Accepted into UCSD, UCLA, UCI and UC Berkeley. Waiting to hear on Regents for UC Berkeley. That could be a big factor. Deferred Tulane and wait-listed at Wellesley. Thinking that the Wellesley waitlist may be a predictor of the Ivies, but who knows. The one take away I’ve seen so far is that schools are truly looking at a students pattern of extra curricular and passion. I’ve seen kids with a perfect ACT scored denied and waitlisted at UC’s because they’re test blind. We’ll see what happens with privates and Ivy League.
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That would be great! Their dance scholarship Is open to non-majors and she received that plus presidents scholarship plus generous FA. But a dancer in astrophysics would be just the person to talk to!
My daughter also got waitlist from Wellesley today but I haven’t seen any of her decision letters myself. I asked her to screen shot it to me after reading your post. That is really interesting. Seems pretty transparent which is good I suppose.
@ettyfromme i agree. My friend’s son has stellar stats and when I look at his CV, my reaction is he’s extraordinary. He is making a clean sweep of the UCs and regents with Ivies to go. One of his classmates also has 4.0 UW and 36 ACT and zero UC acceptances.
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I do believe they’re looking for demonstrated and progressive interest, curiosity, passion and leadership. It’s so hard to judge applicants by grades alone and so many schools have grade inflation.
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We both had debt—2 med school full loans—and it all worked out, even though I was part time assoon as done w residency(and 2 kids)
This was our thinking too - we had no idea what would be a safety and what would be a reach.
One idea for discovering your passion as an empty nester - volunteer at a few different places. The volunteering itself might become a passion, but it can also help you discover a real interest.
I have engineering degrees, worked in that field full-time for 20 years, part-time for more when we homeschooled. When we transitioned from homeschool to “real” school I was at loose ends. I realized I was tired of engineering. Saw an ad to volunteer at the front desk of a local history museum, started that, remembered how much I love history, was given many opportunities to grow by the staff. I now “work” 20-40 hours a week there giving tours, researching and designing displays, writing magazine articles, even a book. Got some recognition in the community and now give history lectures at the university.
All because I volunteered to greet people and answer phones.
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Interloper from last year here. I know that this year’s admissions had different variables and concerns, but last year involved tons of waitlisting and waitlist movement as well. Much more than the previous times we went through this.
My senior got off the waitlist (or direct calls asking if they offer, will you come?) at 4 very competitive schools (T20s or top LACs) and a gauge of interest from her GC at another. The list of where seniors were going shifted all through the summer, sometimes more than once for the same kid!, including lots of movement at Ivies. I think that you are right about being ready if/when the call comes and which ones you kid will consider over the bird in hand if it does.
FWIW, mine rode out some of the WLs, got off a few she initially wanted, but decided on a school that offered admission from the beginning. It shouldn’t matter, but getting that digital confetti and warm welcome made an impact. It was, however, a top contender throughout the process.
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I had a senior last year too (as well as this year). It’s been a very different process this year. Last year proceeded normally until March/April when Covid became a reality and schools realized they needed to accept more kids (often in state) to make up for students not coming due to covid (international, students taking gap year, etc). It actually helped kids who otherwise would not have been admitted.
This year schools were flooded with apps (largely due to test optional and uncertainties) and everything has been pushed back as far as decisions, yet May 1 still looms as the deadline for students. It seems some are being more conservative with who they accept and will rely on waitlists to finalize the freshman class. Add to that the fact that 2021s didn’t get a chance to visit most colleges, so they are trying to make decisions with limited information. It’s a crapshoot unlike previous years.
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Any school on D’s list that pushes that May 1 deadline out will get serious consideration from us. I can’t believe these schools are all pushing their decisions farther out but then not extending the student deadline to respond. I’m so surprised there hasn’t been some big movement to get that done. And Ivies pushing their date out seven days but giving kids three extra days to decide? That helps maybe zero percent of kids…the ones deciding between two Ivies.
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Some schools won’t delay their decision date because they are afraid they will over enroll, and also need to start processing incoming freshman thru orientation, class registration and housing assignments.
For the others, if you call and ask, they might grant you some extra time, even if they don’t publicly make the change.
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Hm but if a school used to have six weeks between RD decision and May 1 and now they have four, why would adding one or (gasp!) two weeks for the kids to have more time make a difference to enrollment? These schools are going to get fewer kids to enroll by May 1 and then go to WL. I guess that’s their plan and they are sticking with it but I’m not loving that it’s a sellers market.
Good idea to call. If we need that extra weekend, we might do that.
Some schools will extend their deadlines and/or be on the NACAC list of colleges with openings that will come out May 7 or so.
Fundamentally, the school stays in control in your scenario…deadline May 1, go to waitlist as needed. Then, they can cherry pick from the waitlist what they need…more males, more history majors, more full pays, etc., rather than extend the deadline and not know who will commit.
According to a UCLA AO (last year) he said their risk of over enrolling is high if they push their deadline past May 1… really it’s just more selective schools that run this risk, the others are more likely to grant extra time if a student asks.
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I totally agree. We know several great “average excellent” students who had a very rough time with UCs this year. Great kids with great GPAs. It makes me wonder if a heavy time investment in sports is a hinderance if you can’t compete at the college level or get recruited. I also feel like some families don’t appreciate the importance of great essays that don’t sound like everyone else’s.
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I’ve said this before, but the emphasis on essays bothers me because you literally don’t know who wrote them. How odd to put so much weight on something that can’t be certified as coming from the student (the topic, the language, the tone, any of it). Whether heavily edited by others or fully written by others, they ironically present many of the same issues that people complain about with standardized tests.
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I think it depends on the sport and the kid. If the child is a true stand-out in sports, great. But even then, academics are huge. The two kids I know who were recruited to Ivies for sports this year are at the top of their class with near-perfect test scores. I know that first generation is very important to schools and is a huge leg in the door. I think schools are sick of BS extra-curriculars that they can see right through and tell the kid was never invested. I spoke with a Stanford interviewer who told me that he really needles into those extra curricular questions to see what the kid actually did, how it displayed leadership, or if it was just a BS resume padder. His thought is that if the kid says he did it, he needs to be able to explain how he did it, or it’s an exaggerated claim.
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In prior years a long term commitment to sports has been an excellent EC. Normally colleges are pretty good at figuring out who put in 20 hours a week on their sport and who didn’t. It seems like this year sports isn’t carrying the same weight and instead ECs that show a passion for the planned major is bigger.
This could all shift and change as RD and WL decisions get formalized.
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Georgia Tech actually said they would call and email so that’s a little reassuring but also a kid can always say yes and then get an offer from somewhere else and go there or really just change their mind. A yes isn’t really a yes until you pay that deposit and cancel your other one but my son will have to rank all his schools anyway if we end up in that boat once April 7 comes around.
For whoever got the letter that said we will send waitlist info on April 7 that was great. I guess they aren’t assuming anyone is waiting around for Stanford lol.
but you can’t change your mind with your RD offers. You have to choose one and let the others go. I’m not really talking about WL action right now. Just want D to have time to evaluate all of her RD options and seven of them are coming between the 25th and the 31st.
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