Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stay away from College Confidential.

You'll log off convinced that you're not a good candidate for any school.

Same with DCUM. The B grade in any major subject is a death sentence which will keep you out of Ivy schools and any reputable state school.

OP here...

SO TRUE!

I came here after my daughter was accepted at her first choice school--a very impressive school with huge name recognition. According to some of these threads, she didn't stand a chance at that school and should have never even applied--application fee waiver or not.

Exactly!! Nothing beats a miss but a try.

Anonymous wrote:While others were hiring admissions consultants, we just read College Confidential. The parent section is very helpful.

I still use CC but like Unigo also.

http://www.unigo.com/

While others were hiring admissions consultants, we just read College Confidential. The parent section is very helpful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stay away from College Confidential.

You'll log off feeling as if you're unfit to apply anywhere.

I disagree. College Confidential has a lot of valuable info. for parents, regarding financial aid and information about individual schools. One could get hung up on the threads about who was/was not accepted to a school, but other than that, I found it a useful site.

Thanks for that perspective. I became so turned off with the "Chance Me" threads that I didn't notice anything else. But it is a large site so I'm certain there's some useful information for parents on there somewhere.

Also...I don't think freshman or sophomore years are too early to go on college visits. In fact, I wish I had, as my son would've benefitted from that motivation early on. Hearing the academic requirements to get into some of those schools would've been good for him to hear before it was 'too late'.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stay away from College Confidential.

You'll log off convinced that you're not a good candidate for any school.

Same with DCUM. The B grade in any major subject is a death sentence which will keep you out of Ivy schools and any reputable state school.

OP here...

SO TRUE!

I came here after my daughter was accepted at her first choice school--a very impressive school with huge name recognition. According to some of these threads, she didn't stand a chance at that school and should have never even applied--application fee waiver or not.

Anonymous wrote:Stay away from College Confidential.

You'll log off feeling as if you're unfit to apply anywhere.

I disagree. College Confidential has a lot of valuable info. for parents, regarding financial aid and information about individual schools. One could get hung up on the threads about who was/was not accepted to a school, but other than that, I found it a useful site.

Anonymous wrote:Stay away from College Confidential.

You'll log off convinced that you're not a good candidate for any school.

Same with DCUM. The B grade in any major subject is a death sentence which will keep you out of Ivy schools and any reputable state school.

Spending some time in a summer program at a large university convinced my DD that she wanted a SLAC. It was obvious once she tried it on that big didn't work for her, so that was invaluable.

Spending the night and attending classes at her top choices made the decision of applying ED to one easy.

The danger with essays seems to be over writing, especially for applicants who are strong writers. Bring it down a notch.

Agree OP. A few more:

1. Visit some schools nearby the summer before junior year -- not likely high choice ones -- just to get the feel for how a college visit goes.

2. While better to see schools during academic year, larger universities have life during the summer unlike smaller liberal arts schools

3. Try to get your child to figure out what are the 2 or 3 most important things s/he's looking for in a college -- whether its the type of campus, geographic area, size of school. specific major or. the academic intensity of the student body.

4. Junior year spring break is a good time to see schools, but expect big crowds and remember some colleges are on vacation at the same time.

5. Essays, essays, essays!

Anonymous wrote:The schools give app fee waivers for visits so they can crank up their application rates for US Rankings purposes. With the fee waived, there's no reason not to apply so they get many more applications. For me this is a huge turnoff, I hate the way schools try to game the system.

Which brings me to my tip -- take the rankings with a grain of salt. They often don't reward the rights things, or don't reward what your DC really wants in a school.

YES! This is part of the reason the application process is so different than it was for us as high school seniors. It's all about the numbers. And schools are working overtime to drive them up.

In my DC's case, however, it led to acceptance to a school that we are ALL shocked about.

And I concur with your tip. DO NOT consult US News Reports or pay attention to any of the rankings.

Visit the school and make sure it's a good FIT for YOUR child.

A lot of schools do not even offer my child's major, so it wouldn't matter if that school was ranked No 1 or 100. It would not be a fit for her at all. There would be no need to visit or apply.

The schools give app fee waivers for visits so they can crank up their application rates for US Rankings purposes. With the fee waived, there's no reason not to apply so they get many more applications. For me this is a huge turnoff, I hate the way schools try to game the system.

Which brings me to my tip -- take the rankings with a grain of salt. They often don't reward the rights things, or don't reward what your DC really wants in a school.

Stay away from College Confidential.

You'll log off feeling as if you're unfit to apply anywhere.

Stay away from College Confidential.

You'll log off convinced that you're not a good candidate for any school.

Now that it's (practically) over, what lessons did you learn from the college admissions process that you'd like to share with parents who will be going through that slow painful exhausting process soon?

This was my first year, and if only I knew then what I know now. It is NOT the same process we went through in high school.


My tips:

1. If you wait until your child's senior year in HS to begin, you're already behind the 8-ball. However, all is not lost. My family was silly enough to wait until senior year. NOT SMART! My DC was accepted at the first school choice, but we were lucky. Fortunately, we started the summer after junior year and were able to get in a few rising-senior interviews.

2. Fortunately, we knew to have our child take the SAT for the first time in the spring or June of junior year. Then again during senior.

2. VISIT as many schools as you can during the school year. It's best to see the schools in full swing with the students on campus. Again, waiting until senior year sucked because DC really did NOT need to miss any school days, but she did for those college visits.

3. A few schools gave us app fee waivers for visiting. (The first choice school to which she was accepted was one.) Wasn't expecting it, but it was a WONDERFUL surprise! Almost worth that day or two out of school.

4. Summer after junior year is NOT too early to start crafting your essay.

5. Begin filling out the common app almost as soon as it goes live. At least fill out the preliminary questions part. Then you can take your time with the rest.

6. Create a calendar with college deadlines on it. Then complete applications in that order. That's a huge DUH, but you'll be surprised at how random some were with completing their apps. Some submitted them in order of preference.

7. Pace yourselves. Having five apps due on the same day is no problem....UNLESS you wait until the last minute to complete said applications.

8. Be sure to pay close attention to the deadlines. I had one app due on the very last day of the month. I'm so glad I turned the calendar to the next page to see that 5 were due the next day--on the 1st.

9. GET YOUR TRANSCRIPT REQUEST FORMS INTO YOUR GUIDANCE COUNSELOR ASAP. They really will take the entire 2 weeks to mail them.

10. Reread No. 9, keeping in mind that snow days can shut school down for an entire week in this area. So do NOT plan on playing that last minute game with those requests. I'd rather have the transcripts arrive before my app then to run the risk of missing a deadline and praying it won't count against me.

Your Tips?