@CottonTales I appreciate you coming back and clarifying your statement because the tone did seemed a bit questionable to me.
@Holayetsf , They guard this data with dear-life to avoid provoking campus riots. Now, Harvard was FORCED to release these numbers due to the landmark supreme court case last year and needless to say the average SAT score for Blacks was NOT â1510â like it is for the other student groups contrary to what you may read on CC. What matters is percentile score and where that ranks among other blacks taking the test, which college board publishes. That is what the colleges are looking at since there is virtually no college in america that score african americans SATs at the same level they score whites. if they did there would be no blacks admitted to many colleges because there are simply not enough of us scoring high enough to spread across so many colleges.
I am sorry to keep repeating this but my data only applies to Black students, hence why I am posting in this thread only.
She is interested in biology and she wants to go to med school. Out of the schools she visited she felt the most supported there. When visiting other schools there was an impression that they weed you out of the STEM majors freshman year and you may change majors due to the pressure. DD met one on one with a professor at Rhodes that encouraged her in her aspirations and told her not to stop no matter what. Not that the rigor wonât be challenging, quite the opposite, but they are there to help her! That meant the world to her. And many students she met confirmed giving great stories of how faculty relationship to the students and support is truly excellent.
Also being a small LA school with at least 5 of the divine 9, a strong relationship with St. Judes medical center and others, as you stated very consistent community service efforts in Memphis, wonderful relationships to med schools, internships, study abroad, and so much to more. Whew! Yes sheâs excited. And coincidently, she just got her acceptance letter as I was typing! WowâŠ
@KinestheticKT WOW ! WOW ! Congratulations⊠She applied ED ? This is even early for ED. But then again, lest we forget, we have the POWER ! I wonât both to send other schools because you are essentially done.
Yes, pre-med weeding is brutal at ALL schools, with a 50% plus pre-med drop out rate. Go where you will get the encouragement, inspiration and support to persevere, especially us.
Everyone on this Thread please read this posts by JBHEâŠâU.S. Department of Education collects data on the race of undergraduates. Before a change was made several years ago, students who reported more than one race (including African American) were included in the figures for Black students. This is no longer the case. Thus, students who self-identify as biracial or multiracial with some level of African heritage are no longer classified as Black by the Department of Education.â
There is no school that will risk their federal financial aid and/or federal research grants by violating these rules. So this is why I keep repeating that my data is for Black students only. I am getting DMs from parents whose students do not fall under this criteria. If that is the case please disregard everything I have posted. Thank You !
We said we would never apply ED anywhere because we didnât want the financial commitment without knowing options or even if we could do it. But we did since she was so set on this school. And yes they got back quicker than they said the would. She is elated!
@KinestheticKT, Yes, a two-week ED notification policy is a beautiful thing. Please do us a favor and take a vacation or treat yourself to a super-nice staycation for the rest of us CCâers. After 18 years of college admissions planning and stressing you deserve it !
And on top of all this Rhodes has an 87% merit aid award rate ! Sooooo Jealous right now !
@KinestheticKT Congratulations to your daughter and your family. Memphis is my hometown, so I have seen that campus a lot over the years and know that it is a hidden gem among LACs. My only real problem with it 25 years ago was that it was a little too close to home to even apply (11 minute drive from my childhood home).
Quote of the day: âWhat many students do not realize is that the Collateral for a Student Loan is their future earnings, not a house, a car or a stock portfolio. Therefore Student Loan Debt will have a greater impact on their future earnings potential than where they went to college and how well they didâ
These stories of 200k in student loan debt that played out on the national media stage had many Black Families TalkingâŠ
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/us/robert-smith-morehouse-college-student-loan-debt.html
Resource SharingâŠhttps://www.bigjeducationalconsulting.com/s/Domestic-Undergraduate-Need-Based-and-Merit-Aid-August-2019.pdf
@caged_bird Wow! Thanks for sharing!!! A young lady mentioned that Spelman didnât give that much money in scholarships. Your data table backed that up! 5% in merit aid?
@MomOfThree80 Yes, spelman has never really given much aid of any type over the past 10-15 years. They simply do not have the endowment to support it. My niece got accepted to Spelman with no aid, her EFC was $1000 and it was her first choice will-die-If-I-donât-get-In school. Luckily, I was able to convince her to go to her second choice school on a full ride scholarship and then grad school on a full ride. So she escaped college debt free. She continues to thank me to this day.
@caged_bird This is exactly the conversation that iâm having with DD. I will not let her go to a school and have to later pull her out due to finances. I personally know people who have had to do that and itâs heartbreaking, Though I believe that she may do well and be competitive SAT/ACT, EC and grade wise for spots in some competitive schools it will come down to who loves her the most, whether brand or not. The goal is to be debt free and to get her education. My son graduated from Princeton University in 2014. Though we had a portion to pay they accommodated us quite well by allowing 12 monthly payments each year. Plus being in state we were able to subtract certain things from the tuition such as health insurance since he was on our family plan. Heâs now living and working in New York debt free and enjoying life. We are really blessed to have an excellent college counselor at DD school who knows exactly what we are going for and is extremely understanding of that.
My son is not a high stats student but he applied to a few schools above his stats. And now the interview requests have come in. He had one over the weekend, one last night, and another coming tomorrow. His emotions regarding the interviews has been classic teenager fluctuation.
Initially, he blew off the interview(s) as no big deal. As the first approached last Saturday, I could tell he was a little nervous. He walked in with a brave stride. Afterwards, he thought he did well, but I detected a hint of uncertainty. After some talk about it, he felt the interview went well, but he didnât feel he connected with the interviewer well, which surprised me a little. She was a grad student (med school), not much older than him and I thought having a younger interviewer would ease him.
Over the next couple of days, he said he thought the second interview might end up being a waste of time. As the day approached, he seemed more nervous about the second interview than the first. After the interview, he came back to the car like Hannibal returning from a victorious battle, all smiles and swagger. Again, it was a graduate student (law school this time,) but my son connected a lot better with this one. Son said he wouldnât be surprised if the interviewer reported back an interview grade of 97% â thatâs how happy Son was with the interview. They chatted like old friends.
Now, heâs chomping at the bit to go into interview #3 tomorrow. He was talking, texting, IGâing (and whatever else kids do these days) with his peers about his performance during the interview. His friends both laugh at his reaching for the sky, and love going through the process with him. His confidence is soaring and Iâm glad he doesnât have to wait long before the next one.
Neither of us place much chance at getting accepted by these schools. Although, the 2nd interview was with a school that lists interviews as being âImportantâ in the admissions process (using the common data set information) where most list interviews as âConsideredâ, we know it is a stats-first game with these schools. If one of these schools accepts him, it is going to be because they looked DEEP into the holistic book of admissions at all his information.
That said, I am pleased heâs going through the process. As he continues on thorugh college, heâll have to interview more (for grants, research projects, etc), communicate with professors and older students more, and maybe one day interview for grad school at such a place. Regardless of his odds of admittance to these elite schools, this process is teaching him something important. And, as a parent, itâs always rewarding to see a child become more confident in an untested skill.
A much lower ranked university requested that Son request an interview. I was surprised to see that request because I thought most interviews with with elite schools. It is not a school he would consider unless most other choices fail, but it is a good school in one of his desired locations, and if they come through with enough finaid they could certainly put themselves near the top of the considered pile. And what the heck, another interview is more chance to practice.
@EconPop , love your post. FWIW, very few interviews are actually evaluative. Instead, they are a way for a student to show interest as well as to ask questions to determine fit. Your S sounds like heâs figured that out!
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@Sarrip This is a very good approach on many different levels. The colleges spent millions lobbying and filing lawsuits against the obama administration to prevent them from publishing much of the data we see today, Especially the salary data. Because it demonstrates which schools provides the highest value-add or ROI irregardless of name or brand recognition and the results were indeed shocking. Though there are many data points to observe, Salary is a tried and true validator of where private employers find high-value skilled students. And the consumer/parents reacted to the data as the number of applications ballooned at the schools high on this list that no one had ever heard of before. When the Obama Admin queried and made public the IRS salary data on student loan debt and pell grant recipients it blew our minds. If you are a Parent that is a top quartile salary earner this data is irrelevant, but for the rest of us it dispelled a lot of myths.
Sharing ResourcesâŠhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/upshot/can-data-ward-off-college-debt-new-strategy-focuses-on-results.html (Favorite Quote: "I didnât even know this data how did the DOE get it before I did ? " Anonymous University President
You are lucky to have a good HS college counselor. The schools that loves your DD will let her know it in many different ways. It is well documented that a superior student will typically remain a superior student no matter where they go to college. Given this reality the out-of-classroom experiences should be evaluated very carefully.
Student Loan Debt can and has crushed the Dreams of many of our Students. And the DOE reports that this millennial generation is the most indebted generation on record.
My wife and I journeyed more than 3000 miles away from our childhood homes to attend the college that is now ranked #1 in the Nation on the U.S. News social mobility index. And it paid off as we were able to avoid the student loan debt trap.
@EconPop Yes, My DD requested skype interviews at most of her private schools list and a few public ones as well and the requests continue to roll-in. Most were with students and some with the AO. So early in the process she created note/flash cards for each school before her interviews. They were kinda surprised she knew so much about their schools. And DD was surprised they knew so much about herâŠ
Among other things, it is important that we show âexpressed prior interestâ in the school. Most admissions offices note this in their databases. So, I make, I mean gently suggest that my DD call each of her schools and ask questions that are NOT apparent on their websites or literature before and after she applied. Itâs like the number of âunique impressionsâ that is used to measure website traffic. Show Interest and Good Things MAY follow.
Hello all!
CO 2020 student here. Just checking in with you all and wishing you good luck with the college admissions/decisions process.
@sarysabi Welcome to the thread and I wish you the best during this process.
I wanted to ask posters on this thread about their (or their kidâs) future major in college and about each studentâs long term goals afterwards. My son is planning on doing Computer Engineering (1st choice) or Computer Science (2nd choice), and in a perfect world would like to do both majors, if possible. As far as future goals, he really doesnât have any true specifics besides being on the forefront of technological advances after finishing Grad School and one day possibly starting his own tech company.
For Parents:
I think I mentioned to you all that my daughter is in a new England prep school, she is boarding about 5 hours from home. So far she has submitted 6 applications, 5 EA via the college app, there are more RD coming but she is still working on essays. DH and I are out last night and she facetimes me with this super excited sound in her voice âMom, where are you guys? Guess whatâ? We pull over and I think I am going to hear some great news about an acceptance or scholarship offer. We made a deal that she would facetime us prior to opening any decision emails or letters so we can be there to celebrate with her or to console her. Well what does she tell us? âI was castâ. You were what? âI was cast and I have a fairly large part in the spring playâ. âŠâthatâs great baby, congratulationsâ, and she proceeds to tell us about the play. LOL, DH and I look at each otherâŠIt wasnât what we thought. We thought our search had come to an end, that we perhaps had a full 4 year scholarship LOL. Not! but we were still happy for her.
I wanted to ask posters on this thread about their (or their kidâs) future major in college and about each studentâs long term goals afterwards. My son is planning on doing Computer Engineering (1st choice) or Computer Science (2nd choice), and in a perfect world would like to do both majors, if possible. As far as future goals, he really doesnât have any true specifics besides being on the forefront of technological advances after finishing Grad School and one day possibly starting his own tech company.
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@ChangeTheGame, My daughter is also interested in Engineering and Computer Science. Iâm not sure about her future plans at this time, she may have some I just donât know what they are. She has been interested in coding since about 4th grade and has attended several summer programs for Women in STEM such as the Rutgers TARGET program and the Girls who Code program, she has also taken some classes at the local community college when she is at home. She is currently taking an AP Computer Science class in school.