What regrets to you have to the 2023 college cycle?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feel lucky, no regrets. We were given the advice to go tour/visit safeties first, which was excellent advice. (It helped that this kid was the type to go along with the plan--I know not all would). He got excited about getting into the safeties and that took the pressure off.

My kid had a good but not stellar GPA with a couple C's, mid 1400 SATs, and good EC's and got into some LACS we weren't expecting (he got in everywhere he applied, so maybe we undershot). We are surprised. I think being a boy has to help more than we thought it would.

I wonder this a bit with my DD too. She had a really rough junior year due to some health problems and ended up with half As, half Bs. But strong rigor and very high test scores. Now getting all As in mostly AP classes senior year. Her confidence really took a beating that year and by last summer she didn't want to apply to reachy schools and wanted to get away from the intense/competitive environment of her HS. She'll be going to a mid-range LAC that I think has a lot of great things for her but is definitely a different environment and it will be an adjustment. Through talking with other potential students there it's been eye opening to her how different other kids' HS experiences have been. From our interactions with the school I think she will get a plenty rigorous academic experience but with a more chill student body and I think that will be good for her but she's feeling a little apprehensive at this point. But, I'm sure she'd feel apprehensive about any choice right now, since that's her typical MO!

There will be plenty of rigor at LACs in that range. There are many excellent students now opting out of the insanity that is the top30 for lower-ranked schools that have a ton of merit aid. I know kids with straight As who did ED into t50-100 schools and got a ton of merit aid.

What is mid range? In terms of US News ranking

In the 70-80 range. She mainly applied to those lesser-known LACs with >50% acceptance rates.

[Anonymous]

Sorry the formatting messed up. What I wanted to say is that there will be plenty of rigor at the T50-100 range. There are a lot of excellent students who are opting out of the T30 insanity and focusing on T50-100 (I know several). They are getting enormous merit aid packages and an environment not filled with Tracy Flicks. I think it will be a good match.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry the formatting messed up. What I wanted to say is that there will be plenty of rigor at the T50-100 range. There are a lot of excellent students who are opting out of the T30 insanity and focusing on T50-100 (I know several). They are getting enormous merit aid packages and an environment not filled with Tracy Flicks. I think it will be a good match.

It really is a good way to go for many. Keep in mind that 1400 SAT is ~95%, so your kid with a 1580/99% is not that much different than the other kid. Both are really smart and there will be highly motivated smart kids at the T50-100 schools. They will typically get good merit, sometimes excellent, and have the opportunity to shine at the top vs being in a group where everyone has 1550+ and 4.0+.
Much better environment for most kids, imo. And smart to get undergrad for minimal costs and save the money for grad school

[Anonymous]

I would have encouraged DC to play the "intended major" game more strategically - pick a major in the college you want that isn't as popular (e.g. for a girl, choose chem or physics instead of bio) and then just do what you want once you're there. Obviously doesn't work for schools that direct admit to a major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry the formatting messed up. What I wanted to say is that there will be plenty of rigor at the T50-100 range. There are a lot of excellent students who are opting out of the T30 insanity and focusing on T50-100 (I know several). They are getting enormous merit aid packages and an environment not filled with Tracy Flicks. I think it will be a good match.

It really is a good way to go for many. Keep in mind that 1400 SAT is ~95%, so your kid with a 1580/99% is not that much different than the other kid. Both are really smart and there will be highly motivated smart kids at the T50-100 schools. They will typically get good merit, sometimes excellent, and have the opportunity to shine at the top vs being in a group where everyone has 1550+ and 4.0+.
Much better environment for most kids, imo. And smart to get undergrad for minimal costs and save the money for grad school

We chose T30 over T50 LAC at twice the cost (due to merit aid). We we didn’t really choose because of ED. We have the money so it’s not a big deal but half the cost was very tempting.

[Anonymous]

Tracy Flick 😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry the formatting messed up. What I wanted to say is that there will be plenty of rigor at the T50-100 range. There are a lot of excellent students who are opting out of the T30 insanity and focusing on T50-100 (I know several). They are getting enormous merit aid packages and an environment not filled with Tracy Flicks. I think it will be a good match.

It really is a good way to go for many. Keep in mind that 1400 SAT is ~95%, so your kid with a 1580/99% is not that much different than the other kid. Both are really smart and there will be highly motivated smart kids at the T50-100 schools. They will typically get good merit, sometimes excellent, and have the opportunity to shine at the top vs being in a group where everyone has 1550+ and 4.0+.
Much better environment for most kids, imo. And smart to get undergrad for minimal costs and save the money for grad school

We chose T30 over T50 LAC at twice the cost (due to merit aid). We we didn’t really choose because of ED. We have the money so it’s not a big deal but half the cost was very tempting.

ok

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have encouraged DC to play the "intended major" game more strategically - pick a major in the college you want that isn't as popular (e.g. for a girl, choose chem or physics instead of bio) and then just do what you want once you're there. Obviously doesn't work for schools that direct admit to a major.

Hence why this approach does not work at most schools that are difficult to gain admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have encouraged DC to play the "intended major" game more strategically - pick a major in the college you want that isn't as popular (e.g. for a girl, choose chem or physics instead of bio) and then just do what you want once you're there. Obviously doesn't work for schools that direct admit to a major.

I've read applications. Readers look for classes and extracurriculars that support the proposed major.

[Anonymous]

Regret #1: Wasting our ED.

Regret #2: Deferring oversight to counselor….he was late on all his deliverables, crammed in his essays and is now paying the price. Brutal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We hired a Test prep tutor. Big waste.

Huge waste for us too. Unless your child is motivated, a one-on-one tutor will not make a difference because SO much work still needs to be done independently. We used a local test prep tutoring place with great reviews, and I could tell almost immediately that it would not go well. For the second child, we tried a tutor on Wyzant, and as soon as I could see that it was headed in the same direction (with hours and hours of independent work being scheduled), we pulled the plug. I'm not saying it's a waste for everyone--if you have a motivated child, you would probably have different results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m advising my next kid to fight for every half grade in every class. Not a lot of room for error with grades.

Teachers will hate your child.

Not a smart thing to teach them for college either.

Caitlin Flanagan writes about exactly this during her time teaching at Harvard-Westlake in an essay called “They Had it Coming,” in the Atlantic Monthly.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/what-college-admissions-scandal-reveals/586468/

[Anonymous]

After going through this with DC 1 in 2019 and DC 2 in 2022, I am bound and determined that DC 3 WILL get the bulk of their essays done over the summer before senior year. It is so freaking stressful otherwise, especially having had the older two in rigorous HS programs with time-consuming ECs/work obligations.

Same goes for test prep and testing -- get it done during summer before junior year with the aim to knock the test out of the park and be one and done junior year. (I'm not a believer that TO helps most kids, unless they truly are terrible test-takers; I also have seen what studying for the tests can do to raise scores.)

[Anonymous]

Some of the net price calculators are totally bunk. One was off by 30k. So DS applied to some schools that, had we known what he price would be, we wouldn’t have let him waste his time or theirs. That said, not sure what we would do differently. There was no way to tell it was going to be so far off.

If you are looking for advice, visit as many as you can but don’t rank them. Just put them in the “apply” or “won’t apply” buckets. My DS grew up a lot senior year. What he wanted in a school end of junior year is not what he wanted end of senior year. Really glad we didn’t ED. It would have made the decision easier when acceptances came out but don’t think he’d have been as happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry the formatting messed up. What I wanted to say is that there will be plenty of rigor at the T50-100 range. There are a lot of excellent students who are opting out of the T30 insanity and focusing on T50-100 (I know several). They are getting enormous merit aid packages and an environment not filled with Tracy Flicks. I think it will be a good match.

100% this ^^