As we near Decision Day on May 1, we put together some resources for you to consider if you still need to decide on a college. Check them out!
Also, make sure to let us know what would you do differently if you had to apply again and what was your most surprising outcome this decision season. Take the polls below!
What would you do differently if you had to apply again?
I wouldn’t do anything differently
I would apply to more schools
I would apply to fewer schools
I would apply to different schools
I would pick more safeties
0voters
What’s your most surprising outcome this decision season?
I was rejected at a safety
I was admitted at a reach
I received merit aid I wasn’t expecting
I beat the odds and got into a very competitive school
Took the poll for my son as well. Big surprise was he got almost 90k out of state from Minnesota (Carlson School). Likewise would have applied more places. Had great options but To much of a crapshoot.
The most surprising outcome to me is how comically accurate CollegeVine’s chance-me engine is for DS. He applied to 13 schools with CV’s probability of acceptance roughly uniformly distributed over the interval 7%-92%. He got accepted to every school at or above 55% and waitlisted/rejected by every school at or below 54%. We were joking that the admission process might as well be deterministic and be completely dependent on whether CV’s numbers are above a threshold around 50%. In fact, for the last few schools to announce we have been using this simple rule to make prediction. (Anyway, we understand the small sample size caveat and that this is just a notable coincidence.)
I answered for my son. We wouldn’t do anything differently. I had him start essays early in the summer and the time and attention really paid off. His early safeties came in as expected with big merit. He ended up getting into his super reach and he is so thrilled.
For S23:
He applied to 12 schools (9 in the top 20). He got into 3 (1 in the top 20), and will be attending. He was pretty unhappy waiting for that last one, with only his two safeties in hand. There’s nothing more or differently he could have done though. He is fully qualified but from an over-represented race and region and he is not a unicorn. The only thing different to do was to communicate differently about college admission with him so he didn’t have his hopes set too high. And I still think he should’ve done ED2 instead of holding out hope for a school that didn’t offer ED2 (and ultimately rejected him).
For D23:
Slightly more unicorn-ish than her twin. She applied to only 7 schools and got into 5 of them. She wasn’t aiming quite as high ranking-wise but focused on specific programs as the quality of her major varies widely. Of her top 3 she was admitted to 1 (a T10 university) and will be attending there. I don’t know what she could’ve done differently. I think her options felt better to her than her twin’s did, even before the T10 came is as an acceptance. She didn’t do ED1 or 2 and was also holding our hope for a school that didn’t offer ED (ultimately a WL).
I would recommend encouraging your kid to try ED1 and ED2 especially if they are aiming high. It doesn’t always turn out but you haven’t lost anything by trying.
Answered for my D23. She applied to 18 schools (theatre/musical theatre major, which is super selective and subjective). In her heart, I think she really wanted more of a BA program than a BFA (or a BFA that acted more like a BA), and if we didn’t get sucked into that MT world where the average number of schools seem to be around 20-25, she would have probably applied to fewer schools that were more conservatory style and maybe just a couple more that were more BA style.
In regards to the “surprise” question, D23 is high stats, but after hearing about how difficult and challenging it’s been for even high stats kids, she was pleasantly shocked to have been accepted to a school that was <10% acceptance rate. The other surprise (that couldn’t vote for) was getting full-tuition scholarship at another school.
I think another thing we would have done differently, if we had the time, is reach out to students at the programs to get a feel for what it’s like there from their point of view. Lots of stuff on the website, but I’ve realized that getting honest feedback from current students (not working/volunteering/interning for the admissions department) is a good way to get some nitty gritty info, if that makes sense. Definitely would have pulled some off the list if we did that originally (before admitted student days) and conversely, would have possibly considered a school more that we removed early on in the application season.
Just to confirm, the poll is about the 2023 experience. However, @eyemgh, we enjoyed hearing your kid’s story and congratulations on the achievement.
For the first poll, I picked that I would have applied to fewer schools. I’m instate nonauto for UT, and with a state school that is this random at capping super qualified nonautos instate, I had to apply to many OOS public schools I didn’t really have interest in (UCs, Purdue, UIUC) and schools like Northeastern. In hindsight, I should have trusted my abilities to get into UT CS.
For the second poll, my biggest surprise was getting admitted by Yale! With such a selective pool, I don’t know how my mediocre essays made it to the top. But I’ll happily take it. Boola boola!
Answering for my D23. I think her plan was a very good one in that she applied to 5 reach, 4 target, and 5 safety schools. Accepted at 5/5 safety, 3/4 target, and 1/5 reach which is a T20 with <10% acceptance rate (and was also her first choice and highest USNWR ranked).
I think she should have applied to different target schools, because at the end of the day, she wasn’t really happy with the 3 she got acceptances from and would likely have gone to one of the safety schools given the amount of $ they offered her. She applied ED to the reach to which she finally got accepted, but was deferred ED and had to suffer thru to Ivy Day. The target that rejected her was her second choice school (one that MAIA and College Kickstart gave her >50% acceptance chance).
It all worked out in the end, but I wish she had been more thoughtful about the targets, and maybe applied to 1-2 more reaches.
Replying for S23. Hate to say it but would have applied to more schools. He did 10, and got waitlisted at a few that we assumed were target, including Tennessee and South Carolina. Seems like more and more kids apply to 20 schools. Maybe that changes the numbers and schools will have to admit more from the wait list. He did get into and is probably going to a school in the NE that was more of a reach. After reading these forums seems like kids got into Virginia Tech or Purdue, but didn’t get into S Carolina, which doesn’t seem to have as strong of an engineering program. Probably would have applied to a bunch more reach schools.
I would look more closely at the student population, it’s diversity, and where most of the students came from (distance-wise from the school). I think I focused on the strength of the school in the field I’m interested in, cost and merit awards, and activities that were on and off campus that I might enjoy well, but forgot that if there’s not much diversity in the population base of students, and I don’t fit into that base well, it makes it difficult to fit in (I’ve never had this issue before, but I;ve been around people that were more like me). I chose the school for the right reasons, I just should have thought about the diversity of the student population more.
My 2023 HS grad would have applied to more colleges if he had realized most small LAC have a Zero application fee. Our instate public schools are $75 each to apply, and we limited the number of applications partly because those fees add up ( and we aren’t like Alabama where they have a Fee Free week in October for all public schools).
I applied to 32 colleges, all with a fee waiver. If I could have done anything differently, I would have applied to less safeties and more competitive schools. I was admitted into schools I never could have imagined getting into, and I was also rejected from a bunch of schools I thought I had a chance with.
My biggest surprise was being admitted to USC and receiving an INCREDIBLE financial aid package.
The process this year was a complete lottery (it seems) and a very confusing time in all of our lives.
I answered for D23: wouldn’t have done anything differently because she did not have a number one favorite to do ED so she did one of the restricted EAs(deferred then WL).
She is a very high-stats kid who applied to 16 schools, 12 in the top 15ish and 2 in the top25-30 range, plus two top15 LACs. For her record at her HS, 3 of these were likelies, 5 were matches and 8 were reaches. She got into all likelies, 40% of matches(2 of 5 acceptances and the other 3 WL, plus a verbal offer of a spot in the class from one of the 3 that WL her—she did not pursue that offer because she got acceptances she liked better), and accepted at 25% of reaches(2 of 8 accepted her, 4 WL, 2 reject). All of these %s lined up with what we expected /what counselor predicted based on data.
The big surprise was the full cost of attendance Signature Scholar award from Wake Forest. There is no application so it wasn’t on the radar really. Even with vague knowledge of the scholarships, she never thought she would be one of 50ish finalists and then go on to win one. It was a very positive boost and amazing self-confidence builder as it was 100% merit/based on her application ( and finalist interviews).
Overall she had great success and is glad to be done!
Replying for D23. She would apply to fewer schools and all early action. I would have worked to understand the deadlines for each of these schools. She applied to so many that she missed scholarship deadlines and was overwhelmed with so much information.
Even though she was accepted to all the schools she applied to, many schools did not offer scholarships, so learning to demonstrate an interest in those schools she loved was key. Also, small things like discovering that some universities provide more scholarships for specific concentrations than others.
Should have hired an independent admissions advisor (even just for 2 or 3 sessions) to help through the process of applying to east coast schools, for reviewing essay, knowing what schools would offer significant financial aid. Should have submitted SAT scores. Still surprised about being waitlisted at so many schools that students with lesser stats got in to. Should have applied to my own state’s top university.