Anonymous wrote:college advisors: "forget the dream school trap"

DCUM: "make the kid focus on a dream college"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like the SLACs really favor athletes during ED. They're filling same number of athletic spots but that's a far higher % of the class.

ED's best chance would be UChicago in the 1 or 2 spot. They also don't care how many other kids from your HS are also applying.

I think I'd pick Vandy and then UChicago.

Middle bury takes something like 90 percent of its class ED, and I believe Bowdoin is close. What you are saying about athletes really only true for Williams and Amherst.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are some really different schools on the list. Is urban U of Chicago really as appealing as Bowdoin? ED can be a boost at any of them. Nobody can tell him which to ED, sounds like he needs to do a lot more research and reflection on which would actually be his first choice.

He's a city kid who is totally familiar with life in a city neighborhood and all that comes with that. UChicago has a residential system that appealed, curriculum that he wants with professors who excite him on a drop dead gorgeous campus. Bowdoin also had the curriculum, campus, residential and food (!) that excited him and Brunswick was plenty big with easy access to Portland (we saw a concert one night and had no issue getting there and back) and a train station steps from campus.

He also has a couple older siblings and knows the limit of research and reflection. You can do all the research all the world and you can and get a lousy roommate, a department gets cut, or you get sick and all of a sudden the health services you never even visited is a key factor in your health and happiness. He's not about a first choice. As he said, "I'm not looking for a soulmate, I'm looking for a college. I can be happy at a lot of places"

Applying ED IS about making a first choice before you have a lot of choices, whether you like it or not. If he seriously likes ALL of these colleges equally at this point (although really if that's the case, he probably doesn't know enough about them) I would have him do a decision bracket exercise. Randomly pair up all the schools. He must evaluate each pair as if he got into both and must choose one. That cuts the set in half. Pair them up again and do the same thing. etc. until you are down to the final pair. Which of those would you ED and which ED2? Along the way, I would guess there will be pairs where he thinks I can't decide because I don't know enough about how each one meets what I want. Then you know what to research.

This simply isn't a decision someone else can make for him based on ED strategy. Maybe when you get down to 3 schools it comes into it.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like the SLACs really favor athletes during ED. They're filling same number of athletic spots but that's a far higher % of the class.

ED's best chance would be UChicago in the 1 or 2 spot. They also don't care how many other kids from your HS are also applying.

I think I'd pick Vandy and then UChicago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are some really different schools on the list. Is urban U of Chicago really as appealing as Bowdoin? ED can be a boost at any of them. Nobody can tell him which to ED, sounds like he needs to do a lot more research and reflection on which would actually be his first choice.

He's a city kid who is totally familiar with life in a city neighborhood and all that comes with that. UChicago has a residential system that appealed, curriculum that he wants with professors who excite him on a drop dead gorgeous campus. Bowdoin also had the curriculum, campus, residential and food (!) that excited him and Brunswick was plenty big with easy access to Portland (we saw a concert one night and had no issue getting there and back) and a train station steps from campus.

He also has a couple older siblings and knows the limit of research and reflection. You can do all the research all the world and you can and get a lousy roommate, a department gets cut, or you get sick and all of a sudden the health services you never even visited is a key factor in your health and happiness. He's not about a first choice. As he said, "I'm not looking for a soulmate, I'm looking for a college. I can be happy at a lot of places"

Anonymous wrote:Rice
UChicago

Anonymous wrote:fair warning, you may know where 10% of your peers are applying. Kids either don't say, won't say, don't give you a complete picture or change their mind at the last minute.

Don't count on any of this. And don't be the kid or mom who goes around asking "does anyone know if Bobby is applying to Williams early? and where did Bobby's parents go to college? do you think he's first gen by chance?"