As I am anxiously waiting on my D22’s result, I totally understand how you feel about some of posts here. It may sound too negative, but most want to point out the importance of applying to a few safety schools, if not more. I think you need to figure out what are the safety schools for your kids and how comfortable you’re with them. Also, for many here, safety schools are the ones that guarantee 100% admission like UCM and UCR which my D22 didn’t apply. Many would say that they don’t guarantee 100%, but they were for my daughter’s school. I don’t have any issue with the colleges that my D22 applied to, the only regret is that she didn’t do any EA with safety school which would’ve helped her a lot psychologically while waiting on all RD decisions. Wish the best for you and your kids.
Thank you! My S23 has added Fordham (EA) and Syracuse to his list and is happy with them. We will be able to visit Fordham but not Syracuse. D23 hasn’t embraced any yet but has at least started to look. She may end up with Syracuse and Fordham as well or maybe Pitt. I completely agree about EA safeties. My older D21 had a great EA safety that offered her merit. Otherwise the ED1 and ED2 rejections would have been that mush worse. We’re working on it. It’s really hard/impossible to find 100% guarantee to any school they “would be happy to attend.” They would most definitely not be happy at UC Merced.
Best of luck to your D. The wait is almost over.
The local community colleges will take them even if they get rejected by everywhere else.
If the local community colleges are not suitable fits, then they should include some more suitable safeties in their lists.
Is she taking a college multivariable calculus course? If so, and she does well, she may end up with transfer credit for it.
In terms of skipping courses with AP or transfer credit, she may want to try the old final exams of those courses to be skipped at the college she will attend, to get an idea of her knowledge by the college’s standards. Then she can make a more informed placement decision.
Very true. My kids were youth leaders at a camp since they were in middle school. During Covid that camp went online and they helped make that happen. Many kids we know figured out how to make the most of quarantine. I suspect admissions will be looking for those stories.
The thread was started because you were wondering if your two children with excellent stats needed a true safety. And the consensus has been that if you want to guarantee that your children go to college next year at a place other than your local community college, that they should add true safeties. If you want a 100% guarantee, you need to add additional choices. If you want a 90% chance, you need to add choices. If you say, hey, a 50% works for us, then maybe there’s no need to add additional schools.
If I had to make a bet, I would bet that your children would each get into at least one school on their list. But would I bet money? No. Would I risk the need to do a last-minute search during the spring of senior year for places that are still accepting applicants? No. Would I risk a very stressful senior year, waiting on pins and needles to see if they get into one of the ones on their list? No. It’s up to you and your children if you want to make those bets.
This is what scares me moving forward. The students who basically BS their ECs are going to look the best, and while many of these schools claim the right and ability to confirm…there’s no way schools are using resources to do so when they have such an overwhelming amount of apps.
Kids have been BS’ing their ECs for years - that isn’t new. Frankly, I take many “chance me” threads with a grain (or shaker) of salt because it doesn’t seem humanly possible to do as much as some kids claim.
really? Are you saying 15 year olds aren’t co-writing research papers with Stanford professors, starting businesses with thousands of customers and millions in revenues, and curing cancer, and playing in a world class orchestra that performed on 7 continents?
Well that’s one kid. But what about all the others with even greater achievements?
It’s not true? I feel blindsided. I really believed those thousands of kids were telling the truth.
hmmm -
Just because it sucked for you doesn’t mean it has to suck for your kids.
You do know…there are kids who have gotten accepted to top schools and hated those and thought they sucked…and either toughed out or transferred.
You kids have a chance to be accepted somewhere on their current lists…no guarantees. What folks here are saying to you is…it would be nice if they had a sure thing that is a place they would like on their application list. You, the parent, don’t seem to think this is necessary.
CA has a ton of well regarded public colleges…but I think it’s too late to apply to some at this point… @Gumbymom @ucbalumnus
I think everyone here is cheering for your kids to get that first acceptance. Please let us know when that happens.
Unfortunately, it’s a part of life, but we all know or should know what’s right thing to do. My daughter would’ve never done something like that even if it meant a dream college admission.
Are you kids at the same HS ? I see that your daughter will get her full IB diploma and not your son. Have you spoken with your HS counselor about how their chosen curriculum will be stack up between others at their HS. I know for our IB HS - the high stat full IB kids have more success with competitive colleges vs the kids with the same high stats, but no IB diploma. I imagine it has been suggested to look at your school’s Naviance or Scoir for guidance too and with them being Class of 2023 - this year’s data should be quite helpful and maybe provide some ideas for safeties/targets to add to their lists.
OP’s kids are juniors. So they’ll be applying later this year.
But I believe OP has also stated that they don’t want to go to any California colleges
Ah right…they are juniors. The OP says her kids aren’t interested in any CA publics, but after hearing her experience, I have to wonder if that perhaps is impacting their decisions about CA public universities.
The OP had a poor experience a generation ago…and we don’t know which public was involved.
CA has a lot of public universities. Finding one that is suitable shouldn’t be a hard thing to do…if they are willing to look.
Sample of one (but then so is your husband). My DH went to Dartmouth and hated every minute of it. He didn’t graduate from there. Took 7 years of gap time…and then went back to a college that doesn’t break the 300 mark…maybe 500 in USNews. He has had a very successful career in his field.
Top schools, and private schools are not a guarantee of happiness or satisfaction for all students.
My daughter has a close friend who had her UC application audited. That meant that she had to go through every EC and get a letter (on official letterhead) confirming the hours and scope of what she had put on her application. Thankfully she was completely honest and was able to confirm.
The UCs claim to audit 10% of applications. I absolutely believe it. And if you’re caught lying then your application is basically void. Not worth lying in my opinion.
Mention of such seems to be pretty rare on these forums, so audits that are noticed by the applicant may not be as high as 10%. On the other hand, it can be possible to audit an application without informing the applicant in some cases, such as verifying claimed major awards with the awarding organization. The bigger the extracurricular achievement, the more likely that there is a paper trail that can independently verify it.
I’d rephrase to say “according to this thread my kids might not get into the colleges I think they should or deserve.”
You are not alone! This sentiment and concern is all over CC. College admissions cycles were more and more competitive since before the pandemic but the introduction of TO and test-blind, among other things, has seriously ratcheted it up a few notches. Your children very well may be accepted to one or more of their preferred schools, but, since nothing is guaranteed, actual safeties they like are critical.
In the event your kids end up with unpalatable college choices for whatever reason, it might be worth considering what a gap year would look like now. And they could reapply for fall 2023.
The guidance counselors at my daughter’s school require a resume from each senior in the fall (college, trade school, workforce, military, doesn’t matter). They verify the info as best they can and include the key points in their letters of rec. If it cannot be verified, it doesn’t go in the letter. I’m not sure if AOs notice or care but I suspect our district has produced fewer profitable high school CEOs since the process was implemented.
they attend different schools. My D had to put in a transfer to get the IB Program. Our schools don’t have Naviance or Scoir. We have like 680 students per counselor. But yes we met with them and their curricula are considered the most rigorous available.