Parent friend asked for advice...now what?

<p>Please let us know where she attends college next fall!</p>

<p>You know, I bet she now gets into one of her initial schools–it is Murphy’s law. But, if you had not contacted her mom, she would definitely have been rejected by all of them. So, she now owes her entire future to you!</p>

<p>wow, OP you did a great mitzvah…now that girl has a solid list and she likely will be a lot happier come this spring. Those are all excellent schools that your friends added to the list. And if she should happen to have that lucky lottery ticket and get in to one of her schools that are reaches for just about everyone…so much the better.</p>

<p>Thanks for updating us! Now don’t forget to let us know what her results are and where she decides to go. :)</p>

<p>That’s great, hsmom2dncrs! Now when April rolls around, that young lady will have some excellent choices, instead of potentially all rejections. I’m excited to hear where she ends up; keep up posted.</p>

<p>Great job! I am glad she expanded her list.</p>

<p>You’ve done the right thing, OP. Even if your friend had been offended, it still would have been the right thing.</p>

<p>OP - Good Job! Those of us that have learned the ropes on college app realities should be helping to advise younger students. In the ideal world, GC would be doing this… but they are often busy/overworked.</p>

<p>Great job, op!! You are a good friend. Thanks for the update!</p>

<p>It’s nice when people ask for advice and actually LISTEN isn’t it:D</p>

<p>whew! I didn’t read all the posts but that list was ridiculous! Glad you gave her some “truthiness” on the subject of reach colleges are reach colleges for ALL students including those with great back stories, residents of Wyoming, and students with perfect test scores.<br>
In 04-05 when my Duke son was in high school, we all watched the thread on Andison…whose high scoring Boston area HS grad, National Merit scholar and talented musician son was not admitted to ANY college, nor was he admitted off the summer waitlist purgatory lists. He ended up doing a Gap Year in Boston as a volunteer music teacher and enrolling in MIT a year later. But that thread certainly broke a lot of parental hearts and all the seniors the next year were talking about it. Our Duke son won a HS state competition and I was amazed to see other state winners talking about Andy and his plight over lunch at the national competition. Andy’s safety was Oberlin…and I guess Oberlin thought he was more interested in Princeton, Yale, MIT, Swarthmore etc as they did not admit him. BAD guidance counseling! Parents can’t comprehend these odds on their own.<br>
Lastly, I wish our HS guidance dept included in their college prep lectures that the professional schools of law, medicine and business are usually cash only cows and in many cases require parental income statements. I think this would be a reality check for parents (not unlike me in 04) who felt that they could afford full price private undergrad educations with little reality checks on grad school expenses. And that was pre-recession era!</p>

<p>The Andison story was the one that woke me up to reality. We researched and visited 10 schools that would be admissions safeties for my son so he could pick out a couple that he could really feel good about. I considered it the most important part of the college search.</p>

<p>Andison’s story awakened a lot of people. So often, when kids don’t get into several colleges that seem as if they were matches parents and kids say "Well…there must have been something wrong that we don’t know about: a bad LOR, a disciplinary problem the parent didn’t reveal, etc. " But when Andison got into MIT the following year, it was self-evident that there was NO such problem with Andison’s application and that bad things really do happen to great kids.</p>

<p>There are just only so many slots at these schools and they are going for…we will never know as parents, so some amazing students can be waitlisted/rejected as the colleges assemble their classes. I wasn’t about to let that happen to my kid. Andi, if you are still reading here, thanks so much for posting your son’s story. You’ve helped a lot of people!</p>

<p>Re: Andison! I joined much later but his rejections by then had become enough of an urban (or CC) legend that I made sure S had a few safeties that he loved. Had I not been on CC, he might not have looked at these schools and he might now be doing a gap year or be at a school that seemed good on paper but was not an ideal fit. He got into a reach and several matches and still ended up at one of the original “safeties” because he liked it best among his acceptances (turning it into a match in my mind). He is a very happy freshman this year.
Choices are good, I am so glad hsmom2dncers gave that opportunity to her friend’s daughter, despite her Hubbie’s advice to butt out. Ain’t CC great?</p>

<p>Update time! Wow! Time has flown-can’t believe it’s April. I have heard from my friend over the last several weeks, as college admissions rolled in. Friend’s D was accepted at Ithaca, Syracuse, Pitt, American (that was the 4th extra to which they applied) and from the original list- Notre Dame. All others were a “no” </p>

<p>If I had not intervened, she would have still been accepted at ND from her original list, but she had heard from Pitt and Syracuse (and I think, Ithaca) before a lot of the rejections came in, which somewhat softened the blow. It also gave them some financial packages to compare.</p>

<p>Friend said her daughter narrowed to Syracuse (where she received nice Merit $) and Notre Dame (with some FA), and has chosen to attend Notre Dame. Excited for them-(I’m a bit biased since my S is there!) My friend did thank me for helping them in the process and said she’d be calling again with lots of questions about school stuff. Her D will also contact my S. </p>

<p>In then end, it went well - and thanks again to all of you on CC for taking an interest and helping me help my friend and her D.</p>

<p>Thanks for the update, glad everything turned out well and she had choices.</p>