Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They track who attends virtual events.

Another important piece of tracking interest is the email/website tracking. Always open the marketing emails from the schools you are applying to, click on the links in them, spend time on the website.

This is very important. My brother is responsible for the post-email marketing campaign statistical data organization at a university. The marketing campaign emails track when they get opened, which links get clicked on, how long you spend on the site, how many times you revisit the email and site, etc. That data then gets sent out to different people on the selection committee.

Insane. So much nonsense for these kids to pay attention to. Most of them don't even really use email. They text, snapchat, discord, etc. Anyway, it's become a two-year project to select and apply to colleges, never mind all the credential-building that comes before that. None of this serves our kids. It's all driven by "enrollment managers" and marketing pros with their eyes on rankings and budgets. And it's making our kids stressed out and sick.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They track who attends virtual events.

Another important piece of tracking interest is the email/website tracking. Always open the marketing emails from the schools you are applying to, click on the links in them, spend time on the website.

This is very important. My brother is responsible for the post-email marketing campaign statistical data organization at a university. The marketing campaign emails track when they get opened, which links get clicked on, how long you spend on the site, how many times you revisit the email and site, etc. That data then gets sent out to different people on the selection committee.

Anonymous wrote:This has all gotten out of control. The class of 2022 should boycott this process and go to community college for a year. Force these schools to stop gaming the system and making these kids jump through a thousand hoops.

You are my kindred spirit. All this hoop-jumping is just distracting us all from the insane cost of college and the artificial scarcity of resources.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rise in international undergrads wanting to attend in the U.S. is also fueling these admissions games.

20 years ago, this cohort was very small and very rich. But now? Huge numbers, especially as the upper middle class grows in places like China and India.

International admissions is at its historic low. No one wants to pay top dollars to attend school online. Its COVID, darlings!

International enrollment for college class of 2024 was significantly down. However, international applications for class of 2025 may be up - though I don't see an overall international number in this article.

International applications "surged," except not from China. "While applicants from China declined by 18 percent, other countries exhibited noteworthy growth, including India (+28 percent); Canada (+22 percent); Pakistan (+37 percent); the United Kingdom (+23 percent); and Brazil (+41 percent)." (It should be noted that China last year sent by far the most students to study in the United States.)

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2021/01/26/common-apps-new-data-show-overall-gains-applications-not-first

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yield protection is a MYTH at Virginia Tech. It’s just a matter of math. They had over 42,000 apps for a class of 6,800.

They don’t care enough to game whether or not your kid would attend or not. Even with the addition of the short answer questions, they still do not really do holistic admissions.

Lmao no it’s obvious they did this year, if you met the kids from my school who got in and the ones that got waitlisted, you would change your mind. Trust me, they yield protected hard.

+1

NP here. REALLY hard.

In a way, why shouldn’t they? Why should they offer admission to a kid that doesn’t take their essays seriously or shows no interest in the school? Why NOT offer it to a kid that can do the work (even if the kid has a slightly lower GPA and test scores) but really wants to be there? They don’t owe admission to the highest scorers. They should admit kids that can do the work, would contribute to the class and want to be there. Most schools tell you they consider demonstrated interest if they do. Your high scorer should be smart enough to read that and take it seriously. The school likely sees them as arrogant that they ignored what the admissions office told them or could not be bothered to demonstrate interest. Colleges do not want arrogant kids who think they are too good for them and they are smart enough to know those kids are only using them as a safety. Your kid played the game wrong and lost.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yield protection is a MYTH at Virginia Tech. It’s just a matter of math. They had over 42,000 apps for a class of 6,800.

They don’t care enough to game whether or not your kid would attend or not. Even with the addition of the short answer questions, they still do not really do holistic admissions.

Lmao no it’s obvious they did this year, if you met the kids from my school who got in and the ones that got waitlisted, you would change your mind. Trust me, they yield protected hard.

+1

NP here. REALLY hard.

Anonymous wrote:Can I hire a consultant who can show demonstrated interest for my kid for 20 prospective schools?

Have your kid build a bot to do the work and game the system. Great college app essay. 😉

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rise in international undergrads wanting to attend in the U.S. is also fueling these admissions games.

20 years ago, this cohort was very small and very rich. But now? Huge numbers, especially as the upper middle class grows in places like China and India.

Actually, the new destination of students from China and India - Canada, Australia, New Zealand and for some strange reason - Germany

USA is seen as an unstable, lawless and racist country by most of the world now. The reputation is in the gutter after Trump, insurrection and all the mass shootings.

USA response to COVID was a joke. A poorly governed and triggered nation.

I don’t disagree, but the US vaccine response has been much better than many other countries. Ahem, looking at you Germany. I think college will be largely back to normal in the fall.

Totally agree with the other things you said.

Can I hire a consultant who can show demonstrated interest for my kid for 20 prospective schools?

Anonymous wrote:The rise in international undergrads wanting to attend in the U.S. is also fueling these admissions games.

20 years ago, this cohort was very small and very rich. But now? Huge numbers, especially as the upper middle class grows in places like China and India.

International admissions is at its historic low. No one wants to pay top dollars to attend school online. Its COVID, darlings!

Anonymous wrote:The rise in international undergrads wanting to attend in the U.S. is also fueling these admissions games.

20 years ago, this cohort was very small and very rich. But now? Huge numbers, especially as the upper middle class grows in places like China and India.

Actually, the new destination of students from China and India - Canada, Australia, New Zealand and for some strange reason - Germany

USA is seen as an unstable, lawless and racist country by most of the world now. The reputation is in the gutter after Trump, insurrection and all the mass shootings.

USA response to COVID was a joke. A poorly governed and triggered nation.

The rise in international undergrads wanting to attend in the U.S. is also fueling these admissions games.

20 years ago, this cohort was very small and very rich. But now? Huge numbers, especially as the upper middle class grows in places like China and India.

Turning this into a waitlist game of chicken will at sone point backfire on these schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has all gotten out of control. The class of 2022 should boycott this process and go to community college for a year. Force these schools to stop gaming the system and making these kids jump through a thousand hoops.

While I agree the process is brutal, I disagree that anyone is made to "jump through hoops". It's not made brutal by the colleges, it is made brutal by the pure amount of people who insist on a very small number of the 3,000 US colleges. As the Wargames cliché goes "the only way to win is not to play".

True, in theory but how do you not play? My DS is very interested in a school that should be a good fit but in order to be considered he has to do all this extra crap to show intent.

I think the craziness has extended far below the top schools as evidenced by safeties rejecting qualified students and expecting kids to visit (during a pandemic?!) or sit through multiple zoom sessions to demonstrate interest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is good.
Students need to stop applying to 20+ schools. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and energy. Find a couple true safeties you actually would be happy at, visit them, and apply to them. Stop tossing out random apps to see who bites.

(Note, if the acceptance rate is less than 75%, it’s not a safety, no matter what your stats are)

How many colleges have a greater than 75% acceptance rate?

None you would want to attend with a 1400+ SAT.

THIS. It’s true that the answer to yield protection is not about applying to 20 schools. Equally though is not about applying to schools which are not a peer group fit for the child just because s/he has a near 100 percent chance of getting in.

Oh, please. Your kid isn’t that special. There are plenty of your child’s “peer group” at every large state university, many of which have very high admissions rates. Kids with high stats go to these colleges for many reasons — Mom and Dad are alums, it’s close to home — and most importantly — it’s cheap. Many go there because these schools have very generous merit aid for high stats kids. They almost all have “honors colleges” if you just can’t bear the thought of your precious snowflake associating with the riff riff.

And if a kid isn’t smart enough to figure out that applying to 10 schools with 5% acceptance rates does not give him/her a 50% chance of getting accepted, then they aren’t really that bright.

You miss my point. Every kid IS special. State u is the answer for some kids, for others it’s another of the 3000 colleges in the US. My point is they need to find the right one(s) for them.

No your point was that your kid was too smart to fit into State U. And PP correctly said get over yourself. My kid (who is not academically gifted) is at a lower ranked state school thriving in all ways. But she has plenty of friends there from all over the country that are brilliant. Some already doing scientific research. Another with perfect SATs and 36 AP credits from (gasp) Louisiana. There is no university where your kid cannot find his/her academic peer group. Some just have more non focused students than others.

Your kidding right. EVERY university has large groups of that caliber of kid? Really? Your kidding yourself. My kid is in and done at her top choice, and I didn’t post specifically about her. But it IS about high stats focused kids and what they are looking for in a college. I’m sorry your kid ain’t one of them. But a high achieving focused child aiming for HYP ain’t ever gonna find a satisfactory group of peers at Monmouth University. Your N of a few proves absolutely nothing and your assertion is delusional.