Anonymous
Post 04/30/2026 11:18     Subject: Re:schools that left a bad taste
Curious question…for those parents who think VA has better in-state good/decent college options than MD (which I agree), why had you not thought about relocating to VA? I assume you live in the DMV area anyway.

My son was lucky to get into UMD (but quite a few kids with lower stats than his got in this year from his high school), but he’s never a big fan of UMD and applied to it as a low target/high safety only.
Anonymous
Post 04/30/2026 10:43     Subject: schools that left a bad taste
Anonymous wrote:Franklin and Marshall.

Manipulated kid for the purpose of fudging their numbers.


What does this mean?
Anonymous
Post 04/30/2026 10:24     Subject: schools that left a bad taste
Franklin and Marshall.

Manipulated kid for the purpose of fudging their numbers.
Anonymous
Post 04/30/2026 10:16     Subject: Re:schools that left a bad taste
Anonymous wrote:I was kind of pissed at University of South Carolina that sent my kid numerous invitations and encouraging emails to apply for the honors program after receiving my kids' application and then putting him on the waitlist.


Did your kid apply for honors?

Clemson was a safety for my kid and they were encouraged to apply for honors. That helped show the school that they were seriously considering it.
Anonymous
Post 04/30/2026 10:08     Subject: schools that left a bad taste
Anonymous wrote:The university of Maryland system. Kid got rejected. 3.9uw, 3.6w from a Catholic with a tough grading scale. Taking 5 ap classes senior year. Captain of 2 varsity sports teams. Volunteered for 4 years. Great recommendation letters. Mature kid. We know lots of kids like this that didn’t get in. It wasn’t even their first choice but it ticked me off as a taxpayer.

For kids like this there is nowhere else to go. Umbc is a commuter school. Towson seems like huge step down. So it’s oos for her.

I’m not sure how Maryland selection works but it doesn’t seem right. And if it’s going to be like this they need a second university with some name recognition.


People have mentioned it a million times, but some people never seem to get the message: there are tons of fun, famous, interesting colleges in the south & midwest that offer significant automatic merit aid and/or OOS tuition waivers based on GPA & SAT/ACT.

So, no need to settle for UMBC or Towson when there are places like FSU, Arizona, Alabama, Nebraska, Iowa State, Oklahoma and many more that you can attend for a similar price.
Anonymous
Post 04/30/2026 00:43     Subject: schools that left a bad taste
Northwestern decided to switch things up this year with our private. Usually they go deep and take down to a 3.6 in ED + admit around 3-4 kids, but this year we got very unlucky. Only 1 admit in ED.

DC's friend was also an emotional trainwreck after seeing the "congratulations" message on their Duke portal, getting excited, and then getting deferred ED. Got in RD but still, it hurt.
Anonymous
Post 04/30/2026 00:41     Subject: schools that left a bad taste
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The university of Maryland system. Kid got rejected. 3.9uw, 3.6w from a Catholic with a tough grading scale. Taking 5 ap classes senior year. Captain of 2 varsity sports teams. Volunteered for 4 years. Great recommendation letters. Mature kid. We know lots of kids like this that didn’t get in. It wasn’t even their first choice but it ticked me off as a taxpayer.

For kids like this there is nowhere else to go. Umbc is a commuter school. Towson seems like huge step down. So it’s oos for her.

I’m not sure how Maryland selection works but it doesn’t seem right. And if it’s going to be like this they need a second university with some name recognition.


Same for my DD. Great stats, but rejected by UMD. I did something that I never in my life thought I'd do: I went to college park and asked to meet with someone at admissions to try to understand this. She told me that because the number of applications has grown so exponentially, they find themselves having to reject kids who got a C or similar freshman year in high school. She said literally their entire incoming class will be made up of kids who have never gotten anything below a B, and even then, the Bs would have come freshman year. It's ridiculous. So we get to pay OOS tuition for him to go to a virginia school.

My kid got in with 1 B almost every semester but a very high SAT score.
Anonymous
Post 04/30/2026 00:34     Subject: schools that left a bad taste
NYU - will always be a hater after rejection.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2026 20:19     Subject: schools that left a bad taste
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The university of Maryland system. Kid got rejected. 3.9uw, 3.6w from a Catholic with a tough grading scale. Taking 5 ap classes senior year. Captain of 2 varsity sports teams. Volunteered for 4 years. Great recommendation letters. Mature kid. We know lots of kids like this that didn’t get in. It wasn’t even their first choice but it ticked me off as a taxpayer.

For kids like this there is nowhere else to go. Umbc is a commuter school. Towson seems like huge step down. So it’s oos for her.

I’m not sure how Maryland selection works but it doesn’t seem right. And if it’s going to be like this they need a second university with some name recognition.


Same for my DD. Great stats, but rejected by UMD. I did something that I never in my life thought I'd do: I went to college park and asked to meet with someone at admissions to try to understand this. She told me that because the number of applications has grown so exponentially, they find themselves having to reject kids who got a C or similar freshman year in high school. She said literally their entire incoming class will be made up of kids who have never gotten anything below a B, and even then, the Bs would have come freshman year. It's ridiculous. So we get to pay OOS tuition for him to go to a virginia school.


Wow thank you for sharing this
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2026 20:14     Subject: schools that left a bad taste
State flagships (UGA, Maryland, UC’s and the list goes on) for rejecting/waitlisting in-state high stats kids.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2026 20:13     Subject: schools that left a bad taste
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I have an unreasonably negative opinion of Harvard and Northwestern. The guides were dead inside. And it was like, yeah, look how you're turning out. No thanks.


I have a family member who was an athletic recruit for Harvard. He loved the coaches and was super excited about the school and the athletic program until he toured the school and thought it seemed completely joyless. He chose another Ivy instead.


Harvard alum and I feel like it’s only good for grad school. It’s not like Princeton where undergrad is the focus.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2026 20:07     Subject: schools that left a bad taste
Anonymous wrote:I dont understand Ivy Day

I have had two kids get into college ED or SCEA so they were done early.

But both years I've seen so many kids have a good run and then end the process with a bunch of rejections. It puts kids in a mindset that "BC is great, but still have Ivy Day!" or duke or Stanford and then .. nothing.

There are plenty of schools with a bigger app pool and fewer resources who get things out two weeks earlier.

Year after year, it's a drag on these kids. my son said "they like to go last for the aura" but Yale doesn't need more aura.


This is a really good point…
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2026 17:57     Subject: Re:schools that left a bad taste
Anonymous wrote:I was kind of pissed at University of South Carolina that sent my kid numerous invitations and encouraging emails to apply for the honors program after receiving my kids' application and then putting him on the waitlist.


Sounds like your kid had at least one good stat that they knew about but didn’t like what they learned when they saw the entire app.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2026 17:53     Subject: schools that left a bad taste
Anonymous wrote:Penn makes strange choices year to year.


+1. So true.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2026 14:12     Subject: Re:schools that left a bad taste
I was kind of pissed at University of South Carolina that sent my kid numerous invitations and encouraging emails to apply for the honors program after receiving my kids' application and then putting him on the waitlist.