Parents of the HS Class of 2021 (Part 2)

Way to go on all the acceptances and good luck to those who are now back to work on essays! My daughter hears back on her ED on Monday. I really wish we were ripping the band-aid off today and have the weekend to celebrate or good cry and getting back to applying. It’s all good! There are so many wonderful schools for our kids!

10 Likes

Thank you!

1 Like

Yes the UT decision release is very very stressful for folks. Waves with no specific pattern of who… my son is an auto admit and got his admission to Plan 2 honors and CNS bio in first wave just before Thanksgiving- but no word on the Deans Scholar program. On the tread for UT I saw many OOS admits even to the business school which is really competitive- also saw TO admits which would be hard at a school that large!

3 Likes

Did you get the honors results and the admission at the same time?

UT system of acceptance is really hard to wait. My son is an in-state, non auto admit who was accepted to McCombs yesterday. 33 ACT, lots of volunteer and community service. Ranked top 8% in competitive HS. I am so thankful because patience is not my strong suit. He applied on 10/4. I had heard that UT looks at applications on a rolling basis, so we pushed for early. Hopefully some more students will hear this evening! Good luck.

3 Likes

My D got the admission, but no results on Honors College yet.

1 Like

I am sure your D will get it today or soon enough. Since it comes in waves, it is taking sometime. Don’t worry.

U of Illinois Director of admissions Andy Borst posted something interesting on twitter.

1 Like

Unfort., he doesn’t have a test score that I think would help him. My gut feeling is they want to see his AP Physics and AP Calc grades this semester. He’ll get an A in Calculus for sure; he’s borderline on an A or B in AP Physics (it’s generally considered the toughest class at the high school.)

Other than that, he can provide some updates on his ECs, but he’s applying engineering and his main EC for that, the robotics team, is shut b/c of COVID. He feels kinda bummed he doesn’t haven’t anything big to add.

I know there are kids with high test scores denied. I think he’s still in the game b/c he has diverse ECs and leadership for a STEM kid.

All he can do is continue to show his interest, pull out the best grades he can and cross his fingers! :slight_smile:

13 Likes

You are probably right. I have a friend whose kid was deferred at GT. Her counselor called GT, and was told they wanted to see her Calc BC grade for fall semester. She made an A and was accepted RD.

I’d have him reach out to the Physics teacher and ask for some extra credit to be sure he gets an A.

2 Likes

For all you waiting for UT applications. They definitely do them in waves and generally on Fridays around 5ish. For kids who don’t constantly refresh their portals, there is usually an email the next morning waiting. Yesterday there was a big wave, so no idea if that means there will be one today or not. But this most likely is not going to be the last wave of the year. They began admitting in state auto admits much earlier this year than in past years.

When my daughter applied in November (OOS) 2 years ago, she had been at an admissions session here in the Chicago area and was told to expect her decision in February. Nonetheless she was shocked to hear in the first batch in early December for McCombs. A few kids in our school got in that batch (she was the only McCombs that entire year) and then others heard in late January. For honors programs, students generally hear later. She didn’t get into hers until February. So not hearing right away doesn’t mean anything and shouldn’t be expected. Unfortunately, there were kids from our school that did apply as early as August and didn’t hear until the latest round and they were rejected. I don’t know if that’s because they were held over that long for a decision or what but they tend to not reject anyone until they do it all at once which I think is unfair. If they know they’re not taking you, and there must be plenty, then just reject and move on.

My other daughter who applied for CS there didn’t hear on that same date as her sister so that was also frustrating and shows that the different schools don’t do it together so it was rough in our house for a weekend. She applied ED and heard 3 days later and pulled her UT app but I do think wonders if she would have ever gotten in.

Lots of kids last year were capped and then ultimately were accepted even in August (this applies only to in staters) so it is never too late if this is where your kid wants to go. If you’re OOS just be prepared for the outrageous tuition and extras but it can be a great place and they do help you get residency which is nice. You just need to work on that before August.

Hold tight if you’re waiting.

@AlwaysMoving

What? UIUC this year for EA and RD have always been in February for both. They have never been December (this application cycle) and back in July had stated they were doing one date for both EA and RD so not sure where you got the impression that their results were supposed to come out any day and that Feb is a shocker.

1 Like

@AlmostThere2018
Absolutely! He is definitely still in the game. Deferral is NOT a rejection. And, you’re right about that AP Physics C clas. It is the absolute worst class. Assuming it’s Physics C and not 1/2. 1/2 is not as rigorous so hopefully he has that C.

They must like robotics there. The kid at our school in the engineering is a robotics savant apparently. It’s a shame they can’t do anything with that. Our school until recently didn’t have much of a robotics program and kids had to go to the other school in our district to partake but this kid helped grow the program.

He should also try to email the admissions person in your area and express his continued interest.

@AlwaysMoving – unfort., his Physics teacher is not the extra credit kinda teacher. I think he’s hoping for a final project that is graded easier than the tests. But she hasn’t told them yet, which is kinda odd. He has 3 weeks left in the semester – next week and then the first weeks of Jan.

I’m hopeful the Calc grade is the more important between the two!

My S goes to a public school, and I doubt the GC would reach out – I don’t think that’s what they do. Anyway, I’m trying to figure out if my S should reach out to his regional AO before he submits his ‘formal’ letter of continued interest. He interviewed at Rice, but it was with a student so he’s not connected with his AO directly. Do you guys think a email before the holidays to introduce himself and ask for any suggestions would be considered good or annoying?

1 Like

Also the results are updated online the portal. There was no email. So if you have not checked your portal you won’t know. Just make sure to check the portal. Email may come much later.

As I said in my other response, he should reach out to the admissions person for your area and definitely express his continued interest and that Rice is still his first choice!

2 Likes

@srparent15 – We have 5 years of data in Naviance and only 1 kid accepted to Rice during that time from our school.

My S helped start the robotics team at his HS two years ago – it’s been great fun and they had some good early successes, esp. their rookie season. :slight_smile:

I have no idea about the TO impact – hoping they release some data on how many applied TO. Part of my thinks if he had a rock solid math test score he might have gotten accepted, but who knows.

The deferral letter said they only defer a “small” number. I think I read that Rice doesn’t defer a lot of kids, but now I can’t find where I read that, so it’d be nice to know more!

3 Likes

Honestly I don’t know anything about UIUC’s admissions. I saw the tweet thread and thought it was worth sharing since it’s an admissions director commenting about the current situation.

2 Likes

You’re the one who posted the “ETA that results were supposed to come out any day”. That’s completely false and will just confuse people. Their decisions were never expected to come out in December (or any day) for this year’s cycle. Also, all the admissions people there know that too since this is not a new policy over the last couple of days. This has been since the summer when they made that decision and has been a policy they practiced in prior years so they have past experience with this model, although it is not ideal and they know it since they scrapped with the class of 2016.

@jeneric – wow, that’s crazy! I hope a deferral from Rice is a good sign for his other application decisions. And, I think he will add a couple more reaches between now and RD deadline. He was talking about that last night. He was pretty down, but by the end of night we were all laughing about various things – mostly our dog, lol! :slight_smile:

He’ll land on his feet, but this part is hard!

9 Likes