My child was accepted into an Ivy. It wasn’t her first choice, but in the end it turned out to be a GREAT opportunity of a lifetime. Here’s what I’ve learned and what you can do to help get into your school:
- Really try and know what you want to be and look for the school that is the top in that
- Visit those schools
- Keep the list small and REALISTIC, don't do too many reaches, be happy with limits
4..Work hard, that's a given, but you need to work hard from day 1 of freshman year or your chances get less and less,, you can improve, but the best chances are for those who go for it early
- Do research, find out real stuff about those school, read this board daily
- Know realistically what college is going to costs you and your parents and how your are going to pay for it. Nothing like killing a dream like no money. If your middle class be wary, your parents will not qualify for a lot of financial aid and may not be willing to take on loans. If you are poor, go for it!
- Read the stats of the admitted class of some of the schools your are interested in, if you are going for an IVY, watch for the common themes in their stats. (I noticed that Harvard really liked student's essays that talked about their struggles in life and how that will effect them as leaders. Or they liked kids who had really strong leadership skills..)
Good Luck!
I definitely agree with most of your points, except for part of #4. I don’t think that CC is the best source of information and often serves more as a distraction (especially if you’re reading it every day). Often times, there is more hyped anxiety than actual information.
Congrats to your kid!
If you don’t mind me asking, what was her essay about?
The hype is from the kids. Even though you guys are all bright kids, you don’t really have a lot of world experience. There is a lot more to those college acceptances then sheer grades and good personalities. But this has been the only source for the slew of stats on those who got admitted. I know it’s just a small sample but it’s better then no sample. Colleges only give averages of everything, so then you have no clue. You’ve got to do a lot of data analysis with a bit of common sense and understanding of how life really works…
Maybe it’s really the parents job to help the kids navigate all this, but honestly most parents I know if they aren’t an alumnae are really clueless about college. Even if they are graduates themselves. I can’t tell you how many times parents think their child is good enough for a sports scholarship or music scholarship
Do your research!! Everywhere!
Be realistic!!!
Be willing to work for your goals!!!
She wrote how she has always known her passion has been engineering. Every since she was little she was a builder and she loved to do it with all sorts of materials and objects.
Oh yeah, so also look deep into yourself. Don’t do all those EC’s if you don’t want to or don’t intend to do it long term.
And not one of the 5 kids who got into an IVY from her school did a sport the 4 years in HS, so you don’t waste your time doing a sport if you are not passionate about it. I believe that all kids should develop a love of fitness but giving 10 to 15 hours a week to it? Seriously? In pursuit of what? (Can you tell I don’t believe in sports and it’s a waste of tax payer dollars and perhaps if we paid for better and more teachers, the US wouldn’t be so miserably behind others in science and math.)