Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 19:33     Subject: If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Not retake the SAT if already at 1500+


I was going to say the opposite. My daughter took it once and got 1510 and thought that was enough. Now everyone around her is telling her she needed at least 1550[i] and she’s kicking herself for not trying again.
[b]

They have no idea what they are talking about. A 1510 doesn’t keep you out of any college.

Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 19:19     Subject: If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Apply to more private and fewer big state schools. Be realistic — DC’s profile is not ideal for OOS. Visit more places junior year.


This X 1000. The OOS publics are getting very hard to predict and get into.


Right now if you send your kid OOS to a red state you are a fool.

Parents are so financially stupid about college and sending kids OOS.

Besides tuition fees etc the reason they go to college is for a job.

Send your kid to University of South Carolina and where is that kid getting a job?

Or University of Alabama?

Yeah stupid parents dumb financial decisions


The loudest person in the room...
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 19:00     Subject: If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
From private counselor and CCO, I’ve heard (generally) you can tell how a T20 application is being received by a few things:

- merit from more competitive schools (Case)
- early acceptances (acceptances from competitive/selective OOS flagships or USC indicate a very competitive or well-received app)
- the early trickle of RD decisions in March (if your kid applied to mid-tier LACs or even more competitive ones and they come back with a yes in RD, then DC should absolutely have Private T20 (and likely T10) admits in RD.
- once the applications start to turn to regular rejections, deferrals and WL - it’s a sign of a tougher RD decision looming.

Again all for T20.
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 18:59     Subject: If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:I am honestly not sure. I have non-shiny good students. Best they've done so far is second best in state (deferred from other). I doubt they would have had a chance at any truly high ranked schools, and the less prestigious but still respected privates would not give enough money to compete with in state (dd got max at one and it's still a lot. So I guess we did the best we could for our very specific situation, aside from perhaps retaking SAT one more time but they both said no.


+ 1. Very similar situation with my son.
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 18:54     Subject: If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This is one of the more useful threads in this forum. Thanks!

+1


This one too:


https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/225/1251044.page
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 18:51     Subject: If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We scared by people saying how horrible the process had been, so we kept the reaches to a minimum. Maybe that was a mistake. We could have eliminated at least 2 safeties. There were too many.


What I liked about our kids having a lot of safeties is that, if it had come down to that, they would have been making choice among them and their very generous merit aid offers. It would feel like a second round where they really look closely at these schools that really want them, and focusing on which they like best among them. You really cannot do that with safeties in the beginning when your true hopes are set elsewhere (no matter how much you try to kid yourself). They all look the same early on, less so after all the cards are on the table.

In the end, our kid who did a lot of reaches just wasted time and money. The real pay off was in the merit options among the safeties. In the end, both ended up at high match schools with some merit, but they genuinely felt a pull toward the safeties.


Interesting. I appreciate your response. I always grumbled a little at the advice to find a safety you love b/c my kid couldn't "love" one, but thought they could be happy at one. It was nice to have an auto-admit early, even if DC most likely wasn't going there. Funny enough, that is the one safety they haven't said they would definitely release. Perhaps they have a sweet spot for the school that loved them first.

I spent a lot of time researching safeties because I kept hearing that my kid needed to find one that he loved. But he didn't really love any of them and got frustrated by my continued focus on this. He picked a couple popular safeties that he liked well enough and that was perfectly fine. I did learn about quite a few schools so there's that.
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 18:47     Subject: If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We scared by people saying how horrible the process had been, so we kept the reaches to a minimum. Maybe that was a mistake. We could have eliminated at least 2 safeties. There were too many.


I personally don’t regret a lot of safeties. It feels good to get an acceptance in the midst of rejections and deferrals and provides peace of mind for what in the long run isn’t a lot of money to pay in application fees.

+1. Hindsight is 20/20. Someone in this forum once likened it to insurance and that seems appropriate, a hedge against risk.

To add, for my kid's particular situation, high stats with a wrinkle, there is a great deal of uncertainty. His friends wonder why he is applying to so many reaches. He might do really well and get into several or might totally strike out. There is uncertainty of his low target where he doesn't have a ton of demonstrated interest. Has safeties, but like many high stats kids, has high hopes, a go-big-or-go-home scenario, so he is going for it. Whatever happens, I'm proud of him for trying, and will not regret the long list. If he has many options to wade through in April, that would be a good problem to have. Finished his last app last night and I'm almost sad it's over. He really got on a roll with the supplements.


May I ask, what is his wrinkle?

lol
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 18:44     Subject: If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:This is one of the more useful threads in this forum. Thanks!

+1
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 18:43     Subject: If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:For us, not waste time thinking too far outside the box. U of Edinburgh? Some dual degree program? Some underrated gem? So many hours researching things I should have known were not really who my kid is.

We should have looked at where the class of '24 matriculated (from our HS), easily cut the half that weren't of interest, used Naviance to cull from there, and ended up with a long list of 20 schools in January of junior year.

Thank you for sharing, OP.
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 18:42     Subject: Re:If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:Forget LACs for a kid with a niche interest.
Don’t bother with publics (DC TAG not worth it).
Apply to more mid-size, top-tier non-SCEA privates.

With their sub 15% acceptance rates and $90k sticker price?
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 18:41     Subject: Re:If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:Forget LACs for a kid with a niche interest.
Don’t bother with publics (DC TAG not worth it).
Apply to more mid-size, top-tier non-SCEA privates.


What are some of those?
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 17:37     Subject: Re:If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:Forget LACs for a kid with a niche interest.
Don’t bother with publics (DC TAG not worth it).
Apply to more mid-size, top-tier non-SCEA privates.


Mid-size, top-tier but non-SCEA privates are almost all ED schools. So are you saying you wish you’d applied RD to more ED schools?
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 17:28     Subject: Re:If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Forget LACs for a kid with a niche interest.
Don’t bother with publics (DC TAG not worth it).
Apply to more mid-size, top-tier non-SCEA privates.
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 15:27     Subject: If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Take the SAT sophomore year, then retake a million times like it's a job until 1500+ is achieved. It's the key to aid so many places.
Anonymous
Post 01/28/2025 15:21     Subject: If I could start the process over .. this is what I'd do differently.
Anonymous wrote:Appreciate any advice for summer internships/projects/ec's to stand out? especially for competitive fields such as CS/Engineering?


If you follow a standard script, you won't stand out!