<p>In the EA round, there were really only two schools that S might not get accepted…as I predicted, he was deferred to one, accepted to other. Now he’s waiting on 6 RD schools (including the deferral school)…I’m guessing yes for two, no for 4…just way to competitive and I’m too much of a realist. S does seem to have a way of defying odds, and he’s way more optimistic than I, so he applied. We have the most whack financial situation, so I have no idea how aid is going to shake out. He has one great scholarship to a school he’d like to attend, one for a school he hasn’t visited, and one huge scholarship for the last on his list.</p>
<p>^*Pawsnfeet - I guess we are all on pins and needles waiting for results :). We want very much for D to get into her top choice, but at the same time know that if she does we are probably full pay at $45K for 4 years and it’s shoulders to the wheel for us, her parents. </p>
<p>Years ago when H and I were trying to sell our first house we said “the designated buyer is out there” meaning that sooner or later the house would sell and whoever the buyer was already existed somewhere. Now we feel like the designated school is out there (she will go SOMEWHERE) we and they (and D) just don’t know it yet.</p>
<p>Stepping back from where our kids get in and how much it will cost to send them to school is the fact that no matter how much or how little money a family has…how many of these schools are really worth their high price tags. We tried to create a list of schools that we felt would be worth the cost assuming our D gets in, but in reality, some of them cost as much, or more, as the HYPSM schools and her list does not contain any in that caliber. </p>
<p>As a retail shopper who only buys things on sale…it is hard to justify paying the full tuition for some of these schools. Isn’t there a college tuition “sale rack” somewhere…or is that what the scholarships are for? :)</p>
<p>8pawsnfeet, I think that is exactly what both kinds of aid (need based and merit aid) are. They are discounts on the price of the school.</p>
<p>^As a shopper, you either shop at the likes of Sax, Macy’s, or KMart. For us, stuff at Sax University never goes on sale, but we don’t want to go to KMart University for the education. So we hope to find something good, classic, and durable on the sale rack at Macy’s U.</p>
<p>@sylvan…I like your retail analogy. Based on your theory…my D will for sure wind up Macy U, question is…which location 
</p>
<p>Good luck to your D on getting into her top choice with $$$.</p>
<p>We learned the lesson of the BWRK several years ago when someone close to us got rejected at all the Ivys to which he applied. Captain of two sports, valedictorian, personable and highest GPA in school history with very good scores and no application for FA… It was an eyeopener to the single digit acceptances…
With our youngest applying to some of those same schools, we are wary of even making predictions, at least in front of him…Will he go 0-5, 5-0, 2-2-1??? Nothing is s a given. We just have to wait 81 more days, but who’s counting???</p>
<p>We didn’t put predictions on paper either; however, we often discussed our predicted outcome. D applied to 18 and we thought she’d have around 5-6 rejections (Ivy/reaches), 2 WL, and the rest acceptances. We were surprised at the final outcome: 3 rejections, 7 acceptances, and 8 WL! It all turned out fine in the end because she’s a super happy junior thriving at the school she ultimately chose.</p>
<p>DS’ counselor encouraged him regarding the “reach” schools on his list, and even noted he had a good chance at his “super reach school” despite his lower-percentile profile for that school. Counselor is experienced and well-informed, and DS’ HS is on radar screen of many schools, but we thought his advice to be overly optimistic given what we’ve read on CC. We encouraged “good fit” as primary goal, not prestige factor. DS’ favorite was a “good fit” that’s “matchy-mildly reach”, and was accepted.</p>
<p>Sylvan, we were “lucky” in that S’s top choice and highest reach ended up being his only denial…it was a retailer we couldn’t afford without big loans. Whew. But the other 8 applications came back with acceptances, and he went to a jewel of a Macy’s, on sale ;)</p>
<p>“Re: #6, 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>To finally respond to that about why one kid was waitlisted and the other rejected from his safety, ucbalumus, no, that wasn’t the case. Son #1’s safety that he applied to was our local flagship university. They accepted less than the usual amount because of huge numbers of applications. We shouldn’t have considered that a safety, really. Son #2’s ultimate safety, I would have thought that…except his rejection letter came with such a rude lecture about grades, that I think they were trying to make a point. That they really thought his GPA was inadequate, not that he wouldn’t pick them.</p>
<p>I thought in that case, that the ultimate safety was not used to getting applicants from this sort of high school. That they didn’t realize that the GPA’s were deflated, that very few ever graduate with a 4.0, and that it was one of the top college prep schools in the nation. Most private schools understood that, and gave our students a healthy GPA break, but I suspect that very few from his school had ever even applied there.</p>
<p>Busdriver,
With your son #2 do you think that it was more on the HS to send a profile of the school detailing its level of difficulty and/or have the GC call the college admissions department beforehand if it was a school that wasn’t familiar with his HS? Or is it on the college to read the profile and study it if it was sent? My son’s high school while public has a very good reputation and has the highest SAT scores in the area and among the top ten in the state. They did away with class rank to avoid harming student who might be a NMSF but not in the top 10% of the class.
They put together a profile detailing SAT scores, AP scores and where graduates matriculate that they (they tell us) that it was placed above the transcript so colleges have to see it. Whether they read it or not is another issue…</p>
<p>^^Yes, jandjdad, the school sends out a profile, and does keep in contact with the admissions depts of most colleges. The profile for this year stated that admissions were highly selective (16%), 63% had some sort of National Merit award, with about 1/3 of the class being NM semi-finalists. Seems like that might have caught their eye. It sounds like a similar sort of system that your kid’s school has. They have about 15 or so kids per college counselor, so they get plenty of attention for applications. I’m sure if I’d asked, they would have called, it just wasn’t on the list of common schools that kids apply to. </p>
<p>It was a last minute decision, kind of a safety to the safety. I wouldn’t have really thought much about it…but the other rejection letters my kids got from schools were so kind and tried to make the kids feel good. This was just a very rude letter.</p>
<p>
Wow. We have 125-150 per GC and my youngest got a new GC this year as they transferred the old one out. I can’t say I mind as the one that left had a habit of trying to funnel all the kids to the state flagship and telling them, " they might have a chance to get in there" and not to shoot too high. Uh, why not?? If you have the GPA/SAT/EC/$$ to back it up, why not try to shoot the moon and add those to your list???
The new GC looked at his list and understood that he had a few safeties, a few solid choices and a few reaches…</p>
<p>^^Sounds like the old GC was just trying to relieve his workload, not find the best choices for your kid. Then again, that sounds like a pretty heavy workload, but still!</p>
<p>Never even thought of that but we haven’t been too on the mark with grad school apps</p>
<p>Busdriver, Absolutely and luckily this was our second time through so we knew what to expect and how out of whack her observations were. Looking at Naviance and the huge increase in numbers applying to the flagship versus other years, maybe others weren’t so astute… In our state, the flagship is not that cheap and an OOS in another can be the same cost, as we see with our older son…</p>
<p>Cannot believe people would let (or make) their kids apply to 17-20 colleges! No wonder the admission rates are so low at the more popular/competitive schools.</p>
<p>sally305–how many–one, one poster had their child apply to that many schools…</p>
<p>There. I fixed it. And I am not talking about people with twins. :)</p>