<p>wjb: I only disagree with your assessment regarding UMich Art & Design: academic record is definitely secondary there for admission ( and we know a couple of first hand admits that are definitely below the averages)</p>
<p>Good point, rodney. My assesment applies only to BA candidates. If you’re going for, say, a BMusic, it’s your musical portfolio that counts. Even Juilliard doesn’t really care about your academic record.</p>
<p>My post was intended to refer to the Browns and Yales and Amhersts of the college world. So often I read posts from students who are certain that their demonstrated “passion” for an EC (in the fine arts or another non-athletic area) will compensate for mediocre grades or, more often, test scores that put them in the bottom quartile of matriculants. It’s hard to persuade them that the bottom quartile is NOT composed of unhooked kids – and with very, very rare exceptions, talent in an EC does not amount to a hook.</p>
<h1>Another one. If your kid is like the majority of kids and morphing into a different being in some sort of hyper-speed-life way, put a couple of schools that are beyond her immediate comfort zone on the list. They grow up so fast from the start of junior year to May of senior year. So fast. Everything is changing so fast.</h1>
<p>Send an email or a message to another student or parent on here if you have questions about a particular school. The people on this board have been wonderful and always willing to help. </p>
<p>Start the financial aid process as early as possible and read everything you can. Get your finances in order long before you fill out the application and learn everything about the process. </p>
<p>Have the student send the questions to schools regarding admission or financial aid. They always seem nicer to them!</p>
<p>Here’s a link to a similarly great thread from about two years ago: </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/140378-senior-parents-help-parents-juniors.html?highlight=parents+juniors[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/140378-senior-parents-help-parents-juniors.html?highlight=parents+juniors</a></p>
<p>The Blog submission ““I’ve Got 99 Problems… Admissions Is Not One”” by Bryan Nance of MIT should be required reading. It will make you laugh but also gives some practical advice. Although the blog refers to MIT, the informationcan be used at any school.</p>
<p>My favorite is </p>
<p>Don’t take college advice from your crazy know-it-all uncle whose only experience with MIT was the time his car broke down on Mass Ave back in 1974.</p>
<p>
</p>
<ol>
<li> Get a small notebook to take with you in the car to different schools. As soon as you get back into the car, just start writing about all of your feelings about the different schools. Then, when you are trying to decide which schools to apply to, you can look back at what type of feeling you had about the different schools. It really worked for me.</li>
</ol>
<p>^^^ THAT is one of the best tips. After half a dozen schools, they start to kinda blur together . . .</p>
<p>We did it too and I think it kept the schools from becoming a blur.</p>
<h1>? If you qualify for financial aid don’t bother with “need sensitive” schools. Add more need-blind schools to the list.</h1>
<p>Even given mini’s caveat, which I totally buy, both kids were accepted at very selective need-blind schools and wait-listed and rejected at need-sensitive schools.</p>
<p>I had no idea how big a role the money played in the acceptances.</p>
<p>A very simple but useful tip - If you are applying to reach schools, apply to ones that are in geographically diverse area. Nearly 90% of the top tier kids tend to apply to the same area (within 4-5 hrs driving radius) of the HS thus appear like “clones” to Adcoms. </p>
<p>Students who apply to far out areas tend to get noticed and accepted more easily since fewer kids apply to those schools from your region. </p>
<p>So, if you are from the NE, your chances are far better at Stanford and Berkeley than HYPB and vice versa.</p>
<p>Interesting, Pharmagal. I’d thought the ‘geographic diversity tip’ was something to think about, then dismissed it…now, maybe not.</p>
<p>Make sure the schools on your list will enable you to grow for four years – whether that’s because you are coming in with coursework beyond AP in your intended major or (and a more likely scenario) you change your mind about what you want to study. MANY, many kids change majors. It shouldn’t have to mean a transfer to a different college.</p>
<p>Pharmagal - that depends. For example, JHU uses an algorithm that favors students within a certain mileage (I think it is 300 miles) because statistically more students accept offers of admissoins within that distance than don’t (which brings us back to understanding the power of “yield” in admissions). However, this brings me to post: </p>
<h1>whatever - If you can move to South Dakota, Maine, Montana, Alaska or some other low volume applicant state, do it!</h1>
<p>and…</p>
<h1>whatever II - consider moving to VA where instate high schools are very good and instate tution for some great schools is even better</h1>
<p>Sorry to spoil some people’s party, but I think the first two are completely false. I got into NYU Stern this year, and it was a definite reach. I think my experience shows that colleges do still look beyond stats. I know kids with a weighted GPA of 4.3 and SAT scores of 2300 who got rejected from Haverford, NYU, Georgetown, Cornell, because that’s all they were- a bunch of numbers. For those people who didn’t get into schools they expected to, you definitely had a weak essay and recs. Same for people who got rejected from reach schools. My experience shows that essays and recs still make a huge difference.</p>
<p>whatever number (hopefully not a repeat): have a discussion with your child about how confidential they want to keep their college list. Maybe they want the world to know; maybe they don’t. Letting everyone know where you’re applying can make you feel very vulnerable.</p>
<p>Next: refrain from asking seniors (and possibly parents as well) whether they’ve heard from their schools, and where they’ve gotten in, because they don’t need the added pressure/vulnerability. The “news” will all be out in April…</p>
<h1>100+? One of the most beneficial things I learned is that going to HYPSM will only do a few things more than a standard state school. It will provide connections, motivation (you are around geniuses), and be harder since competition is greater. However, you don’t learn more, and if you are seriously motivated it doesn’t matter if you attend Harvard or a state school you can succeed anywhere.</h1>
<p>Also just because you get rejected for BA doesn’t mean you will get rejected for grad school. Just think about the next application process, and start working on your college resume to get into grad school.</p>
<p>
Aaargh. BOTH my kids were needing financial aid and accepted to multiple need-sensitive schools + offered financial aid, including awards that were equivalent to or better than so-called need-blind, 100% need schools. There is this thing called “merit aid”… and the need sensitive schools will combine need-based aid with scholarships for students that are attractive to them.</p>
<p>Maybe the advice should be changed to to, don’t bother with need-sensitive reaches. But there is no such thing as a “full ride” to colleges which premise all their financial aid on need alone, and awards premised partly on merit often exceed demonstrated need. Colleges that “leverage” their financial aid and use “enrollment management” strategies to throw money at their most favored students can be very, very generous for students that offer whatever it is the college ad com wants to buy that year.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A) Yes, that statement was geared towards the (~1450/1600) portion of the SAT takers. From that point a large amount of studying could possibly boost you to a NMF position. And who wouldn’t at least consider a full ride at any school? For the vast majority of people, money will always be a factor.</p>
<p>B) NMF awards seem to be automatic. Therefore, they are easy (with the intelligence, obviously). Don’t need to do community service or anything else. I’d say it’s an extremely efficient use of time.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=VeryHappy]
^^^ Maybe. Maybe not. If you get 9 heads in a row, it doesn’t increase your chances of getting tails on the 10th toss. Each event is separate and doesn’t have anything to do with the others.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Probabilistically, the odds of failing to get into 10 (for example) schools where an applicant has a 10% chance of admission is only 34%. Thus, someone who applies to 10 reaches is pretty likely to get into one or more of them.</p>
<p>Or, for a more mind-bending yet fun probability one: if you had to pick a roll of a die to be a 6, which roll would you pick (1, 2, 3… until forever)?</p>