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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My DC is at a Big 3 ending 10th about to start the college process.  Any advice for staying sane?

He/she has good EC's (one really interesting/unique one that they are genuinely into), good grades but not perfect, lots of rigorous classes, This child will probably have very strong standardised scores.  My kid is already worried and stressed out hearing how "Impossible" it is to get into a "good school" from older kids. My husband and I went to Ivy's but know that is probably not in the cards - given how competitive it is now.  We want our kid to be happy for the next two years and find the right fit.  It all seems so crazy now....Help? Advice? Anything you would have done differently [/quote]

Here is what we did.

We took our child's unique(ish) extracurricular as being important.
She undertook making a list of schools that were both excellent in her general area of professional interest as well as offered the extracurricular.  The aim was for her area of interest being nationally ranked and her area of hobby being accessible (i.e. good, but not too good, so she would have a chance to fully participate without killing her academics).  Then we superimposed some financial considerations; that is a whole separate post.

She then applied to 13 schools.  She wrote her essays about her extracurricular, about some challenges in her life, about her internship, and about her achievements.  She wrote about being grateful to her teachers.

She most definitely pulled out all stops applying to our state flagship.  That essay was HONED.  At baseline, if nothing else works, state flagship is like a dependable Corolla that will get you places.  She was admitted to Honors and would have been happy to attend.

Then there was Pitt, which is known to give scholarships to a kid with her level of achievement, matching our in-state tuition, just in case our state flagship had a bad day and did not admit her

She probably should have applied to a few 2nd tier state schools just in case, seeking a full ride, but Pitt offered rolling admissions.  The difference between Pitt and any 2nd tier state school was in Pitt's favor.  She just kind stopped there.  Some people in our situation also apply to Alabama, midwestern big 10 etc.  Several friends got excellent merit packages.  Our admission strategy worked, but in retrospect it was dumb that she did not apply to, say, Wisconsin.  If there was something I would recommend changing, this would be it.
However, once Pitt admitted her with a good scholarship, she chose to shoot for the stars only.

That was our plan B, and I just expanded a bit on that plan B to show what I would have done differently in 2022.

Everything else is standard, apply to Ivies (+), wait for regular decision, see if you win the lottery.  She did win, yay!  but if she did not, plan B would have worked well.
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