It’s 201 and tech is integral to our lives so curious how to leverage it bc I’m super anxious about my daughter’s admission to the best uni. What are some apps or technologies you’re using for your children to help them during admissions process?
Welp, this is a surprise, no tech suggestions…
Are you looking for suggestions on college selection, test prep, or something else?
Google, this site, and an excel spreadsheet was all the tech we used. DD followed admissions’ instagram accounts of the schools she was interested in.
One thing I will say is google docs has made it much easier for my kid and I to share the spreadsheet/to do list and allow me to proof his docs, etc. Can access on any computer or device. Not to mention google docs can be loaded into the common app.
Agree with the others, we use a Google Sheets so that son and I could both look at the college list. I used this form, Niche, other college search sites, (BigFutures?), and the Colleges that Change Lives book for selection. Didn’t use a single app, including the Common App app (for phones…son used it on his computer). Also my son shared his essays with his sister via Google docs so she could review and mark suggested edits.
Not sure what the OP is asking. Maybe they can come back and clarify!
- What are you asking?
- What do you view as a “best uni” and why?
- What can you afford to pay annually?
- What is your kid’s SAT or ACT score...and GPA?
- What year in HS is your kiddo?
- What are the kid’s preferences in terms of size, location, courses of study, etc?
- Any financial constraints?
I know of NO kind of technology that will help your kid get into better colleges. The key is to target places where acceptance is likely based on stats and the like.
If your HS uses Naviance, you might use that info ad ONE data point.
@thumper1 admittedly and naively thought there is some technology or app or something I don’t understand that would help answer all those ?s and spit out the best college like Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory. It’s 2018 and there should be something to take all those ?s into account and best position my daughter.
OP - Does your student’s school have Naviance? That could provide some perspective on where others from her school were accepted with similar stats and GPA.
@momofsenior1 Thank you! Looking more for solutions to help with those improving those stats and putting best foot forward. For example, what tech or solution(s) are you using to help with your child’s admission interview? Are you just practicing with them? Or are they practicing via Skype? What about their essay(s)? There are multiple components of the admissions process and tech could be used in all of them. Had assumed that Parents here were leveraging them.
We definitely practiced interview skills with our daughter. My husband and I both do alumni interviews so we knew what kinds of questions she needed to be able to answer. We also sent her to friends who worked in her intended major/field to do mock interviews.
As far as the essay, our DD wrote it second semester of her junior year and had feedback from her AP english teacher and GC before the end of the school year. Johns Hopkins U has some good examples of successful essays on their website.
Personally I think that tech is tough for college admissions because there are so many variables unique to each student and each university If we lived in a country that was purely stats driven, it would be different, but the holistic approach to admissions throws a wrench into that.
There is a website called college simply that you can plug in ACT scores and will list schools you could get into but I don’t think it’s particularly accurate, especially for the more competitive universities. There are some others that you can plug in GPA, but again, not the most accurate.
An interview with another person requires good interpersonal communication skills. In my opinion, these are not built by using some kind of ap or technology. These skills are built by communicating affectively with others.
The way we did it…our kids both interviewed first at colleges that were not their tippy top choices. This gave them an idea of what to expect.
We did not use any tech beyond google docs to manage all the documents and the common app. I spent a fair bit of time looking at the common data sets of the colleges she favored in order to advice her on which aspects of an application were most valued at each school and the general financial aid picture for each school. She spent her time reading the websites of the colleges to get a feel for what they were looking for in students beyond scores, gpa, etc. She found the alumni newsletters useful learning the ‘flavor’ of colleges.
Interviews and essays involve communication skills and other interpersonal skills, which my kid had a fair bit of practice with before we got to the college application process. She can knock of a personal essay fairly quickly thanks to mentoring/blogging for younger teen girls. She also worked with adults on a regular basis and was comfortable talking with interviewers of all ages. I’m not sure how an app would be able to approximate real world practice for those kinds of skills.
Low tech is often the best. We did mock interviews at the dining room table. I agree that practicing interviews at your safety schools before the reaches also makes sense. I used a spread sheet and then tried sorting by various parameters (SAT scores, GPA, percent accepted) to get a better sense of what were the reachiest colleges.
I’m still confused. Are you looking for technology things that will improve your kid’s chances of college acceptances?
- Get organized. Whether it’s a regular old paper calendar or some spreadsheet...really doesn’t matter.
- Your kid should be able to find practice SAT tests online to do. Or the SAT word of the day. But really, an old fashioned SAT book works just as well...maybe better since the actual test is paper pencil.
- Are you worried about your kid’s ability to interview well? At most schools, interviews are NOT required, and for many who have them (alum interviews, for example) they have no or very little admissions impact.
The answer to everything is NOT finding a “technology” solution…it just isn’t.
Well, as far as generating a list goes, College Board has a search called Big Future where you can put in whatever parameters you want (size, location, programs, cost, etc) and it will give you a list of possibilities.
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search
There are other similar tools out there as well. We found that it gave a good starting list but still needed some extra research to figure out which of those schools were the best fit.
I think many stories of very bad matches on very many dating apps are testament to the fact that there’s only so much a tech based matching app can do. In my daughter’s case, we had a couple of colleges that looked perfect on paper but which she hated the minute she stepped on to their campuses. Like romance, you can tick all the boxes, but often that’s not enough by itself to decide. I’m definitely not sure how tech can help with essay writing other than spellcheck or maybe thesaurus- it’s got to sound authentic and individual which an app by definition surely can’t do for you.
@SJ2727 Very true, had thought parents were leveraging tech to improve essays via editing and collaboration and interview practice with professionals. Plus there’s the whole virtual campus aspect that uses tech.
Admittedly just surprised that no parents have used apps/tech to connect their children with professionals to improve admissions chances. As I type this, thinking more along lines of parents using apps to connect with admissions pros. Guess no parents have used any.
You could search online to find a private counselor to help package your child, but I don’t think they can get a student into a college they’re not qualified to attend. I don’t think using one necessarily improves a student’s chances of admission. Knowing what each school wants and tailoring the app to reflect that knowledge might. There are so many colleges in the US that I don’t know how a private counselor could keep up with the needs and preferences of all of them.
I think you need to better define your goal. You said you want to get your child into the “best uni,” but “best” is a subjective term. A more helpful goal is to find a range of schools that are good fits for your daughter by taking her list of criteria (academics, social scene, location, size, budget…) into account. Once you find schools that are good fits your daughter’s app has to convey why she’s a fit at each one. This is a process that takes work. An app such as the College Board’s search tool can, at best, spit out a list of schools that meet a broad range of criteria (size, area of the country, major, cost), but it can’t generate a list tailored to the specific, detailed needs of a particular child. There aren’t any short cuts.
I think CC is an app whose purpose is to connect parents to people who have varying degrees of knowledge about college admissions. It’s an excellent resource and it’s free. If you tell us your daughter’s stats, career goals, budget, and preferences (size, preferred geographic location) then people can make specific college suggestions to help you get started.
Thank heavens we didn’t rely on that CB tool. It came up with weird colleges, many low level, many I’d never heard of.
Best is old fashioned research and analysis. Then a spreadsheet to track due dates and whatever else. Getting into a top college is ‘a thinking person’s game,’ not about tech tools.
No interview practice here. I asked D1 if she’d considered what they might ask and she said yes.