose an odd selection.

35 years ago I wanted engineering and did not apply to VaTech or UVA---I wanted to get OOS and really at that point there were many many many engineering/CS schools that were way better. But mainly, I wanted to go somewhere other than in VA for college. So it's not really that strange to not apply in state

But he *did* apply to VA schools - just not VT or UVA. So clearly, staying instate wasn’t an issue for him.
DP