Rejections

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think UVA is more unpredictable than has a hard floor. Plenty of kids with more average stats get in since its a public school and they’re supposed to educate students from the state. Could be worse. Could be like the UCs where it seems like they pick names out of a hat. And that’s how you get UCSDs whole math score fiasco

I completely agree with this assessment. DC (FCPS) was accepted to UCSD and we toured and were so unimpressed by the school, the students, the tour guide - all of it. I know it is highly ranked, but cannot figure out how.

It is a concrete jungle that happens to be near the ocean. I was shocked when we drove around the campus. Can’t speak to the quality of education, supposed to be good for STEM.

[Anonymous]

No rejections yet, but feeling badly because we didn’t let DS apply to any really high end private schools and is watching classmates get into Stanford etc. Donut hole family and he is the third born. The other two went to state flagships with merit money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No rejections yet, but feeling badly because we didn’t let DS apply to any really high end private schools and is watching classmates get into Stanford etc. Donut hole family and he is the third born. The other two went to state flagships with merit money.

I just can’t believe that all these families at our public school have $400k for tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No rejections yet, but feeling badly because we didn’t let DS apply to any really high end private schools and is watching classmates get into Stanford etc. Donut hole family and he is the third born. The other two went to state flagships with merit money.

I just can’t believe that all these families at our public school have $400k for tuition.

We are a public school family and have about 300K saved per kid. I encouraged our kid to chase merit aid, which should keep us under 300K for 4 years. Top 50 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No rejections yet, but feeling badly because we didn’t let DS apply to any really high end private schools and is watching classmates get into Stanford etc. Donut hole family and he is the third born. The other two went to state flagships with merit money.

Why would you feel badly about this? You are hanging around with the wrong crowd. Paying for a college education (ANY college education) is a huge gift to your child as is safeguarding your own financial future, while teaching child financial responsibility, tradeoffs and the value of money. $400k educations are incredibly overrated on this site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No rejections yet, but feeling badly because we didn’t let DS apply to any really high end private schools and is watching classmates get into Stanford etc. Donut hole family and he is the third born. The other two went to state flagships with merit money.

Why would you feel badly about this? You are hanging around with the wrong crowd. Paying for a college education (ANY college education) is a huge gift to your child as is safeguarding your own financial future, while teaching child financial responsibility, tradeoffs and the value of money. $400k educations are incredibly overrated on this site.

Yes, you are right, thanks for the reality check. Our high school (mcps) is a bit of a pressure cooker.

[Anonymous]

DS1 is in grad school now, fully funded. One of the interview questions was: tell us why we should invest $500k + in you.

I’m trying to think of undergrad the same way — as an investment. What are you getting for that $100k to $400k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think UVA is more unpredictable than has a hard floor. Plenty of kids with more average stats get in since its a public school and they’re supposed to educate students from the state. Could be worse. Could be like the UCs where it seems like they pick names out of a hat. And that’s how you get UCSDs whole math score fiasco

I completely agree with this assessment. DC (FCPS) was accepted to UCSD and we toured and were so unimpressed by the school, the students, the tour guide - all of it. I know it is highly ranked, but cannot figure out how.

It is a concrete jungle that happens to be near the ocean. I was shocked when we drove around the campus. Can’t speak to the quality of education, supposed to be good for STEM.

Agree, the campus is very disjointed, ugly and disappointing. Go two blocks off campus, however, and it’s beautiful ocean and La Jolla.

[Anonymous]

Only flat out reject so far is UGA. Waitlisted at NYU. Deferred at Clemson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think UVA is more unpredictable than has a hard floor. Plenty of kids with more average stats get in since its a public school and they’re supposed to educate students from the state. Could be worse. Could be like the UCs where it seems like they pick names out of a hat. And that’s how you get UCSDs whole math score fiasco

I completely agree with this assessment. DC (FCPS) was accepted to UCSD and we toured and were so unimpressed by the school, the students, the tour guide - all of it. I know it is highly ranked, but cannot figure out how.

It is a concrete jungle that happens to be near the ocean. I was shocked when we drove around the campus. Can’t speak to the quality of education, supposed to be good for STEM.

Agree, the campus is very disjointed, ugly and disappointing. Go two blocks off campus, however, and it’s beautiful ocean and La Jolla.

The answer, from this so cal person, is that east coast kids have a mythical ideal of what west colleges might be like and stupidly fall in love without having any idea of what they are getting into (traffic, cars, fires, earthquakes, traffic jams, overtaxation in CA, extreme travel costs, especially to bring in family for Graduation) and never even study quality of education. “Going west” in my book is stupid. I grew up on the west coast, went to a failing SLAC out there and Yale law. There is no reason to go through the expense and hassle to do undergrad out west. None. And no, you can’t ski in the morning and surf in the afternoon as the Claremont colleges want to brag. I returned from Riverside yesterday. You do not want to drive that …. Ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only flat out reject so far is UGA. Waitlisted at NYU. Deferred at Clemson.

Interesting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deferred from UVA. Very unlikely admit as kid has a B in AP Physics 2 and AP Calc BC in senior year so far. Has 5 acceptances so far, but not really excited about any of them. Struggling for other RD options. Looking for a smaller engineering program within a larger campus with athletics, clubs, etc. VT is second choice, but really concerned about the size of the engineering program and getting lost. UVA was just right. Sigh. Does not want a smaller, technical school like WPI or Rose. Limited to east coast and possibly mid-west. Any suggestions? 3.8 uw / 4.3 w/1460 SAT

I would give VT serious consideration. People seem to find their place there somehow so even though it’s large, maybe they have the size well designed.

What about Purdue or Indiana? My brother is a ME and looked at all of the Midwest schools, so those come to mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No rejections yet, but feeling badly because we didn’t let DS apply to any really high end private schools and is watching classmates get into Stanford etc. Donut hole family and he is the third born. The other two went to state flagships with merit money.

I just can’t believe that all these families at our public school have $400k for tuition.

Well believe it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only flat out reject so far is UGA. Waitlisted at NYU. Deferred at Clemson.

We were also flat out rejected by UGA (were well within the ranges for test scores and GPA should have been fine) and deferred at Clemson.

I think these schools are getting absolutely inundated with applications.

[Anonymous]

Deferred Tennessee (top choice) and Clemson.

Brutal year for Tennessee admits at our Virginia Catholic HS. 1390 and 3.8w.