<p>I’m the 1st in my family to go thru this process, and my mom is well-meaning. But her advice…</p>
<p>Me: *typing CommonApp essay
Capt’n Obvious: Honey be sure to show you PERSONALITY in the essay. </p>
<p>Me: *filling out supplement
C’O: Sweetie, did you make sure to list some after school clubs?</p>
<p>Me: *writing thank-you notes to teachers for recs.
C’O: Did you ask for a letter of recommendation from a teacher?</p>
<p>Also, what really goes into those superb stats.
This is every other kid in my (public high school) class:</p>
<p>4.2/4 GPA-- AP Studio art, APES, AP Human Geo, AP Psych.
2200 SAT-- $2000 prep classes for the last five years, $200/hr private tutor for the last two
Shadowing a Dr./interning @ law office-- Father’s coworkers
President of XYZ Community Service Club-- Club meets 1x a month, done nothing substantial
Class President/secretary – Schmoozing up to class advisor, won by default
Superb Essays-- Written by stay at home mom, edited by English teacher, polished by professional
Part of band/sports team-- barely attends practice, does enough to not get kicked out</p>
<p>The only thing they can’t fake is the interview, because they have to demonstrate the intelligence they don’t have. But derp derp interviews don’t matter much anymore.</p>
<p>
Too true! Unfortunate, especially for those of us who worked our butts off for credentials like that, but all too common. A friend of mine (ok just kidding, she’s actually a beyotch but pretends to be a friend. But I digress) had an essay advisor working with her for the last 4 MONTHS! She helped her write even 2 or 3 sentence responses on supplements.</p>
<p>
Legitimately laughing out loud at that one!</p>
<p>I hate how some colleges put more emphasis on your unweighted gpa rather than your gpa, I mean I know people that take 3 gym classes a year and all merit classes and are still ranked above me, when I’ve done nothing but honors and AP’s. I also hate how dumb athletes get into college. Is it really fair for a 2.5 student with a 1300 sat score to get into college ahead of a 3.8 gpa kid with a 2100 sat score? Something’s wrong with that picture. I also hate how much emphasis colleges place on just one or two areas (gpa and sat score) alone. They should look more into character before deciding if a person should go there or not, and last of all, I hate how much pressure parents, teachers, counselors put on getting into ivy leagues or top private universities. People always rag on state or community colleges, but in reality, going to a community college for two years, then transferring to a university is smart in that it saves you money. I’ve seem people rag on their fellow less-privileged classmates when they go to community college, and it annoys me so much.</p>
<p>Wow. This thread is on some next level…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>These almost contradict each other.</p>
<p>Also, if you have the means to go to a 4 year college, it would not be a good idea to go to community college and transfer instead. If you don’t have the money, that’s different.</p>
<p>I hate that my friends don’t like me to rant to them in person about all this! I may have that stats people would kill for but that doesn’t mean I’m not scared. Those top colleges are hard for ANYONE.</p>
<p>And I hate when people think my life “is so easy” and college will not be hard for me at all. Yeah, right. Sure, I’m white, female, pretty, and my dad has a job. I also have a serious medical condition that has hospitalized me before, and could again at any time; I think I have an eating disorder and I haven’t told anyone yet. I also have been the victim of bullying for years. And that remodel we did last year? It wasn’t because we had money, it was because my dad’s construction company would go under unless we found work for his employees.</p>
<p>And I hate that my parents don’t understand college apps AT ALL. They both went to perfectly decent state schools, paid their own way with minimal loans, and only applied to like two each when they started out. They can’t understand why I’m not doing the same. Helloooo the world has changed! I’m not crazy for applying to 8 schools; when so many are so selective that’s what I have to do! I’m not crazy for being terrified of student loans; even the state schools cost more than we can afford. AAaaaah!!!</p>
<p>I hate the idea of getting accepted into the college of my dreams (Stanford) and then simply not having the funds to pay for it. I put so much time and effort into the application and I would honestly be devastated if I can’t pay for it (making the large assumption that I"m accepted). Somehow, it seems the middle class gets completely screwed over in the financial aid process. Rich families can afford such exorbitant prices while low income families essentially get it payed for them. My family and I can’t afford $50,000 a year to go to some school!!! Yet I want to go there so badly…</p>
<p>salsapenguin</p>
<p>that is why you have to apply to many colleges so you can compare FA packages. There was no way my middle class family could afford $60000 per year. i applied to about 20 colleges and got accepted from 7 of them. i eventually picked uchicago because it offered the best FA package. in the end, attending uchicago was cheaper than attending a flagship state u. apply to many colleges and compare their FA packages.</p>
<p>Oh jeez congrats on your acceptance but sorry to hear about your troubles :(</p>
<p>blame yourself</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’ve been my son’s essay advisor for the past 4 months. I’ve been advising him that he’d better write some goddam essays before the deadlines hit.</p>
<p>I hate how I get Cs and Ds in my class even after studying really hard. I hate how I will probably get into a decent college like Purdue only because I am very fortunate to live in a rich family. I hate how I am expected to pursue engineering in university despite not understanding any stuff.</p>
<p>On the bright side, I really wish 2012 is the end of the world.</p>
<p>@Xen, just because you live with a rich family does not mean you’ll get into a decent college. If the grades don’t live up to the schools expectations, you’ve got a very slim chance bud. I love with a wealthy family as well but That has nothing to do with my acceptance to UCONN or Penn State.</p>
<p>I really don’t want to have to pay the College Board for a mistake they likely made. >.< Got two unexpectedly low SAT II scores, which may have been caused by a mix-up where my answer sheet was scored according to the answer key for domestic tests, rather than the international tests. It was a complicated situation, to be sure (my address on file and as indicated on my admission ticket/answer sheet was in the U.S., even though I tested at a center abroad), but you’d think they’d at least manage it a bit better than this…</p>
<p>You better check again, 1/45 looks really bad to come from such a small school, Your CRS is going to screw up your AI big time. You do know what a AI is don’t you.</p>
<p>I hate how I’m going to do this all over again for medical school, and how when I become a doctor (saying “when” keeps me hopeful. MUST KEEP GOING!!!) I’m going to have to take recertification tests all over again every ten years or so.</p>
<p>I hate how I’d rather not apply to 1% admit rate co-op programs and make it easier for everyone (not that I have much of a chance), but I feel that I must because I’m gonna be a frackin’ premed!!! WHY DO YOU SCREW ME, WORLD?!?!?!</p>
<p>I go to a really good magnet public school, and I hate how all the upper middle class kids that I’m smarter than have it so easy. My school doesn’t rank, but everyone is a tryhard and has 3.8+ unweighted gpa because they had easy lives. Yet they get 1800s on the SAT. I’m a poor black kid raised by a single mother with MS. I got a 2150 on the SAT and still won’t get into a good school. 30 years ago I would be guaranteed admission to an ivy with a score so high. I didn’t care about school before my junior year. I have a 3.9 for my junior and senior years unweighted. This whole process isn’t ****ing fair. What people do as a 14 and 15 year old child should not determine the future of their entires lives.</p>
<p>You guys really do need to calm down. I realize this is a ranting thread, but this is somewhat alarming. Do you honestly think that not getting into Stanford will ruin the rest of your life? It won’t. If you are self-motivated enough to maintain a high GPA and get a good SAT score, then you are self-motivated enough to do well at any college you get into. These days, undergrad is just the first half of the picture and grad/professional school is more important in the end. </p>
<p>And for my rant, it annoys me how people complain that lower-income students shouldn’t get an advantage. Obviously, I was a lower-income student, but I don’t think any advantage offered to me had to do with my stats. I had a 3.99 UW GPA from a top 50 school (started out at ****ty rural school, saved up, bought a car and commuted to a better charter school) and this was while I was working 40+ hours a week (no lie. It was actually illegal due to child labor laws. I had to duck around the work permit issue at my 2nd job, which was sadly not even that difficult). My step-dad was severely ill, my mother was depressed, my brother had been so bullied in high school that he now refuses to leave the house (we still don’t know what to do about him) and I was constantly worried we were going to get evicted and I was going to get shipped off to some foster home (NOT somewhere you want to find yourself as an older kid). I still kept my GPA up, had pretty good ECs (English Bowl, Spell Bowl, Math Club, Varsity XC, NHS, blah blah I don’t even remember, they tended to vary sporadically because of my work schedule) and helped make sure we didn’t lose our home (I was literally depositing money in my mom’s bank acct, writing checks, signing her name, and then mailing them bc she refused to get out of bed) or starve to death. Not to mention the fact that at some of the places I worked (pretty ghetto to hire a 15 y/o) sexual harassment was absolutely RAMPANT. I hated going to work and having to put up with the older guys that worked there, but I needed the $$.</p>
<p>I wrote about some of this BS in my personal statement. Do I think that I deserve to be recognized for the *<strong><em>ing hell that I went through? Yes. It does not mean that they gave me “special treatment” bc I have substandard stats, it means that not only can I succeed in school, I am able to do so when the entire world seems determined to *</em></strong> on me. I personally think that says at least a little about my character. </p>
<p>If anything, the disadvantaged student thing is most useful for explaining why you haven’t been playing the violin since age three or why you were at work all the time instead of being president of some club. I can see why some students might say being disadvantaged caused their grades to suffer and perhaps adcoms will allow for that, to some extent, but it certainly isn’t the case with all of us.</p>
<p>As a side note, my EFC (expected family contribution) was $11. I laughed.</p>
<p>/rant and good luck to everyone, btw :)</p>
<p>wow.
Evansville, you deserve to get into every school you applied for.</p>