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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Oldest child is a senior in public HS. Was accepted ED to a top 10 school. Almost all college acceptances are now out. Here are some takeaways I learned watching my own kid + students from her HS go through the process. Thought this may help parents of rising seniors. Others are free to chime in and to agree/disagree. Not sure if my insights apply to private school students although there is obviously some overlap.

Good luck![/quote]

1) This is obviously an emotional process but kids who approached it strategically rather than emotionally did better. Don’t get overly attached to one school without good reason.
   +1
2) Top grades + varsity sport + excellent test scores are not enough for ivy admission. You need something else such as legacy, famous grandparents, minority or URM, chief editor of school newspaper, girls applying for engineering, etc.
   +1
3) Don’t waste your early application on Harvard or Stanford unless you are legacy or recruited athlete or have won an exceptional prize
   +1
4) Yale seems to love legacies
   don't care if they do, not my type
5) ED gives you a better shot than EA
   +1
6) Work really hard on your essays and get multiple adults to read them over and give you feedback. Does everyone get the point you are trying to make? If not, revise or try again. For top 25 schools (except large publics) your essays need to be extremely high quality
   nope, that's not the right process for essays; first and foremost, tell some compelling story, your set of values or strong feelings should really shine through: are you very ambitious and work until you drop dead? did you have some near-death experience? did you travel the world and have some original insights about those how people and places? do you have an idea how to make the world a better place?
7) Avoid writing about race and diversity if you are white
   idk, see above, if you did travel the world and can say how you'd change things around for some disadvantaged groups, that may be ok
8) Look beyond the popular schools that everyone is applying to at your HS
   +1 yeah, did you even know about Little Ivies? I didn't!
9) Don’t apply ED to the top school that 5-10 other kids from your HS are applying to. Get excited about a different school.
   easier done that said, everyone wants HYP
10) There are probably at least 1-2 other kids at your school who have an almost identical profile to you - same interests, same classes, same teachers for recommendations, similar test scores. Make sure you are not all applying to the same schools. I saw a few best friends who were very similar apply to all the same colleges for the same major and it did not work out well.
   don't sweat it, if you have good essays, good recs, some butt-kicking story, you're better than them
11) Kids who decided to apply ED to terrific schools that were within their reach but a step down from higher rated schools that are a gamble for anyone mostly had good success.
   +100
12) Kids who were obsessed with brand names and focused on top 10 when they should have paid more attention to schools one tier down were left disappointed with end result.
  +100
13) Not worth it to keep taking SAT or ACT in search of perfection. Once you hit 75% level, you are fine. Focus on other stuff.
   +if you are &gt;1480 or &gt; 34 after 3-4 sittings, you may be ok ED if full pay ... otherwise, do prep and get &gt;1500 from the first sitting
14) No point in submitting applications 1-3 months early. Complete them early if you must but then let them sit and look at essays again in a few weeks. Do you still love them?
   whatev, but don't hurry 'em through, of course
15) Rigorous course load is very important. Do the best you can.
   +100 yes, for STEM, AP Calc BC & AP Physics in junior year

I'll add, the recs are very important and you should work for them; some people may think highly of themselves but that may not be how they are seen by other people, just being smart will not get you perfect score in the 'personable' box; for example, I know I ruffle feathers with my direct opinions but if I need recs from some people I'll take care they don't see that part of me too often; [/quote]

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