Anonymous wrote:It is actually not that easy to be a recruited fencer, especially if you are male. Please don’t take up fencing just to get into college. The sport is too hard and too expensive for someone who doesn’t genuinely want to be there. And coaches can tell which kids are just in it until college and which one genuinely want to fence.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:3:2 engineering programs.

Is there a path from community college to this? From my beginning research, it looks like DC could do 2 years NOVA (earning an AS), 2 years Longwood, 2 years UVA.

Why not go straight from NOVA to UVA? https://admission.virginia.edu/transfer/guaranteed-transfer-admission

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:choosing a less common major on the common app

True but only to a certain extent. You need to back it up with your curricular and extracurriculars. I don't think colleges will buy it when a kid who does mainly CS classes and clubs declares Latin as his major

Anonymous wrote:Have DC attend a high FARMS HS with wide economic differences. Your DC can take all honors/weighted GPA/challenging courses and exist in a bubble - all neighbors and peers went private. Bonus for personal achievements like scouting, school leadership, advisory boards. DC will graduate at top of class and be a standout, unlike peers at nearby higher achieving HS who’ll be shocked at being wait listed or rejected.

Big fish, small pool.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok we all know about the straightforward things like good grades and extracurricular achievements, right?
What are some other things that aren’t obvious, may not be exactly ethical (but are legal!) and maybe cumbersome but that help?
So far I have thought about:
- quitting jobs and becoming low income for 6 years (2 years before college and 4 years of college)
- moving to a state that sends few people to certain colleges
- homeschooling
- giving the kid a Hispanic last name and not checking the race on application (no lying involved so..)
- transferring kid to a mediocre but safe high school

I mean I know most of these sound crazy but let’s entertain the thoughts?

Number one would be to make sure the kid comes from a good family. It might be too late for your kids, OP.

Come on don’t be a bore

Anonymous wrote:Top medical & law schools don’t really care where you went to undergrad. Top PhD programs are snobby, in that the level of research experience they expect from applicants can only be obtained at top undergrad schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child is in high school already, it’s too late to do any of this, but:

-Train your child in an expensive, niche sport
-Have somebody with an elite pedigree adopt your child so they can be a legacy
-Send your child to really good private school for k-8, then to a very middling public high school, and supplement with tutoring & private college counseling

such as?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get an admin staff job at a top university. Preferably the lowest level job that still considers you an employee of the university (cleaning & food service are contracted out, so not those).

Or, get a graduate degree from a top university that considers children whose parents completed a grad degree from that a school a legacy.

Thank you for this! I have a graduate degree from a uni in the UK, and by a strange coincidence I think I CAN get a job at one or two very well known universities around where I live. Should I do it by the time my kid is a junior in HS?

Too late