Anonymous wrote:What? Roughly half to two-thirds of 4-year colleges in the U.S. are considered non-selective or moderately selective, typically accepting more than 70% of applicants...

Maybe you just need to adjust your expectations. Not everyone can be a superstar.

There is selective and then there is competitive. Many of the selective schools aren't competitive, eg you pay your way through at a selective school you work your way through at competitive schools. My engineering college only graduated like a quarter of the people admitted. Though it doesn't have a brand. I can't recommend competitive schools. They are horrible at social sorting girls don't tend to go to or do well at competitive schools.

Anonymous wrote:What? Roughly half to two-thirds of 4-year colleges in the U.S. are considered non-selective or moderately selective, typically accepting more than 70% of applicants...

Maybe you just need to adjust your expectations. Not everyone can be a superstar.

+1. There are lots of things that aren’t so competitive. If you try to go to the same 4 schools and do the same 4 sports everyone else is doing, then yes, it will be competitive. Broaden your horizons.

We have to encourage our children to find their own happiness. A top tier school is no guarantee!! Focus on mental health!!

Anonymous wrote:If you get out of DC and east coast it's not that competitive.

WRONG. It is just as competitive, if not more, on the West Coast, where there is a large segment of Asians.

We’re definitely not experiencing this. Our DS got into every college he applied to. Our DD just started a new sport in middle school and is doing very well.

Perhaps OP is only willing to consider top schools and top teams? Well then, sure… there’s not enough space for everybody.

If you get out of DC and east coast it's not that competitive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s still a shortage of teachers and nurses

Teachers aren’t being paid enough to live in areas with strong public schools. My sister and her husband both work as teachers for FCPS, but their salaries aren’t sufficient to afford a home in a neighborhood with a good school pyramid. As a result, they use my address so their children can attend schools in the Langley pyramid.

NP. I went to FCPS but I’m happily raising my kids in a place where no one would ever describe the public schools as strong. It’s been great, though. There’s an appropriate level of competition for those who want it, but nothing crazy. Several of my kids’ teachers live in our very nice neighborhood. We’re all part of the same community. Just a normal childhood.

I lived in Culmore ghetto and attended Justice HS. You wouldn't pay me enough for me to live in Culmore and send my kids to Justice today.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s still a shortage of teachers and nurses

Teachers aren’t being paid enough to live in areas with strong public schools. My sister and her husband both work as teachers for FCPS, but their salaries aren’t sufficient to afford a home in a neighborhood with a good school pyramid. As a result, they use my address so their children can attend schools in the Langley pyramid.

NP. I went to FCPS but I’m happily raising my kids in a place where no one would ever describe the public schools as strong. It’s been great, though. There’s an appropriate level of competition for those who want it, but nothing crazy. Several of my kids’ teachers live in our very nice neighborhood. We’re all part of the same community. Just a normal childhood.

We are hiring servers. Not competitive at all, but people showing up have zero common sense, are on their phone and can't stand up longer than 3 hours.

Anonymous wrote:There’s still a shortage of teachers and nurses

Teachers aren’t being paid enough to live in areas with strong public schools. My sister and her husband both work as teachers for FCPS, but their salaries aren’t sufficient to afford a home in a neighborhood with a good school pyramid. As a result, they use my address so their children can attend schools in the Langley pyramid.

What? Roughly half to two-thirds of 4-year colleges in the U.S. are considered non-selective or moderately selective, typically accepting more than 70% of applicants...

Maybe you just need to adjust your expectations. Not everyone can be a superstar.

This is just your lens. We are not a country of scarcity mindset and there are tons of ways to hustle and just live here in a non-competitive (though can be precarious) way.

There’s still a shortage of teachers and nurses

Very dramatic. There is a college for everyone still. Many schools will take C students.

It's frustrating how everything is so damn selective now. It's impossible to get into college unless you were a valedictorian of a large high school. Sports teams in high school cut kids that grew up playing on travel teams. Even the military has less than a 30% acceptance rate for OCS. Isn't there anything that isn't insanely selective?