A common self-deception involves weighted HS GPA. High schools are part of the problem here when they have exaggerated weighting methods and only report weighted HS GPA, contributing to the self-deception.
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My thought is that academics make up the most important piece. Once we nail that down (by sniffing out the exaggerations) we can ask additional questions and get it right much of the time. Of course, it would be better if we had all that information, but think of all the time we save by not having to read it!
Agreed.
For most colleges that focus on academics and do not have non-academic must-haves, applicants probably fall into one of the following zones based on academic factors:
- Clear rejects.
- Borderline.
- Clear admits (unless there are yield protection / level of interest considerations).
Now, applicants who obviously fall into zones 1 and 3 can be âchancedâ rather predictably (except in the case of yield protection / level of interest situations). But applicants who fall or may fall into zone 2 are then likely to find everything else that the college considers to be more important against other applicants falling into zone 2 â and these include subjectively graded difficult to compare (by the applicant) aspects like recommendations and essays.
Note that the most selective colleges that are the focus of many on these forums have no zone 3 â top-end academic stats just put the applicant into the borderline zone 2, where everything else becomes important.
Also note that when a college practices admission by division or major, it is not always clear where the zones are for each division or major in terms of applicant academic stats, since many colleges only report entire-college stats.
I think the biggest and most common exageration is what they can afford to pay. I hear âmoney isnât a problemâ a lot on here and when you dig you realize thatâs code for âwe havenât thought about moneyâ.
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Yes but how much does ability to pay impact chances of acceptance?
for need aware colleges, maybe, not not much advantage.
If money can solve all problems, there would be no scandal. No one needs to go to jail.
Even need aware colleges wonât only admit students who can can afford with priority.
for need blind colleges not, even some people on CC believe need blind is not truly need blind.
What makes you think they are exaggeration. I see some people share their acceptance and stat, under FA, then put NA or No. I believe them.
Most US colleges and universities are need-blind when evaluating individual applicants for admission. But parental money does matter in that parents with money can use it to purchase additional opportunities for their kids* or remove barriers that their kids face while trying to earn the best possible admission credentials for colleges and universities.
Also, a college that is need-blind for individual applicants may be need-aware for the class, so it may have admission policies that indirectly favor particular SES levels (e.g. does it favor for extracurriculars preppy sports or working to help support oneâs family?), although some individual applicants may not follow the general trend (e.g. there may be some low SES applicants at preppy schools on financial aid there playing preppy sports).
*Including moving to a better public school zone or paying for a better private school.
I see it in the chance me or help me choose a college threads.
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Do you have a source for this? Many CCâers say thisâŠbut I would like to see the data.
it is hard to tell whether they exaggerated.
I know friends who sent kids to Duke, Northwestern, Wash U, MIT, Harvard etc.
They all paid without FA.
Each year, I believe 1000s of kid do not need FA and their parents can afford for their colleges. Not only top elite schools but also LAC.
I donât doubt them because I donât gain anything by doubting them.
Donât be so sure. Remember Varsity Blues?
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Thatâs exactly what I mean âIFâ, what I mean is money canât solve all problemsâŠ
Unless the applicant is not a US citizen or Permanent Resident. And I am not sure that âmostâ is accurate for the 3000 US 4-year colleges.
I think I know what @AlwaysMoving is getting at. Itâs not so much that there are never families that are full pay who post to that effect. Itâs more that sometimes when kids are posting chance me threads, they are either not interested in or not aware of the financial aspect of going to college, so they say âmoney isnât a problemâ. Itâs more that they donât want to deal with that part of the college search equation at the moment, or they donât appreciate the impact finances will have on their college search. (I think even some parents might be a little bit like this, too, sometimes).
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there is always people on rich and not so rich (even poor) sides. I am sure there is at least one or more exaggerations on CC but that is well known. No matter what the kids/parents say, it is their choice. I just take the face value and wouldnât bother.
If a kid exaggerates and does not present the true picture, all advice the kid gets are in vain.
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A web scrape of URLs like https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/print-college-profile?id=2
but for id= 0 to 1000 found 458 entries with â4-year schoolâ. Of these, 356 had âThis school practices need-blind admissionsâ and 102 did not. This sample has 78% claiming need-blind admissions.
What about all the applicant who exaggerate and outright lie about their ECs on the common app?
No college can truly afford to be 100% need blind. They are lying.
You can look at last years Brownâs waiting list. All the applicants who got off were full pay.
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The Harvard lawsuit found that Harvard went beyond just being need blind (meaning that admission readers do not see income or FA docs) and also gave a significant preference to applicants that readers suspect are lower income students based on information like parents occupation and neighborhood/school SES. More detail is at http://samv91khoyt2i553a2t1s05i-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Doc-421-112-May-1-2013-Memorandum.pdf . With a high portion of qualified applicants being full pay and pressure to spend a larger portion of their >$40 billion dollar endowment, Harvard can afford to be need blind and/or give an admissions preference to lower income applicants. A similar statement could be made for quite a few other high endowment per student colleges.
Lower endowment colleges also tend to be need blind for domestic students, but they rarely meet full need of admitted students. Itâs easier to be need blind, if you donât meet the financial need of admitted students and instead expect them to take out loans to pay tuition.
Brown does not claim to be need blind for all students. Instead they claim to be need aware for international and transfer students. The former makes up 13% of undergrads. Waitlisted students are often a very small portion of admits at highly selective private colleges like Brown. In a class several years ago, Brown only admitted 2 students from the waitlist. Depending on the wait list to get enough full pay kids would not be an effective long term strategy at colleges like Brown. More effective could be adjusting admission policies to favor groups for which full pay kids are overrepresented, such as legacies and kids with high test scores.