Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 21:53     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s really a waste of time and money trying to get into a t10 in the current political and technological environment. I’m trying my best to convince my high stat DC to chill.

Depends on what you mean by "trying." If you can afford the app fees, I would let them have some super-reaches on the list.
Trying as in DC spending enormous amount of time writing the supplementals and worrying about each and every word in it. It’d be hard for me to say no to full pay after so much hard work has gone into it. As earlier poster said we’d be the biggest suckers. Maybe there are a few of us who are more aware of what lies ahead. Kid thinks I have no ambition. At least I have common sense, I suppose. I’m hoping for AI to advance drastically in next 6 months or so for DC to understand practicality of spending a fortune on ‘elite’ school.


Is this satire?
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 21:34     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We are foreign research scientists in the US and know lots of other foreign scientists.

Our view is that the decisions of the current White House are so damaging and nonsensical, on so many fronts and for so many categories of activity (not just science), that this is temporary, and must be endured if possible. Future administrations, be they conservative or progressive, will probably return to a more rational approach. Perhaps there won't be the generous funding that existed before, and that's fine. But I am confident that in a few years, things will be better than they are today.

And don't kid yourself about the attraction that other wealthy nations can create regarding science education, research and development. We come from those countries, we know. Salaries are much lower than American ones, and the level of funding is low compared to what it was until recently in the US. If you're in an American lab that hasn't been defunded, sit tight. If your funds have been cut and you can't find other sources of funding here to continue your work, yes, you need to move elsewhere. Or change field (which is heartbreaking, if this was your life's work).


IDNGAF that you are sad. Go elsewhere, there will be more opportunities for American kids. US universities should not be admitting or employing foreign students at all.


Given that a PPP is obviously a lot smarter than you, I’d vote for you to leave and the research scientists to stay. If you like Trump, you’d probably like Venezuela — the country he seems to be emulating.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 20:27     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:We are foreign research scientists in the US and know lots of other foreign scientists.

Our view is that the decisions of the current White House are so damaging and nonsensical, on so many fronts and for so many categories of activity (not just science), that this is temporary, and must be endured if possible. Future administrations, be they conservative or progressive, will probably return to a more rational approach. Perhaps there won't be the generous funding that existed before, and that's fine. But I am confident that in a few years, things will be better than they are today.

And don't kid yourself about the attraction that other wealthy nations can create regarding science education, research and development. We come from those countries, we know. Salaries are much lower than American ones, and the level of funding is low compared to what it was until recently in the US. If you're in an American lab that hasn't been defunded, sit tight. If your funds have been cut and you can't find other sources of funding here to continue your work, yes, you need to move elsewhere. Or change field (which is heartbreaking, if this was your life's work).


IDNGAF that you are sad. Go elsewhere, there will be more opportunities for American kids. US universities should not be admitting or employing foreign students at all.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 20:12     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Honestly, why bother with college admissions anymore? Trump is single handedly destroying higher education. If your kid has any interest in STEM, I’d consider international. My kid is in a stem related PhD program and the scientific community is in dire circumstances right now. So long American Exceptionalism.


AI killed STEM already. The future is in humanities majors. That’s where the jobs will be.


💯
Ask business leaders what they are looking for. They are looking for English, philosophy, history and interdisciplinary humanities studies.


Absolutely no business leaders are looking for this. They are looking for kids that best know how to leverage the AI to help their business.

At least make up a more believable lie by listing the exact job titles these these humanities majors are getting hired.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 19:21     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:Do people think under a Vance if please help us that that doesn't happen, things will get better? He has said what he thinks of higher ed


Higher ed got Vance out of Appalachia but he doesn't want any other poors to get that same opportunity.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 19:18     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Honestly, why bother with college admissions anymore? Trump is single handedly destroying higher education. If your kid has any interest in STEM, I’d consider international. My kid is in a stem related PhD program and the scientific community is in dire circumstances right now. So long American Exceptionalism.


AI killed STEM already. The future is in humanities majors. That’s where the jobs will be.


💯
Ask business leaders what they are looking for. They are looking for English, philosophy, history and interdisciplinary humanities studies.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 19:01     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Honestly, why bother with college admissions anymore? Trump is single handedly destroying higher education. If your kid has any interest in STEM, I’d consider international. My kid is in a stem related PhD program and the scientific community is in dire circumstances right now. So long American Exceptionalism.


AI killed STEM already. The future is in humanities majors. That’s where the jobs will be.

Forget about jobs. We don’t even need to go that far. That’s where the value is. They can’t take our humanities away from us.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 18:53     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:It’s really a waste of time and money trying to get into a t10 in the current political and technological environment. I’m trying my best to convince my high stat DC to chill.


It is easier now than it was for the high school classes of 2022 and 2023, for asians wasians and whites at least. And mine got in to T10 then and are rising senior, rising juinor loving their time and have had great internships despite the political disarray. My third will get in just fine. I am less worried now that the TO crap is essentially over at the top.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 18:32     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:Honestly, why bother with college admissions anymore? Trump is single handedly destroying higher education. If your kid has any interest in STEM, I’d consider international. My kid is in a stem related PhD program and the scientific community is in dire circumstances right now. So long American Exceptionalism.


AI killed STEM already. The future is in humanities majors. That’s where the jobs will be.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 18:27     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:We are foreign research scientists in the US and know lots of other foreign scientists.

Our view is that the decisions of the current White House are so damaging and nonsensical, on so many fronts and for so many categories of activity (not just science), that this is temporary, and must be endured if possible. Future administrations, be they conservative or progressive, will probably return to a more rational approach. Perhaps there won't be the generous funding that existed before, and that's fine. But I am confident that in a few years, things will be better than they are today.

And don't kid yourself about the attraction that other wealthy nations can create regarding science education, research and development. We come from those countries, we know. Salaries are much lower than American ones, and the level of funding is low compared to what it was until recently in the US. If you're in an American lab that hasn't been defunded, sit tight. If your funds have been cut and you can't find other sources of funding here to continue your work, yes, you need to move elsewhere. Or change field (which is heartbreaking, if this was your life's work).
.

OP here. I hope you are right. It is very depressing to basically watch NSF disappear. So much work down the drain. I guess we are supposed to just focus on blue collar manufacturing jobs and become the people who put together technology developed by people in other nations? It makes no sense.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 14:39     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s really a waste of time and money trying to get into a t10 in the current political and technological environment. I’m trying my best to convince my high stat DC to chill.

Depends on what you mean by "trying." If you can afford the app fees, I would let them have some super-reaches on the list.
Trying as in DC spending enormous amount of time writing the supplementals and worrying about each and every word in it. It’d be hard for me to say no to full pay after so much hard work has gone into it. As earlier poster said we’d be the biggest suckers. Maybe there are a few of us who are more aware of what lies ahead. Kid thinks I have no ambition. At least I have common sense, I suppose. I’m hoping for AI to advance drastically in next 6 months or so for DC to understand practicality of spending a fortune on ‘elite’ school.

PP. Cost is a valid reason to limit super reaches; that is your prerogative as the parent paying.

The essays I wouldn't worry too much about. My kid is at a T10 and wrote the supplement on the day of the deadline, a Why Major, Why Us essay. It was not a big deal at all and probably had little to do with why he was admitted. Once the kid is on a roll with writing these types of essays, they get faster and easier to write.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 14:37     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s really a waste of time and money trying to get into a t10 in the current political and technological environment. I’m trying my best to convince my high stat DC to chill.

Depends on what you mean by "trying." If you can afford the app fees, I would let them have some super-reaches on the list.
Trying as in DC spending enormous amount of time writing the supplementals and worrying about each and every word in it. It’d be hard for me to say no to full pay after so much hard work has gone into it. As earlier poster said we’d be the biggest suckers. Maybe there are a few of us who are more aware of what lies ahead. Kid thinks I have no ambition. At least I have common sense, I suppose. I’m hoping for AI to advance drastically in next 6 months or so for DC to understand practicality of spending a fortune on ‘elite’ school.


Unfortunately, it's possible this all leads to a mentality of either you go to an elite school or don't attend college at all.

I can already see the news articles and general discussion heading that way, with many articles saying that AI is impacting jobs for college kids but unemployment for kids from elite colleges is much lower than non-elite.

There are many reasons for that...obviously, many state schools are much larger and will produce many more graduates that aren't the top of the class who will struggle. My only concern is that the general population/press won't bother to dig into the details.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 14:33     Subject: Re:Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
And btw, research is going to be heavily impacted by AI too. The political environment is just a catalyst for reduced spending.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 14:30     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It’s really a waste of time and money trying to get into a t10 in the current political and technological environment. I’m trying my best to convince my high stat DC to chill.

Depends on what you mean by "trying." If you can afford the app fees, I would let them have some super-reaches on the list.
Trying as in DC spending enormous amount of time writing the supplementals and worrying about each and every word in it. It’d be hard for me to say no to full pay after so much hard work has gone into it. As earlier poster said we’d be the biggest suckers. Maybe there are a few of us who are more aware of what lies ahead. Kid thinks I have no ambition. At least I have common sense, I suppose. I’m hoping for AI to advance drastically in next 6 months or so for DC to understand practicality of spending a fortune on ‘elite’ school.
Anonymous
Post 08/08/2025 14:23     Subject: Parents of Seniors, why are you bothering?
Do people think under a Vance if please help us that that doesn't happen, things will get better? He has said what he thinks of higher ed