<p>On my D's college spreadsheet (which includes all of the application deadlines, costs, and decision dates), I have columns with both mine and my DH's predictions of which schools she will get into and which ones she won't. We don't expect her to get into every school on her list. We even told her that if she does, she probably didn't reach high enough. Just wondering if any other CC parents make decision predictions, and if so how accurate have they been so far.</p>
<p>Do you also have columns for whether you expect sufficient financial aid and/or scholarships?</p>
<p>The finances were taken into account prior to her applications so no columns for that. Why do you ask?</p>
<p>It does seem common for both students and parents to not take cost and financial aid into account until April when they get a bunch of acceptances that are all unaffordable.</p>
<p>It looks like you did it correctly, figuring that out before the applications were made.</p>
<p>My UCB alumni husband is very fiscally responsible :)</p>
<p>Funny, I did that with both of my kids too.</p>
<p>Son #1, I nailed it, except for one safety school that I thought he’d get in outright…he was waitlisted first, then got accepted.</p>
<p>Son #2, I came close, except he got accepted to two of his reach schools (of which I thought he’d only get into one but not both), and his easy safety school…he got rejected, with a lecture about how his scholastic performance wasn’t good enough, but if he did better the next year, he could reapply. Killed us laughing, as the schools he got into were far better, for so many reasons. Imagine if that had been his first letter!</p>
<p>Glad to know we are not the only ones. I am so superstitious that I can’t believe I actually made a prediction list. I think I really did it so that we would be prepared for the rejections once they start to roll in :)</p>
<p>My D has so far been accepted to her two “safeties” (said in quotes because I’m not sure if anything is a slam-dunk safety anymore). Another school, which I thought was a pseudo-safety asked for her first semester grades before they make their EA decision (a wrinkle I didn’t account for) so that one is still up in the air. The rest are all TBD. Another prediction my DH made was that we would have at least one surprise…meaning she would get into a reach (hopefully!!) or not get into one that we thought she would or should.</p>
<p>Re: #6</p>
<p>Were the “safeties” schools that looked at “level of applicant’s interest” or otherwise thought to be trying to protect their yield by waitlisting or rejecting applicants that they think won’t attend?</p>
<p>My predictions are in my mind. I am far too superstitious to write them down. I can say I’m 1 for 1 so far though. :D</p>
<p>No written predictions. The schools with 30% acceptance rate or better I suspect she will get into; those with 20% or less are toss-ups! She’s already into one EA with 13% acceptance rate, which was a confidence booster, (and one purely numbers-driven safety). My H is rather clueless, I don’t think he could name half the schools she applied to at this point.</p>
<p>Well we are 18 for 19 at our house this year with one RD coming in April. For that one, I say he has a 50/50 chance of getting in :D.</p>
<p>Wow SteveMA, that is great acceptance rate! And wow, 19 apps. That makes my head spin, your S must be organized.</p>
<p>Here in my house, D is 8 for 8, just got last acceptance yesterday. I guess some might say she didn’t reach high enough, since she got no rejections-- but we were going for merit (and she got it)–the schools are all great fits for what she wants to study…which is a creative field. So her apps also included portfolio. Aid packages not in yet, but based on merit awards, at least 4 of the 8 will be doable so I’m feeling less stressed than I was a couple months ago!</p>
<p>For me the predictions are all about which ones we’ll be able to finance. With older kid focused too much on just where could she get in (lots of high reaches on list) and found that when she got in to a few of the high reaches, we couldn’t afford to send her due to economic downturn. Luckily she did have good options including merit that were affordable.</p>
<p>Like 89Wahoo, I are too superstitious to write them down but we are waiting for 5 schools in March, all of which are in the sub 20% acceptance rate, so it is the “who knows” category…He got into three of his safeties so far but now it is just a waiting game…</p>
<p>paperplane–we have twins so 10 for one 9 for the other. We were “casting a wide net” for good merit aid and it worked! They reached exactly where they wanted to reach :D. They aren’t caught up in “rankings” and found excellent schools that fit them and their intended majors. Funny thing, DS’s lottery school is actually the “worst” choice for his major and the lowly state directonal is his best choice for his major…</p>
<p>While we did Excel Spreadsheets for all four children, we never put in a column predicting acceptance or denial. One column was “Average Percentage of Need Met” which was pretty accurate when all the numbers came in.</p>
<p>I thought my first child would get in everywhere she applied, and she went 4-3, including a waitlist at what I thought was a lock. My second child’s list was more ambitious, and I was wiser by then, so I knew he wouldn’t get in everywhere, but I was still somewhat stunned at where he wasn’t accepted.</p>
<p>Luckily, each of them was accepted at a couple of colleges they, my wife, and I felt really enthusiastic about, including at least one EA acceptance that took some of the edge off March and limited the number of colleges they were waiting for. It all worked out really well, and the ego-bruises healed pretty quickly. (That’s a little bit of a white lie. I suspect the ego-bruises are still there, to some extent, just not very big and not very painful.)</p>
<p>We were trying to make predictions on how much Merit award D. would get. She applied only to UG that would offer her Merits. We were surprized both ways. Some offer much less, others offer way more. She has chosen the one that covered her full tuition (ans later she got more than that). We were very lucky, application process was a joy, something to remember with the smile for the rest of our lives. Some moments were indeed funny. I will never forget D. (who could barely learned to walk on high heels) walking on a sheet of ice in her heels to interview. I was praying for her not to fall, I did not care about interview at this moment. Well, she did just fine and was accepted there, but ended up attending at the different place.
we also had an enourmous spreadsheet that was not printed on a single sheet. It regured several across and down. all info., including potential sport team (ended up not participating) and minor (did this one) was included.</p>
<p>DD was accepted at all 3 colleges to which she applied. We knew that she would get into her two safeties (they accept solely based on stats), but to be honest we didn’t really have a clue about all the others, even with the experience of her older brother’s apps. Among the colleges that she planned to apply RD we felt that she would probably be accepted to most (with coach help and reasonable stats) but that merit aid might be required at some to be affordable. Fortunately, her number one came through so we didn’t have to send them out. Number one was practically a lottery, though, so no way to predict, really! DH and I were too superstitious to even attempt to estimate the probability of that one!</p>
<p>I though my oldest (top 1% of the class scores to match) would do a bit better than he did, 4 acceptances, 4 rejections, 1 waitlist (that last in particular surprised me.) But he ended up super happy at the school he ended up at. (Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science.) </p>
<p>My youngest did better than either of us expected. We got a bit of a heads up when he got into U of Chicago early that his essays and recommendations would make up for his GPA and lopsided scores. He got into 4 and rejected from 3 (all the super reaches, one probably less than ideal fit though tops in his field of interest.)</p>
<p>SteveMA–twins! That explains that. Though I do know some people whose kids apply to 15-20 schools. That seemed like too much to keep track of to me, but then my kids (and I) are not so organized as they are. My older did 10, younger 8. </p>
<p>Bravo to you for helping 2 kids navigate this all at once!</p>