None of my kids look at this, neither does my wife. They all think it is a bit odd that I talk online with people I have never met.
However, they all appreciate the info I get here. If I hadn’t been on here, S19 would not be at an Ivy, and D21 would be looking at completely different schools, ones she would have worse odds at and ones that wouldn’t fit her as well.
I will say though that some (though definitely not all) of the posts by HS students are painful to read. I think if 95% of the “chance me” threads went away this place would be more helpful and have a better reputation.
@JESmom@nichols51 Thanks for the essay workshop information! I’m going to look into the Writopia workshop also. We do have the “Write Your Way In” book - I’m starting it tomorrow!
S21 also got an invitation today to apply to RPI with the waived application fee. That’s helpful since its one of schools he’s interested in.
According to our college advisor/counselor, that is a resounding no lol. She keeps telling me NOT to buy into the CC hype to rush to get apps submitted to UT and A&M Aug 1 right when they open. S21 is finishing his essay this week. Then they will talk about the supplemental q’s for UT at their meeting next week. She will probably have him submit his apps to A&M and UT around first week of September. One of the reasons she gave was it’s pointless to submit the app before school is even open and the counselors are back to work.
Since S21 will be holistic review at both, we really want to make sure he puts forward the best app possible and is not rushed.
Your son is an Auto Admit right? I see even less reason to hurry to get it in early August. He’ll get his desired major at A&M easily…From
what I hear another UT, even for Auto Admits, first choice major isn’t guaranteed even if the app is turned in way early.
New love - Loyola Marymount. D21 always said she wanted to go to school in CA but balked a little on that last year and now she’s back to it again. We watched the student panel and the kids were well spoken, friendly, and “chill”. Suburban LA looks pretty nice from suburban Chicago.
Wow, you guys are a busy group and it’s hard to keep up. A few random thoughts:
my daughters ACT and SAT are below what her GPA indicates they should be. I refuse to stress her or me out about adding extra test dates. This year is the great unknown for the admission process.
all her schools are long drive or fly away and I was stressed about not visiting. Then I talked to a friend who runs a small college advising business and she reminded me that visits are a privilege. Many kids don’t see their schools until the show up for orientation.
just breath! They will find their school, they will find their squad, they will get jobs later, we want them to be happy now and need to help them manage expectations
Her essay is done, the list is together, 8/01 we start putting this all together
Yes, S is auto admit. He has information sessions scheduled for mid August with UT and he wasn’t planning on applying until Sept. Glad to hear there is no need to apply 8/1.
Anyone who has filled in the Apply Texas app for TAMU, where do you put high school courses taken in Middle school in the SRAR? Apparently, there is only space for one year’s worth of course work done in middle school in the application. One of my daughter’s friend’s mom asked me this evening. We are not that far into our application, we are still working on the Apply Texas essay (personal statement), UT and TAMU supplemental essays . We hope to complete them by end of next week or early the week after. TIA
Thanks for all the suggestions! I envisioned having to have a serious talk with her about Northwestern not being a wise choice for the role this application was playing, and wanted to come at it armed with all sorts of alternative suggestions, but when I broached the topic this afternoon, she immediately agreed it wasn’t worth filling out the application and that it was more of an off the cuff response. We talked about the local school situation - did she want to start a secondary college search for great schools within driving distance that would rank up there with her current list or do we just want a fall back option in case of some kind of personal or family crisis that warrants staying close(ish) to home. She looked a bit exhausted about the whole thing. I don’t think she wants to watch anymore virtual tours, etc.
She explained that she is just really happy with her college list, particularly UofSC, UA and Tulane. She’d love to go to any of them and couldn’t even rank them 1, 2, 3 at this point, and would be willing to just apply to those three schools and skip Clemson and Elon if it came down to it. I think applying to three schools is risky in the best of times, but honestly, if she’d be happy at UA, it has rolling admissions and guaranteed merit, so the risk is pretty much nonexistant. I can absolutely appreciate her position and am totally onboard with her top three - especially since even with a scholarship, Clemson will cost a lot more than the other two publics (we’ve discussed this in the past) and then Elon showed up on the “perish” list of Scott Galloway’s recent blog which doesn’t help it’s case in my eyes.
So, even though for as long as I can remember she wouldn’t even consider Illinois State or UIUC as options because of the high school 2.0 situation, I think we both got some clarity today about the true role of the application and she will likely just apply to one of those two schools and call it a day . Though I’m sure if circumstances were such that she had to attend, she’d love it at either of them once she got there because she’s pretty flexible that way.
I’m actually feeling much better about the whole thing.
@3kids2dogs that’s great! I’m sure a lot of our kids have fatigue already on the college subject. As for a local safety, it’s likely hard to beat UIUC even though a lot of kids don’t want to go there for various reasons. I mentioned Creigton and Kansas to my H and he was like “she would go to those over UIUC? That makes zero sense.” And I get that. UIUC is ranked well, it’s a big school with a ton of good programs, Illinois kids don’t have to hang with kids from their high school if they don’t want to. We know a lot of kids who didn’t want to go who are thriving.
The downside for our D is that she doesn’t want big. For your D, it’s a pretty great safety and I bet she’d do great there.
@3kids2dogs It seems like you and your D are in a great place! Glad you both feel good about her list, and it seems like she’ll have options she’s excited about no matter what happens this application cycle!
Re campus tours, I checked the latest IL quarantine lists… Between the states we’d need a 14-day quarantine to travel to (NY, CT, MA) or from (22 others!), it looks like any college visits farther than about 3 hours from home are off the table for us for a while!
Oh, and our D has crossed schools off her list for having 2,500 students (2K is her max), but she still says she’s going to apply to UIUC. She really liked it when she visited with a friend, and everyone we know who goes there loves it!
D is leaning towards small LAC’s, and when I was researching for her she said she would prefer 2-3,000 with a hard cap at 7,000. When we went over the list of places she wanted to apply yesterday, Northeastern is on her list with 14,000 undergrads.
In fairness to her, there is no perfect school for her or for most kids. Every campus has at least one thing she would like to change. But I was a bit surprised that that one was still on her list. I thought she wrote it off a long time ago due to size.
@AlwaysMoving UCLA is near those schools if you have time to visit. It’s a nice campus! It’s 30-45 min south of LA but UC Irvine is there. The architecture and campus set up is totally the opposite of UCLA so you’ll get a contrasting feel. You will want to drive around the perimeter of USC and determine off campus scenario when your kiddo grows out of the dorm. Not the best area. I’m struggling with this. S21 is applying to USC and as much as we live inside the campus, the outside leaves a lot to be desired.
DS has been writing his essays for his schools which are mostly Top 20s. He put in the one for Alabama and realized how easy of an application it is and exchanged correspondence with his admissions officer. We are full pay and he should be NMF so he realizes the amount of potential merit available. He is thinking very seriously about attending there as he is not fond of jumping through all of the hoops for the very slim chances on the uni’s on his list.
This made me smile. Because my D is the exact opposite. First criteria is school larger than her high school. Only Mount Holyoke and Smith for being single sex and close to family, and Trinity U for being close to home could be considered “small” on her list (all around 2400). The rest are 18K and up in size. Kid wants BIG.
She’s a smart cookie for keeping different options on her list. S19 was very LAC focused during his search. He did keep two medium sized schools on the list though. In the end still chose a LAC but, now, he thinks he could have been really happy at a little bit bigger school. He says things like “my school isn’t really college- it’s boarding school” and “D21 should really be considering more midsized schools if she doesn’t want to know everyone”. He’s rooting for her to go to BC so he can visit and go to football games.
He was a kid who never strayed far from home on his own until he left for college so I think that was part of his analysis when he looked at LACs. He liked the size of the campuses and the community aspect. Plus he wanted small classes from the beginning and he would say his school delivered big on a terrific first year academic experience. Very intimate. He thinks he could not have chosen better in that regard when he talks to his friends at Cornell, Wash U, Vandy etc.
Now that he has spread his wings a bit, he realizes he would have liked a midsized school too. So who knows? Maybe when April comes around your D will be comparing very different experiences and surprise you!
I love this too! There has to be some reason to narrow down the list , but good for her for recognizing that she likes someplace else that doesn’t fit the narrative and keeping it as an option!
My daughter’s list has schools that are mostly alike in many aspects. There is one, however, that does not fit in with the rest. It’s completely different from the others in every way. When I ask her why it is still on her list, she says it’s because she loved the vibe she felt during her visits (pre-COVID). That’s it, that’s the only reason. Someone looking at that list who didn’t know her would raise an eyebrow at that inclusion. But whatever – it’s her life, she (and I) need to trust her gut instincts.
She really liked it when she visited with a friend, and everyone we know who goes there loves it!