There were moments of disappointment along the way in S23’s process, but after all, I think acceptances/rejections fell where SCOIR (or someone on CC would have) predicted. He did well for himself by starting the personal essay in the summer, applying to 10 or fewer schools (9, ultimately), and applying EA where available.
If our family had S23’s process to do again, we would have him:
-Do a test prep course, and do it before sitting for any testing
-Look at common data sets before applying
-Look more closely at full cost of attendance before applying
-Understand which OOS publics award merit to OOS students
-Visit when students are on campus/get the official tour if at all possible
-Not apply if there just isn’t a connection during the visit
-Demonstrate interest early and throughout the process
That said, he and we parents feel happy with results and very happy with his choice (and will apply lessons learned to D25’s process).
@Owl1 We used a private counselor since our large public high school provides zero college counseling. Literally zero. The main benefit the private counselor provided was not on the application itself but in choosing the schools to apply to. She made us understand that the reaches were a lottery and our son might get into none of them, and she helped our son find multiple safeties/matches he was excited about. In other words, she gave the same advice you can find on CC for free, but I didn’t find CC until after applications were done
I agree with this entirely. Especially the fact that this can be done quite well without hiring a pro. The forum gives you the ability to research deeply. Or if you are not inclined, and are willing to pay…
@elwa, thank you. You articulated what I was thinking. Private counselor is for the strategy.
It’s so true CC is free and provides same info as a private counselor if you go to this forum when the students starts the process and if the parent and/or student have the time to really read and dig all the info. Sometimes, depending on what is going on with the student and family, time is not available to do it yourself.
It’s demoralizing to be a high stats kid, amazing EC, and more, more, and still be WL or rejected. Other students with lower gpa and/or less rigorous academic load were accepted to schools my kid applied and didn’t get in. It is part of the college game.
Now, it is very clear to us (we knew this before too) that many times, the college acceptance doesn’t reflect the capabilities of the students. There are many deserving students getting in amazing colleges and there are others who may not be as deserving as others. Again, it’s part of the college game.
Our HS college counseling is vey limited. Any help provided by college counselors are generic and for the whole class. My kid is an amazing writer and outstanding at taking any project seriously, which is the main reason the college results were a happy ending! (with heartaches too)
I think this is the best advice and wish I had done this and started early. I received a LOT of bad advice from the counselors at my school, but the worst was that they told us not to start working on any essays until we returned to school Fall of senior year!!! This caused so much stress and I had to spend both Thanksgiving Break & Winter Break cranking out essays.
