<p>My parents will be extremely dissapointed if I do not get into HYPS, which I an 99.9% sure will happen due to my low GPA. Does anybody else have parents pushing them to get into huge reaches? What are they?</p>
<p>Homer, this is the Parents forum where all the overly ambitious, soon to be disappointed parents hang out. You may want to ask this question in the High School Life forum.</p>
<p>Homer:</p>
<p>I'm sure there are lots of parents like yours. :( The best you can do is to humor your parents by applying to super-reaches but make sure you apply to matches and safeties (including financial safeties) and put a lot of effort in the latter applications. If you do not get into HYPS but get into other good schools, your parents will get over their disappointment.</p>
<p>Actually, Burn This - check out our sticky threads on admissions this year. We can all learn and the parent's forum is a good place to do just that. </p>
<p>I won't deny the overly ambitious part - it's the "soon to be disappointed" part that is not in line with the reality of the PF. Parents may come in the door unrealistic but they will rarely leave here that way if they are willing to learn.</p>
<p>I think most novice parents of "A" high school students don't know what to think about college selection until the first SAT scores come out. After you see those SAT scores, I think it gives you a general idea whether your kid is in the HYP ballpark. Under 600s--doubt HYP is going to happen.</p>
<p>I would show parents scatterplots (SAT scores on one axis/GPA on the other axis) of applicants to different colleges. Red points mean denial; green points mean accept. Some high schools have them available on the net. </p>
<p>Plot your SAT/GPA on the plot and see if you are in a sea of green or red. Parents can see with their own two eyes how difficult it is to get into a HYP. I'll try to see if I can find a collection of scatterplots for you. Maybe if your parents get HYP out of their system early, you can concentrate on applying to colleges that make sense for you.</p>
<p>My favorite one--from Arcadia High School in Southern California--is no longer available. Maybe someone still knows of a scatterplot still available on the web.</p>
<p>is the site for the scatterplot, but class of 07 isnt up yet.</p>
<p>Do your parents understand that HYP all accepted LESS THAN 10% OF THE KIDS WHO APPLIED LAST YEAR? You could be a teenaged Nobel Prize winner and not get into these places. They reject a large number of Valedictorians and kids with perfect SAT's.</p>
<p>Time Magazine had a wonderful article last summer about Liberal Arts colleges and how they often offer a better education than large research-oriented institutions. Other books to show them - "Colleges that Change Lives" and "The New Ivies." </p>
<p>Your parents are not living in reality. The odds are 90% against getting into these schools, no matter how wonderful you are. They need to wake up and smell the coffee. Show them this thread, for starters.</p>
<p>hooray for public school educations!</p>
<p>My mother was the EXACT SAME WAY. She wasn't aware that schools other than HYP existed. Well, other than the CUNYs and SUNYs, that is. Then, just the other day, we visited Barnard and she loved it, and now we're okay. Parents are always tough to deal with. She just couldn't understand that while my gpa is okay, its not perfect and that while my SATs are considered "great" by some, there's plenty with perfect scores, not to mention the fact that i don't even want to go to HYP. But like I said, we're okay now.</p>
<p>Tell me about it... My mother, for instance, doesn't have the slightest idea about the standards for admission at most schools and I can't help but get frustrated at her oblivious comments. Back when I was applying to colleges, I was concerned I would get rejected at UT(which I did, after being waitlisted), which was my first choice, and still my mother would suggest that I apply to columbia and princeton! Looking back at it, I find it somewhat amusing, but at the time her lack of consideration for my situation and unrealistic expectations were really aggravating. But it is mainly because my parents are naive immigrants and don't have much insight into other schools except for the famous ones, of course. </p>
<ul>
<li>More recently, my mother has been pushing me to participate in any sports team in order to get an athletic scholarship to help with the steep OOS tuition. That sounds great, but the thing is I have never stood out competitively in any sport! And so I tell her, but only to hear, "It doesn't hurt to try; besides, you can try out for soccer, basketball, judo, tennis..." The funny thing is that I am 5'7 and have never practiced most of these sports. I guess it is just desperation from having to cope with full costs setting in and I can't blame them from trying to find some opportunity for aid, but dealing with such impetuous mindset can be galling at times and I have taken to just ignore it.</li>
</ul>
<p>My mom's an immigrant parent too. I think a lot of folks are in our boat.</p>
<p>Buy some books - college guides, the ones I mentioned in my earlier thread, perhaps go to Amazon and search under College - and show them to your parents. I see several of you complaining that your parents are immigrants and don't know any better - well, teach them. They may not listen to you, but it might help to see it in print - from multiple sources. Find a few schools that seem to be good fits for you and talk them into going with you to see just ONE of them. Might open their eyes.</p>
<p>Do you know any other adults whose opinions your parents respect who might be more up-to-date on suitable colleges?</p>
<p>haha, so...I guess I'm not the only one who lurks in the parent's forum!</p>
<p>My parents are like that, they think if you work hard, getting into Harvard is a breeze. And if you have been denied admission, it was clearly your lack of hard work to blame. Oh how little they know...</p>
<p>I count down the days till graduation.</p>