Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS got into both Georgetown and Notre Dame early 2 weeks ago (and 42 minutes apart). He's leaning towards Georgetown, but still waiting for 19 other decision to come out by April before making his decision. Biochem major, with pre-med.

Really? 19 more schools on top of Georgetown and Notre Dame? Unless you are shopping for aid, this is a problem....

This is why the common app culture is such a bad thing.

Kids like this are wasting admissions offices time and causing perfectly qualified kids to get rejections and deferraps, just so they can brag on social media about how many acceptances they received.

Wow, the hate is strong in this one. But he's secure enough in what he's doing and has planned how to go about his college application journey. His stats and talents warrant him giving it a go and seeing if he can be selected and then making a meaningful choice from amongst as many schools as he would like to attend. I believe that's a basic free market principle. Your notion that he's worked as hard as he has and has excelled to the point that he has just so he brag on social media about it is kind of funny in that you'll never know who he is, or ultimatley how many acceptances he receives or from where.

Perhaps your issue might be more palpably directed to applicants who have no realistic shot in being accepted to the schools they check off on Common App and Coalition, who select test optional and have been so coddled by their parents and others to believe they are so uniquely qualified and ought to somehow defy the odds and get into a school where 19 out of 20 are ultimately denied. If you truly have a concern about him taking spots from other "perfectly qualified kids", then clearly, those other kids will get acceptances to schools...at many places he ultimatley will not. So I guess, using some sort of transitive thought here, maybe those other kids should not have applied to those schools because they would cause my DS to be either deferred or denied a spot at those schools.

But really, who needs logic and sense these days?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS got into both Georgetown and Notre Dame early 2 weeks ago (and 42 minutes apart). He's leaning towards Georgetown, but still waiting for 19 other decision to come out by April before making his decision. Biochem major, with pre-med.

19 more schools?! Congrats to your DS. Georgetown is a great school. Very good medical school placement outcomes.

19 schools is right! Good job hoodwinking Notre Dame, because this is the opposite of the kind of applicant they are looking for. For that reason, Georgetown is a better fit.

Georgetown may or may not be a better fit. It's simply where he's leaning to right now given his current options (only 2 options plus a state university). We're not even Catholic, if that's of any relevance, so the entire "is it still a real Catholic school anymore" debate is irrelevant to us. Also, I went to Georgetown for both undergrad and law school and in reality, and I got the sense that it had a Catholic air about it (at least from my standards), but I do think it's lost some of that over the years. When they hired DeGoia (their first non-Jesuit president) about 20 years, it signified a change.

As for Notre Dame, from what I understand of it, it does really maintain much more of a traditional Catholic feel. Again, irrelevant to us, but I can see why that would be a positive or a minus for someone. I'm waiting to see if my DS gets one of their merit scholarships ($25,000 a year). If so, that might make the decision between these two schools tilt towards ND.

Then again, we wait and see what happens in March and April.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS got into both Georgetown and Notre Dame early 2 weeks ago (and 42 minutes apart). He's leaning towards Georgetown, but still waiting for 19 other decision to come out by April before making his decision. Biochem major, with pre-med.

Really? 19 more schools on top of Georgetown and Notre Dame? Unless you are shopping for aid, this is a problem....

Why would this be a problem? Admissions to top colleges is crazy. He strategized it so he could maximize his chances in getting into schools he would like to attend. After he finds out what schools will admit him, he'll sit down with me and my wife and we'll figure out together what makes the most sense, including any possible aid at some schools.

If you care to know, he's only applying to schools amongst the most selective in the country and very likely may only get a few (if any) at all, given how competitive the process is and such.

Every other student can do the same thing if s/he chooses to do so. Or not.

Not a problem, but a reflection of what top students have to (and in all reality should) do.