<p>This is a great, albeit depressing, article in the NYT. It is the first in a series to be written in conjunction with The Chronicle of Higher Education. It is well worth the read.</p>
<p>Great article, BI, thanks for sharing. It really has become a circus in some respects…my h.s. senior S is saving all the mail he has received from colleges and I think he’s up to shoebox number 5 or 6 at this point! It’s really getting out of hand.</p>
<p>Yes, thanks for sharing. Count our son in the group that gets a “quirky” e-mail from the University of Chicago about every other day, despite the fact that he listed nuclear engineering as his major interest on the PSAT, PLAN, ACT and SAT and the school doesn’t have an engineering program.</p>
<p>In many ways, I’m glad we don’t live in an area where families push their students to apply to a double-digit number of schools. And all the mail–about four recyclable grocery bags full so far–has gone into the recycling dumpster at school so the school can earn money from it. (All but the ones I saved because I like the design concepts and might “borrow” them for my job.)</p>
<p>OWM - The nuclear reactor is possibly the favorite ‘must have’ of the 2011 student lists!! :)</p>
<p>I can’t remember who (perhaps they will speak up), but a parent last year actually weighed the mail their student had received over the application process. It was some astronomical amount!! Their is a massive stack in my sons room sans the few that I love for the graphics alone. It’s like saving the Harrod’s catalogue from 1986!</p>
<p>Excellent article. A really good point was made here:
</p>
<p>For many of the most selective schools, there is a random nature as to why one student is chosen when an equally qualified student is denied. But once the chosen student announces that she has been admitted to reach college, most people look at her as smarter or more special than her equally impressive classmate who was not chosen. You can see it on these boards after April 1st, where some highly accomplished kids feel worthless because they did not get the stamp of approval of the admissions office.</p>
<p>As the NYT article points out, this occurs so competitive colleges can brag about their popularity and exclusiveness, based on the number of applicants and the small percentage who actually get admitted. We parents (and our kids) exacerbate the problem by applying not only to too many schools, but to too many ‘beyond reach’ schools (“So you have a 3.4 GPA and 1850 SATs and want to apply to MIT? Why not, its worth a shot!”).</p>
<p>As the NYT article points out, this occurs so competitive colleges can brag about their popularity and exclusiveness, based on the number of applicants and the small percentage who actually get admitted. We parents (and our kids) exacerbate the problem by applying not only to too many schools, but to too many ‘beyond reach’ schools (“So you have a 3.4 GPA and 1850 SATs and want to apply to MIT? Why not, its worth a shot!”).</p>
<p>The current system forces kids applying for the top schools to apply to many, it is the only rational approach. Say your kid is qualified for, and wants to attend, a top Ivy. Well, you know that there is much of a lottery aspect to admission to those tippy-top school, need to apply to many to maximize your chances. So say 6-8-10 in that category to maximize your chance. Now you look at one level of selectivity below. Your kid is above 75th percentile in stats for those schools, so logically you should be able to apply to one or two in that category and be done. BUT, those schools practice “holistic” admissions, admit only 20% or so of the applicants AND try to protect their yield, so in reality your kid’s admission to this level school is far from assured. Say you therefore add 3-5 in this category hoping if your kid is rejected from level one, at least one of these schools takes them. But then you panic. These schools are very selective, what if disaster strikes and they all reject or waitlist your kid? You need to add 1-3 “super safeties” - schools where they really are assured of admissions. Well add up those numbers. And if your reach schools are the one level below the tippy-top, the analysis is pretty much the same, just one level down…</p>
<p>That means 10-18 schools. And guess what? Most kids I know have a list within that range. (Although some parents won’t admit it… “about a dozen” tends to mean 15 or so I find).</p>
<p>
So true. As the super-selective places hype themselves more and more, one wonders how they can live up to their own claims. In the end it still comes down to human professors using pretty much the same texts everyone else is using, teaching human students.</p>
<p>DS is one of the seniors being peppered with emails from University of Chicago. He says it’s like they know exactly what would appeal to him. The reality is that he probably doesn’t have the uber competitive personality to thrive or succeed there.</p>
<p>It’s interesting to wonder what the matrix is that they use. My son’s major is very specific and noted on all his tests, etc., however he gets lots of snap apps from a myriad of schools that don’t offer anything close.</p>
<p>Very interesting. I just looked on my son’s email and he did receive one from Chicago recently geared towards sports. He’s a huge sports fan, but has played no varsity sports. If it’s random, it’s a little creepy.</p>
<p>Yes, on the other hand my son has received very little mail or email from colleges except those listed on his Common App school list and those he visited. His scores are sky high so I wonder (but don’t complain!) that we seem to be off the radar for all of this publicity.</p>
<p>My d only did PSAT and later an AP with the College Board. Her PSAT was not impressive, though not in the dumps either. Her ACT scores were much better. She has received tons of VIP applications. One thing we don’t understand is why tech schools keep peppering her with applications. Her lowest score was math and second lowest was science. Yes, she likes math and science but she is realistic enough to know this is not the career for her. SHe had put down law for career interests and psychology, I believe for undergraduate or if she had a few choices, add to that economics.</p>
<p>Well, she did apply to U of C. I don’t think she will really care if she doesn’t get in since she is hesitant about going there. Both h and I are alums and we are very hesitant about sending her there. Mainly because she is a conservative and a Christian and we did not find to many of us while we were there so we don’t know how she would fit in. Well, only a bit more than a month to see. What it does show me is that they will probably make up almost their whole class with early admits.</p>
<p>Aniger, it might be because your child didn’t check the box that said, “Send me mail.”</p>
<p>I was the one who weighed all the college mail for ds1. Grand total: 128.5 pounds. Kept a few viewbooks for ds2, gave some to the college office of our HS and recycled the rest at the local elementary school so they could make some money off of it.</p>
<p>I wonder whether colleges even know what they’re doing. Ds2’s school requires all freshman and sophomores to take the PSAT, and he started getting mail as a freshman! Never occurred to me that would happen.</p>
<p>Credit goes to Youdon’tsay!! :)</p>
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<p>I’m so glad you saw this and could verify the amount. That is unreal! That is a super idea to donate the viewbooks.</p>
<p>Definitely worth the read. I do adore those UChicago postcards and the prompts. It was a tad depressing to read about the young woman from Palo Alto who’d never heard about UChicago before they ramped up their marketing campaign, and thought that the school would have been a bit beneath her. </p>
<p>There are some real gems in here with specific numbers.</p>
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<p>That’s the top 3% of the SAT test-taking population. They all seem to be here on CC ;)</p>
<p>D1 never ever checked off a “release my name to colleges” box. It’s been interesting to see what snail mail she DOES receive. Primarily, it’s from schools that she’s contacted or visited. There are also schools from college fairs she attended. All that makes sense. I can’t figure out how UChicago and Caltech got her name. She’s NMSF so there’s a trickle of mail from that. No Ivys came calling. No unsolicited priority applications. Crickets chirp in our mailbox. :)</p>
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<p>That really lays it out in black and white. Assuming that they’re not double-bookkeeping categories (those minority legacies, or international athletes), that’s 78% of the class right there.</p>
<p>The smartest solution is to have a short 2-page pre-application for initial screening early in the senior year. One page would be from the student-a mini essay and brief description of extracurriculars and awards. The other page would be from the high school incorporating the transcript and a paragraph or two from the counselor commenting on the student’s academic performance. Combine that with standardized test scores, and colleges can quickly decide if they want to invite you to send in a longer application, with the expectation that the acceptance rate at the next step would be in the range of 50%.</p>
<p>I think it would make things easier for both applicants and colleges.</p>
<p>My daughter received a commended on her PSAT and did well on her SAT and ACT.</p>
<p>She did not request that colleges contact her, but has received mail from just over 140 institutions (I checked this weekend because I was curious).</p>
<p>She did receive something from Georgetown.</p>
<p>It’s sort of interesting to note who DIDN’T send her mail – Brown was the only Ivy that did not, and she didn’t get anything from Williams either.</p>
<p>She was entertained by this phrase in the cover letter from Harvard; “we hope that as you sift through the piles of college mail you are no doubt receiving, you will take time to look closely at the special opportunities Harvard has to offer.”</p>
<p>Two years ago my older daughter received basically no mail (she did not have the exceptional scores). You would think for many of these schools (College of St. Rose? Colby-Sawyer? Florida International University?) their marketing dollars would be better spent trying to attract students who do not have Ivy aspirations.</p>
<p>BlueIguana:
Hope that OSU (Oregon State Uni) is on list. They recently patented a mini reactor. Has its own research reactor, and a PAC 10-12-14 school. He can say he goes to the Beaver School (MIT’s mascot)</p>
<p>S1 received 124 lbs. of college mail. More than he weighed! </p>
<p>Ummm…some UChicago students built a functioning nuclear reactor as part of Scav Hunt a while back. There’s also FermiLab associated with the UofC…majoring in physics at Chicago with an interest in going nuclear is NOT a bad plan!</p>
<p>Reed College also has a reactor and students get to work with it.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove, colleges will also buy names of kids who have made AP Scholar (S2 started getting mail after he had passed three APs and some letters specifically mentioned the AP achievement).</p>