My D is Junior and maybe NMSQ from Texas. SAT 1540, A+ GPA, All-AP STEM, some EC.
Applying (BME or CE) to 4-5 colleges. 1 Ivy(H, Y, P), 1 Westcoast(S, B, LA), 1 East(Duke, JH, CM) and 2 South(AM & Rice)
Not asking if she can get in or not. If You Could Do Over, What Would You Do Differently?
I hope parents and students will share their do’s & don’ts and any lessons learned from their experiences!
Thanks and Gig’em
Don’ts - apply to all reaches
Do - Understand budget and costs first
Do - Apply early to maximize merit scholarship opportunities.
Do- Apply early to a safety with rolling admissions. It is nice to have an acceptance early in the process.
For engineering applications, be aware that engineering admission is very competitive at highly selective schools. Be prepared for unexpected rejections along the way.
DO include at least 1-2 safeties that you would actually want to attend.
DO apply early when possible.
DO have someone proofread your essays.
DO submit FAFSA in October.
DO- Run all NPCs
DO visit - either the actual schools, or proxies (by size, type, etc), and arrange to sit in on a class / spend the night at a couple of her favorites.
DO let her take the lead, and be steady in the background. Depending on the family, sometimes it helps to set aside a time for college conversations, so that it isn’t all.the.time ‘have you done…’. Some families set a weekly review time, for example.
DO have a ‘don’t ask policy’, prep friends & family that from the time application deadlines start until an actual choice is made, no initiating college conversations with her- let it be her lead / her decision if/when she talks to friends & family about it. The pressure is sososo much more than we expected, and you won’t believe the difference it makes - for everybody in the house- to have that policy.
DON’T emphasize a favorite, either of yours or hers, even after she’s applied.
DO have her work really, really hard on having at least one safety that she would, for real, be happy to attend (assuming UT-A? A&M?). As @pellicanss pointed out, BME & CE are super competitive admits at most of those places, so don’t put too much weight on the admissions stats.
DO make sure that you can, for real, afford anything she applies to. It is heartbreaking, but every year kids & parents come though CC trying to figure out how to finance the dream college that they got accepted to- but can’t afford.
Make sure your safety is actually a safety. Or better yet have more safeties. This admission cycle has proven to be very interesting in that regard.
Our policy was when asked where D was applying-Standard answer-Where isn’t she applying. usually shut down the line of questioning!
Brag only to grandparents. Really they are only people who are safe bets on being happy for you (besides your parents/siblings). And they love to hear about acceptances and scholarships!
Don’t slack off on the safety applications. My kiddo is choosing between her safety schools and we are so glad that she did all the optional honors, scholarship, and STEM program essays. She’s in the best possible position to make the most of her time at a safety school because of that extra effort.
Have the money talk early.
Run the net price calculators.
Make sure your safety schools are not just admissions but financial safety schools.
DO learn all you can about your targets, so you can assess your match (it’s not just stats and some flashy ECs. And there’s a whole app/supp to fill out.) You’ll find that, even in the same tier, there are differences in what colleges look for.
DON’T assume what they look for is same as what a high school values, what makes one a top dog in his/her own hs.
DO choose the safety schools first. It’s easy and fun to pick the reaches and targets. It’s harder to find a safety to get excited about. Do it first. Visit it. Put a lot of effort into the application. Apply to it first and early. Without the effort, she runs the risk of getting rejected from her safety because it will appear as if she really isn’t very interested.
DON’T create a list that’s geographically representative just for the sake of being geographically representative. That’s what it seems, based on the fact that you categorized them geographically—one from Column A, one from column B, etc. She should select the schools based on their offerings and vibe and affordability. I understand picking one or two where she’d be a geographical anomaly, but no reason to sprinkle applications all over the country. For example, why one Ivy? There’s nothing inherent in that group of colleges that would inform a decision to select one—or any preset number—from among them.